Ezekiel 34-36

September 13

Ezekiel 34-36

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36:25-27, NIV)

God reveals His plan for all the nations. God has a plan for restoration, for re-creation. People by their nature turn away from God; they are self centered and want their own way instead of God’s way. But God has a plan; He is going to give people a new heart, a heart for Him instead of a heart of rebellion. He has a plan to cleanse us of our sin and to fill us with His Spirit so that we will want to walk in obedience to Him and will be empowered to obey Him.

 Jesus provided the way; we just have to allow Him to cleanse us and to fill us with His Spirit. God gave Ezekiel an image of baptism where we are cleansed by the water as an indicator of what Jesus has done through His death and resurrection. We are the new creation Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5:17. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit whom Paul tells us; "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;" (Romans 8:6, NIV)

We have no excuse. We can look at the Israelites and wonder why they continued to turn away from God. We can think of them a foolish when they walked away from God, faced the consequences, then turned back to God only to rebel again. But we have a great advantage over them. They made regular sacrifices to cover over their sin, they brought birds, goats, and bulls to be slaughtered but their offerings did not change their hearts. Jesus came to wipe away our sin; to purify us, and to give us new hearts filled with the Holy Spirit.

Israel had the law. They knew what God wanted from them, but they did not have the power to overcome their sin. We have been given that power through the Holy Spirit, we have been given new hearts, and we have been given a new start washed clean by the blood of Jesus. We have the power to overcome the world and to live our lives in obedience to God.