Ezekiel 36: 8-11
8 But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come. 9 For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. 10 I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11 I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and [d]bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
Israel had already gone into captivity, and soon Jerusalem would be completely destroyed. Only those in extreme denial could possibly believe that Babylon was not going to overrun Jerusalem. And from Babylon, where he was already with other exiles, Ezekiel had been sending extreme warning messages. But now in Chapter 36 Ezekiel does a 180 – degree shift and begins to prophecy wonderful things for the Children of Israel. Now Ezekiel’s messages are of healing and restoration and hope. In fact, these prophecies did come true. Israel was re – settled, and by the time of Jesus, it was heavily populated with the land under intense cultivation. In modern – day Israel there are lots of olive trees that have survived since the time of Jesus, many of them still bearing fruit.
Perhaps today you feel that all your hopes and dreams lie trampled in the dust. Circumstances beyond your control have overtaken you and you feel crushed. For you, the commercialism of the Christmas advertisements merely serves to underscore the fact that your family’s stockings will not be bulging with small gifts and candy on Christmas morning. At this point, your choices may have been reduced to purchasing a “Charlie Brown” type Christmas tree that nobody else wants or feeding your family. You really are losing all hope.
If this description fits your current situation, do not despair! God is still on the throne, and He still can provide. We have always served with “faith missions,” depending totally on donations for our income. For more than 31 years God has continued to supply our needs in this fashion. In the summer of 1993, my husband and I drove the hospital Land Cruiser to Accra to purchase drugs and other supplies. As we parked the vehicle on a main street in Accra, we suddenly heard hissing sounds coming from all four tires! Inspection confirmed it; all of the tires on the vehicle were spoiled! Even in those days, tires for an SUV were expensive, and the hospital had no funds for replacing them. And this was well before the days of cell phones, e – mail, WhatsApp, etc. In those days, we had to make arrangements before we could call the U.S. But two months earlier, someone had made a totally unexpected donation to our mission group. Somehow, we not only found out about this donation, but the mission was also able to wire the money so that we could purchase five new tires and a rim, giving us two spare tires. (One year later, Bob was returning from Yendi during the Northern Ethnic Conflict when both tires on the right – hand side of the vehicle spoiled. Those two spare tires came in very handy at that point!)
One of our old – time missionary friends was fond of saying that “God supplies our needs, but not necessarily our wants.” Look around you! God is no respecter of persons; He doesn’t play favorites. St. Paul could real off a long list of sufferings, but he also could advise in Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
PRAYER: Father, today many of us are anxious! We aren’t sure how we are going to handle our bills. Our families are in need. Our children are complaining. Frankly, Father, we are at our wits’ end! But you have promised to care for us and to bring restoration and hope. Father, help us! And also help us to recognize that assistance may come from a totally unexpected direction, and that You have better plans for us than we do for ourselves. In the matchless Name of Jesus, Amen.
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