Month: June 2020

296. Feed in Good Pasture

Ezekiel 34:14 And I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a far pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.

The Church where the Gospel is preached is described as a good pasture, as the high mountains of Israel, a good fold, and a far pasture on the mountains of Israel. The Lord promises to feed us in the church with the Gospel in Word and Sacraments. Using the sheep and shepherd metaphor for feeding and caring, the Lord brings us into the fold and from there He leads us in and out to green pastures. 

The good fold is the church of believers who gather regularly to be fed with the sweet Gospel and the severe Law. The sheep are tended and cared for in the fold. It is in the fold where we belong, under the tender care of the Good Shepherd, who meets all our needs. He leads us out of the fold into the still waters and green pastures where we feed and are nourished under the watchful eye of the Good Shepherd. We are in the loving presence of Jesus whether we are in the fold or on the good pastures of the mountains. This is the Good News and the Good Promise of Jesus Christ our Lord and Shepherd.

The Shepherd and Sheep image is meant to conjure up a bucolic and serene scene filled with peace and joy, comfort and security. This pleasant scenario cannot be found anywhere in the world and we cannot be fed by anything from the world. It is the very Lamb of God, who loved us and died for us, who is the Shepherd meeting us and living among us when two or three gather in Jesus’s name. He is always with us to feed us in the pasture, care for us in the fold, and protect us from the lions and wolves and bears that seek to destroy. The Gospel is the power that saves and protects; it is the power that nourishes and provides; it is the power that loves and cherishes; it is the power that places us in the hands of the One who keep us safe, secure and comfortable. Listen to His Voice.

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.

294. Seek and Deliver

Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

It was a cloudy and dark day when all of us human beings have been scattered; we have been severed from a unified connection with the Lord and the children in His family.We have been scattered from each other as well as from God the Person. The scattering has left us alone, isolated, alienated and lost, We have throughout history been seeking a place to belong, a group in which we can feel accepted, and just a connection to something safe and secure,

The Bad News is that it is the Lord who has done the scattering and separating. God said to each of us, “In the day that you eat of it you will surely die.” But we disobeyed and ate, since we think we know better than God; therefore, we began to die along with everything in God’s Very Good Creation. Death was not a part of the universe until I sinned, in Adam. Therefore, it happened just as the Lord God warned: “Dying, you will die.” God always keeps His Word. Death is a separation and a scattering. Now each of us lives with the consequence of our freely chosen and willful rebellion. God did the scattering, but we have only ourselves to blame. The Lord only did what He said He would do; as He always must.

In the midst of our lost, scattered and hopeless human condition the Lord brings us Good News: He Himself will seek us out and deliver us. And so God keeps His promise, just as He keeps His threats and warnings: He sent His Son to seek and save the lost and deliver them from their emptiness and loneliness. We believe God’s promise and we are saved. There is no more death, no more separation, no more scatteredness, and no more meaningless lostness.  The cloudy and dark day has become sunshine and bright glory. We are back with God where we belong.

Believe the promise: “He is among His sheep that are scattered.” When we feel scattered and fragmented we may just say, “Baa, here I am! Save me!” He will. He is right there, looking for you.

293.  God will Search and Seek

Ezekiel 34:11 For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

The Lord promises to search for His sheep and seek them out. This is the Lord, the Good Shepherd, in action. First, the Good Shepherd seeks out lost and strayed sheep that are not of His fold (“other sheep have I”). He lifts them up, binds them up, and brings them in. He died and rose for them, tells them the Good News, and saves them by the Gospel.

Second, the Good Shepherd searches for these sheep that were in the fold, but then strayed away and got lost. He picks them up and brings them back. Jesus uses this image of a shepherd looking for the lost sheep in His parables. This seeking and finding the lost applies to those who have never been in the fold and those who have been in the fold and then strayed off.

In either case, it is the Lord, the Good Shepherd, who looks for me to save me and give me life when I am baptized or come to believe in Him, And it is the Good Shepherd who counts me in, and if He doesn’t account for me He goes out and looks for me wherever I may have gotten lost. He knows where I am, but until He finds me I do not know where I am, nor do I even see that I am lost. The Lord must convince me that I am lost and in danger, and then I will allow Him to pick me up, put me on His shoulders or hold me to His chest, and gently carry me back where I belong. He places me back again into the safe place where He can take care of me, 

There are also times in life when life doesn’t make sense, I am at wit’s end, things are just not right, I don’t know what’s wrong, and I don’t know what to do. In times like these “baa” for the Shepherd and let Him find you, He will be there. At other times, we tend to blame God or others for the things that are wrong In life or we just complain about what’s going on. Again, call on the Lord and He will be there. Actually, He’s always been there just waiting for your cry for help, because He has been looking for you. And it is a great comfort to know at all times that He has His watchful eye upon us and His outstretched arms are reaching for us.

292. He shall surely live

Ezekiel 33:14-16, 19 Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn rom his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him; he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

This is a conditional promise: if you keep the Commandments, then you will surely live. The condition says, “If you repent”: If you turn from your sin and wickedness and do what is lawful and right. Repentance and turning, and then doing, is the key that leads to life, If not, then death is sure. Repentance is a matter of life and death. This still leaves us in despair and fear, for even if we repent and turn once it is not enough. We must then start doing what is lawful and right, keeping the commandments perfectly. Practically, this means we must repent every day, since we are always sinners and we continue to sin daily.

And this is true: we must repent daily as the life of a Christian is one of daily repentance. Repentance always includes faith in Christ. We hear the Law and we repent; we hear the Gospel and we believe. Repentance and faith are always joined together. One cannot genuinely have one without the other. The power to actually do what is right and lawful comes from the Gospel of grace; the power does not come from the Law, from good intentions, from telling ourselves or being told to do better. The Law has no power except the power to condemn. Only the Gospel has the power to save, to forgive, to change lives, and to give life.

“You will surely life,” because Jesus lives for you and dies for your sins. “The just will liveby faith.” The conditional promise becomes unconditional, for Jesus has kept the condition for us. When I repent and believe that Good News then I can be sure that I will surely live. It’s not the repentance and turning that saves from death and gives life, but repentance and faith simply receives what is already given by grace. The believer really has life and really lives, and this life is a forever life. However, before we die we still struggle with sin and death; therefore, repentance and faith is necessary to live, surely live.

291. Remember the World no more

Ezekiel 23:27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

Egypt is symbolic of the World with all of its idols and false gods, demons and devils. The promise is that we will be freed from bondage to the world with its sin and death. The Exodus from Egypt is the type of our Deliverance from the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The premier event of the OT prefigures the premier event of the NT. The promise is that Jesus will liberate us from slavery to the world with its lies and empty promises. This has happened.

The lewdness and whoredom is a graphic symbol of adultery in our marriage bond relationship with the Lord. It is adultery to have other gods than the Lord alone. Adultery is idolatry. The world with its glitzy allure tempts us to seek after the money, pleasures and power that the world offers. To seek after these offerings from the world is idolatry (lewdness and whoredom), instead of seeking all good from the Lord alone. This is an extremely hard lesson to learn, but the Lord promises that we will learn it. Adultery and idolatry will cease. We will never again look to the world for satisfy our desires ever again. The power of God’s Word is strong enough to make this sin to stop. The Gospel will so change our hearts that we will fear, love and trust in the Lord alone for all good. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus has given us, will accomplish this impossible task. The love of God, exhibited on the cross and assured at the empty tomb, turns our attention away from the world and to the Lord.

The amazing part of this promise is that in all eternity we will never again remember the world. We will forever remember the good things God has done for us in our lifetime while we were in the world, but we will not remember al the bad things the world has done to us. The world will be gone from memory when sin, death and devil are cast into the lake of fire. Then will come the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness endures forever. Our first thought, all the time, every second, will be God and His goodness, never the world. 

290. Consume Filthiness

Ezekiel 22:15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

This does not feel like a wonderful promise, but it really is: God promises to consume the filthiness out of us. “Our god is a consuming fire. ”The chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” To accept this as a beneficial promise we must first admit that there actually is filthiness in us that needs to be burned out. This will take a conviction of the Holy Spirit who uses the Law to show us our sin. This leads us to repentance and to faith in the Gospel. Unless we want to hold on to our sins we will have to submit to the fire. “Consume” here does not mean “eat up,” but “burn up” with fire. 

When we are baptized and believe in Jesus Christ the Spirit comes in, and the Spirit is a fire. He points out our sins so that we may put it in the fire to be consumed. This is not a pleasant process, but the discipline of the Lord yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. But it is possible for us to do this “repent and believe” exercise because Jesus suffered for our sins and “took the heat,” as it were. By faith in Christ we do not suffer the consuming fire, for Jesus has done it for us. We lay our sins on Jesus, and they are consumed in Him. Jesus consumes the filthiness out of us.

This is been accomplished, “finished,” on the cross, but we still work out such a great salvation with fear and trembling during our lives. Then the lifelong process of consuming goes on by the work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Law and the Gospel of the Word of God. Finally, our own death finishes the process and we are perfected. 

Believing this process helps us not to complain, blame others, or make excuses. Instead, when bad things happen we are reminded of our own sin that needs consuming. Then we give ourselves to the Lord and receive afresh the forgiveness of sins. We do not beat ourselves up or burn ourselves up, but we let the Lord work out the “consuming of filthiness” process. Thank God that He uses every bad thing that happens to turn our eyes to the cross and our ears to the Gospel. When you see filth give Him your filth and let Him consume it out of you.

289. God will be Sanctified

Ezekiel 20:41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, andI will be sanctified in you before the heathen.

God promises to accept us, bring us out and gather us out of the world. The Lord has done this and kept this promise many times; He continues to save us; and He will surely do so finally at the End of time. The World had us under captivity and slavery and held us under the sentence of death. On our own we would not be able to escape from the World (Egypt and Babylon); but the Lord intervened, worked miracles, and made a way of escape through the Cross and the Resurrection. The promise is finished.

Through God’s mighty deeds, especially in the Christ Event, the Lord will be sanctified before the world of unbelievers. What does that mean? How can God be sanctified, made holy? He is already perfectly holy. The original meaning of sanctify is “set apart,” or “set apart for a holy purpose.” The derivative meaning of sanctify then becomes “make holy.” For once something is set apart from sin and uncleanness it is holy unto the Lord. When we as people are set apart by the Gospel we are separated from Sin and Death and Satan and the World and Sinful Flesh. We are separated unto God by the Blood of Christ and so we must be holy, without spot, stain or blemish.

But that is for us sinners. What about for God? The Lord is revealed to be seen as set apart before the eyes of the unbelieving world. And what is more, He is sanctified, set apart, seen as special, in us. Our good works shine before men so that they may give glory to our Father who is in heaven. This is the promise. God’s life is living in us in such a way that others see the Lord in our life, and in this way He is sanctified before the unbelieving world. Whether we or other people actually see and recognize the Lord as sanctified in us is not the issue. God promises that it is so, and so it is. God promises to be sanctified in us, and we believe it to be true.

288. The Bond of the Covenant

Ezekiel 20: 37 And I will cause you to pass under he rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

God promises to bring us into the bond of the covenant and keep us in that eternal covenant bond forever. Once we are securely in that bond through the blood of the eternal covenant, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the relationship cannot be broken. The covenantal promise is sealed in Holy Baptism and remembered by us every day of our lives. The blood of the covenant is partaken of in Holy Communion every time we do this in remembrance of Christ. We do not renew the covenant for it has not been broken or lost. We do not recommit for the commitment is already eternally secure. We do not reestablish an already established covenant for it is already firm in the heavens.

However, we do need to remember the bond of the covenant, because we are in the habit of getting distracted, ignoring, neglecting, and forgetting the covenant the Lord God made with us. Therefore, we need reminding since our sinful minds have this weak habit. And so we hear the Gospel again and again. The Lord has made a covenant with us, He remembers us in that covenant daily, and He will finally complete the covenant eternally in the heavens. That’s a promise!

The Lord will cause us to pass under the rod. The rod or the staff of the Shepherd is used to count each individual sheep of the flock as each one individually passes under the rod in the shepherd’s hand through the gate into the enclosure. This ritual has five purposes: 1) to count them all so ensure that not one is lost; 2) to assure each individual sheep that he is noticed, paid attention to, tended and cared for by the Good Shepherd, and when we feel the rod we know we are special; 3) to mark ownership and to claim each one of the flock as belonging to the Shepherd; 4) to single out a weak or sickly one for special care; or maybe 5) to discipline a straying or wandering sheep to bring it back into the fold. Thank the Lord; our Good Shepherd causes us to pass under the rod to bring us into covenant.

287. Plead with us

Ezekiel 20:34, 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.

God promises to plead with us. Interesting. What does this mean? It means He pleads with to believe Him, to trust Him, to love Him, to worship Him alone. It does not mean that Jesus and the Spirit plead for us. He does do this, but that’s not the meaning here. It does not mean that we will plead with God. We do that, but that’s not the meaning here. No, the Lord is pleading with us, and He will plead with us always and ever. 

This is an intriguing way to read the Scriptures: read the Bible like it is a revelation of how the Lord God is pleading with us, even begging us on bended knee. He simply says: “Trust Me. Please. Believe that I am good. Know that I love you. Feel how much I yearn for you. Receive My eternal forgiveness. Take My yoke. Cast your burdens upon Me. Talk to Me. Seek My face. Come into My presence, enjoy My love,” and on and on. If we read God’s invitations and promises as begging and pleading with us, we will have a whole different perspective on the truth about who God is and who I am. God is perfect love and He loves me perfectly. God is great and I am special. I am sought out. I am waited for. Ask the Spirit to reveal to you the sight of the Prodigal’s Father, waiting by the front gate begging and pleading, “Come home!” And when we do, we may jump into His arms and have a party.

God has allowed us, nay, caused us, to live in the wilderness of the world, a long way from comfort and safety and protection and provision and from home and from the Father’s loving arms. But it is just there, there in the wilderness of the world, where He pleads with us. In the desert of life He comes and does mighty works and wonders of Salvation. He pleads with us by means of the Red Sea, the manna, the water, and by means of answered prayer again and again. He pleads daily with the Blood of the Son of God. He begs with the Gospel of Grace. See it. Hear it. Believe it. Receive it. Live it. Enjoy it. The “hound of heaven” is pleading every day, and He won’t stop. Hear the words of Jesus, “Come unto me.” The Father will draw you with cords of love.