Sunday--Ezekiel 43. "The earth shined with his glory." God came to earth, and the earth shined with His glory. Appropriate verse after the message this morning about worshiping God.
Monday--Ezekiel 44. I know I have read this whole chapter together before, but I never saw this before (isn't it neat that we can read the same thing multiple times and get new things out of it continually?). Verses 20-22 tell what a priest should and shouldn't do: don't shave his head or grow his hair long, but keep it cut short; no drinking wine; no marrying anyone but a virgin or a widow of another priest (because she would have been a virgin then). My husband uses this verse about the hair to show what God approves of in "how long is too long". I have heard people argue back that this requirement was only for the priests, and no where does God command ordinary citizens to abide by this. But then you read verse 24: "And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean." The reason that the laws for the priests were so "strict" was because the priests were to be the example. If you want to know what something clean looks like so you can replicate it, it won't do much good looking at something that is slightly dirty. Even if you can't be as clean as the clean thing is, if your goal is "slightly dirty" you will NEVER be clean. God doesn't want us to strive to be "slightly dirty". "Be ye holy, as I am holy." Although in our sinful states we cannot actually attain unto the holiness that God is, if we don't even try, we definitely won't come anywhere close. 'Shew that was long!
Wednesday--Ezekiel 46. This chapter is a little different, I think. It's like Ezekiel knew his book was winding down so he just needed to get in the rest of the information. "Sacrifices, sacrifices, sacrifices, OH! inheritance, sacrifices, oh and boiling water too!" Kinda like a parenthesis in the middle so we don't get bogged down in sacrifices.
Thursday--Ezekiel 47. I like the story about the river in this chapter. At first I didn't know where the story was going (I've read the book multiple times before, but it's been awhile). It reminded me of the verses in Psalm 1 about the tree by the river. It's always neat to see different passages of Scripture come together.
Friday--Ezekiel 48. What an awesome ending to the book of Ezekiel! "And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there." The LORD was there, is still there, will always be there. That is the foundation of God. If He is not eternal, He can be nothing else. Well, this was fun. It felt like it took me four months to get through Ezekiel. I'm looking forward to some New Testament, although I have a feeling Paul will be a little less easy on my conscience.
Saturday--Galatians 1. What strikes me about Paul's opening is something that, had we not just come off a volatile election, I probably wouldn't have noticed. Paul tells us he had a bad record, the worst kind: persecuting Christians. But now he's different, and the believers glorified God in him because they recognized that his change happened at the heart level. I wonder if people can see that God has made me different on the heart level.