The One Year Bible TLB (235 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
November 5Again a message came to me from the Lord:
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“Son of dust,” he said, “you live among rebels who could know the truth if they wanted to, but they don’t want to; they could hear me if they would listen, but they won’t,
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for they are rebels. So now put on a demonstration to show them what being exiled will be like. Pack whatever you can carry on your back and leave your home—go somewhere else. Go in the daylight so they can see, for perhaps even yet they will consider what this means, even though they are such rebels.
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Bring your baggage outside your house during the daylight so they can watch. Then leave the house at night, just as captives do when they begin their long march to distant lands.
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Dig a tunnel through the city wall while they are observing and carry your possessions out through the hole.
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As they watch, lift your pack to your shoulders and walk away into the night; muffle your face and don’t gaze around. All this is a sign to the people of Israel of the evil that will come upon Jerusalem.”
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So I did as I was told. I brought my pack outside in the daylight—all I could take into exile—and in the evening I dug through the wall with my hands. I went out into the darkness with my pack on my shoulder while the people looked on.
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The next morning this message came to me from the Lord:
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“Son of dust, these rebels, the people of Israel, have asked what all this means.
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Tell them the Lord God says it is a message to King Zedekiah
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in Jerusalem and to all the people of Israel.
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Explain that what you did was a demonstration of what is going to happen to them, for they shall be driven out of their homes and sent away into exile.
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“Even King Zedekiah shall go out at night through a hole in the wall, taking only what he can carry with him, with muffled face, for he won’t be able to see.
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I will capture him in my net and bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; but he shall not see it, and he shall die there.
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I will scatter his servants and guards to the four winds and send the sword after them.
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And when I scatter them among the nations, then they shall know I am the Lord.
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But I will spare a few of them from death by war and famine and disease. I will save them to confess to the nations how wicked they have been, and they shall know I am the Lord.”
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Then this message came to me from the Lord:
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“Son of dust, tremble as you eat your meals; ration out your water as though it were your last,
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and say to the people, the Lord God says that the people of Israel and Jerusalem shall ration their food with utmost care and sip their tiny portions of water in utter despair because of all their sins.
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Your cities shall be destroyed and your farmlands deserted, and you shall know I am the Lord.”
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Again a message came to me from the Lord:
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“Son of dust, what is that proverb they quote in Israel—‘The days as they pass make liars out of every prophet.’
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The Lord God says: I will put an end to this proverb and they will soon stop saying it. Give them this one instead: ‘The time has come for all these prophecies to be fulfilled.’
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“Then you will see what becomes of all the false predictions of safety and security for Jerusalem.
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For I am the Lord! What I threaten always happens. There will be no more delays, O rebels of Israel! I will do it in your own lifetime!” says the Lord God.
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Then this message came:
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“Son of dust, the people of Israel say, ‘His visions won’t come true for a long, long time.’
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Therefore say to them: ‘The Lord God says: All delay has ended! I will do it now!’”
13:
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Then this message came to me:
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“Son of dust, prophesy against the false prophets of Israel who are inventing their own visions and claiming to have messages from me when I have never told them anything at all. Woe upon them!
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“O Israel, these ‘prophets’ of yours are as useless as foxes for rebuilding your walls!
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O evil prophets, what have you ever done to strengthen the walls of Israel against her enemies—by strengthening Israel in the Lord?
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Instead you have lied when you said, ‘My message is from God!’ God did not send you. And yet you expect him to fulfill your prophecies.
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Can you deny that you have claimed to see ‘visions’ you never saw, and that you have said, ‘This message is from God,’ when I never spoke to you at all?”
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Therefore the Lord God says: “I will destroy you for these ‘visions’ and lies.
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My hand shall be against you, and you shall be cut off from among the leaders of Israel; I will blot out your names, and you will never see your own country again. And you shall know I am the Lord.
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For these evil men deceive my people by saying, ‘God will send peace,’ when that is not my plan at all! My people build a flimsy wall, and these prophets praise them for it—and cover it with whitewash!
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“Tell these evil builders that their wall will fall. A heavy rainstorm will undermine it; great hailstones and mighty winds will knock it down.
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And when the wall falls, the people will cry out, ‘Why didn’t you tell us that it wasn’t good enough? Why did you whitewash it and cover up its faults?’
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Yes, it will surely fall.” The Lord God says: “I will sweep it away with a storm of indignation, with a great flood of anger, and with hailstones of wrath.
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I will break down your whitewashed wall; it will fall on you and crush you, and you shall know I am the Lord.
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Then at last my wrath against the wall will be completed; and concerning those who praised it, I will say: The wall and its builders both are gone.
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For they were lying prophets, claiming Jerusalem will have peace when there is no peace,” says the Lord God.
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“Son of dust, speak out against the women prophets too who pretend the Lord has given them his messages.
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Tell them, ‘The Lord God says: Woe to these women who are damning the souls of my people, of both young and old alike, by tying magic charms on their wrists, furnishing them with magic veils, and selling them indulgences. They refuse to even offer help unless they get a profit from it.
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For the sake of a few paltry handfuls of barley or a piece of bread will you turn away my people from me? You have led those to death who should not die! And you have promised life to those who should not live by lying to my people—and how they love it!’”
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And so the Lord says: “I will crush you because you hunt my people’s souls with all your magic charms. I will tear off the charms and set my people free like birds from cages.
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I will tear off the magic veils and save my people from you; they will no longer be your victims, and you shall know I am the Lord.
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Your lies have discouraged the righteous when I didn’t want it so. And you have encouraged the wicked by promising life, though they continue in their sins.
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But you will lie no more; no longer will you talk of seeing ‘visions’ that you never saw nor practice your magic, for I will deliver my people out of your hands by destroying you, and you shall know I am the Lord.”
14:
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Then some of the elders of Israel visited me to ask me for a message from the Lord,
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and this is the message that came to me to give to them:
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“Son of dust, these men worship idols in their hearts—should I let them ask me anything?
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Tell them, ‘The Lord God says: I, the Lord, will personally deal with anyone in Israel who worships idols and then comes to ask my help.
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For I will punish the minds and hearts of those who turn from me to idols.’
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“Therefore, warn them that the Lord God says: ‘Repent and destroy your idols, and stop worshiping them in your hearts. I the Lord will personally punish everyone, whether people of Israel or the foreigners living among you, who rejects me for idols and then comes to a prophet to ask for my help and advice.
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I will turn upon him and make a terrible example of him, destroying him; and you shall know I am the Lord.
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And if one of the false prophets gives him a message anyway, it is a lie. His prophecy will not come true, and I will stand against that “prophet” and destroy him from among my people Israel.
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False prophets and hypocrites—evil people who say they want my words—all will be punished for their sins,
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so that the people of Israel will learn not to desert me and not to be polluted any longer with sin. They will be my people and I their God.’ So says the Lord.”
This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of the Most High God. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against many kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him;
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then Abraham took a tenth of all he had won in the battle and gave it to Melchizedek.
Melchizedek’s name means “Justice,” so he is the King of Justice; and he is also the King of Peace because of the name of his city, Salem, which means “Peace.”
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Melchizedek had no father or mother
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and there is no record of any of his ancestors. He was never born and he never died but his life is like that of the Son of God—a priest forever.
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See then how great this Melchizedek is:
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Even Abraham, the first and most honored of all God’s chosen people, gave Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils he took from the kings he had been fighting.
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One could understand why Abraham would do this if Melchizedek had been a Jewish priest, for later on God’s people were required by law to give gifts to help their priests because the priests were their relatives.
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But Melchizedek was not a relative, and yet Abraham paid him.
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Melchizedek placed a blessing upon mighty Abraham,
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and as everyone knows, a person who has the power to bless is always greater than the person he blesses.
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(c)
The Jewish priests, though mortal, received tithes; but we are told that Melchizedek lives on.
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(d)
One might even say that Levi himself (the ancestor of all Jewish priests, of all who receive tithes), paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham.
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For although Levi wasn’t born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham when Abraham paid the tithes to Melchizedek.
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(e)
If the Jewish priests and their laws had been able to save us, why then did God need to send Christ as a priest with the rank of Melchizedek, instead of sending someone with the rank of Aaron—the same rank all other priests had?
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And when God sends a new kind of priest, his law must be changed to permit it. As we all know, Christ did not belong to the priest-tribe of Levi, but came from the tribe of Judah, which had not been chosen for priesthood; Moses had never given them that work.
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So we can plainly see that God’s method changed, for Christ, the new High Priest who came with the rank of Melchizedek,
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did not become a priest by meeting the old requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but on the basis of power flowing from a life that cannot end.
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And the psalmist points this out when he says of Christ, “You are a priest forever with the rank of Melchizedek.”
and brought his people safely out from Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; there were no sick and feeble folk among them then.
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Egypt was glad when they were gone, for the dread of them was great.
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He spread out a cloud above them to shield them from the burning sun and gave them a pillar of flame at night to give them light.
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They asked for meat, and he sent them quail and gave them manna—bread from heaven.
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He opened up a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry and barren land;
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for he remembered his sacred promises to Abraham his servant.
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So he brought his chosen ones singing into the Promised Land.
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He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, complete with their growing crops; they ate what others planted.
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This was done to make them faithful and obedient to his laws. Hallelujah!