August 2, 2024 - Ezekiel 38-48

The Lord will judge Gog.  The result?  “So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations.  Then they will know that I am the Lord” (38:23; also, 39:6,7,23,28).  Most of the remaining chapters of the book of Ezekiel are full of priestly detail about the rebuilding of the temple and the reestablishment of the offerings and the resettling and division of the land when the people will return.  The closing word on all this:  “And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord is There” (48:35).  The book of Ezekiel, it seems to me, certainly one of its major themes, might be “They Will Know Me!”  And God’s people will know him intimately because he will be with them, with us.  By the way, this is not the first time we come across this promise.  To Moses, who was leading the people through the wilderness, the Lord promised, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (33:14).  And to us is the promise, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians:  “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).

In Zion’s courts below,

“The Lord is there,”

Where pilgrims love to go,

“The Lord is there.”

He's promis’d there to be,

In the midst of two or three,

Who in His name agree,

“The Lord is there.”

Where saints exalt His name,

“The Lord is there,”

Bearing the Cross and shame,

“The Lord is there.”

He will their strength renew,

Who His precious precepts do,

And prove the promise true,

“The Lord is there.”   -- Samuel Peach (1887)