Tuesday after the Last Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 26, 2019 by under
Scripture: Ezekiel 37:15-28 (NKJV)
37:15 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 16 “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.
18 “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’—19 say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ 20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.
21 “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
24 “David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. 25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”’”
Devotion
“My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Our Lord once graciously guided the children of Israel through the desert, and finally into the promised land. His presence was seen in a cloud by day and fire by night. He commanded the construction of a tabernacle, a “portable temple,” if you will. At its dedication (Ex. 40), the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and the ark of the covenant was placed within it. The tabernacle was the earthly dwelling place of the Lord; the location of His real presence among His people.
In Ezekiel, God tells a people going into exile that the tabernacle will be restored, and with it the covenant relationship between God and His people. In John 1 we read that the Word became flesh and made His dwelling (literally, “tabernacled”) among us. Jesus Christ is the real presence of God with us. As we receive His real presence in Holy Communion, we once again rejoice that the Lord is our God, and we are His people.
And so shall it be forever. Holy Communion is a partaking in the marriage feast of the Lamb which will have no end. We rejoice that He “tabernacles” among us now, and we look forward to the uninterrupted communion we will have with Him in the life of the world to come.
We pray: Oh Lord, grant us rightly to treasure the communion we have with You, now and forever. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
