Daily Lesson for September 7, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 15 through 23:

15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17 And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 18 And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Just as in the fire two pieces of steel can be melted and re-forged as one single sword, so to in a vise-grip two separate trees be grafted into one single tree.

So it is that in the heat and under pressure, what was separate can be united, and what was two can be forged into one.

We are in a time of heat and of pressure. But like in the days of the Bible, now new alliances are being forged. The formerly divided are now uniting, and the two sticks are becoming one.

This is the way we will survive today. It is our hope for two. For what was once divided is now being united; and what were opposed are now struggling together.

And so says our creed: Out of Many, One.

And so says the LORD: out of two separate sticks, one mighty oak to stand strong.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow we will finish up Ezekiel with chapters 46-48.