Read it: Ezekiel 48:1-35
Live it:
Reading this chapter indicates that God will restore the land to His people and will divide it up among the tribes of Israel. No matter what your end-times theology is, we must all see that the last words of Ezekiel’s vision are “the God who is there (Yahweh-Shammah).”
These words sum up the whole point of Ezekiel’s book. The people of Israel are deported to Babylon. No longer are they a people other than language and culture. Their god seems to have abandoned them. Ezekiel has even seen the divine presence of Yahweh leave the Temple in Jerusalem. Yahweh is broken-hearted with the people. They worship other gods in His place of worship. They act out against God through breaking the laws, even in His house! So God’s only choice is to leave the place He dedicated to Himself (Ezekiel 8-11)
What will the people do now? Where will they go to worship God? Will they go to the forbidden “high places”? Will they worship in their homes? Will they worship in their communities? Where will they go to meet God?
This is God’s whole message to the world. I am the God who is there! Where? There! He is the God who is in your home, in your school, in your church, in your car, at your place of work; He is the God who is there when you need Him and when you don’t!
Let’s think about this. What would you do if you saw in a vision the Holy Spirit rising up from our church? Would you go there? Would you worship there? Where would you worship? What would you do?
Yahweh-Shammah – He is the God who is there! Right where you are. Today, God wants to walk with you through all your day, all the places you go, and all the activities you go through. Good or bad, God is there. Have you talked to Him today? Have you acknowledged Him today? Have you trusted Him today? He is there waiting for you. He wants anybody who is heart-broken or full of joy or anywhere in between to come to Him, and He will give them rest.
May the God who is always there give you peace and rest.
Carl