*Scripture: Ezekiel 37:15-28 (NKJV)* 15 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 16 "As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: 'For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.' 17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.
18 "And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?'—19 say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."' 20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. 21 Then say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 24 "David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. 25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore."'" *Devotion* What a beautiful prophecy of the New Testament Church we have before us today! The New David—our Lord Jesus, the Son of David who is the Son of God—shall unite the scattered remnant of the Church and shepherd them forever, and this New Israel shall walk before Him sinless forever! Consider the state of Judah and Israel at the time of Jesus. What had been Israel—that is, the northern tribes—had been scattered because of their sin. They intermarried with unbelievers, and came back to the land with a religion that perverted God's Word (even more than Judah's did under the leadership of the Sadducees and Pharisees!), settling in Samaria and being in continual conflict with those of Judea. The shock of Ezekiel's prophecy of their being joined together once again, shown by the miraculous joining of the sticks, would have been overwhelming. Yet, it showed something that would be even more startling: the Gentiles, too, would be joined to them, like a wild olive branch grafted into a cultivated olive tree! (See Romans 11:17.) All would be joined into one Kingdom under the Son of David to Whom all the people would cry out, "Hosanna in the Highest!" As He, the Word of God, dwelt among us as the true Tabernacle of God in the flesh, so He continues among us here to dispense His blessings, just as He promised at the end of St. Matthew's Gospel, fulfilling His promise to dwell with us forever in today's reading.
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