Glory to God! The Lord has been good to us throughout the past week as He continue to remain faithful to us in taking care of us in this world – the world very often filled with fearfulness and hopelessness and helplessness and disappointments and discouragements and dissatisfactions and frustrations and anxieties and similar disheartening factors that hinders our normal life. The faithfulness of God signifies that God never changes His appearance nor His attitudes as He remains true and upright in what He says and does [word and deed], as it is mentioned: He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he (Deuteronomy 32:4). Although God’s faithfulness to us does not guarantee a trouble-free life on earth nor immediate solutions for all the problems we face in life nor an instant answer to our prayers and requests, or anything as such, it is certain that God [in His faithfulness] will sustain us and deliver us from the troubles we face in life, as it is mentioned in Psalms: He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him (Psalm 91:15). King David who went through a lots of troubles in life experienced God’s deliverance in his life and stated: The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19). Perhaps, from our own life we can acknowledge that the Lord always acts in accordance with the truth and in righteousness. It is for sure that the Lord will fulfill all that He promised to His people (refer to Joshua 21:45; 23:14; 1 Kings 8:56; Jeremiah 33:14; 2 Corinthians 1:20), and God will grant all that we ask Him in Jesus’ name, as Jesus said: Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (John 16:23). So, as God’s chosen people, we should trust in the Lord at all times for He is the true source of comfort and strength as we face trials and troubles in our day-to-day life.

The Lord has blessed us with a very promising Scripture passage for our SftW meditation this week that is taken from the prophetical utterances of Ezekiel (11:19-20 / mentioned above). Ezekiel son of Buzi served as the priest of God Most High among the Israelite exiles at the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians (Ezekiel 1:1-2; also refer to Genesis 14:18; Deuteronomy 32:8; 2 Samuel 22:14; Psalm 7:17; 47:2; 57:2; 82:6; 83:18; 91:1; 97:9; Daniel 4:17; Mark 5:7; Luke 1:32, 35). It is very interesting to know how the chosen people of Israel ended up in Babylon as exiles. God being righteous and just called and separated Abraham son of Terah (Genesis 11:27-32) and promised him that He will bless him and his descendants thereafter (Genesis 12:1-4; 17:19). Though Abraham and his promised son Isaac absolutely remained faithful to God, Jacob [whose name itself means supplanter or deceiver], one of the two sons of Isaac, was not faithful like his father Isaac or his grandfather Abraham. Yet, God counted Jacob [whose name is later changed as Israel / Genesis 35:10] along with Abraham and Isaac as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 26:24; 28:13; Exodus 3:6; Matthew 22:32). Despite Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob being faithful to God, a great number of their descendants were not fully committed to God the way they committed their life to Him. Yet, a good number of people in every generation followed God wholeheartedly just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did (refer to 1 Kings 19:18; Isaiah 1:9; 10:20-22; Joel 2:32; Zephaniah 3: 12-13; Romans 11:4-5).

During the deliverance and wilderness journey itself Moses sternly warned them, saying: See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it (Deuteronomy 12:32). Moses continues to urge them, saying: Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you (Deuteronomy 4:2; also refer to 5:32). Time and time again God reminded them through His servants that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (Exodus 20:2; also refer to 13:3; Leviticus 26:13; Deuteronomy 5:6; 6:12; Joshua 24:17; Psalm 81:10; Jeremiah 34:13). Yet, people rebelled against Him and ignored His warnings of its consequences and His judgments upon those who rebel against Him. A vast majority of them did not heed God’s commands nor did they follow Him wholeheartedly rather they forsook Him and acted as per their own hearts desires, as prophet Jeremiah stated: The Lord said, It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them (Jeremiah 9:13-14). The biblical narrations exposes the sins of Israel and Judah, which include (i) turning away from God to worship other so-called gods/deities, which God forbade them from doing, saying: Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you (Deuteronomy 6:14; also refer to Exodus 20:3; Judges 2:12; 1 Kings 9:9); (ii) burning incense before the idols increasingly starting with the golden calf at Mount Sinai and the two golden calves king Jeroboam made and placed at Bethel and Dan (Exodus 32:3-4; Deuteronomy 9:16; Psalm 106:19-20; 1 Kings 12:28-30; 2 Kings 10:29; 17:16); (iii) mistreating the orphans, widows, poor, and foreigners, which God prohibited them from doing, saying: Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other (Zechariah 7:10; also refer to Exodus 22:21-22; Deuteronomy 27:19; Psalm 94:6; Ezekiel 22:7; Amos 8:6); (iv) bloodshed, bribery, and extortion (Numbers 35:33; 1 Chronicles 22:8; Proverbs 6:17; 28:8; Ezekiel 7:22-23; 22:9, 23); (v) relying on foreign military alliances rather than trusting God (Deuteronomy 17:16; 2 Kings 16:7-9; 17:4-6; 2 Chronicles 16:7-9; Isaiah 31:1; Jeremiah 2:18); and so on. Thus, the people whom the Lord chose for Himself forsook Him and followed other gods, as it is mentioned: They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger (Judges 2:12; also refer to Deuteronomy 32:15-18; Isaiah 1:2-4; Jeremiah 2:13; Hosea 13:6).

So, God’s judgements came upon the people whom He chose for Himself as a special people for forsaking Him and following other gods and not obeying His commands (Leviticus 26:14-15; Deuteronomy 8:19-20; 28:15). As a result, God’s punishment came upon them as per their deeds deserved, as prophet Jeremiah foretold: I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 21:14; also refer to Leviticus 26:14-17; Deuteronomy 28:64; Hosea 12:2; Romans 2:6). The Israelites were captured and deported to the territories of Halah, Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:6) and the nation of Judah was captured and its people were deported to various territories in Babylon (2 Kings 25:8-12). Prophet Jeremiah later stated that Judah has gone into captivity, Under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, She finds no rest; All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits (Lamentations 1:3; also refer to 25:21; Deuteronomy 28:64-67; Psalm 106:41-43). In the midst of their suffering in Assyria and Babylon – away from their homeland in Israel and Judah, God had compassion on them and promised to bring them back to their own land, saying: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again (Ezekiel 11:17 [vs 14-25]) and promised them that He will continue to be their God and they will be His people, as the Scripture passage [Ezekiel 11:19-20] that we chose for our meditation this week says …

• • I will give them an undivided heart (11:19a)
  • I will put a new spirit in them (11:19b)
  • I will remove from them their heart of stone (11:19c)
  • I will give them a heart of flesh (11:19d)
  • They will follow my decrees (11:20a)
  • They will be careful to keep my laws (11:20b)
  • They will be my people (11:20c)
  • I will be their God (11:20d)

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, as we conclude our meditation this week, let us know the fact that God is faithful in everything He says and does and we need to be faithful to Him. Though failures happened in our lives time and time again just like the descendants of Abraham failed Him, He is compassionate and gracious and will restore and bless us again as He restored the descendants of Abraham from the nations they have been scattered. Therefore, let us be faithful to Him who promised us that He would bless us. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!