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Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 36:22-28
Daily Lectionary: Numbers 14:25-45; Luke 18:35-19:10
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. (Ezekiel 36:25)
In the Name of Jesus. Amen. There is baptismal imagery all over the Old Testament. Hopefully you’ve been taught to recognize it when you read your Bible. Today’s text is pretty clear, isn’t it? Ezekiel almost shouts that these words of the Lord are baptismal.
The people of God are exiled, driven from home and settled uncomfortably in Babylon. The surface reason is that the Babylonian armies have conquered Israel. The real reason is that God’s people have been faithless towards Him and He uses the Babylonians to discipline them for their idolatry. How bad was it? There were idols to false gods in the Jerusalem temple, not only in the courtyards, but inside the very temple building itself! The priests of Israel were praying to false gods across the room from the throne of God the Father Himself, which was in the Holy of Holies upon the Ark of the Covenant!
Even in the midst of the exile, when God’s people are in a foreign land, among people of a foreign language and culture, He still loves and cares for them. Even though they had abandoned Him so completely, He loved them. Ezekiel proclaims God’s Word to them and says that God will wash them clean, cleanse them from idolatry, and restore them to their rightful place in Jerusalem again.
It wouldn’t last, of course. You know well enough that Jerusalem would be destroyed again after Jesus’s day. Until then, the Lord was merciful and gracious, just as He is with you. Through Baptism, He has sprinkled water upon you and washed you clean of your idolatries. He named you as His child and cleansed you in the blood of Jesus so that you would have an eternal home with Him in the New Creation.
When your idolatries creep up on you, when you realize that you’ve turned from Him, remember your Baptism and return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and will receive you again into His presence, because you are His child forever. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Duane Bamsch
Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ! Drop your ugly accusation, I am not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I’ve traveled, All your might has come unraveled, And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me! (God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It, LSB 594:3)
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By Higher Things®Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 36:22-28
Daily Lectionary: Numbers 14:25-45; Luke 18:35-19:10
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. (Ezekiel 36:25)
In the Name of Jesus. Amen. There is baptismal imagery all over the Old Testament. Hopefully you’ve been taught to recognize it when you read your Bible. Today’s text is pretty clear, isn’t it? Ezekiel almost shouts that these words of the Lord are baptismal.
The people of God are exiled, driven from home and settled uncomfortably in Babylon. The surface reason is that the Babylonian armies have conquered Israel. The real reason is that God’s people have been faithless towards Him and He uses the Babylonians to discipline them for their idolatry. How bad was it? There were idols to false gods in the Jerusalem temple, not only in the courtyards, but inside the very temple building itself! The priests of Israel were praying to false gods across the room from the throne of God the Father Himself, which was in the Holy of Holies upon the Ark of the Covenant!
Even in the midst of the exile, when God’s people are in a foreign land, among people of a foreign language and culture, He still loves and cares for them. Even though they had abandoned Him so completely, He loved them. Ezekiel proclaims God’s Word to them and says that God will wash them clean, cleanse them from idolatry, and restore them to their rightful place in Jerusalem again.
It wouldn’t last, of course. You know well enough that Jerusalem would be destroyed again after Jesus’s day. Until then, the Lord was merciful and gracious, just as He is with you. Through Baptism, He has sprinkled water upon you and washed you clean of your idolatries. He named you as His child and cleansed you in the blood of Jesus so that you would have an eternal home with Him in the New Creation.
When your idolatries creep up on you, when you realize that you’ve turned from Him, remember your Baptism and return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and will receive you again into His presence, because you are His child forever. In the Name of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Duane Bamsch
Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ! Drop your ugly accusation, I am not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I’ve traveled, All your might has come unraveled, And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me! (God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It, LSB 594:3)