Passing through ...

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

I have passed through Ezekiel Daniel, Hosea, Joel. So much judgment and wrath fromGod.

By passing through I mean just listening and pondering over the time and place  and some  of the words that are often heard in the books.

I know there are famous prophesies in Ezekiel and Daniel and some place them in our time and are sure they will be fulfilled in our lifetime. But this is not what I have been thinking of.

There is an on-going love affair between God and his people Israel. God promise; “I have loved you with an everlasting love” and the object for his tender words turn her back on him and commits adultery. It’ seems that adultery in the eyes of God is compared to prostitution. His own people Israel sells herself to idols of wood and stone; lifeless idols that Israel worship and bring sacrifices to. They offer their children to Baal by burning them to death. They build altars to foreign gods and they burn incense to them to get favor with lifeless gods.  Other sins followed, including homicide, perjury, theft, and sexual sin.

They are warned that their sins will catch up with them and judgment will follow but nothing seem to get their attention and bondage, captivity and slavery in a foreign country is the result of their idol worship.

But in God’s anger there is still love for his people and hope for reconciliation. Sin has its cost and so has love; but love brings forth forgiveness where sin brings forth death. There will be a new covenant in Jesus Christ but it will take 400 years of silence after the last prophet has spoken.

Well … I’m off to the next book ….

Sincerely yours, Ida

Oh, Jeremiah!

I have passed through the book of Jeremiah and I thought to myself … is there anywhere else in the Bible that I can find so many:

… this is what the Lord says:

… the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

… this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 

… this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

(well I soon found out that Ezekiel had the same mission to accomplish)

What a life he had, Jeremiah. He was obedient to God and his obedience brought him one blow after the other. Yet he was calm in the calamity and he didn’t give in to all the threats and promises of death by his enemies.  Think about it; if you were in his shoes; receiving a direct word from God for 39 years and every time you spoke the word of God you gained only  hostility and a reputation as a traitor.

He was strong in God but in his weakest moments “he expresses regret at ever being born” The words of God was like a fire inside and he could not keep silent. He begged and pleaded but the people did not repent and they brought the foretold judgment over themselves.But there was also hope and God would not abandon his people as will be shown i the coming reading of the Old Tetament.

As I opened my Bible to a random place, it fell open to John 12 and approximately 620 years after Jeremiah Jesus cries out:

 “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵ The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. ⁴⁶ I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. ⁴⁹ For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. ⁵⁰ I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” John 12:44-50

Jerremiah didn’t speak of his own either but told everything God told him to say. Jeremiah’s words became a judgment because the people didn’t listen but continued their worship of baal and  murdered their own children. 620 years later God sent his only Son who spoke only what was given to him from his Father and his words became judgment or salvation depending on how people received them.

1979 years later Jeremiah and Jesus are still speaking the word of God to us for judgment or salvation. And as Jesus would say “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear”

Sincerely yours,Ida 

(image by Michelangelo.)

What happened next?

Jeremiah 39:15

 While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him: ¹⁶ “Go and tell Ebed-Melek the Cushite, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city—words concerning disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. ¹⁷ But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. ¹⁸ I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.’”

Remember Ebed-Melek from a previous post?  In a very difficult time in the history of Israel; when it was easier said than done to trust in the Lord; despite his fear, Ebed-Melek trusted in the Lord and that saved his life. There is no more record of Ebed-Melek in the Bible but he is remembered for speaking against injustice, and so helping the prophet Jeremiah and trusting the Lord. 

Spring time - Anemone Hepatica (Blue Anemone)

In my garden now.

Saying goodbye.

Handed over into God's care and love, a friend made her final journey from this earthly existence today.  It is a very weird feeling that she is not here anymore.

When she fell ill with cancer she wanted to make preparations for this day.  It was a serious conversation mixed with laughter and we both found it a bit absurd.

She wanted special songs and I asked if it should include texts about Jesus and she answered: Absolutely! 

She was confident about her salvation and that she was going to be with Jesus when she died. Her time of death came all too soon so we never got the chance to say a proper goodbye. I thought there would be time but no more time was given. The call from heaven was: Enough! Enough of pain and struggle; let my child rest!

And she left us behind; bewildered and empty-handed like when a bowl slips through the hands and crashes on the floor. The pieces will never be put together again; all we have is memories of what it was like to feel the bowl in our hands… before it broke.

Ecclesiastes 12:6

The book of Isaiah

Dear Reader
Coming to the book of Isaiah I have listened twice and I think another third time is necessary to let it all sink in. A lot to take in. There are many famous verses referring to Jesus and prophesies about his coming. Also many verses about the sin and evilness of man.

 I feel heaviness over this book but chapter 61 brings light and foretell the very much existing Israel today. Think about the volunteers on the kibutzes in verse 5.

And ofcourse think of Jesus calling out the first verse.

" 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners," 

Sincerely yours, Ida

Remember God ...

Ecclesiastes 12

6 Remember Him—before the silver cord is severed,
and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
and the wheel broken at the well,
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.