God who makes us one 하나되게 하시는 하나님

Ezekiel37:15-28

I Will Be Their God; They Shall Be My People

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶ “Son of man, take a stick^[a] 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,^[b] 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^[c] in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
²⁴ “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land^[d] and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”


Thinking and Understanding

God commanded Ezekiel to join two signed sticks together. This symbolized the union of the northern and southern kingdom. God will set up a leader like David to accomplish a perfect union(vv.17-24). This union will not be formed around a human alliance but around the covenant and sanctuary established by God(v.26). For this purpose, God will gather the scattered people together as one on the mountain of Israel and cleanse their hearts (vv. 21-23). The new Israel will become holy in the eyes of all the nations of the world(vv.24-28).

하나님은 막대기 두개를 연결하라고 명령하시는데 이는 북왕국과 남왕국의 연합을 의미합니다. 하나님은 다윗과 같은 지도자를 세우셔서 완전한 연합을 이루실 것입니다. 또한 그 연합은 인간들의 협정이 아닌, 하나님이 세우신 언약과 성소를 중심으로 이루어질 것입니다. 이를 위해 하나님은 친히 흩어진 백성들을 이스라엘의 산에 하나로 모으시고 직접 그들의 마음을 정켤케 하실 것입니다.  새 이스라엘은 세상 그 누가봐도 하나님이 함께 하시는 거룩한 곳임을 알 수 있게 될 것입니다.


Who is God? 

v.28 God promised to be present and walk with his people forever. God's dwelling midst the restored nation of Israel would become 'evidence to the nations' and make people of all nations acknowledge that God is Lord. Even the Gentile nations would join as one to call upon the Lord's name and serve God. Are we praying to, obeying and serving God so that all the nations will return to the Lord?

영원한 임재와 동행을 약속하십니다. 회복된 이스라엘 가운데 두신 하나님의 처소는 '열방의 증거'가 되어, 열국 백성이 하나님의 주 되심을 인정하고 돌아오게 하시고, 이방 나라들도 하나가 되어 주의 이름을 부르고 주를 섬기게 하실 것입니다. 나는 열방이 주께 돌아올 때까지 함께 기도하고 순종하며, 그 역사에 동참하고 있습니까?


What lesson is God teaching us?

v.19 Is there hate and division in our communities? Let's pray, remembering that we are 'signed sticks' in God's hands. What must we lay down, though it might be difficult, for the sake of joining together with other 'sticks' signed by God'?

공동체에 미움과 분열이 있습니까? 우리가 하나님의 손에 붙들린 막대기임을 기억하고 기도하십시요. 두 막대기를 하나로 연결하기 위해 힘들지만 내가 내려 놓아야 할 것은 무엇입니까?