Day 62-64: Ezekiel 36:1-Hosea 13:6 - 90 Day Challenge

The Future of Jerusalem, Daniel and the Lion's Den, and All About Hosea

Sorry for the break everyone! I made the right decision, as this past weekend was crazy, I wouldn't have been able to post, even if I had planned for it! 

Ezekiel finished up with the fall of Jerusalem, and a promise from God--that He would restore His people to the land and live with them, in peace, forever. God lives with us, in peace. All day, every day! And provides a description of how His temple will be rebuilt, and how the land will be redistributed among Israel. 

Moving on to Daniel...

King Nebuchadnezzar has Daniel and some of his friends working for him. He had a crazy dream one night and calls in people to both tell him what the dream was and then interpret it. Yep. He wouldn't tell them what it was. But God gives Daniel a dream that reveals Nebuchadnezzar's dream and Daniel is able to interpret it. So, Nebuchadnezzar gives him a promotion--he makes Daniel ruler of a providence! 

Nebuchadnezzar creates a statue and commands everyone to worship it, but Daniel's friends refuse. So, Nebuchadnezzar throws them into a fire pit, but God saves them. So Nebuchadnezzar goes back to worshiping the God of Daniel and the rest of the Jewish people, proclaiming that He is the God of gods, and no one can blaspheme against Him. But God gets annoyed with Nebuchadnezzar pretty quickly, as he goes around admiring the kingdom and saying that he created it. So Nebuchadnezzar loses his mind for seven years before he regains sanity. 

Darius, the new king, makes a rule that everyone must worship him, and only him, for 30 days or they will be thrown into a lion den (after being manipulated into doing this). Of course, Daniel continues to worship God, and is thrown into the den. Darius tries to change everything, but the people who convinced him to make the law tell him he'd be a pretty poor king if he changed his own laws. But the night in the lion's den, Daniel prays to God, and an angel of the Lord showed up, and shut the lions' mouths shut the whole night. When Darius finds him in the morning, alive, he makes God the only true god of his people. 

The remainder of Daniel is filled with future prophecies, the visions are pretty trippy, and Daniel notes that they scared him. I recommend reading them for yourself, as I had a difficult time wrapping my head around it. 

And finally...

God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute and have children with her, as a metaphor for the Israelites committing the worst sort of adultery--leaving the Lord. The metaphor continues to describe how Israel will eventually come back to the Lord with an everlasting love, after they've learned their lesson. Then, He teaches Hosea to love his wife, even though she was an adulterer, similar to how the Lord will ignore Israel until they come back to Him. 

Hosea continues on to list the sins of Israel, how their unrepentant, how they've forgotten their Maker. But Hosea says that it is time for the Israelites to go back to seeking the Lord, and that God will love the Israelites once again. 

We are living in a time of corruption and sin. Though this was written thousands of years ago, the themes are continuing today. It is time to seek the Lord. It is time to call on Him. It is time to come back. We as a society have strayed from God and His love and have moved our time, our dedication, and our worship to objects that cannot provide the way the Lord has. I implore you all to seek time for the Lord, and to make Him a part of your right now, and of your every day. 

Tomorrow's reading: Hosea 13:7-Amos 9:10

Have a wonderful day! 

Jill Jafarace

Director of Student Ministry

New Leaf UMC