Ezekiel - Lesson 38

Lesson 38, A Divine Heart Transplant, and the Restoration of Yahweh's Honor, Ezekiel 36, 16-38. In 1983, our family moved across the border from Canada to St. Paul, Minnesota, where we lived for twelve wonderful years. That was where our children grew up. When we were in high school, they swam competitively with the school's swim team. We celebrated the end of the boys' season each year with a banquet, at which time the awards for achievement were presented to deserving lads. I shall never forget the Spring Banquet of 1989.Yes, this was a public high school, but those who organized the event asked me, as the father of one of the swimmers, to pray the blessing on the evening and to invoke the special favor of God on one of the swim team members, whose heart had been viciously attacked by a virus, and within two weeks he was transformed from a strapping 16-year-old into a helpless, patient-looking death, squarely in the face. The physicians knew immediately there was only one remedy for his condition, a heart transplant. At the time of our dinner, the young man was dependent on an artificial heart, but this could sustain his life for only a short time. That night we prayed for the Lord's mercy on him and that he would provide a suitable heart from somewhere, and he answered our prayers in the young man's favor. A week or so later, his defective heart was removed and replaced with a healthy heart. It was hard to believe, but the next fall, when the swimmers took to the water again for another season of competition, there he was in the water with the rest of them. Oh, he was not quite the same swimmer. On his chest he bore a huge scar, and he never did regain his old swimming strength and form. Nevertheless, we all considered it a miracle. This young lad, whose very life was in danger, was back as a vital part of the team. Well, we think we are pretty clever these days, with our amazing medical technology that is able to replace damaged organs and limbs, and restore to people facing premature death a few more years or even decades of life. Many are surprised to learn, though, that the idea of a heart transplant is neither modern nor Western. More than two and one-half millennia ago, Ezekiel the prophet of Yahweh, to the dying nation of Israel, had precisely such notions in his head. In 36, 16 to 32, he exploited this idea as a metaphor for the spiritual transformation that God effects on people who are dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2, 1 to 5. Of course, metaphors like this work rhetorically only if the people are actually imagining and talking of heart transplants in real life. Otherwise, the figure would be dismissed as absurd. Well, in the passage we are studying in this lesson, Ezekiel seized upon the metaphor to announce to his people more rebund in exile, his own version of the glorious gospel of divine grace to a people under judgment. Exegetically, this text breaks down like this. There's again the formulaic introduction, verse 15.A. The crisis for Yahweh's honor, the central issue, is not heart or the heart transplant. It's Yahweh's honor. The crisis for Yahweh's honor, verses 16 to 21.B. The restoration of Yahweh's honor, verses 22 to 32. C. The vindication of Yahweh's honor, 33 to 38. First, among the nations, 33 to 36, and then in Israel, 37 to 38, and then epilogue, the formulaic conclusion, verse 38.B. However, I shall deal with this passage thematically under the following four headings. 1. Who are the candidates for a divine heart transplant? 2. How does such a heart transplant happen? 3. How do people who have experienced a heart transplant respond to the procedure? 4. How does this change the world in which we live? Hopefully, when we are through, we will all have both a greater appreciation for the remarkable theological perception of ancient prophets of Israel and a deeper understanding of the grace of God in effecting our own salvation. So, question number one, who are the candidates for a divine heart transplant? In contemporary medical practice, not everyone whose heart is defective receives a new heart. Practically, there are not enough donor hearts to go around for everyone whose heart is a problem. Furthermore, not everyone would benefit from a new heart. The procedure itself is dangerous and could be fatal, and the risks of rejection are high. So, our physicians have established a long list of criteria by which they decide who will and who will not receive a new heart. Ezekiel describes the candidates for the divine heart transplant on the basis of external and internal qualifications. First, people who need a heart transplant demonstrate their sickness by the way they live. Human, concerning the house of Israel, at the time they were occupying their land, they defiled it with their conduct and their unrestrained behavior. In my view, their conduct was like the impurity of menstruation, so I poured out my fury upon them on account of the blood they had poured out on the land and for their pellets of dung, Ezekiel's word for idols, with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed among the countries. I punished them in accordance with their conduct and their unrestrained behavior. But when they arrived among those nations, they caused my holy name to be desecrated inasmuch as it was said of them, These are the people of Yahweh. How is it then that they have had to leave his land? Well, Ezekiel had in mind his own Israelite contemporaries who had been removed from their homeland in Judah and taken into exile in Babylon against their will in 586.This horrific event had caused a deep crisis of faith among the people. At the time, the people of Judah, who represented all that was left of once glorious Israel, prided themselves and their status as the people of God. They were God's chosen, the beneficiaries of God's covenant promises. In fact, the closer Nebuchadnezzar's armies came, the more they clung to the promises of God. In his covenant with Abraham, Yahweh their God had guaranteed for them eternal title to the land of Canaan. In his covenant with Abraham's descendants at Sinai, Yahweh had entered into a marriage relationship with Israel from which there was to be no divorce. In his covenant with David, Yahweh had promised that his descendants would occupy the throne of Israel forever. And in choosing Zion as his dwelling place, he had declared that he himself would reside in Jerusalem forever. Based on these covenant promises, the people had developed the doctrine of eternal security. And the closer Nebuchadnezzar's armies came, the more they clung to these promises, as if there were no conditions binding upon them at all. They had forgotten that God's gracious call to covenant relationship was to be answered with unconditional and joyful obedience to the will of God in response to his grace. They gladly accept the privilege of being the people of Yahweh, but they had forgotten that with this privilege came the responsibility of representing him. They forgot that when they claimed the privilege, their deeds all reflected on the God whose name they bore. However, instead of living according to Yahweh's covenantal standards with their wretched and sinful conduct, they brought shame to his name, and they forgot that within the terms of the covenant, Yahweh had clearly declared that if they would behave like the nations, he would judge them like the nations. Because Ezekiel had spent the first 24 chapters detailing Israel's history of apostasy, he did not elaborate on the nation's specific sins in this oracle. In verse 18, he spoke generally of their defilement of the land with the blood they shed and their idolatry, and even more generally of their defiling ways and deeds in verses 17 and 19. To Yahweh, this proved that they were not his covenant people at all, and hence, under the sentence of death, you are what you do. By their actions, they had brought shame to his name wherever they went. But with this observation, we learn a permanent principle of divine operation. The candidates for divine heart transplant are chosen from among those who deserve to die. These were not good people. If by good, we mean meriting divine favor. They claim to be the people of God, but in Ezekiel's time, little had changed from the time of Isaiah a century earlier as he described in Isaiah 64. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from them and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. Or use the words of Paul in Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, And you were ted in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom all, we all lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. This is the state of candidates for the divine heart transplant. They demonstrate how sick they are by their deeds. Ironically, these deeds prove that they should actually be struck from the list of the candidates for this surgery. Second, people who need a heart transplant are fundamentally sick from the inside out, and it's not just the outside in. This was not simply a problem involving external behavior, as if they could change their conduct and all would be well. No. In accordance with the consistent biblical witness, the problem was with the heart itself. Then what kind of heart is it that needs replacing? In verse 26, Ezekiel answered this question speaking of a heart of stone that needed to be replaced with a heart of flesh. Well, what then is the problem with a heart of stone? Some may well remember the fad of claiming and naming pet rocks that circulated, a fad that circulated remarkably widely a few decades ago. Pet rocks offer some distinctive and attractive features. Regardless of their shape or appearance, they never talk back, and they never bite. They never run away. They never require a veterinarian. They are actually cheap to maintain. But of course, the fad did not last very long, because rocks, even pet rocks, are cold. They are hard. As far as we can tell, they are insensitive and impervious to outside influences. They are incorrigible, and they are dead. Therefore, as therapy rocks, they are useless. And this is precisely what is wrong with the human heart. Since it is dead, it cannot pump life, the blood, through the body. Well, this was Israel's malady in Ezekiel's day, despite their high-sounding claims to belong to being the people of Yahweh. They were incorrigible, 2, 4 to 11, 3, 4 to 11. And they were a lifeless lot. Even before they were slaughtered, their remains were left to the vultures, and their very dry bones were scattered all over the valley. As we will learn in 37, 1 to 10, their trespasses and sin demonstrated that their hearts had fossilized. And for those who languished in exile, there was only one solution as well, a heart transplant, because they had the same problems, even though they were with Ezekiel in Babylon. And there is still only one solution for the human race as a whole, or for individual members of that race. We are indeed dead in trespasses and sins. We are all deserving of the judgment of God. The heart transplant is not offered to those who are well, or to those who deserve it, or to those who earn it. It is available for the undeserving, the condemned, the guilty. Second question, how does a heart transplant happen? When I began looking at this text through the lens of contemporary medical practice, I was struck by how modern Ezekiel's understanding of the surgical procedure the prophet was. Here’s the surgical process. Well, from a cursory reading of this text, we may record the following stages in the transplant operation. First, the operating room, the land of Israel, was prepared by sterilization. In this instance, by pouring God, pouring out his fury on and removing the people who had themselves contaminated the land, 1720. Notice the liquid metaphor in verses 18 to 19. So I poured out my fury on them on account of the blood they had poured out on the land, and for their pellets of dung, now that really defiles their idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed among the countries. I punished them in accordance with their conduct and their unrestrained behavior. Long ago, Yahweh had inscribed within the covenant documents warnings of the consequences of persistent rebellion arising from a hardened heart. In Leviticus, the Lord had said, I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemy's land. Then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it, Leviticus 26, 34 to 35.Well, in the wake of King Manasseh's evils, including the desecration of the temple with idols, the narrator of 2 Kings 21 reported that through his servants, the prophets, he had cited his inevitable clinical response. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down, 2 Kings 21 to 13. Second, the candidates for surgery are brought back into the operating room, so the land is cleansed by removing the defiling people and the defilement itself. Second, the candidates for the surgery are brought back into the operating room, verse 24. And I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all the lands, I will bring you back to your own land, stage two. Three, the patients are purified by washing with water, and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean from all your defilements and from all your idols, gilulim, I will cleanse you. Four, the defective organ is removed and replaced with a new and living heart, verse 26 ACD. I will give you a new heart, I will remove the stone heart from your body, I will give you a heart of flesh. Five, the anesthesiologist infuses the patient with oxygen, the spirit, wind, breath, and the patient regains consciousness, verse 26B and 27A.A new spirit, ruach, breath, I will install within you. And 27, my spirit I will install within you. Six, the healed patient resumes normal life in a healed environment, verses 27B to 30.I will cause you to walk in my ordinances, so you will keep my covenant stipulations, that is, put them into practice. What a remarkable text this is. It is ancient, but it feels so modern. But let's look at the identity of the surgeon who performs this transplant surgery. As is the case in modern physical heart transplants, the patient depends entirely on an outside source to do this work. So it is with a spiritual heart transplant. Israel was dependent on someone else, but not just anyone, mind you. No politician, no psychologist, no psychiatrist can solve the fundamental problem of humankind, a lifeless and cold heart. Not even the godliest prophet or priest or neighbor could accomplish this for the exiles. This was an act that only the divine physician could perform. Notice how Ezekiel emphasized this point. All the significant verbs of 24 to 30 have Yahweh as their subject. I will take you from the nations. I will gather you. I will bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness. I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my ways. I will save you from your uncleanness. I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the produce of your fields. Really, if we remove God from this picture, nothing would be left of Israel. There was only one answer for the Israel of Ezekiel's day. The heart transplant is a work of God from beginning to end. But how would God do this, the nature of the surgery? Although Ezekiel recited more than a dozen stages in the process of Israel's revitalization, at the heart of the work of God would be his Holy Spirit. Ezekiel referred to the Spirit twice, first as a new spirit in contrast to the old, verse 26, and second as my spirit, in contrast to their own heart of stone. To grasp the meaning of this passage, we must understand how the Hebrew scriptures use these words. In the first testament, the word heart has more than one meaning. As in English, at the literal level, the word lave refers to the organ that pumps the blood in a living creature's body. At the metaphorical level, it refers to the seat of human emotions and volition. But it is more than this. In at least one half the cases in the first testament, the Hebrew word lave refers to the seat of the intellect, the mind, the thinker. Ezekiel himself will write in 3810, thus says the Lord God, on that day, thoughts, divarim, words, literally, ideas, events, will come into your lave, heart, actually mind, and you will devise an evil scheme. Well, that's the heart, that's the mind. Compare Genesis 6, 5, the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart, lave, was only evil continually. The same applies in the New Testament. Note the following statements of Jesus. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? That's very Hebraic, Matthew 9, 4. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, about murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander, Matthew 15, 19.Or, he has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, Luke 1, 51. And a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed, Luke 2, 35. Biblical Hebrew has no separate word for mind, the organ of thought. So when our Bibles translate verse 26 with heart language, we should know that this is also mind language. What the Israelites needed was not needed as much as a transplant of the seat of the emotions and the passions and the will was a transplant of the seat of their thinking, a brain transplant. That's the Hebrew word for lathe. The word for spirit is even more fluid in meaning, and I use that intentionally. As in Greek, pneuma, and Latin, ventus, Hebrew, ruach, may denote wind or breath or spirit or even direction. In fact, in the next chapter, verses 1 to 14 of 37, Ezekiel will use this one word in all four possibilities. The ruach of Yahweh picks up Ezekiel and transports him in a vision to a valley far away. The ruach, breath, enters the bones and they come to life. Ezekiel prophesies to the ruach, the wind, in fact, the four ruachot, that's the plural, from all four directions. However, since ruach can also refer to the mind, the seat of thought, we had this in 11.5 and 13.2 to 3, our first impulse in 36.26 may be to interpret ruach as a mental synonym for lathe. This might be supported by the Hebrew parallelism, according to which heart and spirit denote overlapping concepts. However, if we look more closely, Ezekiel uses different prepositions with the heart and the spirit. Yahweh gives a new heart to Israel, but he puts a new spirit within them. Furthermore, we should interpret verses 26b and 27 as commentary on 26a, so that the new spirit referred to in verse 26 is none other than the Lord's own spirit. I will give to you a new heart, and I will implant within you a new spirit. I will remove the stone heart from your body, I will give you a heart of flesh, and implant my spirit within you. And now we have introduced a crucial theological issue, that is, the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Although theologians and many biblical scholars tend to homogenize the work of the Spirit, we need to recognize that as the capitals now, executive officer of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit performs many different functions. In Ezekiel alone, he serves as an agent of conveyance, transporting the prophet from place to place, 3.12.18, as an agent of animation, giving life to the wheels of the heavenly chariot, 1.20-21, as the agent of prophetic inspiration, putting into Ezekiel's mouth the words he should speak, 13.3, and as the seal of divine ownership, 39.29. Elsewhere, the Spirit is involved in creation, Genesis 1.2, and conscripting and empowering leaders, Judges 3.10, and elsewhere in Judges. This raises the question, how shall we interpret the work of the Spirit here? Perhaps Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3.1-8 can help us. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? He's a literalist. Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don’t be surprised that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can that be? Jesus answered him, Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you don't understand these things? Well, Ezekiel was talking about nothing more nor less than spiritual new birth. One may be animated at physical birth by breathing in the air, but one remains spiritually dead unless one is infused, indwelt, animated, and transformed by the Holy Spirit of God from the inside out. Just as the first Adam came to life through God, breathing into his nostrils his breath, Genesis 2, 7, so the members of the new Adamic race come to spiritual life by receiving the life-giving Spirit of God. There never has been another way. Eternal life cannot be bought or earned. It may only be received as a gift. In this text, Ezekiel offered the clearest first testament description of how the process of regeneration works. In his account, which concerns primarily his own people, the Israelites, this vitalizing gift of the Spirit would yield life, the renewal of the old covenant, the people walking in newness of life, and the Lord's fulfillment of all covenant promises. In Nicodemus' case, the benefit of the work of the Spirit was the offer of new and eternal life for this Jewish rabbi. Based on the relative silence of the first testament on the operation of the Spirit in individuals in ancient Israel, many focus on the futuristic nature of Ezekiel 36, 16 to 38. They maintain that in this text Ezekiel anticipated a new operation of the Spirit in the eschatological age that was fulfilled in the New Testament in the wake of the incarnation. Now, it is true that Ezekiel's comprehensive picture of the nation of Israel as a regenerate people, that would be new, comprehensive picture. That is, the boundaries of spiritual and physical Israel would be coterminous. However, this does not mean that the Holy Spirit's regeneration and indwelling of individuals had never happened before. Absence of the vocabulary we find in the New Testament doesn't mean absence of the concept or the phenomenon. This is evident in the way the first testament speaks, or rather does not speak, of the devil. Although the world around Israel was preoccupied with the demonic, on the one hand, and the demons and the devil feature prominently in the New Testament, on the other hand, biblical Hebrew has no unequivocal expression for devil or even demon. Nevertheless, it would be foolish to suggest that demons were not active in first testament Israel or that Israel did not believe in them. While scant, we find evidence of the operation of the Spirit in producing genuinely godly individuals whose lives exhibited the fruits of the Spirit that Moses and Ezekiel anticipated. In Numbers 24-24, Yahweh characterized Caleb, who was not an ethnic Israelite. He was a ben jefune, the kenezite. He is one with whom there is a different spirit, ruach echereth immo, who was full after Yahweh, and who demonstrated this by exhibiting faith and character that contrasted with most of the rest of Israelites, Deuteronomy 1-34-36. In fact, he lived to enter the promised land, whereas all the others were dead in trespasses and sins. They died in the desert, most of them. The Babylonians in Nebuchadnezzar's court recognized that Daniel had the Spirit of the holy gods within him, Daniel 6-4. And how else could we account for King Josiah's extraordinary piety in a corrupt world, and whom the narrator of Kings, 2 Kings 23-25, eulogized as unequaled among Israel's kings for having turned to Yahweh with his whole heart and mind, with his entire being, and with all his resources, according to the Torah of Moses? Well, Ezekiel is anticipating the national experience of what was true of people like this then. Well, how do people who have experienced a heart transplant respond to the surgery? What evidence did Ezekiel expect of Israelites who experienced this heart transplant, and how do the regenerate, those who are animated by the Spirit, respond to this divine surgery? Our text offers us two answers. First, those who have experienced the divine heart transplant demonstrate their new life in him by living according to his will. Notice verse 27, I will put my Spirit within you, and I will energize you to walk in my ordinances. Then you will keep my covenant stipulations by putting them into practice. This is the consistent message of Scripture. Those who are born of the Spirit of God display the fruits of the Spirit. That is, they give evidence in their lives of their transformation. By Ezekiel's time, this theme was almost a thousand years old. Although he used a different heart metaphor, in Deuteronomy 30, 6 to 10, Moses had looked forward to this day when all Israelites would demonstrate this sort of disposition and action. Chapter 30, verse 6, Deuteronomy, and Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, mind, and the heart, mind of your descendants. Then you will demonstrate love for Yahweh your God with all your heart and mind, with all your entire being, so you may live. And you will turn around and listen to the voice of Yahweh, and you put into practice all his commands that I am charging you today. Yahweh your God will ensure that you flourish in all the work of your hands, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, because Yahweh will turn around by delighting in you for your good, as he delighted in your ancestors. And then you have the causal declaration, because you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by keeping his commands and his ordinances that are written in this Torah scroll, because you turn around to Yahweh your God with all your heart, mind, and with your entire being. Notice the pattern. Divine circumcision of the heart leads to unreserved and total love for God, which is demonstrated in total obedience to his revealed will. This is true also in New Testament. Jesus said, if you love me, and this is in the context of I am the vine and you are the branches, if you are in the vine, what do you do? If you love me, you will keep my commands, and if you keep my commands, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and abide in his love, John 15 10. And to the Galatian believers, Paul wrote, but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things. There is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. That's living in the practical, pragmatic sense. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. That’s Galatians 5 16 and 22 to 26. Second, those who have experienced the divine heart transplant and the animating transformation of the Spirit of God will recognize in this experience the free and gracious gift of God. In the end, perhaps to the Israelites' embarrassment, they would recognize that God's work of generation always said more about him than about them. Notice first that God's overriding concern in this entire passage has been the status and reputation of his holy name. So long as this people who claim to be called by the name, by his name, persisted in their sinful ways while living in the land, 20 39 43 78, and now, so long as they lived in exile, his name was desecrated, Timay 36 17 to 22, foreign observers will have interpreted the latter as evidence that Yahweh was either unable or unwilling to keep his covenant promises made to Israel centuries ago. They would not distinguish between the human actions that brought on God's fury and the divine expressions of that fury. And so long as this was the case, Yahweh's name was desecrated. The conclusions they drew about him were false. Accordingly, for the sake of his reputation, eventually it would be necessary for Yahweh to act. He could not abandon his people forever. After all, he had made eternal promises to them to be their God and to take them as his covenant people. His fidelity to his word was at stake. So when God would begin again to work on Israel's behalf, calling them back to the land, transplanting their hearts, transforming them by his Spirit and causing them to prosper, he would do so ultimately for his own glory and for the sake of his reputation. Third, those who have experienced the divine heart transplant and the animating power of his indwelling Spirit will be humbled and grateful for the divine work of grace. Lest the Israelites miss this point, Ezekiel framed 22 to 32 with two strong asseverations. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, it is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have desecrated among the nation wherever you have gone. Verse 22, then you will recall your evil conduct and your improper behavior and loathe yourselves on account of your iniquities and on account of your abominations. It's not for your sake that I will act, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. Be informed, you should be ashamed and humiliated on account of your ways, O house of Israel. These are verses 31 to 32. This whole text is framed by this. It’s not for your sake that I will act, but for the sake of my name. Well, how does this change the world in which people live? Well, one more comment about this. We talked today a lot about having higher self-esteem. The amazing thing, according to this passage, is that when the undeserving Israelites receive this amazing gift of new life through the spirit and the heart transplant, their eyes will finally be opened to their horrible past, and they will be amazed. How in the world could we do that? You will loathe yourself. What kind of awful people were we? Be ashamed, be humiliated on account of your ways, O house of Israel. They did not have it coming. But when they experience grace, they will celebrate that God has treated them with grace in spite of their horrific past. This is how grace works. Grace is by definition undeserved, and when we experience grace, then we will realize that. How does this change the world in which God's people live? Well, a new citation formula in verse 33 sets verses 33 to 38 off as a new section, consisting of three parts, Yahweh's action toward his people, 33a, his actions toward the land, 33b to 34, and the public response, 35 to 36. But in it all, we return to the theme of the vindication of Yahweh's name and honor. The subject has particular reference in relation to what had preceded, the desecration of Yahweh's reputation among the nations. When Yahweh has performed a heart transplant, the surrounding nations will acknowledge his special relationship with his people and his land. The restoration of the deity-nation land triad will vindicate the holy name of Yahweh. After all, he is Yahweh, he has spoken, he must fulfill his word. But each of these points calls for a brief comment. One, Yahweh's name will be vindicated among the nations. At that same time, at the same time as I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause your cities to be inhabited and the ruined places to be rebuilt. The wasteland will be cultivated instead of lying desolate before all passers-by. Then they will say, Wow, this very land, once desolate, has become like the garden of Eden. The cities, once waste and desolate and ruined, are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left around about you will know that I am Yahweh. I have rebuilt the ruins. I have replanted the wasteland. I am Yahweh. I have spoken. I will act. The first statement in verse 33 provides an important link with the foregoing. The most significant feature of the new day for Israel will not be her restored prosperity, but her cleansing. Whereas previously he had spoken of cleansing the people of their uncleanness, tomah, and their idolatry, gilulim, here the prophet used a more general term, of their iniquity, of their guilt, of their twistedness, twisted thinking and action. Contextually, the implantation of the new heart and the infusion of the new spirit referred to earlier imply that the people's wicked behavior had stopped and their guilt was removed. The account has been closed. However, so long as the land lay devastated, the name of Yahweh was slandered. Shalom must exist not only between deity and people but also between deity and land and the people and the land. Verses 33b to 34 address this territorial issue in overtly materialistic terms. The land will become fertile again, 29 to 30, and the cultural signs of human occupation will return. Cities will be occupied, ruined heaps rebuilt, devastated land will be served, that is, cultivated. All who pass by will be amazed at the transformation of the landscape. Like the reaction of the observers to Israel's destruction, verse 20, so Yahweh casts the nation's response to Israel's restoration in the form of direct speech. The passers-by do not mention the return of the people or their spiritual regeneration. What impresses them is the physical transformation of the environment. First, recalling 34, 25 to 29, but with obvious hyperbole, they speak of a wasteland being transformed into an Edenic paradise. The references to Eden are common in Ezekiel. The present description is particularly reminiscent of Isaiah 51.3. Yahweh will surely comfort Zion. He will look with compassion on all her ruins. He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of Yahweh. Second, outsiders notice the ruined cities have been totally rebuilt. The description of rebuilt settlements as fortified they are inhabited reflects a complete return to normalcy. In this cultural context, a city is by definition a permanent settlement surrounded by defensive walls where everybody is safe. This segment concludes with an expanded version of the recognition formula, the subjects being the nations that have been left around you. Presumably, these are survivors of Yahweh's judgments as we have seen in chapters 25 to 32, though Ezekiel's audience will have imagined them as the survivors of Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns, probably wherever he had campaigned. They will serve as outside witnesses to his saving action and give testimony to his renewed commitment to Israel. The concluding self-introduction formula identifies the guarantor of the promise. Yahweh, the God of Israel, whose name had been desecrated, was not only the source of this oracle, he would also fulfill it. But there is more to this statement than guaranteeing the prophetic word. As the covenant Lord Yahweh had spoken long ago, the original covenant curses had warned Israel of the consequences of persistent rebellion, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28.The present devastation of the land and the exile of its population confirm that divine word, the ancient word. But those same covenant curses had also promised the possibility of the nation's restoration. Yahweh would not reject his people forever. When the land has rested long enough to make up for their missed Sabbaths and the people have borne the consequences of their iniquity, then he will remember the covenant. And of course, by the word remember, he does not mean the opposite of forget. He never did forget it. The point is then he will take into account the covenant and its promises. After all, he is Yahweh, Leviticus 26, 40 to 45. His promises are not in vain. For him to speak is for him to execute. Secondly, Yahweh's reputation, name will be vindicated in Israel. Thus says the Lord, Yahweh declared, furthermore, I will respond to the request of the house of Israel to act on their behalf. I will cause their population to increase like a human flock, like a consecrated flock, like the flock in Jerusalem at the time of her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with human flocks. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. The citation formula signals the start of a second addendum with a dramatic shift in tone. For 20 plus years of verses, Ezekiel has portrayed Yahweh as a cold, almost heartless divinity preoccupied with the holiness of his name. Indeed, some readers may have wondered if he was not the one with a heart of stone. And some hearers of this message might run to the same. Unwilling to end the text on that note, Yahweh added this positive word. Finally, we recognize the personal, sensitive side of God, who permitted himself to be entreated and even seemed excited about the prospect of his people coming home. The opening statement highlights the dramatic change in the relationship between Yahweh and his people. I will respond to the request, literally, I will let myself be sought, idaresh, that is, make himself a part of this hide-and-seek game. Several times we have heard him slam the door on any appeals because of the nation's iniquities, 8.18, 14.3, 23.His reopening his ear to human pleas reflects the transformation in his disposition. For what purpose he anticipated the people approaching him, we may only speculate. Would they still be plagued by doubts concerning Yahweh's commitment to his covenant promises? Would they come to him for support against external threats or to settle internal disputes? Or would they come with pleas to replenish the population? The promise in verse 37b suggests the last possibility may be the answer. Why the size of the population should be an issue for returning exiles is obvious. As a result of Yahweh's judgment, their numbers had been decimated through battle, famine, disease, and dispersion. Remembering the promises to the ancestors of innumerable descendants, Genesis 17.2, Leviticus 26.9, the exiles may have wondered how the restoration could be complete if they remain just a handful of people. Whereas 36.11 had raised the subject from the land's perspective, 36.11, here the people's disposition was the issue, not the land, the people's disposition. But like every other aspect of the restoration, Yahweh held the key. He alone could make it happen. To describe the effects of Yahweh's action, the prophet compared the population of the land with flocks of sheep jamming the streets of Jerusalem at festival time 38. Having grown up in a priestly family, Ezekiel will have remembered the scene well. The expression flock of holy offerings, that is consecrated flock, refers primarily to sacrificial animals, but it also hints at the new sanctification of the people. They are his flock, his consecrated flock. As we heard in 34.31, Israel is Yahweh's flock. Here Yahweh promised to act on behalf of his holy name by creating for himself a numerous holy people. But as had been the case under the Davidic kings before the division of the nation into two kingdoms, Yahweh intended his blessings to radiate out to the whole land from Jerusalem. Accordingly, this image of a bustling new Jerusalem serves as an illustration of a much larger scene. The final clause asserts that this population explosion, I called a birthquake, would occur in all the ruined cities, and the human flock would fill the entire land. As Ezekiel had declared in chapter 34, the flock of Yahweh's pasture is indeed a human flock. When the nation of Israel would fill the ancestral homeland, then they would recognize Yahweh, and his name would be vindicated within the borders of his own land and among his own people. What a glorious gospel Ezekiel has proclaimed in 36.16-38. Although earlier we recognized some practical implications of the heart transplant portion of the text, we need to integrate some remaining loose threads into the tapestry. First, although the Lord's ways may be mysterious, they are not hidden. He acts in the public arena for the world to observe and to draw their conclusions. Sometimes the inferences about the character of God drawn from human experience are incorrect. This was the problem the Israelites created. For them, the exile created an intense crisis of faith. They had come to look upon God as a sentimental, if temperamental, dispenser of gifts, whose primary role was to cater to their appetites. And when he failed to defend them against the Babylonians, they accused him of infidelity to his covenant. Remarkably, even though the nation's demise was the consequence of their own sin, Yahweh took their doubts seriously. Concern for his reputation drove him to act savingly on their behalf. For outsiders, with their simplistic perception of patron deities as resident landlords defending turf and home, and their inability often to distinguish between divine and human causation, this oracle affirmed the morality of Yahweh's actions. The mockery of the nations over his apparent incompetence or betrayal of his people could be resolved simply by reuniting land and people. But the taunting world must witness his transforming power in recreating people intent on serving him. Second, revelatory aims drive God's actions in human history, that his people and the world may know that he is Yahweh. The recipients of divine grace are easily deluded into thinking they are the center of the universe, and their desires determine God's agenda. They may even be offended that sentimental pity toward a person in need takes second place to concern for his own reputation. But the universal Lord is concerned that all may see his glory and his grace. He acts to preserve the sanctity of his reputation all over. Third, the future for Israel rests in the eternal, immutable promises of God. In 586 BC, all the nation's hopes and aspirations were dashed. To the exiles, all God's promises seemed in vain. Their status as his covenant people, their title to the land, the right of the Davidic dynasty to rule, and the residence of God in their midst in Zion. But here Ezekiel reassured his people that God had not forgotten the covenant. The ancient promises still stand. Therefore, the population must be regathered, their hearts transformed, and their community returned to the homeland, there to enjoy the blessings of God. After all, his honor was at stake. Well, how these prophetic promises will be fulfilled remained and remains an open question. Nevertheless, to reduce these oracles to symbolic language and to restrict their fulfillment to the New Testament church is to annul the hope the prophet was attempting to restore. At the same time, Ezekiel did not assume that access to the benefits promised here was automatic. The principle that was operative before 586 BC still applied. Apart from personal and or national spiritual renewal, those who claim to be Abraham's heirs have no right to the blessings of Yahweh promised his covenant people. Fourth, the only solution for the fallen human race has always been a fundamental cleansing, a heart transplant, and infusion of the divine spirit. It is tempting in our context in particular to imagine that social ills can be healed by economic, social, and educational programs. Pour more money into our schools or into our neighborhoods. But Ezekiel's radical the ocentricity finds the answer in God alone. Well, believers today must applaud and even lead the way in efforts to advance the social conditions of humankind, to propose these as the answer for a person's needs without reference to the fundamental problem, the depravity of the human soul is to continue the idolatry of the Israelites. What is needed in our day is a dramatic reversal and a return to the biblical heart imagery and to a recognition that the required transformation can only be achieved by the gracious act of God.Only God can remove the heart of stone and give us hearts of flesh. New life comes only by his spirit. In our day, when high self-esteem is to be the desirable goal for all, these words sound strangely foreign and anachronistic, if not downrightly offensive. Many perceive life through the lens of what I call a Jack Horner theology. Little Jack Horner sat in the corner eating his Christmas pie. He stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said, see what a good boy am I. This is the perspective represented by quotations like, there must be something truly wonderful about us for God to love us. That’s in a book, yes, by a Baptist pastor. And I ask myself, has the author of these comments ever read the Bible? No, this is not about us. It's about God. The truth is there must be something truly wonderful about God for him to love us. Far from developing an inflated self-esteem, those who have genuinely experienced the transforming grace of God are overwhelmed by that amazing grace.