How You Can Tackle the Bible from Cover to Cover

Posted on Sep 03, 2020 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : F. LaGard Smith

The Daily Bible is presented for your daily reading so you can read through the entire Bible in one year, in the chronological order of the Scriptures, just as the events they portray happened in history. Along the way, you will be led from each passage by an informative, interesting narrative which sets the scene for what you are about to read.

If you have never read the Bible from cover to cover, this is one Bible that will help you do that. It takes you by the hand and leads you gently into “the whole counsel of God.” As you see the big picture alongside each separate part in its proper context, you will sometimes be pleasantly surprised, and always be edified and greatly challenged. Reading the Bible on a daily basis throughout an entire year will not be a burdensome commitment but a joyous daily renewal of your faith. If your Bible study has taken on a certain sameness over the years, you will discover through The Daily Bible that God really is speaking to you with wonderful words of life!

September 3

As a messenger of the eternal destruction to come, Ezekiel sees that God has made him personally accountable—not for the response of his hearers, but for his own faithfulness in preaching the word. His role is that of the watchman seeing the approach of danger.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved them-selves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’“

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.

The response from those he is warning is predictable: they demand to know what right God has to bring punishment against Israel. Although Ezekiel has already answered their arguments, he insists one last time that, although God hates the punishment which must come to the wicked, it must nevertheless come (and furthermore, that no one is in a position to argue the matter). Yet the promise is equally sure that even the wicked can be saved through sincere and righteous repentance.