Author: Al Gary

September 1 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 18-20) Ezekiel 18 presents a new way of thinking for God’s people. The old way was portrayed in a proverb: “The fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge” (18:2). This was based on Exodus 20:5, where it is stated that punishment for the sins…

August 31 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 16-17) The harsh language of chapter 16 might make us dismiss it as irrelevant to our situation. Surely, we are not guilty of harlotry as God described it to Ezekiel! But as I read, I had a thought: “What have I done with all that God has given me?” I…

August 30 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 13-15) As God was giving His message to the people through His prophets, there were many false prophets who were contradicting Him. Ezekiel wrote: “Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing” (13:3). God used the metaphor of…

August 29 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 9-12, NKJV) To appreciate the lesson of today’s reading, we need to go back to when Solomon dedicated the temple. When the musicians played the cymbals, stringed instruments, harps, and trumpets, and the singers sang, “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever,” at that moment, “the house of…

August 28 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 5-8) We have seen over and over in God’s revelations to the prophets how He feels about idolatry. Ezekiel prophesied to the “mountains of Israel,” “Your altars will become desolate … I will make your slain fall in front of your idols” (6:4). We read six times in chapters six…

August 27 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 1-4) Ezekiel expressed clearly that God is sovereign and in control over all creation. He demonstrated this by the process of cause and effect. Over sixty times, Ezekiel wrote that something had happened, or would happen (cause), so that “they will know that I am the Lord” (effect). God sent…

August 26 (Daily reading: Lamentations 3-5) We have not said a lot about the sufferings of Jeremiah. Remember that he is known as the weeping prophet. God asked him to do many things that put him in great danger, and he suffered much because of it. But God never rejected him and always protected him.…

August 25 (Daily reading: Lamentations 1-2) Judah’s fate became even more lamentable as Jeremiah spoke of her as a person. It began with a third person testimony: “(Judah) weeps bitterly in the night and her tears are on her cheeks; she has none to comfort her … (she) has gone into exile under affliction and…

August 24 (Daily reading: Jeremiah 51-52) The judgement against Babylon required one hundred ten verses (chapters 50-51). “This is what the LORD says: ‘See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon’” (51:1, NIV). But even though Babylon had conquered Judah and taken captives into exile, we are told: “For neither Israel…

August 23 (Daily reading: Jeremiah 49-50) God next pronounced judgement on the Ammonites, the descendants of Ben-Ammi, who was the son of Lot and his younger daughter (Genesis 19:38). The Ammonites worshiped the god Malcam (or Milcom), and God asks: “Does Israel have no sons? Or has he no heirs? Why then has Malcam taken…