Day 61 ~ International consequences

• Ezekiel 22:30 - men to "stand in the gap"
• 23:20 - what does this mean? kinda gross
• 24:2 - Babylonian seige against Jerusalem begins
• Chapter 25 - international destruction to come for vengeance against Judah and Israel - Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia
• 26-28 - Tyre - because the mocked the fallen Jerusalem, destroyed. Wonder where this falls in historical records - about 1 or 2 years after Jerusalem is seiged. What is modern Tyre? Haifa?
• 28:12ff - Tyre was perfection , in Eden, covered by Cherubs, however their wealth led them to violence and sin and they are cast off the mountain of God. Huh? who started Tyre? Abel?
• 29-32 - Egypt - because they claimed they created, they will be scattered for 40 years and returned lowly. 17 years later, Babylon struggles against Tyre (29:18). Egypt will be given to them as reward for working for God.
• 33:11 - God gets no pleasure in the death of the wicked
• 33:21 - Jerusalem captured by Babylon (third and final time)
• 33:22 - Ezekiel no longer mute. When did he become mute?
• 34 - the Lord is the Shepherd - without Him, the flock spread.
• 34:26 - showers of blessing.

Day 60 ~ DC trip highlights, God leaves the temple

You know how it is when you get home from vacation and you need a vacation to recover from vacation? Yeah, that was yesterday. Laundry, bills to pay, homework, cat puke on the carpet to get out, cleaning up around the house, lunches to pack...back to the routine.

In case you're wondering, we walked our legs off in Washington DC. We arrived Thursday afternoon and left Monday afternoon. We stayed south of the mall about 4 blocks south of the new Indian museum, a block from the Federal SW metro stop. Great hotel, decent prices, awesome breakfast included. The first two days were steady rain, but we donned our rain gear and ventured out as soon as we hit the ground. Mom had done an awesome job getting all the information gathered up, and we made a grid of what we would do to fit as much stuff in as possible, and I believe we were very successful. We'd all been to the Virginia side (Arlington, Mount Vernon) and never ventured west of the Potomac River except the airport.

• Thursday: Smithsonian Air & Space Museum (including a small exibit from the closed for renovation Museum of American History), Corcoran Museum of Art, strolled by the White House and were ushered out of "the park" about 9pm when the presidential helicopter was expected to fly in from his trip to the fires in CA.
• Friday: tour of the Supreme Court (featuring Moses and Solomon in the highest chamber of the land), National Archives, Navy Memorial, Old Post Office (first time, couldn't get up into the tower), White House Visitors Center (this is where we were going when we saw Mike & Deb Alley - skip it if you go, they don't even have a model!), Fords Theater and the house where Lincoln died (theater closed for renovation - we saw it last time), Madam Toussaud's Wax Museum (expensive, but really cool - Grace's favorite place "where they make the plastic people"), International Spy Museum (really good - I would like to go back and do the spy activity sometime).
• Saturday: Library of Congress. This was an awesome building, my favorite of all we saw. Reagan building (nice food court, good way to cut through a few blocks out of the rain), Old Post office (again, line too long to go up to the tower), Octagon house (been closed for two years, you think they could post that on their web info somewhere?), Daughters of the American Revolution building (we walked all the way around it to get inside - a sign would have been helpful to show where the construction entrance was), World War II Memorial, Washington Monument (we decided we would touch it instead of climb it), Museum of Natural History (I disliked this one last time we went, but the stuffed animals were cool. It is saturated with evolution, at one point I nearly cried. The photo shows the rat like creature that "a close relative of this tiny creature was the first mammal on earth. Its DNA was passed on to billions of descendants - including you." Followed up by a night tour of the monuments (save your money and do it during the day - too many light bulbs out on a few of the monuments to get a good taste) - Korean, Vietnam, FDR, Lincoln, and some drivebys of other stuff we'd already walked past.
• Sunday. We started off reading a chapter from Jeremiah 1, because that is where Dad is in his 90 day Bible Reading. I was pushing for the end of Ezekiel. We walked up to the east end of the mall and watched about 15 minutes of the 32nd annual Marine's marathon. Then on to the Smithsonian Indian museum (dissappointing exhibits - not much historical info, mostly current, cool architecture). The cafeteria had interesting food: octupus, frog legs. Back to the old post office and we finally got up to the top. We then went to the Washington Cathedral (off the beaten path) and sat through a Lutheran service. Grace wanted to go back to the children's chapel, where she "read" scripture (and from several other chapels on site). Well worth seeing - it took 80 years to construct and was only completed in 1990. By the way, get a transfer from the metro station for the bus and save .85 cents. We ended up back in China town for supper, then to the pool.
• Monday. Tour of the Capitol arranged by Senator Lugar's office. We ate an $11 salad at the Smithsonian Art Museum. Then the fun began. Back to the hotel to get our stowed bags and to the airport. On the platform of the Metro exit at the airport, we discovered baby Sarah and Baby Susie, Grace's dolls, had been left at the hotel. Everyone else went to the terminal, mommy went back to the hotel to get the dolls. Doing her own little Marines marathon. Success. On the way back on the platform of the metro train, Jeff called to say they had bumped us from our flight because our bags had not been checked 1-1/2 hours before the flight must be a Reagan National thing. Oh well, I wouldn't have made it back for the flight anyway. So now rather than a non stop, we get to go to Detroit! We had been unable to check ourselves in at the hotel online earlier in the day or week (I think they had overbooked the flight). The Lord was saving us from ourselves! They told the Northwest counter gal the doll sob story and they didn't charge us any fees! We got all five of us on a totally full flight to Detroit and another full flight to Indy. And, if your van is completely dead in long term parking because it is possessed and the lights come on by themselves and drain the battery, if you flag down a shuttle bus, they'll call you a jump that comes in less than 10 minutes and only costs $12. Only God can make that happen. Nobody lost their cool, everyone home safe.
• What we didn't get to see that we wanted to see: Kennedy Center, White House (try to book more than 6 weeks in advance through representative), Jefferson Memorial close up.

Now, the real stuff - Ezekiel

• Chapter 10 - in Ezekiel's vision, God leaves the temple in Jerusalem - he vacates the location where the Israelites could worship and see his glory
• Chapter 11 - the vision makes me wonder if he was actually taken physically to Jerusalem
• 11:19 - "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in My statues and keep My judgments and do them, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God."
• Chapter 14 - you cannot save anyone else with your righteousness; 18:20 the son shall not bear the guilt of the father (consequences, yes, but guilt, no)
• 14:14 - Daniel (next book to be read) is known to Ezekiel, who started prophesying after Daniel was taken to Babylon and would now likely have been in a position of power under Nebuchadnezzar.
• 16:44 - ‘Like mother, like daughter!’ - I didn't know that was in the Bible.
• 20:25 - “Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live" - God, talking about the Israelites - he has another plan in mind
• 21:21 - divination rituals described, including shaking arrows, consulting images, looking at the liver

Day 59 - Ezekiel saw the wheel

Lamentations -
I took no notes on Lamentations - a poetic expression of the afflicted people and city of Jerusalem

Ezekiel - timeline time!

• Ezekiel is a young (20s? 30s) man chosen to prophesy to captive Jews in Babylon. He uses references to the rule of king Jehoiachin to reference his receipt of the prophecies from God. Jehoiachin ruled only 3 months in Jerusalem, but "ruled" in Babylon under confinement for 36 more years until Nebuchadnezzar's successor freed him.
• Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, Zedekiah was the puppet king of Nebuchadnezzar, so the Jews had two kings simultaneously.
• Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah, but on the back end of the kings rule. It looks like he was part of the second of three waves of captives taken to Babylon. Daniel would have been in the first wave (Ezekiel refers to him a couple of times). The third wave is when the temple is burned, and Ezekiel warns the Jews of this. Those Ezekiel prophesied to (captives in Babylon) were probably thinking "we've been carted away, what more could happen?" and Ezekiel filled them in that much more could and would happen.
• Did you try to visualize the four 4-winged, 4-headed creatures with the wheels from the vision Ezekiel had in chapter 1. I tried, but I don't get the wheel part.
• Why does God repeatedly use the phrase "son of man," which is also used for Jesus, to address Ezekiel?
• Ezekiel was a one man freak show given some really weird object lessons to carry out to further explain God's prophecies. Lie on your left side for 390 days (for Israel's iniquity), on your right side 40 days for Judah's iniquity (right side again! is this because Judah is the kingdom through which the messiah would come? - chosen, choice, preferred = right side?)
• God controlled Ezekiel's body (4:8) and his tongue (3:26, 27). This reminds me of the Steve Martin movie "All of Me" with Lily Tomlin. That's a funny movie.
• While lying on one of the two sides, Ezekiel is given some specific eating and cooking instructions. He's supposed to cook his food with his own body waste as fuel. Jeremiah says he can't do that (against some type of Levitical rules I'm assuming) and God lets him substitute cow dung.
• The final siege against Jerusalem is portrayed in chapter 4 through another object lesson with a clay tablet. Ezekiel shaves his head and scatters or burns the hair to signify what will happen to those who remain in the city of Jerusalem.
• Chapter 8 - 14 months later, his hair has grown back (8:3) and the detailed description of the abominations of idolatry that has and is (and will? who knows with these visions if they are past, present, future or a combination) going on in Jerusalem.

Day 58 ~ governments will topple

• Chapter 40 - Jeremiah is released by the captain of Nebuchadnezzar's guard releases Jeremiah. Jeremiah chooses to go with the Babylonian-appointed governer, Gedaliah, to what was the new headquarters in Judah - Mizpah. A swarm of displaced Jews came back to Mizpah and the produce of the fields.
• Chapter 41 - Ishmael the son of Nethaniah (I'd guess he is Babylonian, or possibly from another neighboring nation) kills the governor (as warned at the end of chapter 40 by Johanan but ignored by the gov), some of the 80 visitors from around the area who had come to see the governor, and tosses their bodies in a hole that had been used before by king Asa as a mass burial. Ishmael drags a bunch of Hebrews to Gibeon, and Johanan comes after him - the Hebrews go back to Johanan and Ishmael escapes. This whole scenerio scared the Hebrews, and they decide they're going to take off for Egypt. Because that worked out for them so well last time.
• The remnant left in Judah asks Jeremiah to seek what God's would have them to do and they will obey it (ha!). God says "Do not go to Egypt!" - seems clear enough. Also has some consequences attached if they do go.
• Chapter 42 - of course they call Jeremiah a liar and set off for Egypt. Why is Jeremiah still with them? He prophesies that Babylon will follow them into Egypt and take Egypt as well, and except a few who will escape and return to Judah, the rest will die in Egypt
• 42:30 - can check against egyptian and babylonian records for proof - see this reference site for some further info - http://formerthings.com/hophra.htm
• Chapter 45 - back in time again to Pharaoh Necho. This is the Egyptian who was on his way with his army to back up Assyria against the Babylonians, but they were delayed by good king Josiah of Judah and engaged and Babylon was able to defeat Assyria, then Josiah dies by arrow.
• Hey, I found a third typo in the New King James version of the Bible at BibleGateway.com. you can turn those in to them and they fix them. 47:4 - @ symbol in a word
• More kingdoms to fall to Babylon - Philistine, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, Elam. I guess since Judah won't listen to him, God has given Jeremiah messages for the surrounding communities.
• and another typo at 49:14 - !RM at end of second line - did they correct them yet?
• Chapter 50 - Babylon's rule will not be long - they too will be attacked and overtaken from the North. Babylon will gather all this territory to empty it directly into the basket of Persia within 70 years of the first group that left Jerusalem. They are named the Medes in 51:28
• 50:20 - in the days of Babylon's defeat "The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; For I will pardon those whom I preserve. "
• 51:11 - "For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the LORD, The vengeance for His temple. "
• 51:14 - another typo - !RM
• 51:37 - another typo - !RM - geez, do a spell check.
• Okay, I get it, Babylon is going to fall. It's not as interesting when we aren't talking about the Jews
• Chapter 52 - review of the fall of Jerusalem. Perhaps Jeremiah didn't have a scroll of 2 Kings or 2 Chronicles around to read. Could I have skipped chapters 1-51 and read only chapter 52? Cliffnotes version. So, why tell us the little details about the bronze capitols?
• 52:33 - only 4,600 total people carried out of Jerusalem into captivity. I would have thought it would have been tens of thousands.
• Why would the new king (replacing Nebuchadnezzar I presume), "Evil-Merodach" give favor to the puppet king of the jews, Jehoiachin?

Turn the electronic page, and I'm done with Jeremiah! 24 books down. Not really looking forward to Lamentations, especially since I'll be cramming it in late tomorrow night after Financial Peace University class and packing for vacation to Washington DC. i guess I'm a chapter ahead, as the reading only goes to chapter 52.

Keep us in your prayers as we (Mom & Dad, Jeff, Grace) travel. And that I'll be diligent in maintaining the habit I've established over the last 58 days. Hopefully I'll have completed Ezekiel by Monday!

Day 57 ~ The Northern Tribe is part of the Remnant

We hop around in the timeline of the last few kings of Judah in the reading today. This would be a good section to read in a chronological bible. This section also has quite a bit of message of hope to the southern and the northern kingdoms. Someone finally talks about the northern tribes (Israel / also referred to as Ephraim) and provides some hope for them as well as the southern kingdom.

• Jeremiah 26 - threats against Jeremiah's life were real. Another Godly prophet, Urijah was hunted down and killed for word from God.
• Don't resist Babylon's rule. Babylon has already carted some Hebrews off from Jerusalem, as well as some of the temple articles, eventually they will all be taken off. But, they will eventually be restored.
• Chapter 28 - Hananiah was making predictions in God's name, but he was a false prophet (in fourth year of Zedekiah's rule he predicts that within 2 years Babylon would bring back all that they had taken from Jerusalem.) This goes against what Jeremiah has been speaking. The Lord strikes down this false prophet. (obviously wrong, see 32:1)
• 29 - captivity will be 70 years from the original group taken captive, then a remnant will return to Jerusalem
• 29:10-13 explains this promise, encapsulating an oft-quoted passage of hope - "For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." 29:11 is the passage that I quoted in my college yearbook.
• 29:22 - Nebuchadnezzar's chosen method of torture is exposed - roasting in the fire. Were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo in captivity under Nebuchadnezzar? We'll find out later, I'm sure.
• 30:3 - hey, some news about the northern kingdoms - Israel and Judah will be returned.
• 31:9 - was Ephraim the firstborn of the 12 sons who became the tribes of Judah? No, Reuben was the first born, but he lost his inheritance to Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:1), thus the phrase "Ephraim is my firstborn". Chapter 31 spends many of the verses on the return of the northern kingdom as well as the southern kingdom.
• 31:31 - New covenant coming - a personal intimacy - :34 - knowing God, not just knowing about Him
• 32:7 - do you remember the rights of redemption of property - see Leviticus 25:25, or revisit Boaz and Ruth. Jeremiah redeems a piece of property with the aid of his right-hand man and scribe (Baruch). All this while in jail, and apparently the paperwork on closing a property took alot of time and witnesses 2500 years ago, too.
• 32:17 - song - Ah, Lord God, Thou has made the heavens...
• 34:12ff - slavery rules - limited to 6 years (slavery invoked to repay debt)
• 35 - going back in time here, Jeremiah's been in jail under Zedekiah, but chapter 35 goes back 3 or 4 kings to Jehoiakim.
• Rechabites? This is all a bit confusing. But I think the idea is that they heeded Jeremiah's word.
• 35:3 - did Jeremiah have a son? was this before God told him not to get married or have children?
• 36:5 - Baruch acts on behalf of Jeremiah - he goes and reads the scroll that he had transcribed for Jeremiah in front of the princes - because Jeremiah is confined. Confined where? In jail? But not in jail like he was in chapter 35 under Zedekiah, because Baruch reads the scroll in the presence of the prince Zedekiah (36:12). Jeremiah and Baruch made a good team.
• 37:1-2 - Zedekiah becomes king to fulfill the prophecy from 36:30 that Jehoiakim's line would end.
• 37 - Jeremiah is accused of being a spy for Babylon and imprisoned, but transferred to Zedekiah's jail. Are we caught back up to chapter 32 now? Anyway, Zedekiah has his doubts that Jeremiah is a spy and asks him to speak frankly to him about God's plans. But he doesn't believe it.
• What is worse than being a hated prophet in a city under seige? Being imprisoned in a cistern with no food in a city under seige.

Day 56 ~ 23 years of warnings

• Jeremiah 10:12 - another support of Genesis creation by God
• 12:2 - hypocrites - "You are near in their mouth But far from their mind"
• 12:21 - Anathoth - Jeremiah's town at the time of his calling (1:1), a Levitical city (Joshua 21:1-3), home of Abithar the priest (1 Kings 2:26). This should have been a city that was a model of righteousness, but instead threatened Jeremiah's life rather than heed his warnings.
• 12:15, 16:15, 23:3, 24:7 - promise that after the captivity, the remnant will return to Jerusalem.
• 11:14, 14:12, 15:1 - don't waste your breath or your prayers - God will not hear them, not even if Moses or Samuel appeal
• 15:4 - Manasseh's deeds were the last straw -(he built idols to Baal and sacrificed his child to them)
• Jeremiah appeals to God to strike down those who persecute him (15:15, 18:18). God tells him he will be redeemed from the wicked (15:21). In chapter 18 he reminds me of David calling down God's wrath on his enemies.
• Jeremiah is told not to marry or have children - he will be sparred mourning them. chapter 16
• 17:9-10 - our hearts are deceitful, but God tests it, our fruit matters to Him.
• 17:19ff - Jeremiah is instructed to appeal to Jerusalem to honor the sabbath day
• 19:10 - seige against the city will be so great that people will resort to cannibalism
• chapter 20 - Jeremiah is imprisoned by Pashur, a priest/chief governor.
• 20:9 - In the face of so much persecution for his message from God, Jeremiah tries to hold in the message and not speak of it, but he was compelled to do so.
• chapter 21 - now the King (Zedekiah), who is at war with the king of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) wants to know what God says? He wants Jeremiah to butter up God who will use his "wonderful works" to save his people. The Lord's response is that He is warring against Judah, not Babylon - Babylon is just a weapon of choice. Your choice city will burn.
• 22:14 - clueless king Jehoiakim, during this time of oppression and high taxes, choses to build himself nice new house.
• Chapter 23 - false prophet tell the message that "it's going to be okay" but that goes against the scripture. Check those who say they are messengers of God against scripture - God will not contradict His word.
• 24:33 - what is an oracle? a prophet? a "crystal ball", urim and thummin? something through which God speaks?
• chapter 24 - God will sort out and encourage/equip those in captivity for a strong remnant to return (I think of Daniel)
• chapter 25 - in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign in Judah, the first year of the new king of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Jeremiah's 23rd year of preaching God's message of the impending destruction, Jeremiah days Babylon will carry off Judah for 70 years, then they will be punished.
• 25:17-26 - international wrath to come.

Day 55 - Destruction is coming from the North

• Isaiah 63:15-19 - a prayer of penitence - but from whom? Appropriate for a non-Jew? "Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name."
• 65:17ff - the glorious new creation. Is this a description of heaven, or a world as God intended it to be from the beginning? Will there be a type of "heaven on earth" at some point in the future? I ask, because it talks about death, and it would seem that heaven would not have death. (vs20). The former earth won't come to mind.

Isaiah is completed. Let's jump right into Jeremiah and tackle the first nine chapters.

Now, where are we - the author of Jeremiah tells us that this occurs from the 13th year of king Josiah's reign in Jerusalem through king Jehoahaz (3 months) king Jehoiakim (who is ruler in Daniel 1:1, when Babylon begins carting off Judah into captivity a bit at a time), Jeconiah (3 months) then until the 11th year of king Zedekiah, when Babylon burns Jerusalem. Israel has been captive under the Assyrians for more than 100 years, and then presumably under Babylon as they conquer Assyria. Josiah was the last king to rule independently on the throne of Judah. His offspring were puppet kings under foreign control. Revisit II Kings starting about chapter 22, and II Chronicles 34.

Jeremiah is called by God and God puts His words into Jeremiah's mouth just after Josiah's first reform where he removes all the idols from the kingdom.

• Chapter 2 - apparently Judah has a pretty tight allied relationship with Egypt.
• Chapter 3 - some info on divorce. Israel was an example for Judah to see, but Judah didn't get it and will suffer the same consequence.
• 3:10 - "And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” - the attempt by Josiah to clear the land of idols was only surface deep.
• 3:18 - "In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers. " - what does this mean? Does it mean that some of all the tribes will be reunited at some point? Is this when they return to Zion after 70 years in Babylon? It seems that I recall some of the tribes of Zebulun and Ephraim being talked about when we had some info about the return in Ezra and Nehemiah.
• 5:18,19 - “Nevertheless in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, ‘Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.'"
• 7:11 - temple referred to as "den of thieves"
• I remember that Shiloh is the first place where they set up the "permanent" tent tabernacle. But what did God do to it? 7:14
• God's patience has run out.