Reading from Monday, November 1

Oof. Rough day. Insanely long day at work and then Jilly called from home telling me that the carbon monoxide alarm going off. Fire department came, the whole deal - it was a dead battery. Then the very, very angry building maintenance guy came and replaced the alarm. It's just...been a long day.

Reading for November 1
Ezekiel 1:1-3:15
Wow. This is the most strange and unique opening to a book in the Bible as I've ever seen. It is written from the first person perspective, which is rare to begin with, but Ezekiel describes a vision of God in unprecedented detail. It's so shocking and weird that many people believe that what Ezekiel actually saw was a UFO. I mean this is just an excerpt of an entire chapter of this stuff:

¹⁰ Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.

I will say this: if that's what God looks like, that is freaking terrifying. I believe this is the first chronological vision of God where he didn't appear in some Earthly shape like a burning bush or a cloud or a pillar of fire. He appeared as a giant flying Manlionoxeagle - or maybe God is actually Manbearpig. 

The rest of this reading is about how Ezekiel was called to be a prophet. After seeing this vision of God, he spoke to Ezekiel and told him he wished for him to be a prophet for him and to lead the Israelites in the right direction. He also asked him to eat a scroll. It's really, REALLY weird. Read it. It's crazy.

Hebrews 3:1-19
This one runs the risk of losing its meaning because of a heavy amount of "Christianese" but it's still a good thing to think on:

¹² See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Allow me to try and translate that into normal English.

"Hey guys, you should really try to keep your faith in God and don't let your vices get the best of you. Instead, help each other out every day so that you don't end up jaded by the fact that your vices can make things end badly for you, cuz you know what you're getting into..."

Psalm 104:1-23
Interesting. This sounds very similar to the vision of God that Ezekiel saw...

² The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment;
   he stretches out the heavens like a tent
 ³ and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
   and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes winds his messengers,^[a]
   flames of fire his servants.

Proverbs 26:24-26
²⁴ Enemies disguise themselves with their lips,
   but in their hearts they harbor deceit.
²⁵ Though their speech is charming, do not believe them,
   for seven abominations fill their hearts.
²⁶ Their malice may be concealed by deception,
   but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

Alright, kids. Have a good night.