Ezekiel 3

¹  Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." ²  So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. ³  He said to me, "Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you." Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. ⁴  Then He said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵  "For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶  nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; ⁷  yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. ⁸  "Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹  "Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house." ¹⁰  Moreover, He said to me, "Son of man, take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen closely. ¹¹  "Go to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.'" ¹²  Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, "Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His place." ¹³  And I heard the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound. ¹⁴  So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the LORD was strong on me. ¹⁵  Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them. ¹⁶  At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁷  "Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. ¹⁸  "When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹  "Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. ²⁰  "Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹  "However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself." ²²  The hand of the LORD was on me there, and He said to me, "Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you." ²³  So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. ²⁴  The Spirit then entered me and made me stand on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, "Go, shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵  "As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶  "Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷  "But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.' He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 4

¹  "Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. ²  "Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around. ³  "Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel. ⁴  "As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵  "For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶  "When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year. ⁷  "Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. ⁸  "Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege. ⁹  "But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. ¹⁰  "Your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹  "The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹²  "You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung." ¹³  Then the LORD said, "Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will banish them." ¹⁴  But I said, " Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth." ¹⁵  Then He said to me, "See, I will give you cow's dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread." ¹⁶  Moreover, He said to me, "Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror, ¹⁷  because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and waste away in their iniquity.

Hebrews 11

¹  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²  For by it the men of old gained approval. ³  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. ⁴  By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. ⁵  By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. ⁶  And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. ⁷  By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. ⁸  By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹  By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; ¹⁰  for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹  By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. ¹²  Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE. ¹³  All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴  For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. ¹⁵  And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. ¹⁷  By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; ¹⁸  it was he to whom it was said, " IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED." ¹⁹  He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. ²⁰  By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. ²¹  By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. ²²  By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones. ²³  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict. ²⁴  By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, ²⁵  choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, ²⁶  considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. ²⁷  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. ²⁸  By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. ²⁹  By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. ³⁰  By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹  By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. ³²  And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³  who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴  quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵  Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶  and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. ³⁷  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ³⁸  (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. ³⁹  And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰  because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.