Ezekiel 37:24-27
“They’ll follow my laws and keep my statutes. They’ll live in the same land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren will live there forever, and my servant David will be their prince forever. I’ll make a covenant of peace with them that will hold everything together, an everlasting covenant. I’ll make them secure and place my holy place of worship at the center of their lives forever. I’ll live right there with them. I’ll be their God! They’ll be my people!”
“My servant David will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd. They will obey my regulations and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after generation. And my servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give them their land and increase their numbers, and I will put my Temple among them forever. I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Here Ezekiel addresses both Judah and Israel, promising to unite them in their own land into one people that will never be divided again. It’s a profound promise to a people who were without a homeland for 2000 years. We gentiles were grafted into Jacob-Israel’s vine at the cross and can claim this promise too. For me the best part is God himself living right in the neighborhood. Imagine the Ancient of Days, Universe Creator, living just down the block, in all our neighborhoods, everything secured and made permanent by a covenant of peace. Then we can truly be his and he will be ours. I can’t wait!
Lord, I imagine such joy at seeing all parts of our human experience made right, living together, with you, fully complete, and exercising all the potential you put within us. I long for it. Come quickly Lord Jesus!