Today's Readings and Stuff-- Tuesday, 03 November 2020

Well, it's Election Day in the US.  This has not been a season, a year, that has been filled with sweetness and light, with what some of my liberal friends term "irenic" discussions.  No.  Not at all.  Been nasty and contentious and all too often violent.  I've seen relationships damaged or destroyed, families split, and much else, little of it good.  It would be nice to think that the results of today's vote puts at least a temporary stop to that.  I guess it could happen, but I'm not confident of that.  

And yet, I have a song of the day in mind.  Great Is Thy Faithfulness.  Yes, He is and has been faithful, though I have not been.  His love is a miracle, and no lesser word fits.  And my word do I need it!

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EZEKIEL 5

A Sword Against Jerusalem

1“And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them. 3You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

5“Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. 6She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ 7Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— 8therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. 10Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.

11‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

13‘Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. 14Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15‘So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. 17So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

EZEKIEL 6

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

1Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 4Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. 6In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

8“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. 9Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. 10And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

11‘Thus says the Lord God: “Pound your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them. 13Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. 14So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”

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SONG OF SOLOMON 6

The Daughters of Jerusalem

1Where has your beloved gone,

O fairest among women?

Where has your beloved turned aside,

That we may seek him with you?

The Shulamite

2My beloved has gone to his garden,

To the beds of spices,

To feed his flock in the gardens,

And to gather lilies.

3I am my beloved’s,

And my beloved is mine.

He feeds his flock among the lilies.

Praise of the Shulamite’s Beauty

The Beloved

4O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah,

Lovely as Jerusalem,

Awesome as an army with banners!

5Turn your eyes away from me,

For they have overcome me.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

Going down from Gilead.

6Your teeth are like a flock of sheep

Which have come up from the washing;

Every one bears twins,

And none is barren among them.

7Like a piece of pomegranate

Are your temples behind your veil.

8There are sixty queens

And eighty concubines,

And virgins without number.

9My dove, my perfect one,

Is the only one,

The only one of her mother,

The favorite of the one who bore her.

The daughters saw her

And called her blessed,

The queens and the concubines,

And they praised her.

10Who is she who looks forth as the morning,

Fair as the moon,

Clear as the sun,

Awesome as an army with banners?

The Shulamite

11I went down to the garden of nuts

To see the verdure of the valley,

To see whether the vine had budded

And the pomegranates had bloomed.

12Before I was even aware,

My soul had made me

As the chariots of my noble people.

The Beloved and His Friends

13Return, return, O Shulamite;

Return, return, that we may look upon you!

The Shulamite

What would you see in the Shulamite—

As it were, the dance of the two camps?

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JAMES 3

The Untamable Tongue

1My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Heavenly Versus Demonic Wisdom

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.