22nd January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:23-38
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
33 “Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. 34 And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. 35 And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’36 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.
37 “Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. 38 Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
Although the dispensationalist's view has fatal objections to it, as indicated in the previous Note, there is nevertheless a valid point in their insistence that the Jews as a people still have a significance in the economy of God; and the fact that modern Israel exists as a state today, after nearly two thousand years of wandering in exile in the world, is something that only the blindest and most perverse prejudice can dismiss as of no real significance. The extraordinary fact is that although Israel is geographically and numerically a tiny and insignificant nation, everything that happens in and around it is fraught with worldwide repercussions. History has seen great empires rise and fall and pass into extinction, yet this insignificant people are invariably in the forefront of world events, because - in spite of everything - God has willed them to remain in ignorance. True, they rejected their Messiah, and God finally rejected them from His favour, yet even in their rejection they remain His people. Down the ages they have been God's rejected people, not just any rejected people; and even in their rejection, God wills to use them – in spite of themselves - as instruments of His purposes, and as 'signposts' to these purposes in the world. They refused their calling to be a light to lighten the Gentiles; but even in their refusal they are nevertheless still - however unwillingly, however unconsciously – used of God as instruments of His purposes. This is what Paul expounds in such marvellous terms in Romans 11:12, 15, when he says, 'If the fall of them be the riches of the world ... how much more their fullness? ... And if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?' The reconciling of the world? Was not that accomplished in the death of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19)? Ah, yes! But, suppose what we have here is the 'negative' of the photograph, whose 'positive' print is - the Cross?
21st January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:23-38
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through…
20th January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:23-38
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through…
19th January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:23-38
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through…
18th January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:16-22
16 The word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a…
17th January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:1-15
36 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The ancient heights have…
16th January 2024 – Ezekiel 36:1-15
36 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The ancient heights have…
15th January 2024 – Ezekiel 35:1-15
35 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 and say to it, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will…
14th January 2024 – Ezekiel 34:23-31
23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince…
13th January 2024 – Ezekiel 34:11-22
11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I…