Read To Me Daily Semester 4Sample

EZEKIEL 17:
Yesterday’s chapter in Ezekiel graphically portrayed how God considers idolatry like the adultery of a faithless wife. Jerusalem (as Judah’s capital) was compared — in a very unflattering way — to her two sister cities, Samaria and Sodom.

ISAIAH 2:
In the first chapter of Isaiah, we heard the Lord compare Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah. And we heard how the Lord hates hypocritical religious rituals, including even sacrifices that were specified in the Law. If these are done without a corresponding attempt to live in God’s will, they are a stench to Him.

MATTHEW 28:
Yesterday’s reading in Matthew ended with Jesus’s body wrapped in a shroud and laid in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. The tomb was sealed and Roman soldiers were standing guard.

Let’s pray.
Dear heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your Word — not just for the parts that are easy to listen to — but also for the places that are so hard to listen to. My heart is convicted that I am too much like the wicked sister, Jerusalem. Yet after such a pronouncement of judgment as we heard at the end of Ezekiel 16, the chapter ends with a promise of a new covenant with Israel. You said, “I will forgive all the wrongs you have done, but you will remember them and be too ashamed to open your mouth.” And heavenly Father, that indeed is what You have done! Your gracious kindness to us has been so large and our guilt is so great, that we are struck silent. We have no boast that we can claim for why you have shown us such love. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for fulfilling that promise and ratifying that new covenant by your sacrificial death on the cross. And we humbly confess our sins to You now.