The Word of God IS Alive and if you have ears to hear, it will speak to you. I can seldom read through the My Daily Bible devotional reading without having at least a few verses to look deeper into or wish to proclaim their truth. Today is one of those days. I’ve only made it through the psalm and the Old Testament reading and now here I am to proclaim. The link to check them out for yourself is below.

https://www.mydailybible.org/dp/esv/esv-study-bible/2019-03-15.htm

First up is Psalm 74, a REAL Tragedy and in some ways the tragedy is linked to how they applied the verses of today’s Old Testament reading wrong. I won’t post Psalm 74 here but it’s in this link.

Jesus said, “One stone will not stay on another. They will all become broken”. (Matthew 25:2)

Jesus said that about the second time the temple would be destroyed by the Romans. It hasn’t been rebuilt in 2,000 years and the nation of Israel was out of commission for almost that long too. Psalm 74 is a cry to God when Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Babylon about 600 BC.  Israel didn’t follow the few verses of today’s Old Testament reading, Exodus 20:1-17

The Story of Psalm 74

The temple was the house of God. It was the place where people came to pray to God, and to worship him. (Worship means that you tell someone how great they are, and that you love them.) Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple. He was King of Babylon. He took many of the Israelites to Babylon. We call this “the exile”.

Psalm 74 is about when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple. The psalmist asks God to think again! “Keep your promise” in verse 20 is “remember the covenant” in Hebrew. The covenant was when God and the Israelites agreed. God would protect them if they obeyed him. The trouble was that they did not obey him. So God let Nebuchadnezzar destroy the temple, take the Israelites to Babylon where they were prisoners for 70 years.

Psalm 74 tells us what Nebuchadnezzar did to the temple. The Israelites were sorry because Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple. They were not sorry that they had disobeyed God.  That is why God did not have to keep his promise. So he let Nebuchadnezzar and his army destroy the temple.

The priests and many prophets of Israel lead the people astray many times in the history of Israel so if you look carefully there was a pattern to their error. They made the temple of God an IDOL to Worship instead of Worshiping the God of the temple. They even did this with the Ark of the Covenant and God taught them a hard lesson in a defeat in battle. The lost of that battle is the root of everything that followed. Israel was not trusting in God or obeying God. They looked at the Ark of the Covenant as a “good luck charm,” so they took it into battle thinking, “God will give us victory because the Ark is with us.” WRONG!!

They got whipped, the wicked sons of fat and lazy Eli were killed in the battle just like the prophet had said and the Ark was captured by the enemy in Shiloh.  God allowed Himself to GO INTO EXILE as a captive by the enemy to teach the Israelites a lesson they NEVER learned. That didn’t turn out to good for the Philistines and they ended up bringing it back when they had enough of God tormenting them and their god, “little g.” If it wasn’t so sad it would almost be hilarious. You can read about it here in 1 Samuel 4-6.

You would think they would have learned but those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. Even as Jeremiah explained to them very plainly.

Jeremiah 7:  ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’  ⁵ “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, ⁷ then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.  ⁸ “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. ⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? ¹¹ Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.  ¹² “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

God is telling them point blank, these prophets and priests are lying to you saying because the temple of God is here God will not let us be defeated so it can be destroyed. But God DID let it get destroyed and they got defeated. God withdrew Himself from the temple and from His people to try to teach them to follow His ways, NOT Man’s Lying Ways.

Ezekiel 10 describes when the Glory of God departed the temple,

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹ And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

The reading from the prophets of today’s devotional is from Ezra 10. It is about when the exiles return from Babylon to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and repair the temple, God answering the prayer of Psalm 74. As faith or the providence of God would have it a verse from Ezra 10 is of great prophetic significance.

Ezra 10:6-9 KJV   ⁶ Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity.

⁷ And they issued a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity, that they must gather at Jerusalem, ⁸ and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the instructions of the leaders and elders, all his property would be confiscated, and he himself would be separated from the assembly of those from the captivity.

⁹ So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month; and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain.

According to verses 6 and 9, Ezra began a fast of food and water on the 17th day of the 9th month. That would be the 17th day of the Hebrew month Tammuz.  The temple was finished in the “sixth year of the reign of Darius” March 12, 515 B.C.

To this day, the 17th of Tammuz is a Jewish fast day commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple, 584 years later in 70 CE. According to this Wikipedia article, (5) five calamities befell the Jewish people on this day:

1. Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai^[4];
2. The daily tamid offering ceased to be brought;
3. During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the city walls were breached (proceeding to the destruction of the Second Temple);
4. Prior to Bar Kokhba’s revolt, Roman military leader Apostomus burned a Torah scroll;
5. An idol was erected in the Temple

This information and other “Coincidences, NOT a Jewish word” are in this document, 2019 Hebrew Holiday Description PDF I put together studying how dates only on the Hebrew calendar show God’s Hand at Work to Prove His Sovereignty and Providence.

That brings me to the reading from the Old Testament for today. God through everything I have written so far has shown, DON’T Worship Idols, Even if it’s the Ark of the Covenant or the Temple of God. WORSHIP GOD!!! God gave 10 Commandments to follow.

Jesus said, “if you love me you will keep my commandments.” John said Jesus is the Word of God and The Word Was Made Flesh and dwelt among us. A child should be able to understand that. You can read the verses from today’s reading from the ESV or read the verses below from the KJV of the 10 Commandments,

As you can see below, the Catholic Ten Commandments has eliminated #2 concerning “Idol Worship.” To keep the “10” instead of something everyone would notice if they said the “Nine Commandments” they split “coveting” into 2 groups.

Back to the title of this post, “Do You Believe The Word of God or Man?” More importantly are you trusting in the church you go to, a denomination, the bible, or anything else you’ve made an idol to “save” you?  Just like the Israelites had a love and zeal for the temple of God but NOT for God Himself, today many people and even pastors have a love and zeal for the Word of God but NOT for God Himself.

Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us

I understand that to mean if I love and respect Jesus Christ with all my heart like I should it will constrain me from doing certain things and to do certain things, IN LOVE. I loved and respected my mother VERY MUCH. There were things I could have NEVER done in front of my mother that I once did in my Dear Heavenly Father’s ALL Seeing Eyes. There is a Genuine Love that will “constrain” a person who really loves God from doing things, especially premeditated things. There’s a BIG Difference in the sins we commit accidently or in the heat of a moment and the ones we plan, relish, dwell on in anticipation of them. Don’t forget God knows our thoughts afar off and He knows the intents of our heart, better than us.

The heart of all this history can be traced back to 1 Samuel chapter 2 when an unnamed  prophet of came to Eli and prophesied to him about the death of his two sons in one day resulting in the day Eli died also. That prophet said there would be two priesthoods from that day forward. A corrupt, greedy and selfish priesthood and one that would Love God and Honor God. Since that day it has been so.

1 Samuel 2:27-36 NKJV   ²⁷ Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? ²⁸ Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? ²⁹ Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?’ ³⁰ Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. ³¹ Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. ³² And you will see an enemy in My dwelling place, despite all the good which God does for Israel. And there shall not be an old man in your house forever. ³³ But any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. And all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age. ³⁴ Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them. 

³⁵ Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever. ³⁶ And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and say, “Please, put me in one of the priestly positions, that I may eat a piece of bread.”

In closing, Apostle Paul settles the zeal of the Israelites had for the law and their not being able to keep it by “seeking after their own righteousness” in today’s reading from Romans, Jesus is Our Righteousness and the ONLY Righteousness Father God will accept.

Romans 10:1-4 NKJV

Israel Needs the Gospel

10 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. ² For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³ For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.