Ezekiel 18 – The virtues of the “upright man” are described: “law-abiding and honest; he does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not seduce his neighbor’s wife or sleep with a woman during her periods. He oppresses no one, returns pledges, never steals, gives his own bread to the hungry, his clothes to the naked. He never charges usury on loans, takes no interest, abstains from evil, gives honest judgment between man and man, keeps my…

Ezekiel 16:35-63 – For having given themselves to the terrible idolatries and human sacrifices that they performed (especially during the reign of Manasseh when – my note says – such practices were encouraged by foreign alliances), God will bring these “allies” together to bring Israel (Judah?) down. They will ravish “her” and leave her naked.

Compared with the nations around her, Israel has been by far the worst. Sodom and Samaria, Edom and the Philistines will gloat…

Ezekiel 16:1-34 – Ezekiel is once more told to confront Jerusalem and tell her life story and Yahweh’s involvement in it; it is an allegory:

Child of both Amorite and Hittite, the city was born because Yahweh was “passing by” and came to her rescue at birth. He watched her grow and at the age of marriage Yahweh bound Himself to her by a Covenant. God gave his love everything – fame, beauty, riches – everything. Word of her riches and beauty spread and she became…

Ezekiel 14 – Ezekiel is visited by the Elders of the people, but he is called to testify against them because they have “enshrined idols in their own hearts” (14:3) and have not been faithful. Ezekiel is to tell them this in no uncertain terms, and Ezekiel “hopes to touch the heart of the House of Israel who have deserted me in favor of a pack of idols” (14:5).

Come back, he urges. But the retribution God plans will not touch the holy ones – those like Noah or Daniel…

Ezekiel 12 – Ezekiel is asked by the Lord to act out or “mime” what will soon be happening to the people of Israel – that they will be led out of the city into exile because of the terrible things they’ve been doing. He does do this. He packs his bags just as the king of Judah will soon have to pack up his bags and escape through a hole in the city’s wall. He does it as instructed during the day and makes sure that everyone can see him acting it out. But I don’t think he gets much…

Ezekiel 10 – The prophet sees another very hard-to-follow vision: above the vault, over the cherubs’ heads, something that looks like a sapphire and above this a throne. The man in white (the vision of chapter 8) is told to take burning coal from between the cherubs and scatter it over Jerusalem.

The man goes into the courtyard of the Temple and a cloud fills the inner court. “The glory of Yahweh rose off the cherubs,” and the court is filled with the brightness of the…

Ezekiel 6 – The Word of God comes to Ezekiel, and addresses him as “Son of Man.” He is told he should prophesy against the “mountains” of Israel. They are the “high places” where idols like “sun images” are worshipped and human sacrifices (I think) are practiced by an unfaithful people.

God will punish the people for this but some will be spared and they will be scattered. Then after this time and this devastation, the people will “remember” Yahweh and will understand…

Ezekiel 4 – God tells Ezekiel how he is to embody or act out the prophecy God has given him: he lays a brick in front of him and scratches on it the name “Jerusalem.” Then he is to surround it with “siege works” - an iron pan that will fill the role of a wall between him, the besieger, and the city.

He is told to “lie down on your left side and take the sin of the House of Israel on yourself” (4:4). He must lie on his left side for 190 days, and then on his right side…

Ezekiel 2 – Ezekiel hears a voice calling him “son of man” (2:1). The term is used in Ezekiel and later Daniel to emphasize the distance between the God behind the vision and voice and the mere man who is receiving them. The first use of the term “Son of Man” [ben-Adam] is in Numbers 23:19, but Ezekiel uses the term over 90 times in his writings.

The voice tells Ezekiel to “deliver my words” to the rebellious people that were…

Introduction to Ezekiel: Ezekiel is believed to have been born around the year 622 BC and was about age 25 in 597 BC, when he was exiled to Babylon along with King Jeconiah (also called Jehoiachin) and 3000 other “leaders” or upper class people from Jerusalem. He was part of the priesthood. His prophetic call came after he had been living in exile for about five years, and the vision he had – the larger vision of what the people of God were to become WITHOUT land and WITHOUT monarchy…

Nahum 2 – Nineveh is under attack. “The enemy soldiers carry red shields and wear uniforms of red. They are preparing to attack! Their chariots flash like fire. Their horses prance” (2:3).

The attackers rush to the walls of the city and prepare their battering ram. “The gates by the river burst open; the palace is filled with terror. The queen is taken captive; her servants moan like doves and beat their breast in sorrow” (2:6-7).

“Like water from a…

Introductory Information for Nahum:  A poem celebrating the fall of Nineveh, the capital city of Israel’s ancient enemy, Assyria. The fall of Nineveh was seen as the judgment of God upon a cruel and arrogant nation.

The Assyrian state arose sometime in the 25^th-24^th century BC; beginning in the 10^th c. BC, it grew strong, conquering even Egypt and eventually the entire Middle East. It was eventually brought low by prolonged civil war…

Hosea 11 – “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son . . .it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them” (11:1-3).

Hosea 12 – Referring back to the earliest origins of the Lord’s relationship with Jacob [later called Israel], Hosea says of him, “In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed;…

I over-posted yesterday - John 6:41-72 was supposed to be today. Just got carried away. Sorry for any confusion.

Hosea 7 – Hosea, continuing to speak the words of the Lord to Israel, complains that every time God has given them a new start, they have turned on him. They are “two-faced and double-tongued” (7:1). The kings and princes of the nation are “like wood stoves, red-hot with lust” (7:7).  None of the kings calls upon the Lord. Instead they seek…

Hosea 4 – The condition of Israel is pitiful in Hosea’s eyes: “there is no fidelity, no tenderness, no knowledge of God in the country, only perjury and lies, slaughter, theft, adultery and violence, murder after murder” (4:1-2).

The priests and the prophets are denounced for their failure to guide. “My people perish for want of knowledge. As you have rejected knowledge so do I reject you from my priesthood” (4:6). They will pay for their misdeeds, more than those they…

Introductory Information for Hosea: Hosea was a contemporary of Amos (8^th c. BC), and lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His ministry began under the reign of Jeroboam II. He probably lived to see the destruction of the northern kingdom.

According to Lawrence Boadt’s Reading the Old Testament, the prophet Hosea “is unique among the prophets whose words have come down to us since he alone represents the thinking of a purely northern…

Amos 9 – In another vision, the prophet sees the Lord standing by the altar asking that the building be reduced to rubble so that no one can escape. God has led not only the Jews. He has led the Philistines and the Aramaeans too. The Israelites cannot just rest on their laurels, thinking God will always be by them. But his anger will not strike all. There will be a remnant, “For now I will issue orders and shake the House of Israel among all the nations, as you shake a sieve so…

Amos 8 – Amos says the Lord showed him “a basket of ripe fruit” – an image for the people of Israel “ripe for destruction” (8:2). “I will no longer overlook its offenses” (8:2).

“Listen to his, you who trample on the needy and try to suppress the poor people of the country, you who say, ‘When will New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath, so that we can market our wheat?” (8:4-5). They use the profits they make to buy fancy things.

The…

Amos 5 – Like a virgin who dies before enjoying the joys of marriage, Israel will “lie all alone on her own soil, with no one to lift her up” (5:2). Yahweh says this to the House of Israel, “Seek me and you shall live” (5:6), but Yahweh will not be found in the sanctuaries where sacrifices are offered. It is the Lord “who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns the dusk to dawn and day to darkest night. He summons the waters of the…

Amos 4 – Amos calls the rich owners of livestock “cows of Bashan.” They oppress the poor and the needy. They “will be dragged out with hooks” and driven out in the direction of Assyria [not named but alluded to].

The superficial religious rites they participate in will not save them. Yahweh has sent famine, drought, fire and locusts but they do not come back to Yahweh. He sends plague and war and plundering, but they do not return. “This therefore, Israel, is…