Ezekiel 36:23–28

That was Israel's way in the land and out of it. Everywhere they were a shame to Him who chose them as His own: corruption through idols and murderous violence in Canaan, and the profaning of His name among the nations. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and He does not change, so they were not consumed. Instead, He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.

God will then bring Israel back to the land, out of His own sovereign goodness. Had He dealt with them according to their sins, they must have perished. Again and again through their long history they have deserved God's unsparing judgment. But their blessing rested on His promises to Abraham and on His own counsels of love, and it was bound up with the honour of His Name. So time and again, when He might have consumed them, He spared them, to vindicate the honour of His great and holy Name.

But Jehovah would step in and sanctify His great name before the nations. He would do it by bringing His people back from among them and cleansing them from all their filthiness. He would take away the hardness of their hearts, give them His Spirit, and cause them to walk in His statutes. He would plant them in the land which He had given to their fathers, own them as His people, and be Himself their God.

The Lord could do no more for Israel. Even so, He can do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself, and He does it for His own sake.

I will take you from the nations (this is how that mighty, world-wide impression comes about) and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land… Testimonies like these put it beyond question. Israel's restoration will have one great moral effect on all nations: Jehovah, the one true God, will become known everywhere.

The return from Babylon was no fulfilment, but at most a foretaste. Only a small remnant came back. Ezra 9 does not take the same ground, and does not claim to be what the faithful were waiting for; neither does Nehemiah 9. The one speaks of "our bondage," the other of being "servants this day"… How far this falls short of what Ezekiel promises should need no argument. The mass of Israel remained scattered up and down the nations after the decree of Cyrus.

It all comes down to one solemn statement. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the religious man. The Apostle is speaking of the Jew, but what he says is just as true of the professing Christian. Unbelievers have blasphemed mainly because of the corrupt and degraded ways of those who claim the Christian name. Men would not have turned Christian just because Christians lived consistently. But if Christians lived up to what they claim, men would have no reason to blaspheme God.

Such was Israel's way in the land and out of it — everywhere a shame to Him who chose them as His own: idolatrous corruption and murderous violence in Canaan, and profaning His name among the nations. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and He does not change; therefore they were not destroyed. Rather, He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.

From here to the end of the book, everything is still unfulfilled. It cannot be fulfilled until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again and takes the throne as King… The characteristic words in verses 23-28 are the words "I will do." It is the word of sovereign grace. Eighteen times Jehovah says what He will do. They are the "I wills" of Israel's hope and coming glory.

The return from Babylon was no fulfilment, but at most a foretaste; for then only a small remnant returned. Ezra 9 does not claim to be what the faithful were looking for, and neither does Nehemiah 9. One speaks of "our bondage." The other says they are "servants this day," and that the land God gave their fathers yields much increase to the kings He has set over them because of their sins. How far this falls short of what Ezekiel pledges should need no argument. After the decree of Cyrus, most of Israel stayed scattered up and down the nations.

In the statement of restored blessings to Israel in Ezekiel 36, the detail of earthly things is very clear. All of it is restored Israelite blessing. Among these blessings, however, we find a work to be done in them, to qualify them to hold and enjoy those blessings before God.

Then, as He showed to Nicodemus, a master in Israel, the new birth was necessary even for the enjoyment of earthly blessings. As a teacher in Israel, he ought to have known this from the testimony of the prophets… The nation is morally renewed in this way, so that they may loathe themselves for their sins before God.

"I will take you from the nations" — it is in this way that this mighty, worldwide impression is to be produced… Testimonies like these put it beyond question. The great moral effect of Israel's restoration upon all nations will be this: Jehovah, the one true God, will become known everywhere.

We must not necessarily suppose, however, that the return of the Jews to the land of their fathers in large numbers is the direct hand of God. God of course foresees such events, and they may and do work along the line of the fulfilment of prophecy. Scripture prophesies the return of the Jew to his own land in unbelief, and this is what is happening at the present time.

But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can for His own sake do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen... "I am not doing this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake." (v. 22.)

"Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you." All help comes from God: cleansing, a new heart, and the Holy Spirit. This is the purpose of God for His name's sake. How precious the "I wills" of God! "I will take you." Yes, from His own heart's free grace He will do all this for Israel.

Ezekiel prophesied that God would "sprinkle clean water" upon Israel in the coming day, so that they might be clean. His readers would have thought back to the book of Numbers, where the sprinkling of water comes up twice. Numbers 8 gives the way the Levites were cleansed so that they might enter their service. Moses was told to "sprinkle water of purifying upon them." Numbers 19 gives the way the ordinary Israelite was cleansed from the various defilements he might pick up. From the ashes of a red heifer they were to make a "water of separation," and they were to sprinkle it on people and things that were defiled. That water, which purified, was made from "the ashes of the burnt heifer" — a picture of the death of Christ — and "running [or, living] water" — a picture of the Spirit.

It is the Word of God which brings the death of Christ in its separating and purifying power to bear upon the soul... Ephesians 5:26 confirms it again: there "water" and "the Word" mean the same thing.

The cleansings under the law were ceremonial and external, and therefore of no real use. The prophet declares, and our Lord repeats, that this was to be real. A cleansing, not by purifying the flesh, but by a new birth, through the Spirit of God.

As He had shown to Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, the new birth was necessary even for the enjoyment of earthly blessings. As a teacher in Israel, he ought to have known this from the testimony of the prophets... In this way the nation is morally renewed, so that they may loathe themselves for their sins before God.

He will gather them from among the nations and all countries and bring them back to their own land. Only a shallow interpreter can speak of a fulfilment when they returned from Babylon... So, when the people of Israel believe on Him and look upon Him whom they pierced (Zech. 12:10), they will be cleansed. "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" (Zech. 13:1).

The water will cleanse them so deeply and completely that their whole nature will be different. Once this mighty work has taken place, they will look back with disgust at what they used to be... A moral renovation will have been accomplished.

But there is a further and clearer proof that it has not yet been fulfilled... Was the Jew — let alone all Israel — cleansed from all his filth then? The book of Malachi tells a different story, and the Lord Himself proved it when He came in person. What is promised here, when it is fulfilled, is nothing less than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and cause that they shall walk in holy obedience, they His people, and He their God.

In their hearts, the people of Israel were much like the stone the law was written on. It fits that God wrote the law on tablets of stone. You can smash a stone tablet, but you cannot stretch it or bend it like rubber... Israel proved itself to have a heart of stone. There was no surface left to write on. So in this book the Lord says, in effect, "I am going to make Israel new. I am going to work by My Spirit, so that they will be able to receive what I will write in a coming day."

The change Ezekiel predicts goes right down to the foundation. It gives a person a new heart and a new spirit. Then he wants what is good, and he walks in obedience. Verse 27 shows this. No wonder the Lord Jesus called it a new birth. It does not adjust the nature a person already has. It gives a nature that is completely new. The new heart is "given." The new spirit is "put within you." It is to start again from the very first.

In Ezekiel 36, the first step is the removal of the stony heart, which is replaced by a heart of flesh. It is that which is impressionable and on which the Spirit of God writes.

The heart of giving your life to God is that it must be willing... that surrender must come from the heart, or it is not surrender at all... "And I will give you a new heart," says the Lord. But the new heart He gives is a heart that freely chooses to serve its Master.

Did you notice in that passage in Ezekiel, how God says, "I will," "I will"? It is God speaking of what He will do of Himself and for Himself. It goes with a new covenant. God is no longer demanding what people ought to be for Him. He is saying what He will do for them Himself, and for His own glory.

But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can still do the wonderful work of turning their hearts to Himself, for His own sake... "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy name." (v. 22.) "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." (v. 32.)

Verse 27 speaks of "My Spirit" which is to be put within born-again Israel in that day. Some Bibles print it without a capital letter, but it should have one. It means the Spirit of God, and it is different from "a new spirit" in the verse before.

The law proved that they were beyond correction. In the same way we learn that "nothing good dwells in me (us)" and that "sin dwells within me (us)" (Rom. 7:17, 20). Our hearts, then, are not less stony than theirs. God must act before a heart can take an impression. This He has done in new birth.

Here, when it is fulfilled, we have no less a blessing promised than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and make them walk in holy obedience — they His people, and He their God. To claim this has ever yet happened is the grossest exaggeration.

The Lord could do no more for Israel. Yet for His own sake He can still do the wonderful work of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen. He says, "I do not do this for your sakes, house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake." "It is not for your sakes that I do this, says the Lord God. Know this: be ashamed and humiliated for your own ways, house of Israel." The Spirit gives life. God alone has life in Himself; He alone can communicate life.

As a picture, water stands quite simply for moral cleansing, as we find it in Ezekiel 36. The Lord Jesus pointed back to this scripture when He spoke to Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus asked, "How can these things be?" The Lord answered, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" He should have known them. They were right there in Ezekiel 36, which mentions both the "water" and "My Spirit."

It is important to notice also the entire change as to the law, when God shall set up the millennial kingdom. Under the law God commanded and required everything. In the kingdom of God He produces everything by the new nature and the Spirit. Even repentance comes only after He gives them new birth in the land.

The first blessing named here is that the Lord gives His laws into the mind, and also writes them on the heart. This stands in sharp contrast with the first covenant, which was written on stones… The laws stood outside the Israelite. They were not written on his heart.

Because of this there will be spiritual life in Israel. That life will show itself in active obedience to God's will. As God directs, so they will do… We shall see, however, that the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost has a fulness and permanence that Old Testament times barely pictured.

In Ezekiel 36:27, along with the heart of flesh, He says, "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My ways." We have the Spirit now as the Spirit of His Son, sent into our hearts crying, "Abba, Father." He is also the bond that unites us with Christ in glory, and with one another. And along the way, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not according to flesh but according to the Spirit.

We must tell two things apart. One is the pouring out of God's Spirit, mighty and gracious an effect of divine power as it is. The other is the Holy Spirit Himself sent down to live in believers… God will, no doubt, dwell among His people. But that will be blessing under His rule — a very different thing indeed.

Was even the Jew — let alone Israel as a whole — cleansed then from all his filthiness? Malachi tells a different story, and the Lord Himself proved the same when He came in person. Here, when fulfilled, we have no less a blessing promised than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in holy obedience. They will be His people, and He will be their God.

The Lord Jesus refers mainly to this passage in John 3, though not to it alone. He told Nicodemus that He had spoken of earthly things. As a teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have understood this: the renewing of heart was necessary for the blessing of Israel on the earth.

God must take the heart of stone out of the flesh, so that a heart of flesh — a true, tender, feeling heart — may be theirs. He adds the blessed assurance: "I will put My Spirit within you." Then comes what they are only now fit for, and secure in: "You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers."

There are spiritual mercies mixed in with their blessings. But they will be in the land of their fathers, and God is going to make that good to the generation to come. … The prophet says, "You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers." Nothing can be plainer than this. He is to bless Israel on the earth — in their souls too, no doubt: but the sphere of this blessing is the holy land. It is His earthly people, not the Church.

For centuries God could not acknowledge them as His people. They bore the name Lo-Ammi, that is, "not my people" (Hos. 1:9). But the moment will come when Israel is restored. They will have accepted Christ, confessed their guilt, and will serve God with true dedication. Then they will again be able to bear the name of God. Then the full blessing will rest on that nation.

God will make the new covenant publicly with Israel. It fulfils the unconditional promises He made to Abraham, 430 years before the law was given. For this, God must gather Israel back to her own land. The public confirming of the new covenant will happen at the same time as the millennial reign of Christ.