One In His Hand – Sermon 22 June, 2014

One In His Hand
Ezekiel 37:15-28
The prophet Ezekiel’s words recorded here are for the people of Judah who are in exile in Babylon. They had been taken from their land and their city of Jerusalem and their Temple had been destroyed. They had lost everything and were in a desperate situation and there was no hope.
In this passage, God shows His people that there are four specific things that they can look forward to in the future which should give them hope. Each of the four experiences will provide them great hope in despair.
We can put these four experiences as:
1. Reconciliation- Uniting – from division to unity (vv. 15-22)
God demonstrates to Ezekiel and to His people His future plans for them – plans for “a future and a hope” as described in Jeremiah 29:11. The entire Bible is built on the concept of reconciliation – the reconciliation of the two houses of Israel as well as the reconciliation of man to God through Jesus, the Messiah.
After the death of King Solomon, his son, Rehoboam, became king. But when he continued the heavy taxation commenced under his father’s rule, the ten northern tribes united under Jeroboam and revolted. The two tribes of Benjamin and Judah, along with the Levites remained loyal to Rehoboam and formed the southern kingdom of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem. The remaining ten tribes became the northern kingdom of Israel, with its capital in Samaria.
Although there had been some attempts to re-unify the two kingdoms, it never had been accomplished. And now that the northern kingdom no longer existed, the people had been scattered among the surrounding nations and the southern kingdom lay in ruins.
God promised that one day He was going to unify the two kingdoms again. The process of reconciling the two houses of Israel is a theme that runs throughout the Bible and will end in the events recorded in the Book of Revelation. That process was initiated during the first coming of Jesus, the Messiah and is described very clearly by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians:
“Therefore, remember that formerly you Gentiles by birth and called “the uncircumcision” by those who call themselves “the circumcision”(that done in the body by the hands of men) – remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility”. (Ephesians 2:11-16)
This reference to the Gentiles includes the descendants of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom who had been scattered throughout the surrounding nations, alienated from Israel. But Jesus, through His shed blood, has provided the opportunity for them to be reconciled spiritually with the Jews, and with each other. But the prophecy here in Ezekiel hasn’t been completely fulfilled yet since the people of both Judah and Israel have not been physically planted back into the land God had promised them with one king. That final fulfilment awaits the return of the Messiah, Jesus, the seed of David who will rule over the united kingdom.
The main reason that Judah and Israel were divided in the first place is that they lost their focus on God. As a result, they began to direct their attention to those things on which they disagreed rather than on the God who they had in common.
The same thing often happens in the church. When we start focusing on those things on which we may not agree rather than on Jesus, we damage the unity of the body.
2. Redeeming – Changing – from rebellion to obedience (vv. 23-24)
The root cause of the split of the two kingdoms and their end had been their rebellion against God, especially in their worship. But God promised that one day He would redeem His people from their sin and cleanse them so that they could once again be His people and He would be their God.
Originally, God had given His people the Law for their own good. The law was supposed to be the guide on how to live in obedience to be distinguished from the nations around them for the purpose of bringing glory to God.
The Scripture tells us that God’s people continually allowed themselves to be influenced by and incorporated into the culture of the surrounding nations. And as a result they lost their distinctiveness as the people of God. By Ezekiel’s time, the northern kingdom of Israel no longer existed and it wouldn’t be too long until Judah would suffer the same fate.
But when Jesus returns, He is going to establish His rule, first here on earth and eventually in the new heaven and new earth. And when Israel recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, they are going to repent and regain their distinctiveness as a people by being obedient to Him
As followers of Jesus, our citizenship is in heaven and maintaining our distinctiveness is not by wearing a certain uniform or by having someone announce that we’re Christ followers, but by obeying the commands of Jesus. Peter clearly says:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though accuse of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us”. (1 Peter 2:9-12)
3. Restoring – Re-establishing – from barrenness to fruitfulness (vv. 25-26)
As we have consistently seen in the Old Testament prophets, when Jesus, described here as “David my servant”, returns, Israel will be restored to the land that God had promised to them.
But not only is God going to restore the people to the land, he is going to restore the land to its original fruitfulness. Because of their rebellion, Israel had seen their land ravaged by locusts, as we saw in our Bible Study group when we looked at Joel. Their land had consistently been overrun by foreign armies. Jerusalem had been sacked and the Temple destroyed on multiple times. And as a result the people had experienced barrenness in the land. But when Jesus returns, He is going to make the land fruitful beyond description.
The reason for Israelites not being fruitful was that they had not stayed connected to God. When they originally entered the Promised Land, they failed to free the land of the foreign influences as God had commanded them to do. And because of that sin, the pagan nations around them had drawn them away from God and their spiritual fruit began to wither.
As Jesus prepared to go to the cross, He was concerned that His disciples might fall victim to that same kind of trap if they didn’t focus on staying connected to Him.
The only way that we can remain fruitful in our lives is to stay connected to Jesus as we pursue a relationship with Him through his Word, prayer and by ministering to others in His name.
4. Reposing – Resting – from distress to rest (vv. 27-28)
Ezekiel 37 ends with a beautiful picture of an intimate relationship between God and His people. God will be with them – He will be their God and they will be His people.
God’s presence with His people is pictured here and in verse 26 as God refers to His sanctuary which will be set in their midst forevermore. It seems quite clear that there will be a physical temple built in the Promised Land. Revelation 21 reveals that there will be no temple in the New Jerusalem because God Almighty and Jesus will be its temple, how is it possible for God’s sanctuary to be in their midst “forevermore”?
Although we certainly don’t have enough information at this point, but the most likely explanation is that when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, it then becomes the new home for all Israel and is a continuation of them dwelling in the land forever. At that same time, God the Father and Jesus also become the temple and there is no doubt that they are permanently set in the midst of God’s people forevermore.
But regardless of how the details play out, here is what we can know for sure. When Jesus returns, His people are going to move from a long period of distress to an even longer period of rest in the presence of God. They will physically be in the presence of Jesus and at long last experience the ultimate fulfilment of these words of Jesus:
“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
We live in a world that is full of stress and distress and it’s hard to find rest. But studies have shown the importance of rest for our physical well-being. A lack of sleep has been shown to increase the likelihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and several forms of cancer.
It is important to find rest spiritually. What we see in the last part of Ezekiel 37 is a picture of people who have an intimate relationship with God. They are permanently in His presence, knowing Him better day by day and worshipping Him constantly. Fortunately for us, we don’t have to wait for the return of Jesus to experience that same kind of relationship. We have His Word; we have the ability to communicate with Him in prayer; and we are in the midst of a body of believers who can encourage us in our relationship with Him.
Perhaps one of the reasons that Psalm 23 is so treasured by so many believers is that it captures the essence of what it means to rest in God by pursuing a relationship with Him. And this could happen if we put ourselves in the hands of the most gracious and loving God.

Krikor Youmshajekian