DAY 243    Read Ezekiel 33 through 35.

Today's reading:  Chapter 33 is full of instructions for God's people at any time in history--good for Christians today, tomorrow, or any other time.

Memory gem:  "I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore shalt thou hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me"  (Ezekiel 33:7).

Thought for today:
It is paramount for each Christian to seek every opportunity to witness for Christ and to warn men of danger.  And if we do, many will thank us at last for flagging them down on the road to destruction.

I shall never forget one terrible winter day when my wife and I were driving across the state of Kentucky.  All the rivers were over their banks.  It was a time of great flood.  A storm of sleet was beating down upon us, and suddenly we saw a frantically waving lantern ahead.  As we drew nearer, we saw a farmer who had assumed the duty of protecting the motorists on that lonely road.  In the emergency, he was the only thing between us and destruction.  A few yards ahead the road went down into water over fifteen feet deep.

So, by our lives as well as by our words, we must wave the lantern of warning and give the word of encouragement.

Friend, life's highway may lead you to heaven or to hell; to life or to death.  Which shall it be?  It is the most important highway that any of us have ever traveled thus far.  So today we call upon all men to turn from the way that leads to destruction and take the way--the only way--that leads to life everlasting, to heaven and homeland.  And here it is: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me"  (John 14:6).

Will you come, my friend, and will you come today?

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Difficult or obscure words:
Ezekiel 35:15.  "Idumea"--Edom.  The Greeks and Romans later used the name Idumea, and the translators have used it here (see also Ezekiel 36:5).

DAY 242    Read Ezekiel 26; 31; and 31.

Today's reading:  We take another look at prophecies foretelling the fate of cities and nations.  The predictions about Tyre are particularly striking.

Memory gem:  "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever"  (1 Peter 1:24, 25).

Thought for today:
In the time of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets of God, Tyre was one of the greatest commercial cities of the world.  It was to the Middle East what New York City is to the Western world today.  Right at the height of her power and glory, in 590 B.C., when it seemed that she would stand forever, the prophet Ezekiel declared under the inspiration of God that the city would be destroyed, never to be rebuilt.

History comes to the witness stand and tells us that soon after this prophecy was given, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, after besieging the city for thirteen years, took Tyre and destroyed it and left the buildings in ruins.  But the prophecy called for more than this.  The very dust of Tyre was to be cast into the sea, leaving a bare rock to be used for spreading fishing nets.

For two and a half centuries the ruins of Tyre stood as a challenge to the truth of prophecy.  Then from the west came Alexander the Great to attack the new Tyre, which was built on an island half a mile from the shore.  Again the accuracy of prophecy was vindicated.  Alexander took the  ruins of the old city to build a causeway to the island city.  The very dust was scraped from the site and dumped into the sea.

But the prophecy goes farther: it declares that Tyre was never to be rebuilt again.  This challenge has faced the world for twenty-five centuries and faces it today.  The building of one city would disprove the Bible; but the city of Tyre as a great commercial center has never been rebuilt.  Tyre is gone.  The Bible still endures.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Ezekiel 26:11.  "Garrisons"--rather: pillars, probably referring to the two famous columns in the temple of Baal.
Ezekiel 31:15-17.  "Grave," "hell"--the same Hebrew word in all three places--she 'ol.

DAY 241    Read Ezekiel 27, 28, 30:20-26.

Today's reading:  Among some remarkable prophecies concerning Tyre and Sidon, we find in chapter 28 one of the descriptions of Satan's fall, in a message to the "king of Tyrus."

Memory gem:  "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee"  (Ezekiel 28:15).

Thought for today:
There was another city near Tyre--in fact, a sister city, thirty miles to the north--which had been in competition with Tyre for centuries: the city of Sidon.  When the prophet made his prediction about successful Tyre being obliterated and not being rebuilt (see Ezekiel 26), Sidon was declining.  Anyone judging the situation on Ezekiel's time would have said that Sidon was the one to be destroyed, and not Tyre.

Sidon's decline continued for centuries.  In 351 B.C. the city was captured and utterly destroyed by Artaxerxes Ochus, king of Persia.  But it was immediately rebuilt.

Notice that God's judgment upon Sidon, recorded in Ezekiel 28:21-23, was not to destroy her--no utter extinction here--but blood in her streets, wounded in her midst, the sword on every side, warfare about her.  And this has been her history, to the very present minute in which we are speaking.  I have visited Sidon a number of times and actually preached there on the waterfront, overlooking the harbor where the fishing boats still come in.

Tyre was to be destroyed; Sidon was to remain.  History proves God spoke the truth.

Suppose Ezekeil had said that both Tyre and Sidon would be destroyed, which would certainly seem likely, as they had the same kind of business and were close together.  And suppose that he said that neither would be rebuilt.  Then the 10,000 inhabitants of Sidon would be a living proof of the falsity of the prophecy.  How did it happen the prophet was right in both cases?  The answer is that he was inspired by God to write history before it occurred.

NOTE:  Verses 11 through 19 of Ezekiel 28 contains language that could not apply to any human king.  It seems logical to consider this passage as a description of the real power behind the wicked Tyrian king--Satan himself.  Compare these verses with Isaiah 14:12-14.

DAY 240    Read Lamentations 3 through 5.

Today's reading:  In the very center of this sad book of Jeremiah's weeping (chapter 3, verses 22-41) is found one of the most beautiful expressions of confidence in God's mercy.

Memory gem:  "It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness"  (Lamentations 3:22, 23, see also verses 21 through 33).

Thought for today:
How about it, friend?  Do you appreciate the mercy of God?  Do you go on and on in your life of selfishness?  You are still here.  Every morning brings you a new day.  You have food to eat.  You have friends.  Your heart keeps beating.  Do you appreciate all this?  Have you ever said Thank You to God?  How merciful He is!  Surely "the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy"  (Psalm 103:8).

Did you ever stop to think that "merciful" is one of God's names?  Read it for yourself in Exodus 34:6.

The publican in the temple was ashamed even to lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast and prayed the sinner's prayer: "God be merciful to me a sinner"  (Luke 18:13).

Why shouldn't that be our prayer today, the prayer of our generation?

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Difficult or obscure words:
Lamentations 3:49.  "Trickleth down"--rather: runs, flows, or pours out, to make a vigorous parallel with verse 48.
Lamentations 4:3.  "Sea monsters"--probably better jackals.
Lamentations 5:10.  "Black"--better: hot, descriptive of the fever brought on by famine.

DAY 239    Read Psalms 74 and 79; Lamentations 1 and 2.

Today's reading:  The two psalms may be the product of Jeremiah or some other writer of this period; they vividly reflect the anguish experienced at this time.

Memory gem:  "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake"  (Psalm 79:9).

Thought for today:
"The sorrow of the prophet over the utter perversity of those who should have been the spiritual light of the world, his sorrow over the fate of Zion and of the people carried captive to Babylon, is revealed in the lamentations he has left on record as a memorial of the folly of turning from the councils of Jehovah to human wisdom.  Amid the ruin wrought, Jeremiah could still declare, 'It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed' and his constant prayer was, 'Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.'  Lamentations 3:22, 40.

"While Judah was still a kingdom among the nations, he had inquired of his God, 'Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? hath Thy soul loathed Zion?'...'Do not abhor us, for Thy name's sake.'  Jeremiah 14:19, 21.  The prophet's absolute faith in God's eternal purpose to bring order out of confusion, and to demonstrate to the nations of earth and to the entire universe His attributes of justice and love, now led him to plead confidently in behalf of those who might turn from evil to righteousness.

"But now Zion was utterly destroyed; the people of God were in their captivity.  Overwhelmed with grief, the prophet exclaimed: 'How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow!'  Lamentations 1:1."--Prophets and Kings, pp. 461, 462.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Psalm 74:13, 14.  "Dragons" and "leviathan"--evidently symbolic references to the destruction of Egypt's armies in the Red Sea at the Exodus.
Lamentations 1:7.  "Sabbaths"--a Hebrew word found only here in the Scriptures.  It is not the word used frequently for "sabbaths" in other places.  It more likely means a forced activity.
Lamentations 2:20.  "Of a span long"--another word occurring nowhere else.  It may mean something desired or cherished.

DAY 238    Read Jeremiah 42 through 44.

Today's reading:  The history of Judah's decline ends sadly.  We have no record of what happened to Jeremiah and the others after Johannan forced the cowardly flight into Egypt.

Memory gem:  "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee"  (Isaiah 41:13).

Thought for today:
The prophet Jeremiah said to an important leader of his time: "Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the Lord: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand"  (Jeremiah 42:11).

But the man was afraid, and he stayed afraid.  He was more afraid of the king of Babylon than he was of disobeying God, and so he fled into the land of Egypt--exactly what the Lord, through Jeremiah, told him not to do.

I have told you the story again and again, and I tell it again here--a story of my youngest son when he was about five years old.  One night when it was exceedingly dark, he and I took a walk up into the mountain in back of our home.  The trail wound among the live oak trees, and there wasn't a ray of light.  As we started out he talked constantly, but as the trail got darker and steeper, he talked less.  Finally, taking my hand and walking as close to me as he could, he said in almost a whisper, "Daddy, we're not afraid are we?"

No, we were not, but he was.  Yet the touch of my hand gave him courage and faith.  He would go anywhere I would go.  His fear and confidence were a sermon to me.  They brought back to my mind these words of Scripture: "For I the  Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee"  (Isaiah 41:13).

DAY 237    Read Jeremiah 40 and 41.

Today's reading:  Jeremiah, released from prison by the conquering Babylonians, chooses to remain faithfully at his post with the poor people in Judah.  He soon sees anarchy at work and more trouble ahead.

Memory gem:  "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all"  (Psalm 34:19).

Thought for today:
It was T. DeWitt Talmage, the great preacher, who told the story of the ship Arctic which was struck by another ship in the North Atlantic and was going down.  Some of its men got off in lifeboats, some on rafts, but three hundred went to the bottom with the ship.

During all those hours of calamity, Stuart Holland, a young man who belonged to the crew, stood at the signal gun as it sounded out across the sea, boom, boom, boom.  There was no radio in those days, no way to seek help at a distance; only the hope that some passing ship might hear the boom of the signal gun.  The engineer had forsaken his place; he was gone.  The man at the helm had left the ship.  Finally all the powder was used up; the signal gun could be fired no more.  But young Holland broke into a magazine and brought out more powder, and again the gun boomed its plea over the ocean.  He fired until the ship went down.  He did his best.

DAY 236    Read Ezekiel 29:1-16; 30:1-19; 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21; Jeremiah 52.

Today's reading:  The persistent sins of God's people, despite repeated appeals for reformation and warnings of disaster, finally brought about their ruin.  Beautiful Jerusalem was utterly broken up.

Memory gem:  "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become a widow!"  (Lamentations 1:1).

Thought for today:
Over in England a man owned a great python.  He had captured it when it was just a tiny snake in the jungle.  And, as the snake grew into a large serpent, twelve to fifteen feet long, with power enough to crush a man in its coils, he demonstrated his power over it in public exhibitions.  He had trained it to wrap itself around his body until nothing of the man showed except a part of his face.  He would give the command: "Wind!"  And the snake would wind itself around and around his body.  Then he would give the command: "Unwind!" and the snake would unwind itself from his body.  It obeyed him implicitly.

Someone remonstrated with him, "Someday that snake will fail to unwind itself, and will crush you to death."

But he only laughed.  "I have had him ever since he was a baby.  I can make him mind me.  I am the master, and he must obey."

But there came a night when the man commanded the snake to wind about his body.  It obeyed.  And then he commanded it to unwind.  The spectators saw a strange motion like a great wave over the snake--the man's eyes began to bulge--and people heard a dull, snapping sound as of bones breaking.

The snake had turned back to the law of the jungle.  He had sensed the good meal that the thing he was wrapped around would make.  The snake was still a snake--it had not changed.

And so it is with sin, friends--any sin!

NOTE:  Evil Merodach (2 Kings 25:27 and elsewhere) is called Amel-Marduk in secular history.  He was the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar.

DAY 235    Read Jeremiah 37:16 through chapter 39.

Today's reading:  Weak-kneed King Zedekiah knew what he should do, but he feared the wicked nobles--he just couldn't make a stand for the right.  But Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch, acted to rescue Jeremiah.

Memory gem:  "But Jeremiah said,...Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee; so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live"  (Jeremiah 38:20).

Thought for today:
"Even to the last hour, God made plain His willingness to show mercy to those who should choose to submit to His just requirements.  Had the king chosen to obey, the lives of the people might have been spared, and the city saved from conflagration; but he thought he had gone too far to retrace his steps.  He was afraid of the Jews, afraid of ridicule, afraid for his life.  After years of rebellion against God, Zedekiah thought it too humiliating to say to his people, I accept the word of the Lord, as spoken through the prophet Jeremiah; I dare not venture to war against the enemy in the face of all these warnings.

"With tears Jeremiah entreated Zedekiah to save himself and his people.  With anguish of spirit he assured him that unless he should heed the counsel of God, he could not escape with his life, and all his possessions would fall to the Babylonians.  But the king had started on the wrong course, and he would not retrace his steps.  He decided to follow the counsel of the false prophets, and of men whom he really despised, and who ridiculed his weakness in yielding so readily to their wishes.  He sacrificed the noble freedom of his manhood, and became a cringing slave to public opinion.  With no fixed purpose to do evil, he was also without resolution to stand boldly for the right.  Convicted though he was of the value of the counsel given by Jeremiah, he had not the moral stamina to obey; and as a consequence he advanced steadily in the wrong direction."--Prophets and Kings, pp. 457, 458.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Jeremiah 38:6.  "Dungeon"--literally "pit" or "cistern."
Jeremiah 38:11.  "Clouts"--an old English word for "rags."

DAY 234    Read Jeremiah 32:26-44; Chapter 33; Ezekiel 24 and 25.

Memory gem:  "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not"  (Jeremiah 33:3).

Thought for today:
The prophet Jeremiah was at one time shut up in prison by the king of Judah, while Jerusalem was being besieged by the armies of Babylon.  It was a dark and terrible time.  In this discouraging hour, the word of God came to Jeremiah in the prison where he was confined.  Here is the message:

"Thus saith the Lord, the maker thereof [that is, the maker of heavens and earth], the Lord that formed it, to establish it; the Lord is his name; call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not"  (Jeremiah 33:2, 3).  The original words for "great and mighty things" mean literally "incomprehensible" or "mysterious" or "hidden" things.

God did show wonderful things, hidden things, which the world did not yet know because these events had not yet happened.  But God, who sees the end from the beginning, sees the future as well as He knows the past, better than we know it.  The prophecies of Holy Scripture outline many of the events of the future in order to give us faith in the Word of God.

As was said by a wise men centuries ago, "Man proposes, but God disposes."  There are many things contained in the Bible which skeptics have denied and held up to ridicule.  But later on, after the excavation of some biblical site, the Bible statements have been proved true.

My friend, you can trust the Bible.  You can lean hard upon it, and it will not fail you.

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Difficult or obscure words:
Ezekiel 24:6.  "Scum"--better: rust.  The words represent Jerusalem as an iron pot corroded with rust.
Ezekiel 24:17.  "Bread of men"--probably meaning a funeral feast.