Before beginning to read chapter 34, let me point out to you that its themes are also found in another famous text, Jeremiah 23:1-6. It is understandable that, given their similar historical situation and their identical theology, Jeremiah and Ezekie…
When the Lord, together with Peter, James, and John, descended from the mountain, they came upon the rest of the Twelve in the midst of an encounter between the nine disciples and some teachers of the law. An argument had broken out as a result of th…
Tonight we begin the third and last major section of the Book of Ezekiel. The first section, the first 24 chapters (including the account of the prophet’s call in the first three chapters of the book), are devoted to prophecies of Jerusalem’s fall. F…
We said last time that Peter’s confession of Christ represents a watershed in the Gospel history. At this point the story takes a dramatic turn. Well that watershed, that turning point, is not simply Peter’s confession; it is his confession together…
We have considered over the past two Sundays Ezekiel’s prophecies of Tyre’s judgment and fall. We come now to the last and longest section in this second section of Ezekiel: prophecies of Egypt’s coming judgment. Tyre and Egypt get the lion’s share o…
We are now to consider the first explicit confession of Jesus as the Messiah made by one of his disciples. In the context, right after the account of the Lord’s granting hearing to a deaf-mute man and sight to a blind man, it is likely that Mark inte…
We are in the midst of an extended prophecy of impending judgment of one of Judah’s principal adversaries, the city-state of Tyre. We considered Tyre’s wealth and self-confidence and coming doom last time, making our way through chapters 26 and 27. C…
Now I am reading three successive paragraphs this morning, not just one as is our custom. And I do that precisely because each of these is a reprise. “Reprise” is originally a musical term. It refers to the repetition of or return to the already intr…
We have two chapters before us this evening, a lengthy reading if we read it all, so I am taking the liberty to skip two sections in chapter 27 that elaborate in a sort of repetitive ways the points that have already been made .
Text Comment
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Read Isaiah 1:10-20
Today is Reformation Sunday, the last Sunday in October and the nearest to October 31st, All Saints Eve, the day traditionally understood to mark the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It was on that day in 1517 that Ma…