She Laughs. She Prays.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

God calls your body your temple. This creates an easy metaphor for us to follow between the temple of the Jews worship and our bodies.

Ezekiel, while in captivity in Babylon, wrote of a vision. In his vision he was transported to the temple where he saw people worshipping the sun gods between the porch and the altar of sacrifice. (Ezekiel 8:16)

Priests used this area of the temple between the entrance and the altar to ask for forgiveness for the sins of the people. The kneeled and moved slowly down the hallway weeping and calling on God. They often repeated the words, “Spare your people, Lord.”

But in Ezekiel’s vision a group of men worshipped other gods between the porch and the altar, disobeying the commandments of God given to Moses (Exodus 20:3-5) and creating an abomination in God’s sight.

This and the many other abominations God showed Ezekiel. Ezekiel saw jealousy at the entrance of the temple.

Then Ezekiel dug a hole in the wall. Pictured around the temple wall were creeping things, abominable beasts, and idols.

Since as Christians, we consider our bodies a temple what do these abominations bring to mind that relate to the use of our bodies?

Jealousy can exist in our temple, our body that God has given us. I Corinthians 13:4 shows love as the antithesis of jealousy. Jealousy brings out hateful feelings and emotions in our bodies. Jealousy of someone’s job, boyfriend, or talents is not becoming to our temples.

If we look to the times of Jesus, a great spirit of jealousy was on the priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees in particular. Just as God showed Ezekiel jealousy in the temple, he shows us jealousy in our lives.

Next Ezekiel saw creeping things. What kind of sins have we allowed to creep into the temples God gave us? Have you asked God to show you any sins that have crept into your temple and come between God and you? Isaiah 59:2 says, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.”

When we allow sin to creep into our lives, it cuts us off from God. At the beginning of Ezekiel’s dream, the men worship the sun gods in God’s temple. If we choose to let sin dwell and continue in our temple, we are choosing separation from God.

This sin that Ezekiel saw included “abominable beasts, and idols.”

In Ezekiel 8:12, it speaks of the abominations done by the elders of the house of Israel in the dark, in the dark room with their idols. Does your temple have a dark room? I think of the dark rooms in some homes. Is there darkness where the computer sits, where the television sits, or where magazines are kept. What is the darkness in the room that you need deliverance from? Is there a hidden abomination that no one else knows about? Even the hidden things of the heart need to be confessed before God.

The Bible speaks of the abomination of slayings in the temple courts. In 2 Chronicles 24:21, several men conspired against Zechariah the priest and stoned him in the court of the Lord’s house. 2 Chronicles 36:16 spoke of slayings in the temple by the invading Babylonians.

Between the porch and the altar lie the blood of prophets slain. (Matt. 23:35, 2 Chronicles 36:16) Revelations 6:9 says, “...I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.”

What is the proper, healthy response to the abominations in the temple?

Joel 2:12 explains, “Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

Weep between the porch and the altar declares Joel. Fasting is not enough. God requires an inward sign of the soul’s repentance. Weep between the porch and the altar.

It is at the altar that atonement for sin is made. It is at the altar that reconciliation with God is made. Have you reached the altar? For we have a mediator Christ Jesus whose blood is sprinkled on the altar and whose voice speaks out loudest of all slain. (Hebrews 12:24) Do not refuse him who speaks. (Hebrews 12:25)

Weep between the porch and the altar for the blood of the slain and to be slain (Rev. 6:11). Weep between the porch and the altar for sins that need to be atoned, for the abominations of the body, the temple of God. Follow the urgings of God to pray and call out as the priests did for the people in the temple between the porch and the altar, repent, fast and weep.

Our One Year Bibles finally arrived at Bristol Bay Church, Dillingham, AK. We have decided to start on March 17, 2024, which means it will take until next March 17, 2025, to finish reading all the way through. If you asked for a soft cover copy or would like one, please see me on anytime this week or on Sunday. I have about 10 of these. You can also purchase the electronic copy on Christianbook.com The One Year Chronological Bible NLT - eBook: 9781414361628 - Christianbook.com I will have a few journals and notebooks as well in case you want one to keep your answers in to the questions below in a notebook. And/or send them to me and we can stay in contact: pastorval@bristolbay.church

For those who want to read along in your own Bible, I will publish the passages for the week in a special column to check off. I look forward to reading with you. Each week I will also send some study questions to go with your reading if you choose to use them. Reply with questions and answers. I look forward to reading God's Word with you daily.

August 12

Jeremiah 23:33-24:10

Jeremiah 29:1-31:14

August 13

Jeremiah 31:15-40

Jeremiah 49:34-51:14

August 14

Jeremiah 51:15-58

2 Kings 24:10-20

I Chronicles 3:10-16

2 Chronicles 36:10-14

Jeremiah 52:1-3

Jeremiah 37:1-10

August 15

Jeremiah 37:11-38:28

Ezekiel 1-3:15

August 16

Ezekiel 3:16-4:17

Jeremiah 27-28

Jeremiah 51:59-64

August 17

Ezekiel 5:1-9:11

Ezekiel 10:1-13

August 18

Ezekiel 10:14-13:23

August 12

According to Jeremiah 23:33-40, what do we know about false prophets?

Jeremiah 29:8 tells us again about false prophets? What does this say?

Jeremiah wrote a prophetic letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. What does he tell them?

August 13

Jeremiah 31:15-40, why does Rachel's weeping turn to joy?

In Jeremiah 49:34-51:14, Jeremiah spoke prophecies over several cities. How were the similar?

August 14

Jeremiah 51:15-16 are a praise to the Lord. What stands out? Can you write a praise using your own subsistence life?

In 2 Kings 24:10-20, who surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar and what happened at the temple?

August 15

In the beginning of Jeremiah 37:11-38:28, what issue did Jeremiah have?

According to Ezekiel 1, how old was Ezekiel?

What living being is described in Ezekiel 1:4-10?

August 16

Jeremiah 27:16-18 speaks of false prophets. What does Jeremiah tell the people to beware of?

Explain the interaction between Jeremiah and Hananiah in Jeremiah 28.

August 17

What happens in Ezekiel 10:1-13? How does this have an effect on us or does it have an effect on us now?

August 18

Ezekiel 10:14-20, describes the same living beings in Ezekiel 1. What being is being described according to these scriptures?

What's significant about Ezekiel 11:22-25?

August 5

1) What did the cup of the Lord represent? God's anger against Israel.

Who was Baruch? Jeremiah's scribe. How did he help Jeremiah? He wrote down all his prophesies and presented them to the King.

2) What did Jehoiakim do? He burned the prophesies page by page.

3) Jeremiah prophesied what about Israel? Their exile and return.

August 6

1) Why did Jeremiah deliver his message in the garbage dump? To emphasize the filth of their sin.

2) What four men were chosen to be trained by the Babylonians? Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah

August 7

1) Why were Daniel and his friends in trouble? The king ordered all the wise men to be killed because his dream could not be interpreted.

2) How was there dilemma solved? Daniel asked for more time from the king to tell the king the meaning of the dream. The dream was revealed to Daniel in a vision.

August 8

1) Why does Jeremiah weep in 8:18? Grief over the sins of Judah.

2) What does Jeremiah tell the people of Jerusalem to do in Jeremiah 9:17-24? Weep and teach your children to weep over the sins of the people.

3) Read Jeremiah 11:18-19. What does this verse remind you of? Jesus

August 9

1) Explain the prophesy of the loincloth in Jeremiah 13:1-8? The goal of God was to keep Israel close to him. Tightly bound like the loincloth. But they refused and now live far from God and lost in sin, dirty like the loincloth.

2) In Jeremiah 14:11 what does the Lord forbid Jeremiah to do and why? He forbids him to pray any more for Israel because of their continuing sin.

August 10

1) Why was Jeremiah forbidden to marry as a part of his prophesy? By not marrying, it shows the desolation and the ending of the productiveness of Israel.

2) Read Jeremiah 17:7-8. Compare to Psalm 1:3. What did you learn or notice?

Psalm 1:3 says they are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.

Both speak to the fruitfulness of Israel in the similar words.

3) Describe the Rechabites. In Jeremiah (xxxv.) it is recorded that the prophet took some Rechabites into the Temple and offered them wine to drink, and that they declined on the ground that Jehonadab, son of Rechab, their ancestor, had commanded them not to drink wine or other strong drink, or to live in houses, or to sow seed, or to plant vineyards, and had enjoined them to dwell in tents all their days. Jeremiah used this fidelity of the Rechabites to their principles as an object-lesson in his exhortations to his contemporaries.

RECHABITES - JewishEncyclopedia.com

August 11

Jeremiah 49:12 speaks of drinking what? Cup of judgement. Compare to the KJV. Look up drink in the blueletterbible.com. Cup of God's Wrath.

What does drink mean? H8354 - šāṯâ - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) (blueletterbible.org) To drink to drunkenness and drink to drunkenness the anger of God.

What does the Bible say about Jehoiachin in Jeremiah 22:30? He will be childless and none of his children will succeed him as King.

Who is the righteous descendant in Jeremiah 23? Jesus

Jeremiah 17:8

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