Through the Bible – Day 332

₁₁The LORD God then said:

I will look for my sheep and take care of them myself, ₁₂just as a shepherd looks for lost sheep. My sheep have been lost since that dark and miserable day when they were scattered throughout the nations. But I will rescue them ₁₃and bring them back from the foreign nations where they now live. I will be their shepherd and will let them graze on Israel's mountains and in the valleys and fertile fields. ₁₄They will be safe as they feed on grassy meadows and green hills. ₁₅I promise to take care of them and keep them safe, ₁₆to look for those that are lost and bring back the ones that wander off, to bandage those that are hurt and protect the ones that are weak. I will also slaughter those that are fat and strong, because I always do right.

₁₇The LORD God said to his sheep, the people of Israel:

I will carefully watch each one of you to decide which ones are the strong sheep and which ones are weak. ₁₈Some of you eat the greenest grass, then trample down what's left when you finish. Others drink clean water, then step in the water to make the rest of it muddy. ₁₉That means my other sheep have nothing fit to eat or drink.

₂₀So I, the LORD God, will separate you strong sheep from the weak. ₂₁You strong ones have used your powerful horns to chase off those that are weak, ₂₂but I will rescue them and no longer let them be ill-treated. I will separate the good from the bad.

₂₃After that, I will give you a shepherd from the family of my servant King David. All of you, both strong and weak, will have the same shepherd, and he will take good care of you. ₂₄He will be your leader, and I will be your God. I, the LORD, have spoken.

₂₅The people of Israel are my sheep, and I solemnly promise that they will live in peace. I will chase away every wild animal from the desert and the forest, so my sheep will not be afraid. ₂₆They will live around my holy mountain, and I will bless them by sending more than enough rain ₂₇to make their trees produce fruit and their crops grow. I will set them free from slavery and let them live safely in their own land. Then they will know that I am the LORD. ₂₈Foreign nations will never again rob them, and wild animals will no longer kill and eat them. They will have nothing to fear. ₂₉I will make their fields produce large amounts of crops, so they will never again go hungry or be laughed at by foreigners. ₃₀Then everyone will know that I protect my people Israel. I, the LORD, make this promise. ₃₁They are my sheep; I am their God, and I take care of them.

₁The LORD said:

₂Ezekiel, son of man, condemn the people of Edom ₃and say to them:

₅People of Edom, not only have you been Israel's longtime enemy, you simply watched when disaster wiped out its people as punishment for their sins. ₆And so, as surely as I am the living LORD God, you are guilty of murder and must be put to death. ₇I will destroy your nation and kill anyone who travels through it. ₈Dead bodies will cover your mountains and fill up your valleys, ₉and your land will lie in ruins for ever. No one will live in your towns ever again. You will know that I am the LORD.

₁₀You thought the nations of Judah and Israel belonged to you, and that you could take over their territory. But I am their God, ₁₁and as surely as I live, I will punish you for treating my people with anger and hatred. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am punishing you! ₁₂And you will finally realize that I heard you laugh at their destruction and say their land was yours to take. ₁₃You even insulted me, but I heard it all.

₁₄Everyone on earth will celebrate when I destroy you, ₁₅just as you celebrated when Israel was destroyed. Your nation of Edom will be nothing but a wasteland. Then everyone will know that I am the LORD.

₁The LORD said:

Ezekiel, son of man, tell the mountains of Israel ₂that I, the LORD God, am saying:

Your enemies sneered and said that you mountains belonged to them. ₃They ruined and crushed you from every side, and foreign nations captured and made fun of you. ₄So all you mountains and hills, streams and valleys, listen to what I will do. Your towns may now lie in ruins, and nations may laugh and insult you. ₅But in my fierce anger, I will turn against those nations, and especially the Edomites, because they laughed at you the loudest and took over your pasture lands. ₆You have suffered long enough, and, I, the LORD God, am very angry! Nations have insulted you, ₇so I will now insult and disgrace them. That is my solemn promise.

₈Trees will grow on you mountains of Israel and produce fruit for my people, because they will soon come home. ₉I will take care of you by ploughing your soil and planting crops on your fertile slopes. ₁₀The people of Israel will return and rebuild your ruined towns and live in them. ₁₁Children will be born, and animals will give birth to their young. You will no longer be deserted as you are now, but you will be covered with people and treated better than ever. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

₁₂I will bring my people Israel home, and they will live on you mountains, because you belong to them, and your fertile slopes will never again let them starve. ₁₃It's true that you have been accused of not producing enough food and of letting your people starve. _14-15But I, the LORD, promise that you won't hear other nations laugh and sneer at you ever again. From now on, you will always produce plenty of food for your people. I, the LORD God, have spoken.

₁₆The LORD said:

₁₇Ezekiel, son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own country, they made the land unclean by the way they behaved, just as a woman's monthly period makes her unclean. ₁₈They committed murders and worshipped idols, which made the land even worse. So in my anger, I punished my people ₁₉and scattered them throughout the nations, just as they deserved. ₂₀Wherever they went, my name was disgraced, because foreigners insulted my people by saying I had forced them out of their own land.

₂₁I care what those foreigners think of me, ₂₂so tell the Israelites that I am saying:

₁Sometimes false prophets spoke to the people of Israel. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful lies to you. But these teachers don't really belong to the Master who paid a great price for them, and they will quickly destroy themselves. ₂Many people will follow their evil ways and cause others to tell lies about the true way. ₃They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them, and God doesn't sleep.

₄God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell until the time of judgment. ₅And during Noah's time, God did not have pity on the ungodly people of the world. He destroyed them with a flood, though he did save eight people, including Noah, who preached the truth.

₆God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and this is a warning to anyone else who wants to sin.

_7-8Lot lived right and was greatly troubled by the terrible way those wicked people were living. He was a good man, and day after day he suffered because of the evil things he saw and heard. So the Lord rescued him. ₉This shows that the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment.

₁₀The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don't think of anything except their own filthy desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven. ₁₁Although angels are more powerful than these evil beings, even the angels don't dare to accuse them to the Lord.

₁₂These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed. They speak evil of things they don't know anything about. But their own corrupt deeds will destroy them. ₁₃They have done evil, and they will be rewarded with evil.

They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you are spoilt by the shameful and selfish way they carry on. ₁₄All they think about is having sex with someone else's husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble!

₁₅They have left the true road and have gone down the wrong path by following the example of the prophet Balaam. He was the son of Beor and loved what he got from being a criminal. ₁₆But a donkey corrected him for this evil deed. It spoke to him with a human voice and made him stop his foolishness.

₁₇These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a storm. The darkest part of hell is waiting for them. ₁₈They boast out loud about their stupid nonsense. And by being vulgar and crude, they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. ₁₉They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them.

₂₀When they learnt about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they escaped from the filthy things of this world. But they are again caught up and controlled by these filthy things, and now they are in a worse state than they were at first. ₂₁They would have been better off if they had never known about the right way. Even after they knew what was right, they turned their backs on the holy commandments that they were given. ₂₂What happened to them is just like the true saying,