295. Bring Out, Gather, Feed
Ezekiel 34:13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
The Lord promises to bring back His people out of Exile in Babylon, and He will feed them. This historical event is symbolic of the Lord bringing us out from the world, where we don’t belong, which is not our home. He is gathering us from out of the world, which is a far country, and when we get too enmeshed in the ways of the world we find ourselves in a foreign land among people who don’t value our values. And finally, the promise is that, once brought and gathered, He will feed us in that special place called home, the Church. The nourishing food is abundant, but it is spiritual. It is heavenly manna, bread from heaven; it is Jesus Christ Himself. He comes to the home that He has made within our hearts and feeds us there with the milk of the Gospel and the meat of His Word.
The mountain by the rivers and the inhabited places of the country are spiritual pictures of Eden: this is the Church on earth. It is invisible except to the eyes of faith. The Church is the Promised Land, the heaven on earth, the Paradise of God. It is made so by the Word of God who sanctifies the place and time, the place where He feeds us with the spiritual nourishment of the Gospel. These are “God moments.” We may hear the Gospel in different ways and places and times and people, but it will always be Jesus. The Gospel of Christ is what He feeds us. It gives us spiritual life and health.
We cannot find any refreshment of any kind from the world, from the foreign land in which we live, from the godlessness around us. The world cannot give peace; only Jesus can give us His peace, and He does. The world can only produce lies that deceive, temporary thrills that pass away, empty promises that are soon broken, bitterness, disappointment, strife, and myriad sins and evils. Jesus feeds us with lasting peace and eternal joy and total love. In the midst of the troubles we live with in a worldly life Jesus also comes to live and feed and tenderly care for us. He feeds.