Bible reading for weekend September 24 -- 26
Sep 24 -- Ezekiel 27 and Psalms 75-76
Sep 25 -- Ezekiel 28 and Psalm 77
Sep 26 -- Ezekiel 29 and Psalm 78:1-39
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"Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared." (Ezekiel 28:12-13)
I am out of town for a few days, but I'll continue to send you the reading schedule and point you to the NET Bible notes on Ezekiel by Dr. Thomas Constable.
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"For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs." (Psalm 75:6-8)
THE CUP OF WRATH (Ps 75-76). We may be tempted to think that the Bible, or maybe God himself, is filled with too much anger and judgment (Ps 75:7; 76:7). But God is not essentially wrathful (Isa 27:4), that is, it is not part of his essence or nature to merely be angry. He is by nature, his essential nature, righteous and holy and good and loving and merciful. Since he is a God of justice his wrath, then, is his righteous response toward sin and rebellion in his universe, whether of angels or of men. Facing the judgment of God is likened to drinking a cup of strong, foaming wine that causes one to stagger (Job 21:20; Ps 11:6; Jer 21:15; Rev 14:10).
HE DRANK THE CUP. Our Lord Jesus spoke of the cup that the Father was giving him to drink (Matt 20:22-23; John 18:11). He prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will" (Matt 26:39). This is the gospel: that Jesus drank the cup of wrath that we sinners deserve. He drank all of it, down to the very last drop. He suffered the wrath of God in full, that we might be given another cup, a cup of fellowship at God's own table (Ps 23:5; Matt 26:27-28). If Christ is our sin-bearer, then he himself has borne God's wrath in our place (all of it). But if we reject Christ as our sin-bearer, then we shall stand alone and will have to drain the cup of God's wrath against us. We will die in our sins. (Most of us tend to think too little of God's holiness and too highly of our own goodness!) What an infinite mercy from God that he has sent his Son to save us: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:17). Do you believe this? Do you trust in what God has done through his Son, Jesus Christ? Have you been reconciled to God?
UNSEEN FOOTSTEPS (Ps 77). In the midst of trials we are tempted to think that God doesn't hear, doesn't care, and doesn't want to deliver us from our troubles. Asaph feels that God has abandoned him (vv 1-9). By the way, "selah" is likely a musical term that meant something like a pause for musical interlude, or perhaps a crescendo. So, there's a pause, and Asaph, instead of continuing in his despair, decides to review the character and works of God (vv 10-15). He rises up from his problems to consider what God has done in history. For him, he ponders God's deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea and poetically describes it (vv 16-20). He realizes that God was unseen as the people passed miraculously through the sea. They simply needed to follow God's appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron (vv 19-20).
REFLECT. Sometimes, when we are engrossed with our problems we need to mentally rise above our immediate circumstances and spend time thinking, pondering, and meditating, just as Asaph did. We have even more than he had to think about! There's not only God's deeds in the OT, but also the NT. We should remember that we belong to the same One who guides history, who sent his Son into the world, who healed and worked wonders, who delivered us from sin through the cross, who raised Christ from the dead, who spreads the gospel with power around the world, and who strengthens and preserves the church. Asaph took comfort in unseen footsteps, and so can we. And Asaph took comfort in God's appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron. We have supreme comfort in our Lord Jesus Christ -- crucified, risen, ascended, and ruling. His footsteps may be unseen, but he is never absent from us.
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Image credit: photo above by James Coleman on Unsplash. About this newsletter: I'm Sandy Young, and I post three times a week on my Bible reading, following the Robert Murray M'Cheyne (RMM) two-year reading schedule, as arranged by D. A. Carson. Subscribe for email at Buttondown.email/Sandy. Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. A very helpful resource is the NET Bible with its excellent notes at netbible.org.
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