GN-Day299 Ezekiel 24-25; Isaiah 8; Hebrews 4

Daily GNT Bible Reading Podcast

EZEKIEL 24-25:Yesterday in Ezekiel we heard the shockingly graphic story of the two adulterous sisters, which were really the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem.

ISAIAH 8:In yesterday’s reading, Isaiah was sent to Ahaz, and the message to the king contains a prophecy that probably had two fulfillments— one in King Ahaz’ time and another at Jesus’ birth: “The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” Had the New Testament not explicitly stated that Jesus’ birth was a fulfillment of this verse, the similarity would be considered just an interesting coincidence.

HEBREWS 4:In chapter 3 we read about God promising another day for the fulfillment of giving Israel a place of rest. And that other day is called ‘today’!

GNT Translation notes:Heb. 4:2 For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not [fully believe it//accept it with faith].[In our Plain English Translation, we gave the full meaning of the coined word ‘sabatismos’ found in verse 9. The word is coined by the writer from the word for Sabbath. Here is verse 9 in our PET translation, which shows how we made this concept clear in Indonesian:]9 So this shows that there is still an opportunity for us— the people of God, to enter God’s ‘land of rest’— which is a spiritual calmness that can be pictured as like stopping work on the Sabbath Day.11 Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of [belief//faith].