BR-36 Chronological Bible Read (September 3-9)

Without God’s presence, places are just ... places. Doesn’t matter what you call them: "third space," "thin place," or "quiet place,"  —or any other term referencing worship locations or places for God's people to gather. 

This is a lesson hard learned by God’s people in this week’s readings ... and some never did understand this truth of places. Ezekiel’s vision (Sept 3, 4, 5, & part of 6) teaches us: God must first be present for the "land" to have any meaning. Longing for "Zion" in lovely songs is missing the point. What made the Promised Land special, was the promise and the one promising ... not the land.

Another emerging theme: The Return. 

Even when God was promising His people that they would reap what they sowed (i.e., be exiled for worshiping false gods ... despite many, many warnings to stop), He also was promising they would not be exiled forever, that life would resume, at some point, in the Promised Land. We see the beginnings of that in this week's long section describing Ezekiel's vision of the rebuilding of the Temple .

When Ezekiel witnesses God's glory returning to the Temple (Ezekiel 43, Sept 4th), he is seeing the beginnings of the promised Return from exile in Babylon. 

Blessings,

Steve

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We’re reading The One Year Chronological Bible, New Living Translation (Tyndale). It’s best with your own copy. Or, copy and paste this link to the daily reading schedule:

http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan/oneyearchronologicalbiblereadingplan.pdf

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Highlights: 

An angel reveals to Ezekiel God's plan to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem ... "The Handwriting on the wall" ... Daniel in the Lions Den ... Cyrus defeats Babylon and releases the captives so they can return to Jerusalem (I guess last week's "This Ol' Heart is Gonna Rise Again" was an appropriate song!). 

September 3 - Daniel 4: The dream, its interpretation, and its fulfillment are here as a warning to the leader of any nation ... ours included. God can humble and establish a national leader at will. 

September 4th - Is this still true for Temple Mount, today ?? Ezekiel 43:12 - “And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness! The entire top of the mountain where the Temple is built is holy. Yes, this is the basic law of the Temple.” [Ezekiel‬ ‭43:12‬ ‭NLT‬‬ - http://bible.com/116/ezk.43.12.nlt_]

September 5th - Ezekiel 44:15-16 - It would be easy to miss this: don’t. It’s huge. Up to now, any of Levi's descendants could serve in the Temple. That ends, now! God selects only one family from among the Tribe of Levi to serve in the Temple  —the family of Zadok—  because of their ongoing faithfulness.

September 5th - Ezekiel 45:9 - God, again, commands His leaders to provide equity, justice, and true peace to His people. [also Ezekiel 46:16-18]

September 5th - Ezekiel 46:18 - “And the prince may never take anyone’s property by force. If he gives property to his sons, it must be from his own land, for I do not want any of my people unjustly evicted from their property.””

September 6th - Ezekiel 47:21-23 - Here is the command to treat foreigners "who have joined you" like they are "native-born Israelites." There has always been a place for foreigners in God's plan for the Israelites. The ones God rejected (over the centuries) were those who worshipped false gods and did despicable things. God never rejected foreigners just because they were not "pure" Israelites (or not, genetically speaking, Israelites at all).

September 7th - Daniel 7:9-10 - It is significant that this portion of Daniel's vision matches perfectly with the scenes observed by Ezekiel on several occasions (i.e., wheels within wheels). 

BIG DEAL OF THE WEEK (biggest? Bigly-est?) September 7th - Daniel 7:13-14 - JESUS: this is the first time the Messiah is referred to as "like a son of man." Over the centuries following Daniel's vision, the phrase "Son of Man" became a shorthand reference to this person in Daniel's revelation of Heaven. You hear this reflected over 140 times in the New Testament  (e.g., as in Luke 22:66-71). Every time Jesus used this term, the leaders and teachers fully understood he was referencing the Messiah as depicted in Daniel's vision. 

September 7th - Daniel 5:1-31 - Handwriting on the wall. We hear this phrase a lot these days as an idiom. To us, it means a conclusion has been reached, that something has become obvious about the next steps ... in short: It's over. To Belshazzar and his entourage, the appearance of an actual (disconnected) hand writing on the King's plaster wall came to mean the end of the King’s reign.

September 8th - Daniel 6:1-28 - Notable: Darius' concern for Daniel "May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you!" And then later, "Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?"

September 9th - Ezra chapters 2, 3, and 4 - Zerubbabel leads a group back to Jerusalem to rebuild the altar, restart the sacrifices, and lay a new foundation for the Temple ... Actual people actually returning from Exile.

Next week: 

Daniel's visions of the End Times. Haggai and Zechariah prophesy the imminent return of the exiles and call for the (physical) rebuilding of the Temple. Darius (successor to Persian Conqueror Cyrus) confirms the Temple is to be rebuilt. Temple rededicated in book of Ezra. Esther becomes a queen. Ezra and the exiles start their journey back to the Promised Land.