November 16
Ezekiel 34-35 341 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep. 4 You haven’t strengthened the diseased. You haven’t healed that which was sick. You haven’t bound up that which was broken. You haven’t brought back that which was driven away. You haven’t sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor. 5 They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.” 7 “ ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear Yahweh’s word: 8 “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep.” 9 Therefore, you shepherds, hear Yahweh’s word: 10 The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep. The shepherds won’t feed themselves any more. I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.” 11 “ ‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so I will seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture; and their fold will be on the mountains of the height of Israel. There they will lie down in a good fold. They will feed on fat pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down,” says the Lord Yahweh. 16 “I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.” ’ 17 “As for you, O my flock, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats. 18 Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? And to have drunk of the clear waters, but must you foul the residue with your feet? 19 As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.’ 20 “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says to them: ‘Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad; 22 therefore I will save my flock, and they will no more be a prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd. 24 I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it. 25 “ ‘I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land. They will dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. I will cause the shower to come down in its season. There will be showers of blessing. 27 The tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those who made slaves of them. 28 They will no more be a prey to the nations, neither will the animals of the earth devour them; but they will dwell securely, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will raise up to them a plantation for renown, and they will no more be consumed with famine in the land, and not bear the shame of the nations any more. 30 They will know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh. 31 You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God,’ says the Lord Yahweh.” 351 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 and tell it, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you. I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. 4 I will lay your cities waste, and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 5 “ ‘ “Because you have had a perpetual hostility, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end; 6 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Since you have not hated blood, therefore blood will pursue you. 7 Thus I will make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation. I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. 8 I will fill its mountains with its slain. The slain with the sword will fall in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses. 9 I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 10 “ ‘ “Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will possess it;’ whereas Yahweh was there: 11 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 12 You will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They have been laid desolate. They have been given us to devour.’ 13 You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me. I have heard it.” 14 The Lord Yahweh says: “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
Job 12
121 Then Job answered, 2 “No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. 3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? 4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. 5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. 6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands. 7 “But ask the animals, now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. 9 Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, 10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? 11 Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? 12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. 13 “With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. 14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. 16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. 17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. 18 He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. 19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. 20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. 21 He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. 22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. 23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. 24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. 25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
John 11:1-8 111 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. 2 It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.” 8 The disciples asked him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you. Are you going there again?”
1 John 3:19-24 319 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, 20 because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; 22 so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. 23 This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. 24 He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
Proud vs. Broken
Proud
Proud people keep others at arms’ length.
Broken
Broken people are willing to risk getting close to others and to take risks of loving intimately.
Meditate on this
Matthew 5:28 NKJV
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
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