Read The Bible
992 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 119 ratingsRead the Bible features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 1) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan. This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible).
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November 24 – Vol. 2
November 24, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.2 MBThe calming of the storm (Luke 8:22–25) as reported in Luke’s gospel carries special weight: (1) The substance of the account is straightforward, though almost obliquely it sheds light on the sheer exhaustion Jesus sometimes experienced in the course of his extensive ministry “from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God” (8:1). Not only could he fall asleep in the boat, he could remain asleep even when the boat tossed and corkscrewed in a storm seri...
November 23 – Vol. 2
November 23, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.79 MBTwo staggering thoughts come together in Luke 7:36–50: (1) The first I have mentioned before in these two volumes, but it is worth mentioning again. Who has the right to forgive sins? If someone robbed you of your life’s savings or murdered your spouse, I would not have the right to forgive the perpetrator. On the human plane, the only one who can forgive is the injured party. From God’s perspective, of course, regardless of how many human beings are injured, the primary offense is against ...
November 22 – Vol. 2
November 22, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.83 MBRegardless of when the book of Jonah was written, Jonah himself can be located with fair accuracy. According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah son of Amittai was a prophet from Gath Hepher who predicted the military successes of King Jeroboam II (about 793 to 753 B.C.). If one were to play a game and ask what verbal link comes to mind when the word Jonah is uttered, probably most people would reply, “big fish” or “whale” or the like. Yet we should not forget that the big fish occupies textual interest...
November 21 – Vol. 2
November 21, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.89 MBWe earlier reflected on the judgments God pronounced on Edom, the nation made up of the descendants of Esau (and thus the distant cousins of the Israelites). Ezekiel is very explicit (Ezek. 35; see meditation for October 2); Hosea is less prosaic but says similar things (Hosea 13; see meditation for November 7). Here in Obadiah, an entire book (albeit a short one) is devoted to this theme. The time is after the sack of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., and possibly as late as the early postexilic perio...
November 20 – Vol. 2
November 20, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.84 MBAlthough Amos 9 contains some pretty dreadful threats of judgment, it ends on a positive chord in three-part harmony. (1) The judgment will not be total, but partial. “I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob,” the Lord declares (Amos 9:8). The sifting will be very thorough (Amos 9:9–10), but God will spare a remnant. From about the time of Elijah on, the remnant theme gets stronger with each passing century. Thoughtful people receive it and are greatly encouraged: God always preserves...
November 19 – Vol. 2
November 19, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.94 MBThere are many things in Amos 8that one might usefully reflect on: the whining moans that religious services last too long and cut into time better used for business (Amos 8:5); the shady practices that boost profits (Amos 8:5b); the rising slavery grounded in economic penury (Amos 8:6); the bitter irony of Amos 8:7 (if one remembers that “the Pride of Jacob” is God himself); the apocalyptic language of Amos 8:9 (compare Joel 2:30–31 and Acts 2:19–20); the colorful imagery of the “ripe fruit...
November 18 – Vol. 2
November 18, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.15 MBIn Amos 7:1–9 the prophet intercedes with God to avert two catastrophic judgments. In both cases, the Lord relents (Amos 7:3, 6). But then God deploys a plumb line to show just how crooked Israel is, and promises that he will spare the people no longer (Amos 7:6–9). Two reflections: (1) If God were endlessly forbearing, there would be no judgment. A lot of people think of God in these terms. God is good, so he is bound to forgive us: that’s his job. So argued Catherine the Great. The Bible ...
November 17 – Vol. 2
November 17, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3 MBTo understand aright the power of Amos 6, it is helpful to reflect a little on two themes: complacency and the power elite. (1) I shall begin by reminding you of a story I told in the meditation for January 15. One of my high school history teachers related how, toward the end of World War II, he had been furloughed home because of an injury. He had seen many of his buddies killed; others were still in action. He was riding a bus in a Canadian city, and he heard an obviously wealthy and ost...
November 16 – Vol. 2
November 16, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.04 MBOn first reading, Amos 5 is a bit of a muddle. It is made up of such diffuse bits—not only different themes, but different forms and literary genres. The NIV recognizes the point by putting verses 8–9 in parentheses (there are no parentheses in Hebrew). The first three verses are a lament, a funeral dirge, mournfully bemoaning the fall of Israel. Verses 4–6 and 14–15 constitute an evangelistic appeal. This is how Israel must respond if they are to be accepted by the Lord and survive. Verses ...
November 15 – Vol. 2
November 15, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.97 MBIn some ways Amos 4 follows on very naturally from Amos 3. God has said that the warnings of the prophets are linked with real dangers (Amos 3:7–8). Now he highlights some of the sins that have evoked his warnings (Amos 4:1–5) and explains some of the warnings themselves and what they mean for the future if they are not taken to heart (Amos 4:6–13). (1) The first warning is to the wealthy women of Israel (Amos 4:1–3), derogatorily described as “cows of Bashan”—proverbial for being well-fed,...
November 14 – Vol. 2
November 14, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.08 MBHere I reflect on two themes from Amos 3: (1) “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins” (Amos 3:2). The basic premise is simple: privilege brings responsibility. But the matter runs deeper, along at least two lines. (a) The peculiar privilege here is being chosen to know God, being known by him—and all knowledge of this God entails proximity to holiness. Small wonder, then, that this privilege brings punishment for sins. (b) But...
November 13 – Vol. 2
November 13, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.25 MBWoe to China. In this century she has butchered fifty million of her own people in the name of equality. Proud and haughty, she maintains an officially atheistic stance, persecuting the church while that church, nurtured by the blood of the martyrs, has in half a century multiplied fifty times. Woe to Russia. In the second decade of this century she embarked on a massive social experiment that resulted in the deaths of more than forty million people. She subjugated nation after nation, so c...
November 12 – Vol. 2
November 12, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.91 MBThe prophecy of Amos calls the people of God back to the behavior stipulated by the covenant. But since so much of Israel’s misbehavior is bound up with social injustice, not exclusively individualistic sins, this prophecy includes some of the most incisive denunciation of social injustice found anywhere. Some preliminary reflections on Amos 1: (1) Unlike Ezekiel, who was a trained priest before he became a prophet, and unlike Isaiah and Jeremiah, who seem to have been prophets all their l...
November 11 – Vol. 2
November 11, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.01 MBTraditionally, Psalm 143 is classified as the last of seven penitential psalms, doubtless because verse 2 admits to universal guilt. Yet regardless of how important that truth is in the Bible as a whole, in this psalm only in the one verse does this theme surface. Most of the psalm is devoted to the troubles David is facing, occasioned by enemies (Ps. 143:1–6), and David’s growing resolve as he focuses on following God’s way, regardless of what his enemies may do. Some observations: (1) Dav...
November 10 – Vol. 2
November 10, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3 MBThe opening verses of Joel 2 provide a stunning picture of the advancing hordes of locusts. The last verse of the section (Joel 2:11) makes it clear that these locusts are the Lord’s army. The fact of the matter is that “the day of the Lord” in the Old Testament, i.e., the day when the Lord manifests himself, is as often a day of judgment as of blessing and light: “The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” (Joel 2:11). Transposed to the ultimate day of the Lord, the s...
November 9 – Vol. 2
November 09, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.93 MBThe prophecy of Joel is anomalous on several grounds. Most canonical Old Testament prophecies are introduced by prophets who identify the period of their ministry with reference to the reigns of kings (e.g., Hos. 1:1). Joel does nothing of the kind. Nor do we have any idea who his father Pethuel is. Estimates of the date of composition of the book vary from the ninth century B.C. to the second century B.C. Clearly the temple is in operation (e.g., Joel 1:13), but it is uncertain whether this...
November 8 – Vol. 2
November 08, 2021 05:00 - 3 minutes - 2.9 MBThe final chapter of the prophecy, Hosea 14, has a gentler tone. It is almost as if the thunder of rebellion and judgment has exhausted itself, and grace triumphs. The chapter begins and ends with exhortation from Hosea. In between there are, first, the words of the people (or, more precisely, the words the prophet instructs the people to say), and then the words of God. I shall reflect briefly on each of these four sections. (1) Hosea begins with repentance: “Return, O Israel, to the LORD ...
November 7 – Vol. 2
November 07, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.2 MBIt is appropriate that Hosea 13 should be read in conjunction with Psalm 137. Hosea 13 brings the prophet’s promises of judgment to their climax. God is going to destroy proud Samaria (Ephraim). Similar warnings were repeatedly thundered against Judah, but they showed no sign of repentance. In 587 B.C., God destroyed Jerusalem and the last great wave of people were transported into exile. Here in Psalm 137, the captives from that catastrophe voice their utter despair, and almost all of their...
November 6 – Vol. 2
November 06, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.09 MBSome Psalms give us a glimpse of ancient Israelite worship, and Psalm 136 is one of them. Probably this was sung antiphonally: either a restricted part of the choir, or one part of the congregation in the temple would sing the lead line of each cycle, and the whole congregation would burst out and respond with “His love endures forever.” Comparing Psalm 136:18–22 with Psalm 135:10b–12 suggests that some other psalms were sung this way too. In Jewish tradition this psalm is known as the Great...
November 5 – Vol. 2
November 05, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.03 MBIn Hosea 9, God says of his covenant people, “Because of all their wickedness … I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious” (Hos. 9:15). Yet here in Hosea 11 God declares, “My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused” (Hos. 11:8). How shall we put these two passages together? First, this emotional turmoil is the language of the jilted husband: in this book, Almighty God pl...
November 4 – Vol. 2
November 04, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.92 MBMany have observed that Psalm 131 anticipates the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 18:1–4, where he asks, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”—and calls a little child to stand among his disciples. In certain respects, the follower of Jesus must be childlike, and this psalm makes its own contribution to that theme. Yet childlikeness is not childishness; simplicity is not simplemindedness; humility is not servility. The psalm will speak with greater power if we reflect on some of its f...
November 3 – Vol. 2
November 03, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.11 MB“The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this” (Hos. 9:7). This chapter (Hosea 9) spells out some of the connections between sin and judgment. (1) The language of prostitution continues: “For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor” (Hos. 9:1). Both politically and religiously, Israel flirted continuously with alien gods and foreign powers. All the ceremony of religion she dearly loved. B...
November 2 – Vol. 2
November 02, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.17 MBPerhaps the single element that holds together the various sins condemned in Hosea 8 is human self-reliance. The “eagle” in Hosea 8:1 is probably a vulture. A “[vulture] … over the house of the LORD” is a way of saying that Jerusalem is as good as dead: the carrion eaters are already gathering for their feast. The people might be living in relative prosperity and peace, but the ominous signs were there for those with eyes to see. Evidences of sinful self-sufficiency include: (1) A hypocriti...
November 1 – Vol. 2
November 01, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.16 MBAmong the Songs of Ascent (see vol. 1, meditation for June 29) is the delightful Psalm 122. Here the psalmist joyfully accompanies those heading to Jerusalem for one of the high feasts: “Let us go to the house of the LORD” (Ps. 122:1). Already in verse 2 the pilgrims have arrived: “Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.” Two themes dominate the remaining verses of the psalm. First, verses 3–5 emphasize the unity of God’s people, brought about by their common worship in Jerusalem...
October 31 – Vol. 2
October 31, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.24 MBSomeone has said that the entire book of Hosea can be understood as a study of what it means to turn back to God. Here there are no glib nostrums; merely verbal apologies are not acceptable. And yet hope is held out for people who display the kind of return that the Lord does accept. Nowhere is that tension clearer than in Hosea 5–6. Hosea 5 opens with an indictment of Israel, especially the leaders. Nothing about them is unknown to God (Hos. 5:3; cf. 7:2; Heb. 4:13). Their problem is not m...
October 30 – Vol. 2
October 30, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.97 MBHosea 1 is to Hosea 2 what Hosea 3 is to Hosea 4. The first member of each pair of chapters is written in prose and focuses on Hosea and Gomer; the second is written in poetry and focuses on the parallel relationship between Yahweh and Israel. In the pair of chapters before us (Hosea 3–4), Hosea begins with a restrained, first-person account of what happened next in his marriage. This chapter brings the account of his marriage to an end. Hosea is charged with loving his wife, who has appare...
October 29 – Vol. 2
October 29, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.25 MBIn Hosea 1, apostate Israel is likened to a brood of children characterized by violence and mayhem (Jezreel, Hos. 1:4) or born out of wedlock (Hos. 1:6–9). Although the “children” briefly reappear at the beginning and end of Hosea 2, here the focus is on apostate Israel as a fickle wife. The verb translated “rebuke” in the NIV (Hos. 2:2) is better rendered “plead,” as in a legal setting: “Plead my cause” (NEB), God begs of the children. The next two lines are better taken as a question: “Is...
October 28 – Vol. 2
October 28, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.17 MBThe first verse of Hosea 1 establishes that this prophecy came during the eighth century, which also witnessed the prophets Jonah and Amos (mainly, like Hosea, in the northern kingdom of Israel), and Micah and Isaiah (in Judah in the south). Early in the century both kingdoms, materially speaking, were doing pretty well, but both sank into decadence and moral and religious indifference. While Hosea appears in the canon immediately after Daniel, it thus deals with a period centuries earlier. ...
October 27 – Vol. 2
October 27, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.16 MBRegarding the last chapter of Daniel (Dan. 12): (1) The chapter division (which was not part of the original text) obscures the flow of the passage. Daniel 11:40–45 should be read with Daniel 12:1–4. As is pretty common in Hebrew prophecy, a vision of future history (Dan. 11:2–39) suddenly slips over into a longer perspective. The expression “At the time of the end” (Dan. 11:40) is ambiguous: it could refer to the end of the oppression of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but several elements in the ...
October 26 – Vol. 2
October 26, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.23 MBThe actual content of the vision disclosed by the heavenly messenger to Daniel occupies Daniel 11 and the first part of Daniel 12. Although the meaning of many of the details is not easy to sort out, the main lines of thought are reasonably clear. The Persian Empire is in view in 11:2. The standpoint of the vision, according to 10:1, is the reign of Cyrus. Who are the other four kings? The Persian Empire lasted two more centuries and produced nine kings (not counting usurpers between Cambys...
October 25 – Vol. 2
October 25, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.13 MBThe last three chapters of Daniel are largely given over to the final vision, a vision of a heavenly messenger and his revelation (Dan. 10:1–12:13). This chapter (Dan. 10) establishes the setting. The date is 537 B.C. The first group of exiles have returned to Jerusalem. The reminder that Daniel’s assigned name is Belteshazzar, and the mention of Cyrus, tie this chapter to 1:7, 21. The setting includes several remarkable features: (1) The heavenly messenger is more radiant than Gabriel and ...
October 24 – Vol. 2
October 24, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.24 MBDaniel’s great intercessory prayer (Dan. 9:1–19) cries out for prolonged meditation. The date is 539 B.C. Daniel “understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet” (Dan. 9:2; cf. Jer. 25:11; 29:10), that the seventy years were up—which on the face of it shows that Jeremiah’s writing quickly circulated as Scripture. Some reflections: (1) The “seventy years” have occasioned some dispute. There were different ways of calculating the period of exil...
October 23 – Vol. 2
October 23, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.12 MBTwo years after the vision of chapter 7, Daniel had his vision of the ram and the goat (Dan. 8). The text from Daniel 2:4 to the end of 7 was written in Aramaic (a cognate of Hebrew, widely used in the late Babylonian and Persian Empires). Both chapter 2 and chapter 7 provide visions that sweep through from the Babylonian period to the dawning of the kingdom of God; both of these chapters also provide some identification of the referents of the figures in their respective visions. None of th...
October 22 – Vol. 2
October 22, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.08 MBDaniel not only interpreted the dreams of others, on occasion he himself had dreams that needed interpretation. The one described here (Dan. 7) took place in the first year of Belshazzar (Dan. 7:1), i.e., more than fifty years since Daniel had first been deported to Babylon. Not all revelation is given at once. From now to the end of the book, Daniel writes in the first person (with the exception of the note at Dan. 10:1). (1) Although the four beasts representing four kingdoms or empires a...
October 21 – Vol. 2
October 21, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.15 MBFrom the account of Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan. 6), we observe a man about eighty years of age as faithful at the end of his life as he was at the beginning. Some notes: (1) Despite his advanced years, Daniel’s administrative abilities and his passion for integrity make him highly valuable to a relatively enlightened ruler such as Darius. The same virtues make him a target of envy to lesser men, who are happy to engage in a dirty-tricks campaign to bring him down. Dirty tricks were not i...
October 20 – Vol. 2
October 20, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.02 MBAfter Nebuchadnezzar died, the Babylonian Empire rapidly declined. In violent coups, several members of the dynasty succeeded each other. Nabonidus eventually imposed some stability, though various vassal states broke away. Nabonidus himself became a religious dilettante. He abandoned the worship of Marduk (chief god in the Babylonian pantheon) and ended up, apparently, excavating buried shrines, restoring ancient religious rituals, and fostering the worship of the moon god Sin. Probably he ...
October 19 – Vol. 2
October 19, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.94 MBOne of the reasons why the narratives of Daniel 4 and Daniel 5 are put side by side, even though they clearly come from two quite different periods of Daniel’s life, is that each serves as the foil of the other. Both are accounts of rich, powerful, arrogant men. The first, mercifully, is humbled and therefore spared and transformed; the second is simply destroyed. Many critics doubt that the account of Daniel 4 is anything more than pious fiction to encourage the Jews. They note that there ...
October 18 – Vol. 2
October 18, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.18 MBThe image Nebuchadnezzar set up (Dan. 3) was doubtless designed to unify the empire. That is why he ordained that all “peoples, nations and men of every language … must fall down and worship the image of gold” (Dan. 3:4–5). Living as he did in a pluralistic culture where people could with impunity add gods to their personal pantheon, Nebuchadnezzar saw no reason but rebellion or intransigent insubordination for anyone to refuse to worship the image. The threat of the furnace, from his perspe...
October 17 – Vol. 2
October 17, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.14 MBNebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2) could usefully occupy us for many pages. It provides insight not only into Daniel and his times, but into our times as well. (1) The pagan Babylonian Empire had its share of astrologers and other fortune tellers. Like thoughtful people in every generation, Nebuchadnezzar had his suspicions about their competence, and put them to this rather brutal test. Anecdotal accounts of “magical” insight cannot withstand this level of analysis. (2) Daniel’s bold approac...
October 16 – Vol. 2
October 16, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.01 MB“[T]he third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah” (Dan. 1:1) is calculated on the Babylonian reckoning; the corresponding calculation in Judah would have made it his fourth year, i.e., 605 B.C. The first round of deportations took place, then, in 605, and swept up Daniel; the second, including Ezekiel, Jehoiachin, the Queen Mother, the aristocracy, and skilled craftsmen, occurred in 597. The final crushing destruction of Jerusalem was in 587. Almost twenty years before that took pl...
October 15 – Vol. 2
October 15, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3 MB“O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.” So we read in the opening verse of Psalm 104. In this psalm the evidence of the Lord’s greatness is bound up with the created order. Some reflections: (1) In the opening verses (Ps. 104:1–4) the string of metaphorical touches is revealing. God wraps himself in light; he stretches out the heavens like a tent; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes winds his messengers. Panthe...
October 14 – Vol. 2
October 14, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.96 MBOne of the loveliest of the Psalms is Psalm 103. I reflected on it in volume 1 (meditation for June 11). Here I want to return to several of its themes: (1) “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Ps. 103:8). That truth is often expressed in the Old Testament. For example, when the Lord passes before Moses while the latter is hiding in a cleft in the rock, he intones, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in lov...
October 13 – Vol. 2
October 13, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.13 MBPsalm 102 is sometimes wrongly labeled a penitential psalm. It sounds far more like the cry of a person whose sufferings are unexplained (like those of Job). At the beginning the sorrows are private and personal; later they are eclipsed by a growing concern for Zion. Progress toward Zion’s glory seems slow. This fosters a contrast between the psalmist’s restricted and fleeting “days” (Ps. 102:3) and the Almighty’s eternal “years” (Ps. 102:27). But here I shall focus attention on the final v...
October 12 – Vol. 2
October 12, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.11 MBSome of the Psalms are into collections. Psalms 93–100 celebrate the kingship and coming of the Lord. Thematically, however, they range from the exuberant exhilaration of Psalm 98 (yesterday’s meditation) to a more subdued but profoundly submissive awe. After the unrestrained joy of Psalm 98, there follows in Psalm 99 a profound reverence. We have moved from a festival of praise to a cathedral. The psalm divides into two parts. The theme of the first is established by the repeated line, “he...
October 11 – Vol. 2
October 11, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.22 MBIn the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 98 is known as the Cantate Domino (“Sing to the Lord”) and is placed between the evening Old Testament reading and its New Testament counterpart. It overflows with exhilarating worship and joy. The psalm has three stanzas. The first (Ps. 98:1–3) celebrates the “salvation” of God (found in each verse). The word is perhaps more comprehensive than the way it is used today. It includes victory over enemies: this “salvation” or victory was effected by...
October 10 – Vol. 2
October 10, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.2 MBAlmost twenty years have elapsed since the visionary experience in which Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord abandoning the temple (Ezek. 10:18–22; 11:22–24). Here in Ezekiel 43:1–12 he witnesses the Lord’s return. Numerous phrases and clauses remind us that the glory Ezekiel now sees is to be identified with the glory he first saw in the mobile throne vision in Ezekiel 1–3, and with the glory that abandoned the temple and the city in the vision of chapters 8–11. Ezekiel makes the point expli...
October 9 – Vol. 2
October 09, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.14 MBThe description of the temple (Ezek. 41) is followed by a description of rooms reserved for priests (Ezek. 42). But I shall press yesterday’s discussion a little farther and briefly discuss two more of the ways these chapters have been interpreted. (3) Many older commentators argued that chapters 40–48 are straightforward symbols of what is fulfilled in the Christian church. There is some truth to this view. It is given impetus when one observes, for instance, that John’s vision of the holy...
October 8 – Vol. 2
October 08, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3 MBAlthough Ezekiel 41 (or, more precisely, Ezek. 40:48–41:26) is devoted to the description of the temple within the great vision of chapters 40–48, I shall focus attention here on how this chapter, indeed all nine of these chapters, should be interpreted. I shall survey two of the more important options here, and two more tomorrow. (1) Some hold that this is Ezekiel’s vision of what should in fact be built once the exile has ended and some of the people return to the land. In that case chapt...
October 7 – Vol. 2
October 07, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.3 MBApart from Ezekiel 29:17–21, the nine chapters before us, Ezekiel 40–48, take place later than the other visions and oracles that constitute the book. As the book began with a vision, so now it ends with one. Although this vision is sufficiently cut off from the rest of the book that some have labeled it an appendix, nevertheless there are some dramatic connections. In the vision of Ezekiel 8:1–11:25, Ezekiel saw the glory of God abandon the temple; now he witnesses the glory returning and f...
October 6 – Vol. 2
October 06, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.05 MBEzekiel 38 begins the oracle against Gog; Ezekiel 39 continues it. Here Gog’s overthrow is narrated again, but in different terms. This is typical of Hebrew semi-poetry. We are not dealing with a separate account of the same thing, which has somehow been stitched onto the first account. Hebrew rhetoric loves to loop around and enlarge on previous statements, even if this conflicts with our Western sense of sequence. Two observations: (1) There are plenty of hints that these two chapters hav...