He waters the mountains from his rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works. Psalm 104:13

Ezekiel 1-3

Ezekiel 1

Ezekiel’s Prophecy at Kebar

¹ Now on the fourth day of the fifth month, in my 30^th year, while I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

² In the fifth of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, ³ the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and the hand of the LORD was there on him.

Vision of Four Cherubim

⁴ I looked, and a windstorm was coming from the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it was something like glowing metal coming out of the middle of the fire. ⁵ Out of its center came the likeness of four living creatures.

This was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. ⁶ Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings. ⁷ Their feet were straight feet. The sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze.

⁸ They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. The four of them had their faces and their wings like this: ⁹ Their wings were joined to one another. They did not turn when they went. Each one went straight forward.

¹⁰ As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man. The four of them had the face of a lion on the right side. The four of them had the face of an ox on the left side. The four of them also had the face of an eagle. ¹¹ Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies. ¹² Each one went straight forward: where the spirit would go, they went. They did not turn when they went.

¹³ As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches. The fire went up and down among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning went out of the fire. ¹⁴ The living creatures ran and returned like the appearance of a flash of lightning.

The Four Wheels

¹⁵ Now as I saw the living creatures, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it. ¹⁶ The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl. The four of them had the same likeness. Their appearance and workmanship was like a wheel within a wheel. ¹⁷ When they went, they went in their four directions. They did not turn when they went.

The Spirit and the Wheels

¹⁸ As for their rims, they were high and dreadful, and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around them.¹⁹ When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

²⁰ Wherever the spirit would go, they went.  The wheels were lifted up beside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. ²¹ When the creatures went, they went. When the creatures stood still, the wheels stood still. When the creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose beside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

Vision of the Divine Glory

²² Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look at, stretched out over their heads above. ²³ Under the expanse, their wings were stretched out, one toward the other. Each one had two wings which covered its body on one side and on the other side.

²⁴ When they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁵ There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood, they let down their wings. ²⁶ High above the expanse over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like a sapphire stone. On the throne was a likeness of a man on it from above. ²⁷ I saw it was like glowing metal, like the appearance of fire inside and surrounding it, from his waist up, and from the appearance of his waist down, I saw something like fire, and there was brightness surrounding him.

²⁸ Like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud when it rains, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

Ezekiel 2

Ezekiel’s Call

¹ He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” ² The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me and set me on my feet, and I heard him who spoke to me.

³ He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day. ⁴ They are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the LORD God says.’

⁵ And as for them, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that there has been a prophet among them.

⁶ You, son of man, do not be afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. ⁷ You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse; for they are very rebellious.

⁸ But you, son of man, hear what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat that which I give you.”

⁹ When I looked, a hand was stretched out to me, and a scroll from a book was in it. ¹⁰ He spread it before me. And written on the front and back and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

Ezekiel 3

Ezekiel Eats the Scroll

¹ He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

² So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.

³ He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that I am giving you.”

Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴ He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. ⁵ For you are not being sent to a people of incomprehensible speech or of a difficult language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many peoples of unintelligible language and difficult speech, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

⁷ But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for the whole the house of Israel is obstinate and hard-headed. ⁸ But I have made your head as hard as their heads, your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ I have made your head like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰ Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, receive in your heart and hear with your ears all my words that I am speaking to you. ¹¹ Go to the exiles, to the children of your people and speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the LORD God says,’ whether they hear or whether they refuse to hear.

¹² Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.” ¹³ I heard the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, the sound of a great rushing.

¹⁴ So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the LORD was strong on me. ¹⁵ Then I came to the exiles at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, to where they lived, and I sat there among them for seven days, overwhelmed.

A Watchman for Israel

¹⁶ At the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth and warn them from me. ¹⁸ When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked man from his wicked way, to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰ Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he will die. Because you have not given him warning, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered, but I will require his blood at your hand. ²¹ Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning, and you have delivered your soul.”

²² The hand of the LORD was there on me, and he said to me, “Rise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there.”

²³ Then I arose and went out into the plain, and the glory of the LORD stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar. Then I fell on my face.

²⁴ Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵ But you, son of man, they will put ropes on you, and will bind you with them, and you will not go out among them. ²⁶ I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you will be mute and will not be able to correct them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the LORD God says.’ He who hears, let him hear, and he who refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.”

Hebrews 3

Jesus Our Apostle and High Priest

¹ Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus, ² who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also Moses was in all his house.

³ For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. ⁵ Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, as a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, ⁶ but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the pride of our hope firm to the end.

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

⁷ Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear his voice,
⁸ do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,
⁹ where your fathers tested me and tried me,
and saw my deeds for 40 years.
¹⁰ Therefore I was displeased with that generation
and said, ‘They always err in their heart,
but they did not know my ways.’
¹¹ As I swore in my wrath,
‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ” ^a

The Dangers of Unbelief

¹² Beware, brothers, lest there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; ¹³ but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end, ¹⁵ while it is said,

“Today if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts,
as you did in the rebellion.” ^a

¹⁶ For who, when they heard, rebelled? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ With whom was he displeased for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ To whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.

^{a Psalm 95:7-11
b Psalm 95:7-8}

Psalm 104:1-23

O LORD, My God, You Are Very Great

¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD, my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty.
² He covers himself with light like a garment.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
³ He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot.
He walks on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes his messengers winds,
and his servants flames of fire.

⁵ He laid the foundations of the earth,
that it should not be moved forever.
⁶ You covered it with the deep like a cloak.
The waters stood above the mountains.

⁷ At your rebuke they fled.
At the sound of your thunder they hurried away.
⁸ The mountains rose,
the valleys sank down,
to the place which you had assigned to them.

⁹ You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
that they do not turn back to cover the earth.
¹⁰ He sends springs into the valleys.
They run among the mountains.
¹¹ They give drink to every animal of the field.
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky nest by them.
They sing among the branches.

¹³ He waters the mountains from his rooms.
The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
¹⁴ He causes the grass to grow for the livestock,
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may produce food from the earth:
¹⁵ wine that makes the heart of man glad,
oil to make his face to shine,
and bread that strengthens man’s heart.

¹⁶ The trees of the LORD are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted,
¹⁷ where the birds make their nests.
The stork makes its home in the cypress trees.
¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats.
The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

¹⁹ He appointed the moon for seasons.
The sun knows when to set.
²⁰ You make darkness, and it is night,
in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
²¹ The young lions roar after their prey,
and seek their food from God.
²² The sun rises, and they steal away,
and lie down in their dens.
²³ Man goes out to his work,
to his labor until the evening.

Proverbs 26:24-26

²⁴ A malicious man disguises himself with his lips,
but he harbors evil in his heart.
²⁵ When his speech is charming, do not believe him,
for there are seven abominations in his heart.
²⁶ His malice may be concealed by deception,
but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

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