Sunday 21 January 2024

Ezekiel 36:8-15 – From dust to beauty

God was going to restore the promised land that had been desecrated by the opposing foreign nations. Having dealt with the nations that had wrecked it, in Ezekiel 36:8-15 God speaks concerning how it would be restored. 

In preparation for the return of His people, God would make the ruined promised land, fertile and a fruitful agricultural ground again. With His backing, the deserted land would be repopulated, recultivated, rebuilt, and established again. It would be a flourishing land where both man and beast would thrive and increase.

God would cause the land to be well-occupied like before and even better than its former state. This would help them see, know, acknowledge, and have the right perspective of the Lord their God. The land would be possessed and inherited by God’s covenant people. And it would be a thriving land never again to be bereft of children. It would no longer bereft the nation of people through needless war, pestilence, and famine.

Furthermore, all the cursed experiences of the past would be reversed. Where it was once hostile to the people, it would change now and show them a great favor. It would no longer be a land of reproach.

Only God can make something new out of our broken life. When God restores, He changes and transforms radically.  Not only for the land but also for His people. This can happen only as we yield to Him. The lyrics of the song “Something Beautiful” put it this way.

Something beautiful, something good.
All my confusion He understood.
All I have to offer Him is brokenness and strife.
He’ll make something beautiful of my life. 

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