Year 2, Week 21, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 21, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 35-36.

Today’s reading continues the final major section of the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 33-48 can be divided into two segments: Ezekiel 33-39 is composed of prophecies about the judgment upon but also the future restoration of Judah, while Ezekiel 40-48 is composed of Ezekiel’s vision about the new temple and new land. Ezekiel 35 is a prophecy of judgment that is directed toward Edom, who is identified as Mount Seir, the principal mountain in the Kingdom of Edom: “Thus says the Lord GOD: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will deal with you; you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 35:14-15). Since Edom rejoiced over Israel’s downfall, so would all the nations rejoice over Edom’s downfall. Ezekiel 36 opens with a parallel arrangement to Ezekiel 35 as it addresses Israel as Mount Israel: “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD…But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt” (Ezekiel 36:1,8-10). The remainder of Ezekiel 36 provides insight as to how the LORD would work restoration in His people.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the description of how the LORD would transform His people: “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. 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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:25-28). The LORD would return His people to their land: “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24). And while the LORD would return His people to their land, the people whom He would return would not really be the same people who were scattered. Using language very similar to what Jeremiah used (see Jeremiah 31:31-34), Ezekiel conveys the same promises of a New Covenant (although Ezekiel does not explicitly call it the New Covenant), which points to a work of transformation in the hearts of the people. While Jeremiah speaks of changing the hearts of His people by putting His Law within them, Ezekiel describes the gift of a new heart indwelt by the Spirit with the result that His people would live obediently to God’s Law.

The LORD’s people were scattered from the land because they had profaned the LORD: “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds…So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them” (Ezekiel 36:17-19). Israel’s disregard for the LORD coupled with their idolatrous ways brought dishonor to the LORD. But as the were scattered among the nations, another layer of dishonoring the LORD emerged: “But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land” (Ezekiel 36:20). The name of the LORD was dishonored as the nations saw Israel scattered and concluded that the LORD must have been unable to carry out His plans and purposes for His people. So, both the disobedience of His people and the dispersion of His people among the nations profaned the LORD. 

But the LORD would do a mighty work that, above all else, would bring honor to His name: “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. 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” (Ezekiel 36:22-23a). The LORD would vindicate His name. The work that the LORD would promise through the New Covenant would ultimately be for the LORD’s own sake. The LORD would do what He is declaring He would do, to clear His own name and to exalt His own self. And yet, the work that the LORD was promising to do, while it would be for His own sake, would provide much benefit for His people. The LORD would transform His people and therefore, His transformed people would be the means through which the LORD would bring honor to His own name: “And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes” (Ezekiel 36:23b). The LORD would do a mighty and merciful work in His people to cure them of their penchant to dishonor the LORD and replace that penchant with a desire to honor the LORD: "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe