Focus
Breath and embrace God’s work in our lives and the love He has for us.
Read
Ezekiel 37:15-28 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, take a stick and write on it, “For Judah, and the Israelites associated with it”; then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it”; and join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. And when your people say to you, “Will you not show us what you mean by these?” say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it; and I will put the stick of Judah upon it, and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand. When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.
Reflect
We know of the illustration of tying two sticks together and then trying to break them. In this scripture, God is revealing that He will do the same for Israel, never to be broken. The one true King reigning over them will be the Messiah. All peoples will know that God has favored Israel because he will place His sanctuary in their midst and His work in bringing them together under one King will be revealed. When Jesus called the Apostle Paul to the ministry, Paul was assigned to the Gentiles, as the Jews would not believe.
In Romans 11, it speaks of branches being cut off and wild branches being grafted in their place. The natural branches are the Jews and the wild branches are the Gentiles. God is fulfilling his Word not only for Israel but for the Gentiles. Being grafted in, we then are of the Jewish covenant and lineage, and God will bring us together in oneness with Christ, the Holy King. We have so much to be thankful for by being in that covenant with God through Christ; one day seeing the Glory in Heaven of our Lord and our God.
Pray
Holy God, I praise your name that you would bring me into your covenant and to be joint heirs with Christ in Heaven. Forgive me if I have been boastful or complaisant in my life. Forgive me if as a Christian I have look down on others who are not or are struggling with their walk with you. Help me in my walk, that I can been a better example for you. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
Go with God!
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