Author: Al Gary

September 10 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 43-45) We remember that God’s glory came in and filled the temple after Solomon had built it. But when God’s judgment came and Judah was taken away into exile, God’s glory left the temple. The people made a terrible mistake when they believed that they could not be conquered because…

September 9 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 40-42) Ezekiel 39 had ended with God’s promise that he would take his people back to Jerusalem, and that He would pour out His Spirit on them. We can only imagine how the Hebrews in exile in Babylon longed for that day! The temple represented God’s presence and glory among…

September 8 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 37-39) Perhaps Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones is his best-known prophecy. As the prophet viewed the bones scattered over the floor of the valley, God asked: “Can these bones live?” He then told Ezekiel to prophecy over the bones: “O dry bones, hear the word of the…

September 7 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 34-36) After receiving God’s words of judgment, how Ezekiel’s heart must have rejoiced when he heard Ezekiel 34:11-31. This chapter began with negative words against the unfaithful shepherds in Israel, but then God spoke of His relationship to Israel as the One True Shepherd! God had entrusted the leadership of…

September 6 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 31-33) We return to a theme that we saw in the very beginning of Ezekiel, when God called him to be a prophet. “I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me” (Ezek. 3:17). God described…

September 5 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 28-30, NIV) As God pronounced judgment on the nations though the prophecies of Ezekiel, their pride and self-sufficiency are highlighted. God is creator, and He is the sovereign Lord. When man forgets this and lives as if he is the master of his own universe, there will always be a…

September 5 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 28-30, NIV) As God pronounced judgment on the nations though the prophecies of Ezekiel, their pride and self-sufficiency is highlighted. God is creator, and He is the sovereign Lord. When man forgets this and lives as if he is the master of his own universe, there will always be a…

September 4 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 25-27) Ezekiel 24 ended with refugees from Jerusalem coming to Ezekiel with some news. In a parallel passage, Ezekiel 33:21-22, Ezekiel wrote: “Now in the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the refugees from Jerusalem came to me, saying, ‘The city has been taken.’…

September 3 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 23-24) The accusation of harlotry is repeated through an allegory of two sisters; Damascus is called Oholah, and Jerusalem is called Oholibah. God’s message to the Hebrew people through Ezekiel is the same one that Hosea gave by his marriage to Gomer (Hos. 1:3). God presented the image of a…

September 2 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 21-22) “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one” (22:30). This verse shows God’s heart even as He pronounced judgment on His people.…