Tuesday, April 24: Ezekiel 11 - Promises of God.

Amidst the stern words and judgments, God often sprinkles promises, which give hope and comfort. We received one of those sprinkles in today’s chapter.

Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.' They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God...’ (17-20).

This promise is actually a glimmer of the work of Jesus. Faith in Jesus makes us a new creation, the old is gone and new has come (2Corinthians 5:17). And with Jesus comes the fulfillment of the many promises about the Holy Spirit being given to all who follow Jesus.

This promise, given through Ezekiel, was a word of hope to exiles in Babylon. God had not forsaken them. But this word was ultimately and fully fulfilled in Jesus who, together with the Father, gives the Holy Spirit to all who believe. 

I pondered these matters and thought how blessed I (we) are to be living in the age when God’s promises are being fulfilled.

Before I prayed, I glanced back and locked on to one more image…the giving of a heart of flesh replacing a heart of stone. This became a prompter for my morning prayer…

Oh, God, a stony heart is cold and hard and calloused. It is absorbed with self, uncaring toward others. A heart of flesh is supple and warm, beating with love and compassion for others and love and devotion for You. Oh, Lord, complete Your heart surgery on me. Change my life so that my heart beats in rhythm with Yours, that I see others as You see them and act toward them accordingly. Through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.