The Daily Audio Bible

Babylon Is God’s Sword

21 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, look toward Jerusalem and speak against the holy places. Speak against the land of Israel. ³ Tell the land of Israel, ‘The Lord says, “See, I am against you. I will take My sword out of its holder and destroy from you both the good and the sinful. ⁴ Because I will destroy from you both the good and the sinful, My sword will go out against everyone from south to north. ⁵ Then all people will know that I, the Lord, have taken out My sword. It will not be put back into its holder again.”’ ⁶ As for you, son of man, cry in sorrow in front of them, as if your heart is breaking. ⁷ And when they ask you, ‘Why are you crying?’ tell them, ‘Because of the news that is coming, every heart will melt and all hands will be weak. Every spirit will lose its strength, and all knees will be as weak as water. It is coming, and it will happen,’ says the Lord God.”

⁸ Again the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁹ “Son of man, speak in My name and tell them, ‘The Lord says, “A sword, a sharp and shining sword! ¹⁰ It is made sharp to kill, and shined to look like lightning! Shall we have joy? It hates the special stick of My son, as it does all wood. ¹¹ The sword is being shined to make it ready to use. It is made sharp and shiny, to be put into the hand of the killer. ¹² Cry out in a loud voice, son of man, for the sword is against My people. It is against all the leaders of Israel. They are going to be killed with My people, so beat your upper leg in sorrow. ¹³ They will be put to the test. If they do not turn from their sinful ways, these things will happen,” says the Lord God.’

¹⁴ “So speak in My name, son of man, and clap your hands together. Let the sword that kills hit two, even three times. It is the sword that kills and is all around them, ¹⁵ so that they will lose their strength of heart, and many will be killed at all their gates. I have sent the shining sword. It is made to shine like lightning, and is ready to kill. ¹⁶ O sharp sword, cut to the left and to the right. Cut wherever you have been sent. ¹⁷ I will also clap My hands, and My anger will be gone. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹⁸ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁹ “Son of man, make two ways for the king of Babylon to come with his sword. Both of them will come from the same land. Mark the way where the road divides and goes to the city. ²⁰ Mark a way for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah into the strong city of Jerusalem. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands where the road divides in two to use strange secret powers. He shakes the arrows and speaks with false gods, and looks at the liver. ²² In his right hand is the arrow marked for Jerusalem. It tells him to set up objects to knock down the city walls, to call out the battle cry, to set up objects to break down the gates, and to build a wall of dirt and battle towers. ²³ The people who promised to obey him will not believe this. But he will make them remember their guilt so that they may be taken. ²⁴ So the Lord God says, ‘You have made your guilt to be remembered. Your sins are no longer covered, and everyone has seen the bad things you have done and remembers them. So you will be taken in battle. ²⁵ And you, O bad and sinful one, the leader of Israel, the day of your punishment has come. Your sin will end.’ ²⁶ The Lord God says, ‘Take off the head-covering. Take off the crown. Things will not stay as they are. Honor that which is low. And bring down that which is honored. ²⁷ A waste, a waste. I will lay the city waste. It will be no more, until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.’

²⁸ “And you, son of man, speak in My name and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says about the sons of Ammon and about their shame.’ Tell them, ‘A sword is pulled out ready to kill! It is made to shine like lightning! ²⁹ Even with the false dreams about you, and the lies spoken about you by using secret ways, you will be laid on the necks of the sinful who are killed, whose day has come for their last punishment. ³⁰ Put your sword back into its holder. I will punish you in the place where you were made, in the land of your birth. ³¹ I will be angry with you. I will blow on you with the fire of My anger. And I will give you over to men who show no pity, who have been taught to destroy. ³² You will be destroyed by fire. You will be killed in your land, and you will not be remembered. For I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Jerusalem’s Sins

22 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, will you judge? Will you judge this city of blood? Then tell the people about all their sinful acts. ³ Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “O city, because you have killed your own people and have made yourselves false gods to add to your sins, your time will come! ⁴ You have become guilty by killing your people, and sinful by the false gods you have made. You have brought the day of your punishment near. The end of your years has come. So I have made you a shame to the nations. All the countries laugh at you. ⁵ People both near and far will make fun of you, you who are full of shame and trouble. ⁶ See, each of the rulers of Israel who are in you has used his power to kill. ⁷ They have not honored father and mother within you. They have made it hard for the stranger living among you. They have done wrong to those in you who have lost their father or husband. ⁸ You have hated My holy things and have not kept My Days of Rest holy. ⁹ There are men in you who have lied about others to cause them to be put to death. Some have eaten at the altars on the mountains, and have done sex sins there. ¹⁰ Men have done sex sins with their fathers’ wives. Men have put women to shame during their time of the month when they are unclean. ¹¹ One has done sex sins with his neighbor’s wife. Another has done sex sins with his daughter-in-law. And another has put his own sister to shame, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you they have taken pay to kill people. You have made others pay back more than they owe you. You have hurt your neighbors by making it hard for them to pay you. And you have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.

¹³ “I will bring My hand down hard upon the money you have made by your sinful ways, and for the blood of those you have killed among you. ¹⁴ Can your strength of heart last? Or can your hands be strong, in the days that I punish you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I say. ¹⁵ I will divide you among the nations and spread you out through the lands. I will take away from you all that is unclean. ¹⁶ You will become sinful in the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am the Lord.”’”

¹⁷ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the people of Israel have become waste to Me. They are like brass, tin, iron, and lead in the fire and have become waste that is left after silver has gone through the fire. ¹⁹ So the Lord God says, ‘Because you have all become waste, I am going to gather you together in Jerusalem. ²⁰ As men gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the stove to blow fire on it and melt it, so I will gather you in My anger. I will put you in the city and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My anger, and you will be melted within it. ²² As silver is melted in the hot stove, so you will be melted in Jerusalem. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My anger upon you.’”

²³ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ²⁴ “Son of man, tell Israel, ‘You are a land that is not made clean or rained on in the day of anger.’ ²⁵ Israel’s false religious leaders are making plans within her. They are like a lion making noise over the food it has killed. They have taken human lives and also riches and things of much worth. They have made many women in Israel lose their husbands. ²⁶ Her religious leaders have broken My Law, and have made My holy things unclean. It makes no difference to them if something is holy or unclean. They have not taught the difference between what is clean and unclean. They hide their eyes from My Days of Rest, and I am not honored among them. ²⁷ Her leaders are like wolves tearing apart the animals they have killed. They kill and destroy lives to get things by doing wrong. ²⁸ Her men who speak in My name have covered these sins with whitewash for the people. They see false dreams and lie to them using their secret ways, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have made it hard for others and have stolen. They have done wrong to the poor and those in need. And they have made it hard for the stranger who lives among them, taking away his rights. ³⁰ I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before Me in the place where it is broken, to stop Me from destroying the land, but I found no one. ³¹ So I have become angry with them. I have destroyed them with the fire of My anger. I am punishing them for what they have done,” says the Lord God.

In the Old Way of Worship Many Gifts Were Given

10 The Law is like a picture of the good things to come. The Jewish religious leaders gave gifts on the altar in worship to God all the time year after year. Those gifts could not make the people who came to worship perfect. ² If those gifts given to God could take away sins, the people who came to worship would no longer feel guilty of sin. They would have given no more gifts. ³ When they gave the gifts year after year, it made them remember that they still had their sins. ⁴ The blood of animals cannot take away the sins of men.

In The New Way of Worship One Gift Was Given

⁵ When Christ came to the world, He said to God, “You do not want animals killed or gifts given in worship. You have made My body ready to give as a gift. ⁶ You are not pleased with animals that have been killed or burned and given as gifts on the altar to take away sin. ⁷ Then I said, ‘I have come to do what You want, O God. It is written in the Law that I would.’”

⁸ Then Christ said, “You do not want animals killed or gifts given in worship to you for sin. You are not pleased with them.” These things are done because the Law says they should be done. ⁹ Then He said, “I have come to do what You want Me to do.” And this is what He did when He died on a cross. God did away with the Old Way of Worship and made a New Way of Worship. ¹⁰ Our sins are washed away and we are made clean because Christ gave His own body as a gift to God. He did this once for all time.

¹¹ All Jewish religious leaders stand every day killing animals and giving gifts on the altar. They give the same gifts over and over again. These gifts cannot take away sins. ¹² But Christ gave Himself once for sins and that is good forever. After that He sat down at the right side of God. ¹³ He is waiting there for God to make of those who have hated Him a place to rest His feet. ¹⁴ And by one gift He has made perfect forever all those who are being set apart for God-like living.

¹⁵ The Holy Spirit tells us this: First He says, ¹⁶ “This is the New Way of Worship that I will give them. When that day comes, says the Lord, I will put My Laws in their hearts. And I will write them in their minds.” Then He says, ¹⁷ “I will not remember their sins and wrong-doings anymore.” ^(A)

A Song of Praise

108 My heart will not be moved, O God. I will sing. Yes, I will sing praises with my soul. ² Wake up, different kinds of harps. I will wake up the new day. ³ I will give thanks to You among the people, O Lord. I will sing praises to You among the nations. ⁴ For Your loving-kindness is great above the heavens. And Your truth can touch the sky. ⁵ Be lifted up high above the heavens, O God. Let Your shining-greatness be over all the earth. ⁶ Save us with Your right hand and answer me. Let Your loved ones be set free.

⁷ God has said in His holy place: “I will be full of joy. I will divide Shechem and the valley of Succoth. ⁸ Gilead is Mine. Manasseh is Mine. Ephraim is the covering for My head. Judah is My law giver. ⁹ Moab is where I wash My hands. I will throw My shoe over Edom. I will call out over Philistia that I have won.”

¹⁰ Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? ¹¹ Have You not turned away from us, O God? And will You not go out with our armies, O God? ¹² O give us help against those who hate us. For the help of man is worth nothing. ¹³ With God’s help we will do great things. And He will break under His feet those who fight against us.

¹² A wise man sees sin and hides himself, but the fool goes on and suffers for it.