Dr Hill has just finished writing two volumes of commentary on Ezekiel which will be published at Easter-time under the title ‘Today with Ezekiel’. What appears in this series is a foretaste of these books.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.” This was the promise of God to the Israelites in exile in Babylon long after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians that had come as a terrible shock to the exiles.
None of them believed that God would allow the temple to be destroyed. That news had shattered the faith of many of the exiles, and Ezekiel had to work hard to teach them that it was their own sinfulness and widespread idolatry that had caused God to remove his cover of protection and allowed the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem.
Ezekiel aimed to get people to loathe their own sinfulness. Then he was able to move to a new message about God’s forgiveness and His love for His people and that the day would come when God would take a redeemed community back to the land and rebuild Jerusalem.
Good news message
This promise of a new heart and a new spirit was part of Ezekiel’s good news message. It was followed by the words “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” In reading this promise, Christians have to beware not to use New Testament teaching in reading this statement, because the Hebrew understanding of ‘flesh’ was quite different. Throughout the Old Testament, ‘flesh’ is used in a positive sense as part of God’s creation of the body, all of which is good!
Throughout the Old Testament, ‘flesh’ is used in a positive sense as part of God’s creation of the body, all of which is good!
‘Flesh’ is not regarded as intrinsically sinful as it is in parts of the New Testament, which is derived from Greek, rather than Hebrew roots. Even Paul uses it from a Greek perspective when he declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). God wanted to restore, or redeem, their human heart as originally created.
What Ezekiel is saying here is that sin (the shedding of innocent blood and idolatry) had turned the human heart to stone, so that they had become immune to the truth, and had refused to listen to the warnings God had sent through the prophets. He, the Creator of the universe, was going to give them a new heart and a new spirit.
Central point
Ezekiel had now reached the central point of his message, which no doubt he had been wanting to give for a long time. After all the bad news that he had been bringing, here at last he was receiving a good news message to give to the exiles. If we are right in dating this at 561 BC, the exiles would have been in Babylon for more than 35 years. Many of the original exiles would have already died and a new generation born who had never known the homeland of their parents. Ezekiel’s good news announcement would have been eagerly taken back by the elders to the communities in their settlements. But how would it have been received by young people who had never known any other environment than Babylon?
... it was not only the sins of their fathers that had brought destruction upon Jerusalem and the land, but there was also individual responsibility for sin.
Individual responsibility
The answer to this question lies in the teaching that Ezekiel had been giving, that it was not only the sins of their fathers that had brought destruction upon Jerusalem and the land, but there was also individual responsibility for sin. God was now looking for all individuals among the exiles to examine their own lives and feel ashamed of their disgraceful conduct - not only that of their fathers, but in their own lives. God wanted to get to the point where “you will loathe yourselves for your sin” ( Ezek 36:31). The people would then be ready for God to fulfil His promise.
It was God’s intention to put “a new heart and a new spirit” into each of the exiles, to create a new community of believers, each of whom had a personal relationship with the God of Israel. They would be outwardly cleansed, inwardly renewed, and divinely empowered. This continues to be His desire for His people today.
They would form the redeemed company whom God wanted to return to the land as a new exodus from slavery, and there would be a new entry into the promised land. It was to be a new beginning for the house of Israel, who would see the hand of God “increase the fruit of the trees and their crops of the field” so that they would no longer suffer disgrace among the nations. They would enjoy the fruit of prosperity of “the land flowing with milk and honey’” that was God’s original intention for His people.
The Holy Spirit of God would be poured out upon them in the way that Isaiah would soon be prophesying...
A covenant relationship
The new heart lay in the covenant relationship between God and His people in fulfilment of His intention – “You will be my people and I will be your God”. They would have no other gods and no other loyalties, and they would never again pollute the land. The Holy Spirit of God would be poured out upon them in the way that Isaiah would soon be prophesying; “See, I am doing something new!….For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring” (Isa 43:19 and Isa 44:3).
Transformation
This would transform both the people and the land, and it would be seen by all the nations who had poured scorn upon the name of the God of Israel whom they thought was powerless. He would gain glory through His people and through them He will be revealed to all the world, which was His intention from the time He revealed himself to Abraham and set aside his family to be servants of God for the redemption of humankind.
The redeemed company of believers – ‘the Golah’ – would return to the land of Israel in triumphant procession, preparing the way for the Messianic Age. As Isaiah would say at the end of the exile, “No longer will they call you Deserted… but you will be called Hephzibah” (Isa 62:4).
