Daily Devotions · August 29
Reading for August 29
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Ezekiel 4–7 · Revelation 3
Ezekiel 4–7 · Revelation 3, Berean Standard Bible
Ezekiel 4
“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem. 2 Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides. 3 Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. 4 Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. 8 Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege. 9 But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times. 11 You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times. 12 And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.” 13 Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.” 14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.” 15 “Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.” 16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. 17 So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
Ezekiel 5
“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. 2 When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them. 3 But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment. 4 Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel. 5 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’ 7 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’ 8 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10 As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’ 11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you. 12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them. 13 And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken. 14 I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken. 16 When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Ezekiel 6
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3 You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 5 I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out. 7 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD. 8 Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands. 9 Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations. 10 And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them. 11 This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague. 12 He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them. 13 Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. 14 I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”
Ezekiel 7
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. 3 The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. 4 I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ 5 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming! 6 The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come! 7 Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy. 8 Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. 9 I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow. 10 Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed. 11 Their violence has grown into a rod to punish their wickedness. None of them will remain: none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and nothing of value. 12 The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude. 13 The seller will surely not recover what he sold while both remain alive. For the vision concerning the whole multitude will not be revoked, and because of their iniquity, not one of them will preserve his life. 14 They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one goes to war, for My wrath is upon the whole multitude. 15 The sword is outside; plague and famine are within. Those in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. 16 The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity. 17 Every hand will go limp, and every knee will turn to water. 18 They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved. 19 They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity. 20 His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them. 21 And I will hand these things over as plunder to foreigners and loot to the wicked of the earth, who will defile them. 22 I will turn My face away from them, and they will defile My treasured place. Violent men will enter it, and they will defile it. 23 Forge the chain, for the land is full of crimes of bloodshed, and the city is full of violence. 24 So I will bring the most wicked of nations to take possession of their houses. I will end the pride of the mighty, and their holy places will be profaned. 25 Anguish is coming! They will seek peace, but find none. 26 Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”
Revelation 3
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. 2 Wake up and strengthen what remains, which is about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God. 3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you. 4 But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white. 5 Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 7 To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. 8 I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name. 9 As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you. 10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. 14 To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! 16 So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
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Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
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Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
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Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
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Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
Added to your journal. Go to journal
Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.