Ezekiel 34:25-26 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land… I. CHRIST'S CHURCH IS TO BE A BLESSING. The object of God, in choosing a people before all worlds, was not only to save that people, but through them to confer essential benefits upon the whole human race. The Gospel was sent that it might first bless those that embrace it, and then expand, so as to make them a blessing to the whole human race. 1. Here is divinity. It is God the everlasting Jehovah speaking: He says, "I will make them a blessing."(1) God makes His people a blessing by helping them. What can we do without God's help? We want God's aid in every position; and once give us that assistance, and there is no telling with how little labour we may become a blessing. (2) But there is constraint here. "I will make them a blessing." I will give them to be a blessing; I will constrain them to be a blessing. 2. The personality of the blessing. "I will make them a blessing." "I will make each member of the Church a blessing." God never makes useless things; He has no superfluous workmanship. I care not what you are; you have somewhat to do. And oh! may God show you what it is, and then make you do it, by the wondrous compulsion of His providence and His grace. 3. The development of Gospel blessing. "I will make them a blessing"; but it does not end there. "And the places round about My hill." Religion is an expansive thing. When it begins in the heart, at first it is like a tiny grain of mustard seed, but it gradually increases, and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches thereof. A man cannot be religious to himself. What are the places round about our hill? I think they are, first, our agencies; secondly, our neighbourhood; thirdly, the churches adjacent to us. II. God's people are not only to be a blessing, BUT THEY ARE TO BE BLESSED. 1. Is it not sovereign, Divine mercy, for who can say "I will give them showers" except God? 2. It is needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain! Ah! you may prepare your barn, and sharpen your sickles; but your sickles will be rusted before you have any wheat, unless there are showers. They are needed. So is the Divine blessing. 3. It is plenteous grace. It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." "It seldom rains, but it pours." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. 4. It is seasonable grace. "I will give them the shower in its season." There is nothing like seasonable grace. There are fruits, you know, that are best in their season, and they are not good at any other time; and there are graces that are good in their season, but we do not always require them. A person vexes and irritates me; I want grace just at that time to be patient. I have not got it, and I get angry; ten minutes after I am ever so patient; but I have not had grace in its season. 5. Here is a varied blessing. "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. The rain is all of one kind when it comes; but grace is not all of one kind, or it does not produce the same effect. God sends showers of blessings. If He gives comforting grace, He will also give converting grace; if He makes the trumpet blow for the bankrupt sinner, He will also make it sound a shout of joy for the sinner that is pardoned and forgiven. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. |
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