July 10th

EZEKIAL 36 – 38

The Israelites had what can be a common problem…impatience with the present situation, losing sight of the purpose of the circumstances and forgetting what we really know!  Previously Ezekial looked back and reproved the people because of their sins.  Now, he looks ahead and encourages the people by telling them what the Lord will do for Israel in the future.  These promises go beyond the ending of the Babylonian Captivity and anticipate the end times.  The Jewish people will be gathered to their land, the land will be cleansed and restored, and the nation will have a new temple and the presence of the glory of the Lord. 

36: 1-15 RESTORATION.  The land had been given to the Jews…ownership was settled.  Their possession and enjoyment of the land however depended on their faith and obedience.  Very much like our Christian walk and life.  We enter His family by trusting Jesus but we ENJOY the family by believing His promises and OBEYING His will.  Disobedient children must be disciplined just as the LORD chastened the Israelites for their disobedience and rebellion.

The adjoining nations had helped ravage the land and they had taunted and ridiculed.  They would now they would be put to shame.  The pestilence, war and wild beasts had decreased the Jewish population but God had promised that they would be numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of heavens…to fulfill its divine purposes on earth, the people had to multiply. 

The mountains of Israel of depriving the Jews of their children may refer to the fact that the pagan shrines were in the high places, and there some of the Jews offered their own children to the heathen gods.  Altho in present day the Jews have done many things to replenish their land, it is nothing compared to what the LORD has in store for the nation. Isa. 35:1-2

v. 16-38 Regeneration:  The people had polluted God’s land by their awful acts of disobedience.  Consequently…the land vomited them out and they were sent to Babylon.  They profaned the name of the LORD before the Gentiles…they were not Godly witnesses to the pagans.  They imitated the pagans’ ways. 

What about our present day world?  Are we profaning His name by our lack of separation and Godly witness?  Does the world sit up and take notice and want to hear what we have to say? 

The Lord promises to change the people only because He desires to sanctify and glorify His great name. v. 22 …again not because they deserve it, but by His grace.  He did not give the land to them because of their righteousness and He would not restore it because of their righteousness.  God in His grace gives us what we do not deserve and in His mercy, He doesn’t give us what we do deserve! 

TRANSFORMATION:  v. 24-38  When they return, they will be changed!  A transformed land requires a transformed people.  The spiritual experience described in this section illustrates what happens to every sinner who receives the Lord Jesus Christ. 

1.     Cleansing by water…sprinkling or running water.  Water cannot change the heart, but this is a picture of the gracious forgiveness we have through faith.  We are cleansed  I John 1:9

2.     A new heart…An exchange…stony heart for an obedient heart! 

3.     The Holy Spirit within.  A born again has a new heart, a new spirit, and a new desire to love the Lord and obey Him.  Dogs act like dogs because they have a dog’s nature.  God’s people act like His people because they have His nature within. 

4.     The Lord will claim them again as His people. 

5.     Will cause the land to flourish.  The people had given up so much when they chose to relinquish God’ promises…when they chose wrongly…from serving God to serving idols.  The transformation of the land will be a testimony to the nations.

6.     The people will abhor their sins.  Sometimes people remember their sins and enjoy them again.  That exposes that they have not judged their own sins and repented.  The evidence of His presence is hating our sins and desiring to turn away.

7.     Fellowship with the LORD.  Sin had blocked their access to God.

8.     Multiplication of the population. 

9.     The Lord will be glorified.   (All these parallel our wonderful relationship with the LORD. 

RESSURRECTION:  The nation reborn!  37:1-14

Ezekial sees WAY into the future when the LORD returns. 

Many lay dead…it was a humiliating thing for the body of a dead Jew not to be washed, wrapped and buried with dignity in a grace or a tomb.  The vision that Ezekial was given was to make aware of the vast number of the dead, the dryness of their bones…a fulfillment of the prophecy.  He did not question the Lord about what He could do and would do. 

No person needs to be reminded of the startling way in which this prophyey has been in process of fulfillment since WWII.  The Jews have centuries been dispersed among all the nations with only a few left in the homeland which lay waste and desolate.  It was said that travelers in Palestine had no difficulty in recognizing the appropriateness of Ezekiel’s labeling the country as he saw it, the “valley of dry bones” v. 11  But by 1960 A.D. one sixth of the Jewish population of the world was in Palestine.  Already they had been made one nation. V.22  and that between sunrise of one day and sunset of the next “a nation in a day. Isa 66:8.  But the greatest event of all is yet to come…

Ezekial prophesied to the bones.  The Word of the Lord is living and powerful…It can impart life!!  And we have the living army. The dead dry bones represent the whole Jewish nation, both Israel and Judah…a divided nation and a dead nation.  Israel seemed to be in a hopeless state, but with the Lord, all things are possible.  The children of Israel will come together, but the nation will not have spiritual lie until they see their Messiah, believe on Him, and receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit of life.  The nation will be born-and born again “in a day”  Isa. 66:7-9

REUNION:  V.15-28  The fractured kingdom would become one again as Ezekial demonstrated with the two sticks that became one.  Ezekial explained that the Lord would make them one nation, obedient to one king, and worshiping one God…no more idols or disobedience to the Law of the Lord. 

God would bring and maintain the unity of the people…cleanse and renew spiritual life within them. 

Whether it is the children of Israel or the saints in the church today, the Lord wants His people to be united.  Psa. 133:1  I Cor. 1:10 Eph. 4:3  It will take prayer, sacrifice, and patience to maintain the unity of God’s people, but it is important that we do so.  A divided church is not a strong church or a church bearing witness to the grace or glory of God. 

Ch. 38 – 38  A great war happens…resulting with all the bodies.  Bible scholars sometimes clamor in their conflicting interpretations but here is the end of the story…The victory over Go and his hordes will say something to the Gentile nations about Israel.  Gog is a symbolic name, standing for the leader of the world powers antagonistic to God…possibly viewed as in some sense the head of the high regions in the northwest of Asia. 

It will tell them that the Jews are indeed the people of God who were chastened by God in the past but now are destined for a kingdom.  There will come a day when this rebellious nation will be cleansed and forgiven and the Lord will pour out His Spirit on His people.  That will happen when they see the Messiah, repent of their sins, and trust Him for their salvation. 

The Gentile nations and the people of Israel will experience great suffering during the 7 years of Tribulation.  But the Lord in His mercy will seal 144,000  Jews to be the nucleus of the promised kingdom, and will also save a great multitude of Gentiles to share that kingdom with them.  The last temple the Jews ever build will be defiled by Antichrist and ultimately destroyed.  But God has promised His people a new land and a new temple, and Ezekiel will describe these to us in the closing chapters of his book.