“"I will bless them and let them live around my sacred hill. There I will bless them with showers of rain when they need it.” (Ezekiel 34:26)
This is such a comforting Scripture. But let’s get some background and understand what Ezekiel wrote and how this applies to us. The chapter starts out with God denouncing the shepherds of Israel. By shepherds, God means the religious leaders who should be taking care of the Israelites. But they are making sure they’re taking care of themselves and not the sheep, meaning the people. They’re feeding themselves well and wearing the best and have not taken care of those who are weak, sick, hurt or lost. Instead, they treated them cruelly. (Ezekiel 34:1-6)
Starting in verse 10 God speaks through Ezekiel and says that He Himself, the Sovereign LORD will take care of them. And in verses 25-31, God makes a covenant with them. Our Scripture of study is part of that covenant. That covenant is yet to be fulfilled. Ezekiel’s prophesy was given to the people to comfort them and to give them hope. They were exiled in Babylonia at the time.
This covenant is one that God made with the Israelites concerning the restoration of Israel. This will occur in the end times. Their Good Shepherd, Jesus has come, but the time of their restoration has not. Instead, God has reserved this time for the Gentiles to be saved, which is part of the promise He made to Moses and which has been mentioned many times in the Old Testament. God said to Moses, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:18 KJV) And God is faithful to His promise to Moses and has blessed abundantly those from nations around the world who come to Him. “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ He has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world.”(Ephesians 1:3) The Lord has blessed us spiritually with every spiritual blessing. I don’t think we can even count or know all the spiritual blessings that God has given His children. God has not only blessed us spiritually, but in the natural. “And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.” (2Corinthians 9:8)
From the very beginning, God wanted all people to be His children. He chose the Jews to bring forth knowledge of Him. We cannot fathom how God works His Will and Purposes. But He has it all under control at His appointed times.
And we cannot begin to comprehend the extent of His blessings. For our understanding, which is so limited, we just think of a minute of the reality of His Goodness; just the tip of the iceberg. We cannot even envision that He has made us co-inheritors with Jesus. Paul says it best. Paul calls himself the least of God’s people because he persecuted the church zealously before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. “I am less than the least of all God's people; yet God gave me this privilege of taking to the Gentiles the Good News about the infinite riches of Christ,” (Ephesians 3:8) Paul uses the word “infinite.” In another version, the word has been translated “unsearchable.” Either way, it translates into blessings that we can’t even grasp.
Paul quotes Isaiah when he writes to the Corinthians, “However, as the Scripture says, "What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love Him." (1Corinthians 2:9) In studying Scripture, we know that the end is coming. It will be the end of the time of the Gentiles and God will restore Israel. To do that, there will be a time of God’s wrath on those who refused His wonderous gift, His mercy and grace. And as for the Gentiles who have come to Jesus, we’ve been grafted into His people and will receive the blessing with Israel. “Some of the branches of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off, and a branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to it. You Gentiles are like that wild olive tree, and now you share the strong spiritual life of the Jews.” (Romans 11:17) So, we wait for His Son to come from heaven—His Son Jesus, whom He raised from death and Who rescues us from God's anger that is coming.
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