Week 33 and 34. (August 9 – 22) Oy Vey!

In the last 2 weeks, we finished reading Jeremiah, Lamentations, and most of Ezekiel.

If you are like me, you are getting bogged down with all the daily messages of doom and gloom.  Makes me want to throw up my hands in comic relief and say “Oy Vey!  Woe is me!  Enough already! “ 

But I looked ahead, and the good news is that we will finish the Old Testament in September.  So, hang in there, and let’s pat ourselves on the back!  We are almost ready to start the NEW TESTAMENT! 

To keep it interesting, we are still listening to the scripture on our phone app as we read along in our Daily Walk Bible, because it enables us to hear scripture in a fresh way.  If I were not listening to it, I am not sure I would still be reading.    

To keep it hopeful, I am underlining and highlighting the messages of redemption in the middle of all the destruction. 

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Over and over I see “then you will know that I am the Lord”

Today, it is unpopular to think of God as a punisher, destroyer, or avenger.  It helps me to think of Him as a parent who will do whatever it takes to discipline and train and keep his children safe, because the parent is wiser and wants the child to grow to be a healthy, well-rounded and productive adult.   When I don’t like it, I still have confidence that God is sovereign and has the final say.  (Who is the clay to argue with the potter ?)

It also helped me to look at the Temple again to remember what the Babylonians destroyed.  This was the first temple, the beautiful one that Solomon built.  It was completed in 960 and had been part of the Jewish life for almost 400 years.   It was destroyed in 586 BC.  Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) is the one we are reading about now.  Here is an image of it:

The Jews were in exile for almost 70 years, and then some of them returned to Jerusalem and began to rebuild a new temple.  It was never as magnificent as the first one.  The second temple is the one that Herod enlarged and the one we read about in the New Testament.   It is also the one that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.    Muslims built the 2 mosques on the site of the second Jewish temple that are still there today.  

If you want to read more, I found very interesting articles on the First and Second Temples on this website:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Temple.html

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/secondtemple.html

Over and over again, I keep reading about how much God really hated idol worship and how important Sabbath was to Him.   Jeremiah Chapter 39 and 52 both describe the Fall of Jerusalem.  The people were trapped and starving for 2 years.  We have all seen enough movies and watched enough of the nightly news to imagine the horrors of war.  Lamentations was just plaid sad, except for that shining star of the beautifully comforting  verses in 

Lamentations 3:21-25

21 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;

Ezekiel Chapter 11 verses 17 – 20 are beautiful promises:

17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’

18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

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Keep reading, till next week….Audrey