Passage Read: Ezekiel 8-11
Meditation Verse: 11:13
Thought
Ezekiel thought the Israelites still remaining in Jerusalem were the remnant of Israel, but they weren't. It's the Jews who went into exile who will be preserved, at least those who recognize their sin and repent. The Lord will protect them and be a sanctuary to them until He brings them back to the land of Israel. When they return, they will cleanse the land of the abominations that led to their exile. They will have a new heart and spirit that desire to serve and obey the Lord, and He will take them as His own. The true remnant is not those who remain in the land, who hold onto the territory, the land, the buildings, but those who discover their sin and repent, though they've been cast out of the land, or because of it. The true remnant are those who honor the Lord so as to walk in His ways. It's not those who retain possession and control of His buildings. That's illustrated here in Ezekiel's day, and again in Jesus' day as He assembled disciples outside the temple and synagogue structures and activities. It is a pattern that has repeated itself throughout history, wherever reform is needed because the authorities among God's people forsake the Lord to follow their own ideas and take power for themselves.
Application
It is not a land or building or belonging to a particular group defined by a supposed unbroken line of succession that determines whether an individual is safe with God. It is a heart of flesh and a spirit that believes in the Lord so as to walk in His statues and ordinances that marks the one who belongs to God. They may be rejected by those who claim authority to excommunicate, but they will return and reclaim the land and restore right worship of God. Those who rule by their own authority rather than God's will be rejected by God and cast out. God's kingdom already belongs to those who produce the fruit He seeks rather than the fruit they're willing to offer. It is not the Catholics or the Orthodox or any Protestant denomination that defines the Kingdom of God and holds the key to entrance and citizenship in Heaven. It is simply faith in Jesus and love for Him, a faith that works itself out in a love that is defined and illustrated by the statues and ordinances of the Lord. I am claimed by God as one of His own only if I believe in Him as God so as to live as He directs.