For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good things. Psalm 107:9

Ezekiel 20

Rebellion in Egypt

¹ On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the seventh year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat before me.

² The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ³ “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: Is it to inquire of me that you have come? As I live, I will not be inquired of by you, declares the Lord.

⁴ Will you judge them, son of man? Will you judge them? Let them know the abominations of their fathers. ⁵ Tell them that this is what the Lord God says: On the day when I chose Israel and swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore an oath to them, saying, I am the Lord your God, ⁶ on that day I swore to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. ⁷ I said to them: Each of you throw away the abominations before his eyes. Do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

⁸ But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. None of them threw away the abominations before their eyes. They also did not forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them to satisfy my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. ⁹ But I acted for my name’s sake that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ So I brought them out of the land of Egypt and into the wilderness. ¹¹ I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live by them. ¹² Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹³ But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live by them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them. ¹⁴ But I acted for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

¹⁵ Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, ¹⁶ because they rejected my ordinances and did not walk in my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, for their heart went after their idols. ¹⁷ Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them. I did not make a complete end of them in the wilderness. ¹⁸ I told their children in the wilderness: Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers. Do not observe their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.”

Rebellion in the Desert

¹⁹ “I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my ordinances, and do them. ²⁰ Make my Sabbaths holy. They shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

²¹ But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and did not keep my ordinances or do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to satisfy my anger against them in the wilderness.

²² Nevertheless I withdrew my hand and acted for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. ²³ Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries ²⁴ because they had not executed my ordinances but had rejected my statutes and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.

²⁵ Therefore I gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live. ²⁶ I defiled them through their own gifts when they made their firstborn children pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate so that they might know that I am the Lord.”

Rebellion in the Land

²⁷ “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and tell them that the Lord God says: Moreover, in this manner your fathers have blasphemed me, committing trespasses against me. ²⁸ For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every thick tree, and they offered there their pagan sacrifices, and there they presented their offensive offerings.  There they also offered their sweet incense, and there they poured out their drink offerings. ²⁹ Then I asked them: What is this high place where you are going? So it is called Bamah to this day.

³⁰ Therefore tell the house of Israel that the Lord God says: Will you pollute yourselves in the ways of your fathers? Will you play the prostitute after their abominations? ³¹ When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day? Should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you!

³² That which you have in mind will never be, when you say, ‘We will be like other the nations, like the families of other countries, serving wood and stone.’ ”

Judgment and Restoration

³³ “As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you. ³⁴ I will bring you out with a mighty hand from the peoples and will gather you out from the countries in which you were scattered, with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out.

³⁵ I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. ³⁶ Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. ³⁷ I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. ³⁸ I will purge from among you, the rebels and those who disobey me. I will bring them out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

³⁹ As for you, house of Israel, the Lord God says: Everyone of you, go serve your idols, if you will not listen to me. But do not profane my holy name any longer with your gifts and with your idols. ⁴⁰ For on my holy mountain, on the mountain at the height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things. ⁴¹ I will accept you as a sweet fragrance when I bring you out from the nations and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered. I will manifest my holiness through you in the sight of the nations.

⁴² You will know that I am the Lord when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers. ⁴³ There you will remember your ways, and all your deeds in which you have defiled yourselves. Then you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil that you have committed. ⁴⁴ You will know that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, you house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

A Prophecy against the South

⁴⁵ The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁴⁶ “Son of man, set your face toward the south and preach toward the south and prophesy against the forest of the field in the South. ⁴⁷ Tell the forest of the South: Hear the word of the Lord. The Lord God says: I am starting a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. ⁴⁸ All flesh will see that I, the Lord, have started it. It will not be quenched.”

⁴⁹ Then I said, “O Lord God! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he just a riddle teller?’ ”

Hebrews 9:11-28

Redemption through His Blood

¹¹ But Christ, having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with human hands, that is to say, not of this creation, ¹² nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleansing of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

¹⁵ For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

¹⁶ For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. ¹⁷ For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.

¹⁸ Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. ¹⁹ For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying,

“This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” ^a

²¹ Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. ²² According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

²³ It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ has not entered into holy places made with human hands, which are representations of the true sanctuary, but into heaven itself, appearing in the presence of God for us now.

²⁵ Nor does he enter to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters into the holy place year after year with blood not his own, ²⁶ or else he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

²⁷ Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, ²⁸ so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.

^{a Exodus 24:8}

Psalm 107

His Loving Kindness Endures Forever

¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever.
² Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
³ and gathered out of the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

⁴ They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way.
They found no city to live in.
⁵ Hungry and thirsty,
they were fainting.
⁶ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them out of their distresses.
⁷ He led them also by a straight way,
that they might go to a city to live in.
⁸ Let them praise the Lord for his loving kindness,
for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
⁹ For he satisfies the longing soul.
He fills the hungry with good things.

¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
being bound in affliction and iron,
¹¹ because they rebelled against the words of the Lord
and condemned the counsel of the Most High.
¹² Therefore he humbled their hearts with hard labor.
They fell down, and there was no one to help.
¹³ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them out of their distresses.
¹⁴ He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
and broke away their chains.
¹⁵ Let them praise the Lord for his loving kindness,
for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
¹⁶ For he has broken the gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.

¹⁷ Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience
and because of their iniquities.
¹⁸ Their soul abhors all kinds of food.
They draw near to the gates of death.
¹⁹ Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saves them from their distresses.
²⁰ He sends his word and heals them
and delivers them from their graves.
²¹ Let them praise the Lord for his loving kindness,
for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
²² Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and declare his deeds with singing.

²³ Those who go down to the sea in ships,
who do business in great waters:
²⁴ These see the deeds of the Lord
and his wonders in the deep.
²⁵ For he commands and raises the windstorm,
which lifts up its waves.
²⁶ They mount up to the heavens.
They go down again to the depths.
Their soul melts away because of trouble.
²⁷ They reel back and forth
and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wits’ end.

²⁸ Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brings them out of their distress.
²⁹ He makes the storm a calm
so that its waves are still.
³⁰ Then they are glad because it is calm,
so he brings them to their desired haven.
³¹ Let them praise the Lord for his loving kindness,
for his wonderful deeds for the children of men!
³² Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the seat of the elders.

³³ He turns rivers into a desert,
water springs into a thirsty ground,
³⁴ and a fruitful land into a salt waste,
for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
³⁵ He turns a desert into a pool of water
and a dry land into water springs.
³⁶ There he makes the hungry live,
that they may prepare a city to live in,
³⁷ sow fields, plant vineyards,
and reap the fruits of increase.
³⁸ He blesses them also,
so that they are multiplied greatly.
He does not allow their livestock to decrease.

³⁹ Again, they are diminished and bowed down
through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
⁴⁰ He pours contempt on princes,
and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
⁴¹ Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction,
and increases their families like a flock.
⁴² The upright will see it and be glad.
All the wicked will shut their mouths.

⁴³ Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things.
They will consider the loving kindnesses of God.

Proverbs 27:11

¹¹ Be wise, my son,
and bring joy to my heart.
Then I can answer my tormentor.

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