The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday November 19, 2018 (NIV)

The Defeat of Gog

39 The Sovereign Lord said, “Mortal man, denounce Gog, the chief ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal, and tell him that I am his enemy. ² I will turn him in a new direction and lead him out of the far north until he comes to the mountains of Israel. ³ Then I will knock his bow out of his left hand and his arrows out of his right hand. ⁴ Gog and his army and his allies will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, and I will let their bodies be food for all the birds and wild animals. ⁵ They will fall dead in the open field. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ⁶ I will start a fire in the land of Magog and along all the seacoasts where people live undisturbed, and everyone will know that I am the Lord. ⁷ I will make sure that my people Israel know my holy name, and I will not let my name be disgraced any more. Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, am the holy God of Israel.”

⁸ The Sovereign Lord said, “The day I spoke about is certain to come. ⁹ The people who live in the cities of Israel will go out and collect the abandoned weapons for firewood. They will build fires with the shields, bows, arrows, spears, and clubs, and have enough to last for seven years. ¹⁰ They will not have to gather firewood in the fields or cut down trees in the forest, because they will have the abandoned weapons to burn. They will loot and plunder those who looted and plundered them.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

The Burial of Gog

¹¹ The Lord said, “When all this happens, I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, in Travelers' Valley, east of the Dead Sea.^[a] Gog and all his army will be buried there, and the valley will be called ‘The Valley of Gog's Army.’ ¹² It will take the Israelites seven months to bury all the corpses and make the land clean again. ¹³ Everyone in the land will help bury them, and they will be honored for this on the day of my victory. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ¹⁴ After the seven months are over, men will be chosen to travel through the land in order to find and bury those bodies^[b] remaining on the ground, so that they can make the land clean. ¹⁵ As they go up and down the country, every time they find a human bone, they will put a marker beside it so that the gravediggers can come and bury it in the Valley of Gog's Army. ¹⁶ (There will be a town nearby named after the army.) And so the land will be made clean again.”

^17 (A)The Sovereign Lord said to me, “Mortal man, call all the birds and animals to come from all around to eat the sacrifice I am preparing for them. It will be a huge feast on the mountains of Israel, where they can eat meat and drink blood. ¹⁸ They are to eat the bodies of soldiers and drink the blood of the rulers of the earth, all of whom will be killed like rams or lambs or goats or fat bulls. ¹⁹ When I kill these people like sacrifices, the birds and animals are to eat all the fat they can hold and to drink blood until they are drunk. ²⁰ At my table they will eat all they can hold of horses and their riders and of soldiers and fighting men. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

The Restoration of Israel

²¹ The Lord said, “I will let the nations see my glory and show them how I use my power to carry out my just decisions. ²² The Israelites will know from then on that I am the Lord their God. ²³ And the nations will know that the Israelites went into exile because of the sins which they committed against me. I turned away from them and let their enemies defeat them and kill them in battle. ²⁴ I gave them what they deserved for their uncleanness and their wickedness, and I turned away from them.”

²⁵ The Sovereign Lord said, “But now I will be merciful to Jacob's descendants, the people of Israel, and make them prosperous again. I will protect my holy name. ²⁶ When they are once more living in safety in their own land, with no one to threaten them, they will be able to forget how they were disgraced for having betrayed me. ²⁷ In order to show to the many nations that I am holy, I will bring my people back from all the countries where their enemies live. ²⁸ Then my people will know that I am the Lord their God. They will know this, because I sent them into captivity and now gather them and bring them back into their own land, not leaving even one of them behind. ²⁹ I will pour out my spirit on the people of Israel and never again turn away from them. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

A VISION OF THE FUTURE TEMPLE (40.1— 48.35)

Ezekiel Is Taken to Jerusalem

40 It was the tenth day of the new year, which was the twenty-fifth year after we had been taken into exile and the fourteenth year after Jerusalem was captured. On that day I felt the powerful presence of the Lord, and he carried me away. ^2 (B)In a vision God took me to the land of Israel and put me on a high mountain. I saw in front of me^[c] a group of buildings that looked like a city. ^3 (C)He took me closer, and I saw a man who shone like bronze. He was holding a linen tape measure and a measuring rod and was standing by a gateway.

⁴ He said to me, “Watch, mortal man. Listen carefully and pay close attention to everything I show you, because this is why you were brought here. You are to tell the people of Israel everything you see.”

The East Gate

^5 (D)What I saw was the Temple, and there was a wall around it. The man took his measuring rod, which was 10 feet long, and measured the wall. It was 10 feet high and 10 feet thick. ⁶ Then he went to the gateway that faced east. He went up the steps, and at the top he measured the entrance; it was 10 feet deep.^{[d] 7} Beyond it there was a passageway, which had three guardrooms on each side. Each of the rooms was square, 10 feet on each side, and the walls between them were 8 feet thick. Beyond the guardrooms there was a passageway 10 feet long that led to an entrance room which faced the Temple. ^8-9 He measured this room and found it was 14 feet deep. It formed that end of the gateway which was nearest the Temple, and at its far end the walls were 4 feet thick. (¹⁰ These guardrooms on each side of the passageway were all the same size, and the walls between them were all of the same thickness.)

¹¹ Next, the man measured the width of the passageway in the gateway. It was 22 feet altogether, and the space between the open gates was 16 feet. ¹² In front of each of the guardrooms there was a low wall 20 inches high and 20 inches thick. (The rooms were 10 feet square.) ¹³ Then he measured the distance from the back wall^[e] of one room to the back wall^[f] of the room across the passageway from it, and it was 42 feet. ¹⁴ The room at the far end led out to a courtyard. He measured that room and found it was 34 feet wide.^{[g] 15} The total length of the gateway from the outside wall of the gate to the far side of the last room was 84 feet. ¹⁶ There were small openings in the outside walls of all the rooms and also in the inner walls between the rooms. There were palm trees carved on the inner walls that faced the passageway.

The Outer Courtyard

¹⁷ The man took me through the gateway into the courtyard. There were thirty rooms built against the outer wall, and in front of them there was an area paved with stones, ¹⁸ which extended around the courtyard. This outer courtyard was at a lower level than the inner courtyard.

¹⁹ There was a gateway at a higher level that led to the inner courtyard. The man measured the distance between the two gateways, and it was 168 feet.^[h]

The North Gate

²⁰ Then the man measured the gateway on the north side that led into the outer courtyard. ²¹ The three guardrooms on each side of the passageway, the walls between them, and the entrance room all had the same measurements as those in the east gateway. The total length of the gateway was 84 feet and the width 42 feet. ²² The entrance room, the windows, and the carved palm trees were like those in the east gate. Here seven steps led up to the gate, and the entrance room was at the end facing the courtyard. ²³ Across the courtyard from this north gateway was another gateway leading to the inner courtyard, just as there was on the east side. The man measured the distance between these two gateways, and it was 168 feet.

The South Gate

²⁴ Next, the man took me to the south side, and there we saw another gateway. He measured its inner walls and its entrance room, and they were the same as the others. ²⁵ There were windows in the rooms of this gateway just as in the others. The total length of the gateway was 84 feet and the width 42 feet. ²⁶ Seven steps led up to it, and its entrance room was also at the end facing the courtyard. There were palm trees carved on the inner walls that faced the passageway. ²⁷ Here, too, there was a gateway leading to the inner courtyard. The man measured the distance to this second gateway, and it was 168 feet.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “One person has faith, another has actions.” My answer is, “Show me how anyone can have faith without actions. I will show you my faith by my actions.” ¹⁹ Do you believe that there is only one God? Good! The demons also believe—and tremble with fear. ²⁰ You fool! Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless?^{[a] 21 (A)}How was our ancestor Abraham put right with God? It was through his actions, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. ²² Can't you see? His faith and his actions worked together; his faith was made perfect through his actions. ^23 (B)And the scripture came true that said, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” And so Abraham was called God's friend. ²⁴ You see, then, that it is by our actions that we are put right with God, and not by our faith alone.

^25 (C)It was the same with the prostitute Rahab. She was put right with God through her actions, by welcoming the Israelite spies and helping them to escape by a different road.

²⁶ So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead.

The Tongue

3 My friends, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others. ^2 (D)All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what he says, he is perfect and is also able to control his whole being. ³ We put a bit into the mouth of a horse to make it obey us, and we are able to make it go where we want. ⁴ Or think of a ship: big as it is and driven by such strong winds, it can be steered by a very small rudder, and it goes wherever the pilot wants it to go. ⁵ So it is with the tongue: small as it is, it can boast about great things.

Just think how large a forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame! ^6 (E)And the tongue is like a fire. It is a world of wrong, occupying its place in our bodies and spreading evil through our whole being. It sets on fire the entire course of our existence with the fire that comes to it from hell itself. ⁷ We humans are able to tame and have tamed all other creatures—wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish. ⁸ But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison. ^9 (F)We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse other people, who are created in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My friends, this should not happen! ¹¹ No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. ¹² A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.

The Wisdom from Above

^13 (G)Are there any of you who are wise and understanding? You are to prove it by your good life, by your good deeds performed with humility and wisdom. ¹⁴ But if in your heart you are jealous, bitter, and selfish, don't sin against the truth by boasting of your wisdom. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic. ¹⁶ Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace.

A Prayer of Thanks for Victory

² When a nation sins, it will have one ruler after another. But a nation will be strong and endure when it has intelligent, sensible leaders.