THE LORD SPOKE (November 17)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Ezekiel 27-28

Ezekiel 28:24-26 - No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord”. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will show myself holy among them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.

The promise goes back to Jacob! Clear back at Bethel (Gen. 28:13) God told him, “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.” On a return visit to Bethel (35:12) the promise was repeated. Both times the link was made with Abraham and Isaac who were also told that this promise would be forever (Gen. 13:15), to all their generations.

Ezekiel repeats the promise several times in the course of his writings, with the emphasis on God’s covenant to “gather them from the nations and bring them back to their own land” (Ezek. 11:17; 20:34,41-42; 34:13; 36:24; 37:21; 38:8-9; 39:28). Did you notice? Ezekiel repeats the promise several times!

A hundred years ago it still looked impossible. Today it’s an established fact, much to the consternation of some. God did not forget or forsake His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, made 4000 years ago. We call it “the Promised Land” not because it was a particularly promising land - it’s not. It is the Land that was promised by God to Abraham’s descendants forever. Lest we get into another form of this controversy, please note that it was promised to Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob, not through Ishmael.

It can’t be said yet that the promise has been fulfilled (past tense) but it certainly can be said with confidence that it is being fulfilled today before our very eyes. Because there is no single census available and because the definition of “who is a Jew” is so complicated (figures range from 13.2 to 25.2 million), it is difficult to obtain an accurate number for the world Jewish population. Assuming that it is in the neighborhood of 18 million, and considering that the Jewish population in Israel today is approaching 6 million, we can say that the prophecy is around 30% completed. But this is the point - it is being fulfilled.

By the time we get to chapter 37 we will see several other details about this prophecy. The very idea of dry bones being gathered, knocking together, rising up, and being dressed with living flesh is a description of just what is happening. We long for the day when God’s Spirit will be poured out (37:14) for it is only then that Israel and all the other nations will see God’s hand in it and will “know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it”.


Psalms 123-124

These psalms of ascent were not only applied in a literal sense, being sung during the final climb up the steps to the Temple. They also have a metaphorical application in the advancing maturity of a life lived upward toward God.

In living that way, one often looks back in review. Upward progress is all the more sweet when we recognize how far we’ve come. When, from above, you see the place you were not so very long ago, you’re encouraged to press on. You’re also apt to say with the psalmist in Psalm 124:

If the Lord had not been on our side...we would have been swept away.

The stumbling blocks in your path may look different than those that Israel faced (vs. 2-5) but we all inevitably face our own. The Devil will ensure that we do. How appropriate is the metaphor of a bird escaping the fowler’s snare. We sometimes are entrapped by our foul enemy but God is always able to break the snare and give us a way to escape. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (I Cor. 10:13).

So let us periodically take stock. Let us look back and take note of the progress. Let us recognize how very much God has helped us. Indeed, “our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Ps. 124:8).

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting, thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages, in thy sight,
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night,
Before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all who breathe away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come;
Be thou our guide while life shall last,
And our eternal home.

Isaac Watts