Seek the LORD and his strength. Seek his face forevermore. Remember his marvelous works that he has done: his wonders and the judgments he pronounced. Psalm 105:4-5

Ezekiel 7-9

Ezekiel 7

The Hour of Doom

¹ Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “You, son of man, the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel,

‘The end! The end has come
on the four corners of the land.

³ Now is the end of you!
I will send my anger against you
and will judge you according to your ways.
I will repay you for all of your detestable practices.
⁴ I will not spare you,
nor will I look on you with pity,
but I will bring your own deeds upon you
and your detestable practices will be among you.
Then you will know that I am the LORD.’

⁵ The Lord GOD says:

‘Disaster! A disaster unlike any other is coming.
⁶ The end has come. The end has come!
It has awakened against you.
Yes, it is coming.
⁷ Your doom has come to you,
inhabitants of the land!
The time has come!
The day is near,
a day of tumult on the mountains
and not joyful noise.

⁸ Now I will soon pour out my wrath on you
and spend my anger on you,
and will judge you according to your ways.
I will punish you for all your detestable practices.
⁹ I will not spare you,
nor will I look on you with pity.
I will punish you according to your ways.
Your detestable practices will be among you.
Then you will know that I, the LORD, strike.

¹⁰ The day is here! The day has come!
Your doom has arrived.
The rod has blossomed.
Pride has budded.
¹¹ The increase in violence
has become the rod of wickedness.
None of them will remain,
none of their multitude,
none of their wealth.
There will be nothing of value among them.

. ¹² The time has come!
The day draws near.
Do not let the buyer rejoice,
nor the seller mourn,
for wrath is on the whole population.
¹³ For the seller shall not return to that which is sold,
although he still lives,
for the vision effects the entire population
and shall not be revoked,
nor, with all of the sin in their lives,
shall any save himself.

The Desolation of Israel

¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet
and have made everything ready,
but no one goes to the battle,
for my wrath covers the entire population.

¹⁵ The sword is outside
and plague and famine within.
He who is in the field will die by the sword.
He who is in the city will be devoured
by famine and plague.

¹⁶ But of those who escape,
they will escape to mountains
like doves of the valleys,
all of them moaning,
each one for his sin.
¹⁷ Every hand will be feeble,
and every knee will be weak as water.
¹⁸ They will clothe themselves with sackcloth,
and horror will cover them.
Shame will be on every face
and baldness on every head.

¹⁹ They will cast their silver in the streets,
and their gold will be like an unclean thing.
Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them
on the day of the LORD’s wrath.
It will not satisfy their appetites
or fill their bellies,
because it has been the stumbling block
of their iniquity.

²⁰ As for the beauty of their jewels,
which he set in majesty,
they took them and made them
into the images of their idols and detestable things.
Therefore I have made them repulsive to them.
²¹ I will give them into the hands of strangers as prey
and to the wicked of the earth as plunder,
and they will profane it.
²² I will also turn my face from them,
and they will profane my secret place.
Robbers will enter into it and profane it.

²³ Make chains, for the land is full of crimes of bloodshed,
and the city is full of violence.
²⁴ Therefore I will bring the worst among the nations,
and they will possess their houses.
I will also end the pride of the strong.
Their holy places will be profaned.

²⁵ Destruction is coming!
They will seek peace,
and there will be none.
²⁶ Mischief will pile on mischief
and rumor on rumor.
They will look for a vision from the prophet,
but the law will perish from the priest
and counsel from the elders.
²⁷ The king will mourn,
and the prince will be clothed with desolation.
The hands of the people of the land will be troubled.
I will do to them according to their ways
and according to their own judgments, I will judge them.
Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Ezekiel 8

The Vision of Idolatry in the Temple

¹ On the fifth day of the sixth month, in the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, there, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.

² Then I looked and there was a likeness of a man with the appearance of fire. From his waist down, fire, and from his waist up, was like the appearance of sheer brightness, like metal, glowing amber. ³ He stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north, where there was the seat of the idol, which provokes jealousy.

⁴ The glory of the the LORD of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain. ⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.”

So I lifted up my eyes toward the north and saw, north of the altar gate, this idol of jealousy in the entry.

⁶ He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel is committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet even greater abominations.”

⁷ He brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, now dig in the wall.”

When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door.

⁹ He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they are doing here.”

¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and engraved around on the walls, I saw every form of crawling creatures and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹ Seventy elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand, and the smell of the cloud of incense went up.

¹² Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his room of carved images? For they say, ‘The LORD doesn’t see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³ He also said to me, “You will see still more of these great abominations which they are doing.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the house of the LORD which was toward the north, and I saw the women sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will continue seeing yet greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶ He brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD, and I saw at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about 25 men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit these abominations which they are committing here? For they have filled the land with violence, repeatedly provoking my anger. Indeed, they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I will also deal with them in wrath. I will not spare them, nor will I look on them with pity. Although they cry in my ears loudly, I will not hear them.”

Ezekiel 9

Slaughter of the Idolators

¹ Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Draw near, those who are in charge of the city, each man with a weapon of destruction in his hand.”

² Six men came by way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughtering weapon in his hand. One man in the middle of them was clothed in linen, with a writer’s ink jar by his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ The glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, from where it was, to the threshold of the house, and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s ink jar by his side. ⁴ The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who groan and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵ To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike them. Do not spare them, nor look on them with pity. ⁶ Utterly destroy the old men, the young men, the young ladies, the little children and the women, but do not come near anyone who bears the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.”

Then they began with the old men who were in front of the house.

⁷ He said to them, “Defile the house and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!”

They went out, killing people in the city.

⁸ While they were killing, and I was left alone, I fell on my face and cried and said, “Oh Lord GOD! Will you destroy the entire remnant of Israel in the pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

⁹ Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversion, for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD doesn’t see us.’

¹⁰ As for me also, I will not spare them, nor will I look on them with pity, but I will bring all of their ways on their own heads.”

¹¹ The man clothed in linen, who had the ink jar by his side, reported the matter, saying, “I have done as you have commanded me.”

Hebrews 5

The Perfect High Priest

¹ For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also subject to human weakness. ³ Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people, as well as for himself.

⁴ Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he must be called by God, just like Aaron was. ⁵ So also Christ did not glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was God who said to Him,

“You are my Son.
Today I have become your father.” ^a

⁶ As he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.” ^b

⁷ In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with fervent crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his godly fear. ⁸ Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through suffering. ⁹ Having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all of those who obey him, ¹⁰ named by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Warning Against Drifting Away

¹¹ About this we have much to say, but it is hard to explain, because you have become too weak to hear. ¹² For although by this time you should be teachers, you still need to have someone teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation. You still need milk, and not solid food.

¹³ For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. ¹⁴ But solid food is for those who are full grown, who use of it, and exercise their senses to discern good and evil.

^{a Psalm 2:7
b Psalm 110:4}

Psalm 105:1-15

Tell of God’s Wonders

¹ Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name!
Make his deeds known among the peoples.
² Sing to him, sing praises to him!
Tell of all his marvelous works.
³ Glory in his holy name.

Let the heart of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
⁴ Seek the LORD and his strength.
Seek his face forevermore.
⁵ Remember his marvelous works that he has done:
his wonders and the judgments he pronounced,
⁶ O descendants of Abraham, his servant,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

⁷ He is the LORD, our God.
His justice is visible throughout the earth.
⁸ He has remembered his covenant forever,
the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
⁹ the covenant which he made with Abraham,
his oath to Isaac,
¹⁰ and confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
¹¹ saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,
the lot of your inheritance.”
¹² When they were but a few men in number,
yes, very few, including foreigners,
¹³ they were going around from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another,
¹⁴ and he allowed no one to do wrong to them.
Yes, he reproved kings for their sake,
¹⁵ “Do not touch my anointed ones!
Do my prophets no harm!”

Proverbs 26:28

²⁸ A lying tongue hates those it hurts,
and a flattering mouth works ruin.

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