Ezekiel 37:11 AMPC
Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are completely cut off.
During this long hot summer, the garden has taken a beating.
Without any significant rain the grass quickly turned to dried out straw and stubble.
The earth beneath became rock hard and cracked.
It was hard to see how it could be brought back again.
In the prophecy, the people of Israel see themselves as dead, without hope.
Like the grass in the drought, their hope of redemption had dried out.
Isn't it incredible, that this word spoken by Ezekiel around 593-572 BC has now been fulfilled!
After the Holocaust in WW2, those that survived rightly said "our hope is cut off".
Yet God brought Israel back to life out of the ashes of the Shoah.
On the mountains overlooking Jerusalem, the Scrolls of Fire stand.
They contain the prophecies from Ezekiel and are twinned with pictures depicting the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust.
I remember walking into those massive scrolls and reading God's immutable promises inscribed from Ezekiel and being inspired and greatly moved.
They are a testimony to the miraculous rebirth of a nation foretold and promised by the Lord.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick so says Proverbs 13:12:
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
For so many, many years (since AD70) the Jewish people felt forsaken and forgotten by God.
Isaiah 49:14 AMPC
But Zion [Jerusalem, her people as seen in captivity] said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.
BUT that isn't possible .... God answers:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.
Israel is living proof that God is faithful to His Word.
So, if anyone is struggling with lost, dried out hope, take heart.
The Lord produces miracles for the dried out.
Like the rain has brought the grass back to life, the living water that Jesus provides will revive those dried out promises.
Promises you thought were just pipe dreams.
Just wait, You'll see.
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