Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, then I will manifest my holiness through them in the sight of the nations.  Then they shall live on their land which I gave to my servant Jacob; they shall live on it in security, building houses and planting vineyards.  They shall dwell secure while I inflict punishments on all their neighbors who despised them; thus they shall know that I, the Lord, am their God.
 

This passage has its perfect mystical fulfillment in the Incarnation.  “They shall settle on their own soil, and live in safety.”  “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  (John 10.9)

“And they shall know that I am the Lord their God.” (v. 26b)  “The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  (John 10.3-4)

The Christian philosophical and theological tradition teaches that we are made in the image and likeness of God through our reason and our will.  The perfect fulfillment of our reason is the knowledge of God.  The perfect fulfillment of our will is in a life lived in love of God, grazing in his pasture, building houses and planting vineyards on his soil.  So already in Christ and in John 10 we see the perfect fulfillment of our heart’s desire and our mind’s desire.  We long to know you perfectly, O Word.  We long to come in and go out freely, and find pasture.