Scripture Reading(s)
Ezekiel 36:22-32
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.
30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.
31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.
32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
Reflections
As Christians, living in sin and going against God’s commands makes for an uncomfortable lifestyle.This passage is about redemption and pointing to God’s saving work in our lives. Willful rebellion and disobedience against God earned the Israelites God’s judgment. In this passage we are now seeing God once again restore His people and set them on a path to pursue Him.
This type of redemptive process begins by a renewal of the heart and a washing away of the sin that caused them to fall away from God. Their hearts had grown hard and cold towards the things of God and they had gone so far that only through God’s doing could they find a way back from their sin.
The Israelite’s were in deep need of a heart change. The evil needed to be replaced with good, lust for purity, and their love for idols for a love for the one true and living God. It is a simple yet profound, life changing truth when we understand and experience what it means to truly clean our hearts from the things that are causing us from living the Christian life that reflects Christ.
Prayerfully examine your hearts each day and ask for God to remove all the things that are hindering you from truly pursuing a lifestyle that is honoring and pleasing to Him. Our hearts dictate what our true “loves” are in this life. Once God begins to reveal what it is that is hindering you from growing deeper in your relationship with Him, you will find that your true satisfaction for living is found only in Him.
The Israelites were a “stiff-necked” people according to the Lord. The problem with humans is their propensity to sin. We are prone to stray and wander and chase our own lusts. We are quick to forget our wrongs and long to forget the wrongs done to us. This is why God spoke through Ezekiel and said that man would be getting a new heart, with the word of God written on it.
We are also given the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables us to do all things necessary to walk as Christ walked. This is why we are instructed to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The only thing preventing us from walking in the light is our own desires. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. But we must honor this great gift given to us by God. We must not become a valley of dry and dead bones, as the prophet Ezekiel saw.