Ezekiel 3 - 4, Ephesians 3 - 4, Psalms 137 - 138

Ezekiel Sent to the House of Israel

3Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; ^aeat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ²So I ^aopened my mouth, and He ¹fed me this scroll. ³And He said to me, “Son of man, ¹feed your stomach and ^afill your ²body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ^bate it, and it was sweet as ^choney in my mouth.

⁴Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now, come to the house of Israel, and you shall speak with My words to them. ⁵“For ^ayou are not being sent to a people of ¹^,^bunintelligible lips or a difficult tongue, but to the house of Israel, ⁶nor to many peoples of ¹unintelligible lips or a difficult tongue, whose words you cannot ²understand. ³But I have sent you to them ⁴who should listen to you; ⁷yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are ^anot willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is ¹stubborn with a strong forehead and stiff heart. ⁸“Behold, I have made your face as strong as their faces and your forehead as strong as their foreheads. ⁹“Like ¹diamond stronger than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.” ¹⁰Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, take into your heart all My ^awords which I will speak to you and listen with your ears. ¹¹“And go now, come to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and you shall speak to them and say to them, whether they listen or whether they refuse, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh.’”

¹²Then the ^aSpirit lifted me up, and I heard a great ^brumbling sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of Yahweh ¹in His place.” ¹³And I heard the sound of the wings of the living creatures touching one another and the sound of the ^awheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the wrath of my spirit, and ^athe hand of Yahweh was strong on me. ¹⁵Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there ^aseven days where they were living, causing ¹consternation among them.

¹⁶^aNow it happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man, I have given you as a ^awatchman to the house of Israel; so you will hear a word from My mouth, and you shall ^bwarn them from Me. ¹⁸“When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his ^ablood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹“Yet if you have ^awarned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ^bdelivered yourself. ²⁰“Again, ^awhen a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a ^bstumbling block before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹“However, if you have ^awarned ¹the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

²²And the hand of Yahweh was on me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will ^aspeak to you.” ²³So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the ^aglory of Yahweh was standing there, like the glory which ^bI saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. ²⁴The ^aSpirit then entered me and caused me to stand on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵“Now as for you, son of man, they will ^aput ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶“Moreover, ^aI will make your tongue cling to ¹the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who reproves them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷“But ^awhen I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; ^bfor they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity

4“Now as for you, son of man, ^aget yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. ²“Then ^aset a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, ¹raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. ³“Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that ^ait is under siege, and besiege it. This is a ^bsign to the house of Israel.

⁴“Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^abear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵“Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus ^ayou shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶“And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for ^aeach year. ⁷“Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and ^aprophesy against it. ⁸“Now behold, I will ^aset ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Making Unclean Bread

⁹“Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and ^aspelt; set them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰“And your food which you eat shall be ¹^,^atwenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹“The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a ¹hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹²“You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^adung.” ¹³Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^aunclean among the nations where I will banish them.” ¹⁴But I said, “^aAh, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have ^bnever been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^cdied of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any ^doffensive meat ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵Then He said to me, “See, I will set for you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” ¹⁶Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^abreak the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^bweight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by ^cmeasure and in desolation ¹⁷because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and ^arot away in their iniquity.

The Mystery of Christ Revealed

3For this reason I, Paul, ^athe prisoner of ^bChrist Jesus ^con behalf of you ^dGentiles— ²if indeed you heard of the ^astewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; ³^athat ^bby revelation there was ^cmade known to me ^dthe mystery, ^eas I wrote before in brief. ⁴About which, when you read you can understand ^amy insight ¹into the ^bmystery of Christ, ⁵which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy ^aapostles and prophets ¹in the Spirit: ⁶that the Gentiles are ^afellow heirs and ^bfellow members of the body, and ^cfellow partakers of the promise in ^dChrist Jesus through the gospel, ⁷^aof which I was made a ^bminister, according to the gift of ^cGod’s grace which was given to me ^daccording to the working of His power. ⁸To me, ^athe very least of all ¹saints, this grace was given, to ^bproclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable ^criches of Christ, ⁹and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the ^amystery which for ages has been ^bhidden in God ^cwho created all things; ¹⁰so that the manifold ^awisdom of God might now be ^bmade known through the church to the ^crulers and the authorities in ^dthe heavenly places. ¹¹This was in ^aaccordance with the ¹eternal purpose which He ²carried out in ^bChrist Jesus our Lord, ¹²in whom we have boldness and ¹^,^aconfident ^baccess through faith ²in Him. ¹³Therefore I ask ¹you not ^ato lose heart at my afflictions ^bon your behalf, which are your glory.

Prayer for Spiritual Power

¹⁴For this reason I ^abow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom ¹every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that He would give you, according to ^athe riches of His glory, to be ^bstrengthened with power through His Spirit in ^cthe inner man, ¹⁷so that ^aChrist may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly ^brooted and ^cgrounded in love, ¹⁸may be able to comprehend with ^aall the ¹saints what is ^bthe breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know ^athe love of Christ which ^bsurpasses knowledge, that you may be ^cfilled up to all the ^dfullness of God.

²⁰^aNow to Him who is ^bable to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, ^caccording to the power that works within us, ²¹^ato Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations ¹forever and ever. Amen.

Unity of the Spirit

4Therefore I, ^athe prisoner in the Lord, ^bexhort you to ^cwalk worthy of the ^dcalling with which you have been ^ecalled, ²with all ^ahumility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another ^bin love, ³being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the ^abond of peace. ⁴There is ^aone body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one ^bhope of your calling; ⁵^aone Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all ^awho is over all and through all and in all.

⁷But ^ato each one of us ^bgrace was given ^caccording to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸Therefore ¹it says, “^aWhen He ascended on high,He ^bled captive a host of captives,And He gave gifts to men.”

⁹(Now this expression, “He ^aascended,” what ¹does it mean except that He also ²descended into ^bthe lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is Himself also He who ascended ^afar above all the heavens, so that He might ^bfill all things.) ¹¹And He Himself ^agave ^bsome as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as ^cevangelists, and some as pastors and ^dteachers, ¹²^afor the equipping of the ¹saints for the work of service, to the building up of ^bthe body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to ^athe unity of the faith, and of the ¹^,^bfull knowledge of the Son of God, to a ^cmature man, to the measure of the stature ²which belongs to the ^dfullness of Christ, ¹⁴so that we are ^ano longer to be children, ^btossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by ^ccraftiness ¹in ^ddeceitful scheming, ¹⁵but ¹speaking the truth ^ain love, ²we are to ^bgrow up in all aspects into Him who is the ^chead, that is Christ, ¹⁶from whom ^athe whole body, being joined and held together ¹by what every joint supplies, according to the properly ^bmeasured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself ^cin love.

Put On the New Man

¹⁷^aTherefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, ^bthat you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the ^cfutility of their mind, ¹⁸being ^adarkened in their mind, ^balienated from the life of God because of the ^cignorance that is in them, because of the ^dhardness of their heart. ¹⁹And they, having ^abecome callous, ^bhave given themselves over to ^csensuality ¹for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. ²⁰But you did not ^alearn ¹Christ in this way— ²¹if indeed you ^aheard Him and were ^btaught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, ²²¹to ^alay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the ^bold man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the ^clusts of deceit, ²³and to be ^arenewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴and to ^aput on the ^bnew man, which ¹^,^cin the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

²⁵Therefore, ^alaying aside falsehood, ^bspeak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are ^cmembers of one another. ²⁶^aBe angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not ^agive the devil ¹an opportunity. ²⁸He who steals must steal no longer, but rather ^ahe must labor, ^bperforming with his own hands what is good, ^cso that he will have something to share with ¹one who has need. ²⁹Let no ¹^,^aunwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for ^bbuilding up ²what is needed, so that it will give grace to those who hear. ³⁰^aAnd do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, ¹by whom you were ^bsealed for the day of redemption. ³¹^aLet all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be ^bput away from you, along with all ^cmalice. ³²^aInstead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, ^bjust as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven ¹you.

We Wept When We Remembered Zion

137By the ^arivers of Babylon,There we sat and also ^bwept,When we remembered Zion.²Upon the ¹^,^awillows in the midst of itWe ^bhung our lyres.³For there our captors ^aasked us about the words of a song,And ^bour tormentors asked joyfully, saying,“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion.”⁴How can we sing a song of ^aYahwehIn a foreign land?⁵If I ^aforget you, O Jerusalem,May my right hand ¹forget her skill.⁶May my ^atongue cling to the roof of my mouthIf I do not remember you,If I do not ¹^,^bexalt JerusalemAbove my chief joy.⁷Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of ^aEdomThe day of Jerusalem,Who said, “Tear it down! Tear it down^bTo its very foundation.”⁸O daughter of Babylon, you ^adevastated one,How blessed will be the one who ^brepays youWith ¹the recompense with which you have recompensed us.⁹How blessed will be the one who seizes and ^adashes your infantsAgainst the cliff.

I Will Give Thanks to Your Name

138

Of David.

^aI will give You thanks with all my heart;I will sing praises to You before the ^bgods.²I will worship ^atoward Your holy templeAnd ^bgive thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your ¹truth;For You have ^cmagnified Your ²word ³according to all Your name.³On the day I ^acalled, You answered me;You made me bold with ^bstrength in my soul.⁴^aAll the kings of the earth, O Yahweh, will give You thanks,When they hear the words of Your mouth.⁵And they will ^asing of the ways of Yahweh,For ^bgreat is the glory of Yahweh.⁶For ^aYahweh is high,Yet He ^bsees the lowly,But the ^cone who exalts himself He knows from afar.⁷Though I ^awalk in the midst of ¹distress, You will ²^,^brevive me;You will ^cstretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,And Your right hand will ^dsave me.⁸Yahweh will ^aaccomplish what concerns me;O Yahweh, Your ^blovingkindness endures forever;^cDo not fail the ^dworks of Your hands.