Month: May 2020

286. God will Bring and Gather

Ezekiel 20:34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

With the same kind of righteous wrath against our Enemies the Lord will exercise His power for our salvation. Sin, Death and the Devil will be eternally judged. These Enemies have already been judged on the cross and the Victory assured in the Resurrection. The mighty hand, a stretched out arm, and fury poured out was seen in spades in the Ten Plagues against Egypt’s gods (evil spirits) and the crossing of the Red Sea. The same awesome power is glorified on the Cross and the Empty Tomb. This is God’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

The Lord’s promise through Christ to bring us out from the people and gather us out of the countries is our salvation from slavery to Sin and bondage to the World. The world is symbolized as Egypt and Babylon. Sin, Satan and Death rule the world in which we are imprisoned by our sin and guilt.Our sin condemns us to the World and the world is condemned to pass away. Jesus takes us out of this world and thus we escape judgment.

The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us through the Gospel and keeps us in the one true faith. We have been gathered into the Kingdom of God, which is within; and that is a safe place. The Enemy cannot touch us there. Unfortunately, we live in both worlds, each with its own Ruler. To which world will we look in good times and in bad? Some Israelites looked back wistfully to Egypt, where they had food; some Jews elected to stay in Babylon, where they grew comfortable. The world does have its attractions, but faith sees the empty promises, temporary thrills, corrupted ways, and deadly temptations therein; and faith sees a way of escape; faith holds on to the Promise. The Lord brings us out and gathers us out of every trial and trouble and problem of this world and puts us safely in His world. In His safe hands, in His kingdom, we wait for the revelation of the eternal kingdom of life with God and the absence of all evil. Jesus has the power and He is exercising that power for our good.

285. God will Rule

Ezekiel 20:33 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.

All sinners react against this promise, because we desire to rule our own lives; we want to be like God. Who runs our lives? Do I run my own life or does the authority? This is a vital part of the First Sin of Adam and Eve. They wanted to rule their own lives and make their own decisions about what is good or evil; and every person, from childhood forward, chafes under authority; we want to grow up and be our own boss. Even more, most people want the power to rule over others, for our own advantage. 

So why do we consider this a good promise, that “I will rule over you?” It is because the basic hope is that someone with power will protect me and take care of me. It is work to make my own decisions and be responsible for my life. If the authority protects, preserves and provides for me and my welfare, then that would be a good thing; I can be content with that if I could ever find such a benevolent king or ruler. I am willing to submit to a good and kind ruler if I really knew that ruler had my best interests at heart.

Every sinner needs to learn that God is Good. This is what the Bible is for, to reveal to us what our problem is and what kind of God rules. The Spirit, through the Word and using the experiences of life, teaches us that God is Good, that He is Love, and I can safely submit everything to Him. I trust Him, I believe in Him, I submit to Him, I love Him because I know His nature and character. I see it clearly on the cross. The Gospel tells me who God is and what He has done for me. Faith means I willingly give up the control of my life and my eternity to this good and gracious God. I hear the Law to convict me that my way, my own rule, is not good. I hear the Gospel to convince me that God’s way, His rule, is good. Therefore, this is a good promise. I rejoice in the reign of God; I gladly enter His kingdom. The Spirit shows me Jesus; Jesus shows me a good God. He rules over me, and that is a good thing.

It is good news that God rules His Kingdom with a mightY hand, a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. At first glance it may not sound so good, but it truly is when we realize how God the King uses His Power: He exercises His Power and Fury against my Enemies, sin, death and the devil. The Lord defeats everything that fights against my life, health and wellbeing, and I am saved for His Rule. The Kingdom will win. I want to get in it now, and I do by faith in Jesus. I begin to realize that “wanting my own way” is submitting to Evil. Wanting God’s way is submitting to Good. Our Lord reigns! Hallelujah!

284. Live in the Law

Ezekiel 20: 11, 13, 21 And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them….My statutes, my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them….my statutes, my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.

The repeated promise is: ” you shall live in them.” If you keep the commandments, then you will live. True life, real living, a good life comes through the blessings of keeping the Law of God. God gives the Commandments in order to facilitate a good life. God wants us to live happily and well, so He gives the Moral Law to make it happen. The blessings of obedience will come into effect if you do the Commandments. “If you do, you will live.” Living according to the Law and doing the Commandments guarantees good results and many blessings. This is true whether we believe it or not. This is true even for atheistic heathen. It is a natural law embedded in the universe by the Creator.

The Law is good. The problem is that we as sinners cannot keep the Law perfectly. Therefore the principle is this: the curses of disobedience come into effect. But what we do or do not do according to the Law affects our life. It is easy to learn and to know the Law, the guidelines from God, and the right thing to do, but it is impossible to do them. Keeping the Commandments is life: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” “You know the commandments.” The Law is good. I am not good. Therefore, the conditional promise here leads either to despair or to the Gospel. There is despair because I cannot keep the Law and be good; therefore, I die..

But after life disappoints us and the Law convicts us, then we turn to the Gospel, and in the gospel we find life. By faith in Jesus the promise comes true: “We shall live.” “The just shall live by faith.” Faith makes us just (justifies). Because of Christ the promise of living comes to us: He lives for us, and He dies for us to give us life and righteous obedience to the Law. The blessings come into effect. Most people would give anything for their life. What would we give for eternal life? Eternal life is a good, beautiful, rich, folly satisfying, and abundant life. And it never ends. Jesus keeps the Law for us and gives us the blessings, rewards and benefits of obedience. If I am not enjoying life I listen to the Gospel again. Then I live.

283. Surely Live

Ezekiel 18:21, 22, 28 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

The promise of God that we will surely live is conditional: If you repent and turn from your sins and keep the Law, then you will surely live. The condition is repentance and faith. For us in the NT it means faith in Jesus Christ, for He is the only one who has kept the Law in our place and suffered the death penalty for our sins. In other words, believing in Jesus is eternal life. “He who believes has eternal life. He who does not believe is condemned already,” already condemned because the unbeliever is still in sin and so under the sentence of death; and there is no one to pay for his sin but he himself. The penalty is eternal death; he will not surely live.

The additional promise for “those who live” is that their sins will not be mentioned. When believers stand in the Judgment no sins will be mentioned or even found in the books, for they have been forgiven and erased. The record is clean. Since there is no sin mentioned this person is righteous, and in his righteousness he will live. The only way to become righteous is by faith in Christ. We have traded our sins for His righteousness. By faith righteousness is ours and sin is not ours any longer. 

Jesus has met the condition. Repentance and faith in the Gospel does not cause life; it simply receives it and makes it personally one’s own. Now we “have” eternal life. This faith is tremendously helpful for everyday life. To live, really live, we need to hear the Gospel and receive the promise every day, for we sin every day. Sin brings death; the Gospel gives forgiveness, righteousness and life. We will find life in this deadly world much more bearable and enjoyable when we believe the Gospel afresh and receive Jesus again and again.

282. The Just will surely Live

Ezekiel 18:9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God.

We can put this another way, as Paul in Romans 1 quotes Habakkuk: “The just will live by faith.” The conditional promise is: if you keep my commandments, then you will surely live. The NT says: if you believe, then you will be just and you will live. The issue is “be just.” The question is: “How do I become just?” I become just (and so I will live) either by keeping the commandments or by faith. When we believe in Jesus Christ we are declared just. We can’t keep the commandments, and so we will fail to live by trying that method. But Jesus kept the commandments perfectly for us, and He gives us perfect obedience. By faith we are just, and by being just we will live. We live by faith. “Whoever believes in Me has eternal life.”

Truly dealing justly, walking in God’s Law and keeping His commandments is surely living. The Law will make us truly alive, living well, and living forever, if we could keep it perfectly. Of course, we cannot, so we turn to the Gospel. Believing the Gospel makes us just, and the just will surely live. OK, is it by faith or by works? We know the obvious answer.

This is not just a matter of life or death; it is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. We already have a life, but it Is a life that will end; it is short; it is temporary; it is weak and vulnerable. This life is not life; it is not living; it is not forever; it is full of pain and suffering. And it is my fault: death is the wages of sin, my sin. I am a sinner: therefore I do not really have life, but I have death. I am forgiven: therefore I do not really have death, but I have life.

By faith I will surely live. This is the promise. Each day new life is given to me right in the middle of and next to this body of death. At the same time that I suffer the pains of a short life with its death I am also enjoying a life that has no pain, no suffering and no death. Believe the promise, and live eternal life every day.

281. Grow the low tree and dry tree

Ezekiel 17:24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish; I the Lord have spoken and have done it.

A common theme with a promise in Scripture is the bringing down of the proud and the raising up of the humble. God gives grace to the humble, who sense their need of God and His Grace. Just as the Lord will raise us up from the dead so also He will exalt us to the highest places of heaven. If we are dead and buried with Christ by Baptism and faith so we will rise with Him, ascend with Him, and be seated with Him in the heavenly places. There we rule with Him over the Enemies who would destroy us.

We are the low tree, which the Lord promises to exalt. The lowly of this world who are connected to Christ by faith will be exalted with Him. Trusting this promise we are able to endure with grace any and every worldly humiliation and suffering, for we know that life in the world is temporary and it will pass. We wait in faith for the Day when our Lord Jesus Christ will come, raise us up, and lift us to an exalted position in eternal glory. That day will come. Wait for it. While all the glory, wealth and pleasures of this world will pass away, what God is working inside us is lasting glory, exceeding spiritual riches, and pleasures forevermore. This inheritance is guaranteed. For now, we have the seal of this inheritance in the heavens, which is the Holy Spirit. He assures through the Word that what we are waiting for we already have in the spiritual kingdom of God within. We live by that faith, not by sight.

We are the dry tree, which God promises that He will make flourish. The flourishing and growth of life is unseen to human eyes, but God sees, and faith sees. We can count on the Spirit of God to water our naturally born dry spirit as we are born again to a living hope. We have a renewed spirit and a newness of life. God promises newness, freshness, cleansing, watering, flourishing, and new growth. We trust the Lord to use His Word to make good things happen in the midst of bad things happening. In God’s wisdom and supernatural working through the Word He works it all out together for good. The promise: you, the dry tree, will flourish. If you could only see inside you to see the beauty and life that God sees!

280. Plant the Branch on the Mountain

Ezekiel 17:22, 23 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top on his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: an it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.

God promises to plant the highest branch of a cedar on a high mountain. The Lord will take the Branch (Jesus the Messiah) and plant it, and it will grow and produce many branches and much fruit. There is much symbolism in this parable. Jesus uses a parable of this kind to refer to the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God will grow and produce fruit after the Christ dies and rises again. The kingdom will grow among all those who are growing out of Jesus (they believe in Him).

When Jesus appeared in public He said, “Repent and believe the Gospel, for the kingdom of God is near.” Jesus is the kingdom, and those who believe in Him enter the kingdom. And so it grows; it brings forth branches; it bears fruit. Jesus likened the kingdom to a mustard seed: this is faith, maybe even a little faith; and it grows into a large shrub with branches and it bears fruit. The birds of the air will nest it in and dwell safely. The kingdom (the high mountain) starts as a seed, or a twig (faith), and it spreads all over the world. 

The kingdom is also within the heart of the believer. It starts as a seed of a little faith, and then it grows inside. We don’t even know how. “The seed grows secretly.” It bears fruit. We don’t even try to make it happen. The inner kingdom bears fruit as long as we are connected to the Vine. We don’t even see it happen. Promises like this are given to us because we don’t see it. God promises, and so we believe it happens. Staying in Jesus through faith in the Word and in prayer produces results. Since we don’t see or take credit for the results, God tells us so that we may believe there is a cause and effect relationship between believing in Christ and living a holier and more loving life. The promise is real. The growth is real. A fruitful life is the promised result.

279. Covenant Established

Ezekiel 16:62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

The Lord promises to establish His covenant with His people and the people will know that He is the Lord. The purpose of a covenant is to give benefit to and make good things happen for both parties. It makes peace in place of hostility. The whole purpose of the Bible is to reveal the covenant God makes with His created humanity. The people on the human side have broken the covenant several times, but the Lord never breaks His covenant promise on God’s side.

God promises to establish, to make form, or to reaffirm the covenants God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham and David and their descendants. So here God re-establishes the covenant He already established. This covenant was finally secured for both God and people by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This covenant is eternally secure in the heavens by the blood of Christ. This very blood of the covenant is given to us and sealed in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Participating in Communion is remembering the promise and making it present and real and effective in our daily lives. And every time we respond to the Gospel by repentance and faith we accept the terms of the covenant. The Blood binds God to us and us to God. Ever after, we know that He is the Lord.

The covenant with the Lord is reestablished in Christ when He came to earth and did what He did. We have the promise of forgiveness, life and salvation secured as certain and sure and positive as it could ever be. God makes a promise and He keeps it. Jesus Christ holds up our end of the covenant and keeps it for us, thus securing a never-ending relationship. All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ. We appropriate these promises by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. What we do when we go to church is reaffirm the already established covenant for ourselves and for our comfort and eternal security. We never get bored with the Gospel and we can never be over-reminded of it.

278. Fury, Jealousy, Anger Gone

Ezekiel 16:42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

God promises that His fury will rest, His jealousy will depart, and He will no more be angry. This is quite a wonderful promise for those Jews who are feeling the fury, jealousy and anger of the Lord during this time of destruction, defeat and exile. God promises that there will be relief from this severe judgment. God has been rightly furious with the people for their idolatry and rejection of the goodness of God. God was properly jealous because of the other gods they were worshiping. He had predicted that because He was a jealous God He would visit the iniquity upon the unbelievers who trust in idols. God’s righteous anger over their disobedience, idolatry, rebellion, and unbelief has been poured out in judgment just as He said He would.

The nature of God demanded justice and now it has come. Over and over the Lord had threatened and warned them through Moses and the Prophets that the curses of the covenant would come into effect, and now it has. God must be true to His character or He would no longer be God. The jealousy and anger of God is much more than the human emotions we can understand. Holiness cannot be offended without punishment. The intimate relationship of husband and wife cannot be adulterated without breaking. The pain of unbelief and mistrust is an infinite offense against an infinite God causing a righteous and infinite anger. As far as we know, The people did not call God unfair or complain about the Lord or blame God. They recognized their sin and guilt and deserved punishment. They could only beg for mercy. And God is merciful.

We also can appreciate this promise when we are convicted of our own guilt and feel a deep sense of shame. We also must experience terror and dread in the presence of a holy and just God, when we admit that we deserve eternal punishment and consumption with fire. But because of Christ, the Lord says to us that He will no longer be furious, jealous and angry with us. After this conviction of sin and guilt, we are convicted of forgiveness and righteousness in Christ. This promise is the promise of the gospel. The gospel is in us a big “Whew!”

277. Remnant Comforted

Ezekiel 14:22 Yet, behold therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.

God promises to save a remnant out of every judgment. For instance, there is Noah out of the Flood, Lot out of Sodom, Moses out of Egypt, and the faithful out of Exile. So also God knows how to save a remnant of faithful believers out of a sinful world, upon which a terrible judgment is coming.

The Lord warns us over and over that just judgment is coming upon all sin and evil and death. The world has a death sentence upon it. The world will face the Judgment of the Last Day when fire and heat destroy the old heavens and earth. And all those who have received the Word (the Christ) in faith will not perish, but have everlasting life. We believers are the remnant which is saved out of catastrophe, because all our sin and evil was placed on Jesus on the cross, and there the judgment was final and sure. This death and resurrection sets us free to become the saved remnant.

It does seem to us as though this remnant is indeed only a few, when compared to the billions of people who have lived on earth. At the same time, this remnant is a vast throng when gathered before the throne in heaven, according to Revelation. The remnant is few, though many; the remnant is many, though few. “Narrow is the door and the way. Few there be that enter therein.” “Fear not, little flock….” Yet the door is wide enough to accommodate all who will believe.

The promise is that, even in the worst of judgments, there will be a saved remnant, and in that promise the Lord promises comfort. We can take hold of the comfort of the Lord. We are the remnant and we are saved. We are not swayed by the majority, nor by the mass of humanity, nor by how many believe the lies of the world. Even iF it seems to us that we are few and weak and in the minority, we will stand firm, for we have the promise.