Exactly fourteen months after Ezekiel’s first vision he receives news from God about the judgment of Jerusalem, historians believe the date was September 17, 592 BC. In Ezekiel 8 we see the reasons for this judgment spelled out explicitly; there were religious abominations going on in the Temple....

God chose to design each one of us with free will. As we can see through history, humans have often chosen poorly. Still today, on the public stage and in our personal lives we make mistakes and live with the consequences of those decisions. For the follower of Jesus Christ, we must decide each d...

It should not be controversial to say that there is a great deal of rebellion against God to be found on planet Earth. We have witnessed it in history, we have witnessed it today, we have witnessed it in our own personal lives. Even so, it can be difficult for us to tell the difference between ri...

All our problems and troubles can be summarized in one word: selfishness. There are some religions and philosophies that promote selfishness. Man’s desire to avoid suffering and pain is centered around our pursuit to experience selfish pleasure. In a selfish world, pleasure is a virtue. And where...

Great wealth, power, and advantage comes to certain cities. This is something that is
observable through history. But while these markers of human achievement might seem
immovable, time tells a different story. In Ezekiel’s time, the city of Tyre had long been enjoying wide influence and great we...

Though the Bible was written to and written by ancient Israelites, it contains messages meant to instruct all of mankind. Sometimes it recorded directed messages to the pagan nations that surrounded Israel and had dealings with her. This was certainly the case for the Biblical prophet Ezekiel. In...

When trying to understand world politics and where our nations are headed, we must
consider the Word of God. The Bible clearly portrays God as sovereign – meaning that
nothing surprises Him, He knows everything and is in control. We even see God using the evil actions of ancient nations for the u...

In Ezekiel 38, the prophet speaks about what will happen in a time of peace in the “latter days.” This safely moves the prophecy out of the time in which Ezekiel was living. This is not the only time the Bible uses the phrase “latter days” or “latter years,” but in Ezekiel’s case we can see that ...

Ezekiel 42 belongs to one the most difficult passages of Scripture to understand. Beginning in Ezekiel 40, the prophet is describing the layout of a new Temple of the LORD, and by chapter 42 Ezekiel is describing the Temple’s inner chambers that the priests would use. I wonder what Ezekiel though...

The last chapters of Ezekiel emphasize that God has a place for those who are faithful to Him! As Christians, the presence of God is with us in a special way, we are filled with the Spirit and are able to speak with God and have Him lead us as our Shepherd. Yet, in the future this will be done in...

How do you show respect for the light when you are under the power of darkness? How can you find hope when you are surrounded by death and destruction? These two questions are answered over and again in the book of Daniel. This book begins with the harsh truth of the beginning of Judah’s fall to ...

Daniel chapter seven is fascinating! In it we see God reveal to Daniel the reality behind the kingdoms of the earth. We know that kingdoms and nations are built by men to rule the earth, but God sees all, knows all, and ultimately is in control. The first kingdom Daniel sees was like a lion beari...

Daniel 10 shows us the power and importance of prayer. It can be difficult for us to understand. God exists outside of time and space, there is so much that He can see that we can’t. He is so merciful and gracious to us in that He brings us help when we seek Him through prayer and daily devotion....

Hosea’s name means “salvation.” He was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel from about 786-746 BC during the reign of King Jeroboam II. At this time, northern Israel was enjoying physical prosperity, they were at peace, and everything seemed to be going in the right direction. Then Hosea w...

Hosea is a hard book to read. Hosea had to deal with the difficult realities of his own life while demonstrating the very similar situation between God and the nation of Israel. It always strikes me here that the Bible is clearly not a book of propaganda for Israel. If it is, it is a really bad o...

Looks can be deceiving. During the life of the prophet Hosea, the northern nation of Israel was both prosperous and strong. As far as she was concerned, and as far as the physical evidence went, Israel was blessed by God. Except, their material blessing was not based on their righteousness. When ...

The principle of cause and effect is important for us to remember. Every action that we take has a consequence. For ancient Israel, they had attempted to alter the unalterable terms of their agreement with God, and the result was that they became callous to God and His ways. Amos called this out ...

When we consider the book of Amos and the prophet Amos, there is a lot that we can learn about God and His truth. Some people call Amos “God’s angry man” and I’m sure you can see why. His words are harsh, they have an angry edge to them. But sometimes the truth is harsh. Israel was so sinful that...

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, and we really don’t know much about the prophet Obadiah other than his name means “worshipper (or servant) of Yahweh.” His book focuses exclusively on the ancient nation of Edom. According to Obadiah, their judgment was on its way, and Israel wou...

God is so gracious. When reading Jonah, we see this in two ways. First, in sending a prophet to warn Nineveh at all. They were a people who didn’t seek or care about God, they revelled in their evil, but God knew that if they were told of their pending judgment that things would change. A second ...

We know quite a bit about the prophet Micah. His name means “Who is like Yahweh” and he prophesied during the reigns of three kings of Judah: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This places Micah in the last half of the eighth century BC and into the beginning of the seventh, and alive at the same time a...