Wednesday after Misericordias Domini Sunday
Posted on April 26, 2023 by under
Scripture: Ezekiel 34:23-31 (NKJV)
34:23 I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.
25 “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27 Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. 29 I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. 30 Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God.’”
31 “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord God.
Devotion
Ezekiel prophesies the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of the New Testament. The title, “My servant David,” is a prophetic title for the Christ. By the time Ezekiel lived King David was dead and buried, but Jesus identifies Himself as the Son of David (Matt. 22:45). Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise which God made to David, saying, “I will set up your Seed after you, who will come from your body … and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:12-13).
The peace and the safety which God promises to Christians in this passage from Ezekiel is of two kinds. The first is a peace of the spirit, which we enjoy even now. The second is the bodily manifestation of that peace, which we will enjoy in the Resurrection of the Last Day. Right now we enjoy the peace of the forgiveness of sins. Our enemies in this life may torture and kill our bodies, but we need not fear them, because they cannot touch our spirits nor kill our salvation. In the Resurrection, that peace of spirit will become also a bodily peace, because God will finally cast all enemies of the Gospel into eternal punishment. He will then create a new heaven and a new earth for our enjoyment, where there will be no decay or disease.
Prayer: God, Who, by the humiliation of Thy Son, didst raise up the fallen world: Grant unto Thy faithful ones perpetual gladness, and those whom Thou hast delivered from the danger of everlasting death, do Thou make partakers of eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
