There is hope, because the Lord has promised to give them
back the Land. Ezekiel must surely have
been glad to receive this word after the destruction he had seen and
prophesied. He would have been delighted
to return to the people with a word of hope and encouragement. What he saw and heard was nothing less than
the new covenant, a promised of not only restoration of the Land but a new
heart, they would be truly new people, a people whose desire was to keep
covenant, hearts after God. Those who
would receive and follow would enjoy blessing and the Land but those who did
not will be destroyed. Seems an easy
choice doesn't it? It is the same
promise we're made and the same conditions.
The seventy-two return and cannot believe what happened
while they were doing what was commanded of them. They actually saw people healed and
delivered, they saw the kingdom of God breaking in and breaking through. What a concept, obedience to His command to
go results in amazing thing happening. Has
the church forgotten what it means to be sent into the world in the west? Have we so expected the world to come to us
that we have lost the notion of going? Jesus
sends us into the world with a message and the power of the Holy Spirit and yet
we so often do nothing more than invite people to come to a church service to
hear a message. We have more to offer,
more power in us than the power to invite.
Jesus empowered and sent these out in the same way we are empowered and
sent. The only thing different is that
they believed and they went. Their experience
was something they would surely never forget.
In this extended argument regarding the priesthood, the
writer establishes that priests need not come only from the tribe of Levi, that
there was one who preceded all the priests of Israel whom their ancestor,
Abraham, recognized as a priest and to whom he paid tribute, Melchizedek. This priest came out to meet Abraham after
his defeat of the kings of the surrounding areas in order to free his nephew,
Lot. This man is said to be a priest of the
most High God but who is he and how did he become not only king of Salem but
also priest of the most High God? We know
little or nothing about him and yet he is an archetype of the priesthood to
which Jesus is heir. We have a priest
whose priesthood is of God Himself, not of man.
Because of that, we can have confidence in Him and all He promises.
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