The Lord says this: ‘I am going to take the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make them into one nation in my own land and on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and their filthy practices and all their sins. I shall rescue them from all the betrayals they have been guilty of; I shall cleanse them; they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws, and practice them. They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, forever. David, my servant, is to be their prince forever. I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary among them forever. I shall make my home above them; I will be their God; they shall be my people. And the nations will learn that I am the Lord, the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them forever.’ (Ezekiel 37: 21-28)
The union of all the tribes is a frequent element in Messianic prophecy. The prophet foresees a time when the two divided kingdoms of the Jews (Israel/Ephraim and Judah, the northern and the southern kingdoms, respectively) will be united into one forever. All those living abroad will come back. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home is repeated in the Gospel of John when he says that Jesus will die not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God (John 11:45-56). They will give up all their sinful ways and forms of idolatry and abominations, with which they had been plagued for so many generations and will be cleansed by God.
David, my servant, will be their prince forever and there shall be one shepherd for them all. The coming of the Messianic ruler is called David because he will be a descendant of David and will achieve for Israel what David had, except more fully. He is likened to a shepherd who cares for his flock, echoing Ezekiel 23 where God says he will be a shepherd for his people. We recognize Jesus as this “Messianic David” and later Jesus will also call himself the Good Shepherd, protecting his own and looking for those who are lost.
I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant …I shall set my sanctuary among them forever. The phrase “eternal covenant” occurs 16 times in the Old Testament, referring to that made with Noah, with Abraham, with David, and a “new covenant” made in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 32: 40).
The covenant formula is once again repeated: I will be their God, and they will be my people. It is a pledge of mutual commitment. It is through Jesus, through the covenant signed by his blood on the cross, that the New Covenant will be ratified and is still in force today. It now extends not to one people or race, but to the whole world.
The nations will know that I am God, the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them forever. And that ‘sanctuary’ for us is the ongoing and visible presence of the Risen Lord, no longer identified with a building, but in his people. Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you (1 Corinthians 3:16) and don’t you know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you? (1 Corinthians 6:19). Again, and bread we break, when we eat it, we are sharing in the body of Christ. Because there is the one loaf of bread, all of us, through one man, are one body, for we all share the same bread (1 Corinthians 10: 16-17).
Today’s Gospel ends at the coming Passover feast when the sacramental celebration of Jesus’ Pasch will be celebrated, that celebration by which we commemorate and make present the inauguration of the New Covenant on Calvary. Stay tuned!
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!