Day 62
Ezekiel 35 - 48
It's fitting that I'm on the last day's reading in Ezekiel this first week of January. A new year. Clean slate.
The people of Israel are experiencing that as this book ends. A rebirth. A new era. A clean slate. God has returned and will dwell among his people. He will be their sanctuary. Their Yahweh. To match the greatness of the destruction they experienced, even greater will be His glory than ever before.
Are you needing that this New Year? I know I am. I want that. I so desire it I can feel it. I want the past few years of seizure destruction to be restored to even greater health than Brandon has ever seen. I want the destruction of disappointments we've faced to be restored to even greater glory that what we could ever imagine.
I want that new heart - as God promises in Ezekiel 36:24
"I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all you impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh......you will be my people and I will be your God."
Ezekiel 36:33
"On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt."
Ezekiel 36:36
"Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate."
Ezekiel 39:27
"When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord."
I just love the timing in this. Beginning the New Year with such HOPEISM of restoration, renewal, rebuilding. The temple being rebuilt to grander glory and filled with an even greater Glory of the Lord Himself.
Ezekiel ends with these words:
"And the name of the city from that time on will be: The Lord is There."
Yes, He is there...
And I'm so thankful that for me, my husband, my son, my family -- for this New Year and for all our hopes and dreams for this New Year --- He's here too.
HOOYAH
&
HALLELUJAH
