02032019 - Ezekiel 37.24-28 A Covenant of Peace

Ezekiel 37:24-28 A Covenant of Peace One of the first words I learned in Hebrew class – most people who don’t even know Hebrew know this word – shalom (שָׁל֔וֹם) – peace. When two people greet one another the words they speak are ‘ma-shalom-qua’ (How are you?), very literally, How is your peace? Since the fall of Adam in the Garden, peace is something people have been searching for. The 1960’s was a decade associated with hippies and peace as people sought to find peace in the midst of cold war and international tension. In an effort to find peace, peace treaties have been made by countries and nations only to be broken and denied. From the Pax Romana established by Caesar Augustus in 27bc that lasted until 180ad, a period of 207 years to signing of the Israeli Peace Treaty in 1994 there have been attempts as finding peace, but there is no peace. It seems that the words of Jeremiah ring true even for today “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:13–14, NASB95) Remember the context in which these words of Ezekiel have been spoken. God’s people who were called as one people have been dispersed throughout the nations. Israel the northern kingdom has been conquered and assimilated by the Assyrians. The little southern kingdom of Judah has been overrun by Babylon. The city of Jerusalem has been ransacked and the temple, God’s dwelling place has been destroyed and God himself has ‘left the building.’ (Ezek 10:18). His people have been scattered throughout the nations and appear to be as ‘dry bones’ strewn across the land without hope of life and the fulfillment of the promises that God had made to them. Here are a people looking for peace and not finding it. Why? Because they are looking in all the wrong places. They are putting their hope in the wrong place looking for the absence of strife rather than the presence of God, they ask ‘where is God and the fulfillment of his promises?’ But even in the face of these doubts and questions, God reminds them: “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. “They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:21–23, NASB95) This is a promise that has been repeated time and time again through Ezekiel: 20:34, 37; 34:13; 37:12 and is reiterated here as God reminds his people of the covenant of peace He has made with them. He reminds them that outside of Him there is no peace because He is the God of Peace (Rom 15:33, 16:20; Phil 4:9,1 Thes 5:23, Heb 13:20) and the one who is His King, the Prince of Peace (Is 9:6). This word ‘peace’ is used over 270x’s in the OT and it equivalent in the NT is used 97 x’s. But this phrase ‘covenant of peace’ is only used 5 times in the OT – twice here in Ezekiel. We are a church whose name is “Covenant Reformed” so the word covenant is something that is important for us to understand. O. Palmer Robertson, Christ of the Covenants, defines a covenant as ‘a bond in blood sovereignly administered.’ There is the covenant of works (Adam), the Noahic covenant (Gen 9:1-17; 8:13-22; 2 Peter 3:1-13), the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:1-3; 15:1-21; 17:1-14), the Mosaic Covenant (Ex 19-20), the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7:1-29), the New Covenant (Jer 31:31-34). All of these covenants are based on the covenant of redemption made between the Father, as the representative of the Trinity, and the Son, as the representative of His people, in which the Son takes on the responsibility of our sin and the Father promises to give the Son all he needs to fulfill his work on our behalf. The eternal covenant of redemption is the foundation of the covenant of grace which is the thread that holds all the other covenants together. God the Father graciously promises to pardon sin and restore the sinner to a position of righteousness and holiness so he can say “They will be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezek 37:23). Even after cataloguing all these covenants, we didn’t mention this ‘covenant of peace’. How does it fit in? Look at Zech 6:13: ““Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord. “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.” ’” (Zechariah 6:11–13, NASB95) The covenant of redemption is often referred to the counsel of peace mentioned here. Here is one ‘whose name is Branch’ who will ‘build the temple of the LORD’ who will ‘bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne’ who will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices (priest + king).’ It is this counsel of peace which is the basis for the covenant of redemption because through this king the sinner has peace with God. If there had been no counsel of peace between the Father and the Son, there could have been no agreement between the triune God and sinful men. The counsel of redemption makes the covenant of grace possible. This is an ‘everlasting covenant’ (Ezek 37:26) – one in which God promises to place his people and multiply them and set His sanctuary in their midst forever. ““My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. “And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” ’ ”” (Ezekiel 37:27–28, NASB95) What is peace? It is not the absence of trouble and strife. Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation…” (John 16:33)You will be troubled, perplexed, compressed and squeezed into such tight situations that there seems to be no way out. Enemies will hate you. The world will be against you, but what does Jesus say, “…but take courage for I have overcome the world.” We often quote this verse, but what are the words that immediately precede it? “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.” (John 16:33) Peace is not the absence of strife. It is the presence of God with his sanctuary in their midst forever. The tabernacle of the OT was never intended to be that place of peace. The Temple in Jerusalem was never intended to be that peace. A temple reconstructed in Jerusalem on the temple mount is not intended to be that peace. The reality of this peace is found in the one who is the prophet, priest and king – who himself is the Prince of Peace. “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister (λειτουργὸς) in the sanctuary(ἁγίων) and in the true tabernacle(σκηνῆς), which the Lord pitched, not man.” (Hebrews 8:1–2, NASB95) The tabernacle and the temple, the priests who served in them only served as “…a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” (Hebrews 8:5–6, NASB95) If we’re looking for this peace in the absence of strife and difficulties of our lives, we are looking in the same wrong places that the people of Ezekiel’s day were looking. Like them, we won’t find it. It is true, we live in a time when “the Word has become flesh, and has dwelt among us, and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” But we look forward to that day when our faith shall be sight, that day when there will be no more sin, ungodliness, and unrighteousness, that day when the “holy city, the new Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God (Rev. 21:2), that day when we will hear that loud voice saying “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself will be among them.” Then “the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies (קדשׁ) Israel, when My sanctuary (מִקְדָּשִׁ֛י ) is in their midst forever” (Ezek 37:28). You see, that word ‘peace’ – shalom – is more than just the absence of trouble, it is the fullness of the presence of God and all the blessings that accompany his presence as we trust in the one who is the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ himself. Christ didn’t have to purchase His own peace with the Father; rather, He purchased OUR peace with the Father. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20–21, NASB95)