pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: Israel


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Breath and Hope

Reading: Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Verse 14: I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.

Ezekiel is living amongst and speaking to a people living in exile.  They were carried off long ago and feel as if they have been living in exile forever.  The people of Israel cry out, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off”.  There is great sadness in these verses.  It is very difficult to live without hope.

As Ezekiel prophesies, the scattered bones come together as tendon, flesh, and skin covers them.  They are capable of having life now but there is no breath in them.  They are flesh and bone, but that is all.  At this point they represent Israel in exile.  Living but not truly having life can also represent many we know ourselves.  Yes, they are physically alive – they go to work, spend time with their families and friends, maybe even play on your softball team.  But they only know earthly life; they do not know or live for anything outside of the here and now.

For the Israelites in exile, life has become about simply surviving in the day to day.  They are barely getting by.  They feel ‘cut off completely’ from God and all they knew back home.  It is hard to live without hope and they are fast losing hope.  God instructs Ezekiel to prophesy that the breath of God enter the dry bones and flesh so that they would have life.  Ezekiel does this and a vast army arises.  This is the vision Ezekiel brings back to the people living in exile, to a people fast losing hope.  In this, the people know that God has heard their cry and that He will respond.  It brings much needed hope to the nation of Israel.

In a very similar way, we too can offer hope to those we know who are alive but only in the earthly sense.  We too can share the hope that comes when one lives with Jesus as Lord and Savior.  We too can share the joy that comes when the Spirit of God enters our hearts and brings us each the hope of eternal life.  May we each seek to be spreaders of the Word of God to those living in exile, so that they too may know abundant life in Christ in this place and eternal life with Him in the life to come.


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Listen to My Voice

Reading: John 10: 22-30

Ever since mankind has known God, it has been all about the relationship.  Adam and Eve walked in the Garden and talked with God.  Although His presence changed, God has continued to communicate with mankind.  Initially it was through prophets and angels.  Then God entered the world in the flesh.  Jesus lived, walked among, taught, and even performed some miracles.  In His earthly life Jesus revealed who and what God is.

With Abraham, God established a covenant with His chosen people.  Israel was to be God’s people and He was to be their God.  This covenant came with some guidelines.  Over time the Law  grew to be something cumbersome.  Yet the covenant relationship remains.  God’s chosen people, by and large, continue living in covenant relationship with Him.

In time though, it became necessary to establish a new covenant.  Jesus came to accomplish this.  He reminded God’s chosen people of parts of the old covenant: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love neighbor as self.  He added to the second: love as I have first loved you.  This was a different kind of love.  It was a radical kind of love.  In His love there are no outcasts, no outsiders, no strangers.  Jesus loved all.  He loves you and me.  Through His body and blood, He established a new covenant and offers the gift of eternal life.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me”.  The new covenant is about relationship too.  It is about hearing Jesus say, ” love as I have first loved you”.  It is about Jesus knowing each of us as a follower.  May we ever hear His voice.  May we ever follow.


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Expanding the Covenant

Long ago God made a covenant with the people of Israel to be their God.  As humanity spread and covered the earth, we can assume that most people did not have a close connection to the God we identify with.  Many people came to worship a creator god as one of many gods they worshiped.  This situation continues today.  Christianity is widespread but remains definitely in the minority.  In fact, in many of the developed countries which were founded on Christian principles, we now live in the ‘post-Christian’ era.

Long ago God identified Israel, of all the Peoples of the earth, as His people.  They were set apart as the chosen people of God.  From the vast and varied tribes of people, God chose Israel and entered into a covenant relationship with them.  It was and is a small, select group of people who follow the Torah and worship the one true God.

Over time though, the Israelites came to focus more on the letter of the Law and its interpretation.  Life became more about the 613 laws rather than loving God and neighbor.  God saw the need to refocus faith on loving God and loving neighbor, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to establish a new covenant.  Jesus lived out the two great commands to love God and love neighbor with every fiber of His being.  He was setting an example for us to follow.  In the end, Jesus gave His body and blood as a means to defeat the power of sin and death and to offer us salvation and eternal life.

God also sent Jesus to expand the original covenant beyond the small nation of Israel into the whole world.  Through the work of Jesus, the apostles, and many Christians that have followed, Christianity has spread to many places throughout the world.  As followers of Jesus Christ, it is our continuing call to do the same – to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth and into the corners of our neighborhoods and churches.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 2: 11-22