Podcast Summary: Through the ESV Bible in a Year with Jackie Hill Perry

Host: Crossway
Episode Date: November 18, 2025
Passages: Ezekiel 4–6; Psalm 119:81–88; Galatians 5–6

Episode Overview

This episode carries listeners through readings from Ezekiel, Psalms, and Galatians. The focus is on God's judgments and mercy as pronounced through Ezekiel, heartfelt pleas for deliverance and faithfulness from the Psalmist, and Paul's powerful exhortation to the Galatian church about spiritual freedom, the fruit of the Spirit, and mutual accountability in Christ.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Symbolic Acts and Prophecies of Ezekiel

(Ezekiel 4–6 | 00:00–14:30)

• Ezekiel’s Dramatizations: Ezekiel is commanded to enact symbolic acts:

  • Lays siege to a brick symbolizing Jerusalem’s coming judgment (00:03).
  • Lies on his side for 390 days to represent Israel’s punishment, and 40 days on the other side for Judah (00:17).
  • Eats measured rations of bread baked over dung, signifying the dire scarcity and defilement Israel will experience in exile (01:15).

• Key Prophecy and Judgement:

  • God declares Jerusalem’s fate for exceeding even the surrounding nations in wickedness (03:42): “Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you... behold, I, even I am against you, and I will execute judgments in your midst.”
  • Vivid imagery of destruction: One-third dies by plague or famine, one-third by the sword, and one-third scattered (05:10).
  • God’s anger is described as unmatched; the devastation is to be total—turning the city into “a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations” (06:22).

• Remnant and Hope:

  • Despite judgment, a remnant will survive and remember the Lord (11:20): “Yet I will leave some of you alive when you have among the nations some who escape the sword... Then those of you who escape will remember me.”

2. Lament and Hope in Psalm 119:81–88

(14:30–15:40)

• Soulful Ache and Unwavering Faith:
  • The psalmist voices deep longing for salvation and comfort during suffering (14:31): “My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes long for your promise. I ask, When will you comfort me?”
  • Despite relentless persecution and near-destruction, the writer clings to God’s statutes and steadfast love (15:20): “They have almost made an end of me on earth. But I have not forsaken your precepts.”

3. Life by the Spirit: Freedom, Fruit, and Community

(Galatians 5–6 | 15:41–22:00)

• Freedom in Christ, Not Law:

  • Paul urges believers to resist returning to legalism (circumcision) and instead stand in the freedom Christ provides (15:43): “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
  • The futility and bondage of relying on the law is made clear (16:11): “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.”

• The Call to Love and Walk by the Spirit:

  • The fruit of true freedom is love expressed in service (17:40): “The whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
  • Contrasts the ‘works of the flesh’—immorality, jealousy, anger, etc.—with the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (18:47):
    • “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
  • Paul exhorts: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (19:52)

• Restoration and Mutual Accountability:

  • Community life includes gentle restoration (20:12): “If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness… Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

• Sowing, Reaping, and Boasting Only in the Cross:

  • A warning and encouragement: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (21:30)
  • An appeal to persist in doing good, especially to fellow believers (21:54): “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
  • Paul’s personal conclusion (22:25): “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• God’s Righteous Anger and Purpose
  • “Thus shall my anger spend itself. And I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy. When I spend my fury upon them.” (Ezekiel, 06:10)
• Clinging to Promise Amid Affliction
  • “How long must your servant endure? … In your steadfast love, give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.” (Psalm 119:86–88 | 15:25)
• True Gospel Freedom
  • Paul: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6 | 16:38)
  • “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (18:47)
  • “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (19:55)
  • “Let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (21:54)

Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:00–14:30 — Ezekiel 4–6: Complex prophetic acts, warnings of judgment, but also the hope for a remnant.
• 14:30–15:40 — Psalm 119:81–88: Poetry of hope, suffering, and steadfastness.
• 15:41–22:00 — Galatians 5–6: Freedom in the Spirit, fulfillment of the law in love, encouragement for Christian community.

Takeaway

This episode wrestles with the depth of God’s justice and mercy, the call to unwavering faith in seasons of trial, and the Spirit-empowered life of love and accountability in the church. The readings collectively urge listeners to recognize both the seriousness of rebellion and the tender sureness of grace, rooting hope not in religious works but in the cross and new creation through Christ.