The People of God have long dealt with tyrants. Tyrants who have oppressed the meek, slaughtered the innocent, and murdered the righteous.
Where are the hearts of those who destroy the innocent? Have their hearts been hardened, like Pharaoh’s in the story of Exodus? Have they hardened their own hearts to the point of deafness, where no cries of the suffering can be heard?
We’ve heard the prophet Ezekiel say this to the People of Israel: “…you have been ridiculed and hounded on all sides for becoming a possession for the remaining nations […] plundered and mocked by the nations remaining around you (Ezekiel 36: 3, 4).”
But, even in their exile, the Lord remembers his covenant: “Look, I am for you! I will turn my face toward you” (Ezekiel 36: 9). And what’s more, the Lord God promises this:
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.
You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36: 26-28).
The Lord promises to comfort us in unthinkable sorrow—and to change our hearts—turning us away from sin and death into everlasting life.
Let us pray for the people of Ukraine—and let us pray that God might give a new heart and a new spirit to the People of God—and to the tyrants.
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