And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols will I cleanse you.
God speaks here to a people scattered among the nations, and He promises them a cleansing they cannot do for themselves. Three questions follow: what the "clean water" is, when the sprinkling happens, and why God does it at all.
Every verb in this promise belongs to God. One writer sets the promise beside the reason God gives for it. The reason is not Israel's improvement.
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.)
Notice how many promises here begin with "I will."
"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.
Sprinkled water was not a new idea to Ezekiel's hearers. Two earlier passages would have come to mind.
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.
The picture in Numbers and the promise in Ezekiel point the same way. The New Testament confirms it.
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.
Israel already had washings under the law. This promise is different.
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.
Jesus once pointed Nicodemus, a respected teacher in Israel, back to what the prophets had already written. This verse is part of that testimony.
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.
The promise is set in a future gathering, not in the return from Babylon.
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 effect goes deeper than a change of behaviour.
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.
- The cause. God acts for His own name's sake, not for Israel's.
- The gift. The verbs are all "I will": cleansing, a new heart, and the Spirit all come from God's free grace.
- The means. The sprinkled water recalls Numbers 8 and 19. The ashes picture Christ's death and the living water the Spirit, and Ephesians 5:26 ties the water to the Word.
- The reach. This washing is real, not ceremonial. It works by new birth — the very thing a teacher in Israel should have known.
- The result. A nation gathered back to its own land, cleansed when it looks on the One they pierced, and so changed that it loathes what it once was.
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
These words sit inside a promise God makes to Israel, a nation scattered and beaten: He will bring them home and change them from the inside. Two questions follow — when does this happen, and what is a "heart of stone"?
Israel came home from exile in Babylon, and many read that return as the fulfilment. Commentators point out that the details of the passage rule it out.
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.
The image is not random. God had already given Israel His law carved into stone tablets.
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."
Commentators insist this promise is not an improvement of what is already there.
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.
The verse names two steps, and their order matters.
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.
But the heart God gives is not passive.
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.
Read the chapter and count the promises. God also gives His reason for making them.
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.
Two lines in the chapter say why God acts.
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 26 gives a new spirit; verse 27 gives another gift, and the difference is easy to miss.
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.
If the promise is Israel's, the condition it addresses is not theirs alone.
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.
- Stone diagnosed. The law was written on stone because Israel's heart was stone — unbending, and offering nothing for God to write on.
- Stone removed. The first move is removal, not repair; a heart of flesh is one that can take an impression.
- Spirit given. Verse 26's "new spirit" and verse 27's "My Spirit" are two gifts, not one; only with both does obedience follow.
- Grace sovereign. Every promise in the chapter is "I will," and God states the reason: His own name, not their deserving.
- Still future. Commentators say the return from exile fell far short. This is the new birth of a nation still to come — and the same stony heart, and the same cure, apply to every person now.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and ye shall do them.
This promise closes a chain of "I will" statements. God cleanses, gives a new heart, then puts His own Spirit inside His people. Who is it for? When does it happen? And how does God make obedience instead of demanding it?
Commentators say this promise is still future. It describes far more than the return from Babylon.
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 chapter gives the reason. It is not that Israel improved. It is the honour of God's own name, and the work is His to do.
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.
The verse before speaks of cleansing with water. This verse adds the Spirit. Jesus joined the same two when He spoke with Nicodemus, a respected teacher in Israel, and expected him to know where they came from.
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."
The phrase "cause you to walk in my statutes" turns God's earlier dealings with Israel around completely.
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 new covenant promise draws the same contrast. God's laws move from stone to the inside of a person.
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.
The gift is not an end in itself. The verse ties it to something you can see: keeping and doing.
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.
The promise itself belongs to Israel's future. Yet writers apply its principle to believers today.
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.
One writer draws a sharp line between the Spirit poured out and the Spirit living inside believers.
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.
- Cause. God acts for His holy name's sake, not because Israel deserves it. He says, "It is not for your sakes that I do this."
- Gift. He does not repair the old heart; He removes the stone, gives a heart of flesh, and puts His own Spirit inside.
- Reach. Jesus used the same water-and-Spirit words with Nicodemus. Israel is not the only one who needs new birth.
- Result. The law once commanded from outside; now God produces obedience from within — even the repentance comes after the new birth.
- Timing. Commentators hold that the promise is still future for Israel. Since Pentecost, believers already have the Spirit living in them — a fulness the Old Testament barely pictured.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
In one sentence God promises two things at once: a place to live and a relationship to live in. Commentators ask when this happens and who "you" means. They also ask why the land comes last, after the new heart and the Spirit.
Some treat these words as already fulfilled in Israel's past. One writer tests that against what the verses promise:
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.
Notice the order. God cleanses, gives a new heart and puts His Spirit within them. Only then does He name the land. One commentator points to where Jesus picks up that order, in His talk with Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel:
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.
Another writer follows the same order to its end. The people get the land only when they are ready for it:
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."
Some read "the land that I gave to your fathers" as a picture of spiritual blessing. One writer holds to the plain sense and compares Israel's portion with the Christian's:
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.
He adds that he would not object if someone preached the gospel from these words. He asks only that no one blots out Israel's hopes.
The words "you shall be my people" answer an older verdict. Israel had carried the name Lo-Ammi, "not my people":
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.
These promises belong to the new covenant. One writer places its public start at a definite time:
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.
- Cleansed, then settled. God does the inward work first — cleansing, a new heart, His Spirit. Only then does He settle the people in the land. He never reverses the order.
- Born again. God promises the new birth of a nation. These are the "earthly things" Jesus said a teacher of Israel should already have understood.
- Fit to hold it. God gives the land to a people who are now fit for it and secure in it, because He has changed their heart.
- Owned again. "My people" reverses the verdict Lo-Ammi, "not my people". These are God's earthly people, not the Church.
- Still future. Israel's earlier return to the land did not fulfil this — Malachi shows the people were still not cleansed. These promises wait for the new covenant that God will make publicly with Israel when Christ reigns.