Topic: Promise of a New Heart - Ezekiel 11:1-25
For context, Ezekiel’s day took place between the 597 BC raid on Jerusalem and the 586 BC destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. The people of Israel had been taken captive and scattered in about 720 BC, and the southern kingdom of Judah heeded the warning only slightly. And as hard as their heart was, a hundred years later, they had slipped into many of the same sins that brought the downfall of the north. They had failed to know and love God. They had failed to obey the commands of God, keeping the law with a pure heart. And they had discounted their obligation to their fellow man in the oppression of the poor. They had adopted the culture of the Gentiles around them and forsaken their relationship with God. Therefore, God had scattered them, just as he promised he would do.
It might have been simple for those who were not removed into exile in Babylon to sit back and decide that really, only those taken away to exile in Babylon were those under judgment. Some people may have felt that those taken away were the real sinners. On the other hand, some decided to invoke the right of blood relatives to redeem property from the hands of others. The law provided for the redemption of family property.
Here’s the irony of it: the people taken away to exile were the preserved remnants and the people sitting back in Jerusalem were those who were really going to suffer. The exiles were going to be away for a little while (seventy years) in the places where they were carried off. Meanwhile, the people in Jerusalem felt confident because of the presence of the temple (sanctuary). God declared that the people they were sneering at in exile have Himself as a Sanctuary.
Then God offers Ezekiel a preview of the message we will later see in chapters 34-36 about a promised physical return to the land. The promise was also one of spiritual renewal—a spirit of revival. God would create a new heart in the people, a heart that would not be an unresponsive, stone heart, but a living, beating heart that would respond to Him. The people would have a whole new attitude about God’s laws and decrees. Here’s what commentator H.H. Wolff said (as quoted in the New American Commentary), “The heart of stone is the dead heart…which is unreceptive and makes all the limbs incapable of action. The heart of flesh is the living heart, full of insight, which is at the same time ready for new action. The new ruah (heart) brings to the perception and will of the heart the new vital power to hold on steadfastly in willing obedience.”
The concluding portion of this particular vision is the final departure of God’s glory from the temple and the city. The Glory of God flies over the Mount of Olives and leaves to the East. While this was the final step in God’s judgment and seems to leave us in great sorrow for the Jews, Ezekiel’s message later included the return of God’s glory (Chapter 43) from the same direction. After viewing the departure, Ezekiel is brought back to the exiles in Babylon where he tells the exiles all the things that God had shown him. Do you note that he didn’t hold anything back? He preached the whole message, even with all of its doom and gloom. He was faithful to share his experience and message, even with those who likely despaired hearing it.
Someone needs to hear of the redeeming message of the cross this week. Will you share it?
See you Sunday!
Dr. Scott Kallem