Ezekiel 36:22-38--I Will Put My Spirit Within You

Ezekiel 36:22-38
English Standard Version

I Will Put My Spirit Within You
22 “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. 23 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, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 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. 26 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. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 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.

33 “Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. 34 And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. 35 And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it.

37 “Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. 38 Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

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The LORD now tells His people that they will once again be His people.  Why?  Because of the sake of His Holy Name that we just stalked about last time.  The very Name that they profaned among the nations is the reason why He is about to act to save them.  By this His Name and reputation will be restored among the nations.  He is going to take them from among the nations where they have been scattered and the idols that they have been among and bring them back to His Holy Land and He will be their God and they will be His people.  They will leave all their idols behind and worship the LORD alone, and He will sanctify them (He says by sprinkling clean water on them).

I want to stop there and realize how important that is to them.  They have been functioning 70 years without the sacrificial system of the Temple and without the priesthood and the sin offerings and guilt offerings and fellowship offering.  They have not been able to celebrate the required feasts together in the appointed way that if they fail to celebrate them in the appointed way at the appointed time, they were to lose their identity as God's people and be exiled into the Gentile nations forever (or they could be executed if they would not leave).  Some of the people have done the best they know how to do in this situation, but there is a serious question about if they are going to have to bear all of the sin and guilt from these 70 years and if they will be allowed to return to the Land because they have not celebrated the appointed feasts.  The LORD tells them all that He is going to take their sin and guilt away and restore them to right standing with Him--not because they have done anything to deserve it, but for the sake of His great Name and His reputation among the nations.  Even the fact that the LORD promised to deal with their sin and guilt is such a relief to them.

The LORD does more than that though.  He promises them the new heart and new covenant that have been promised throughout the prophets (especially in Jeremiah 31 and 33), but I love this passage in Ezekiel 36 as a companion to those texts as it tells us the motivation behind the LORD's decision to do this--for His glory (yes, for our good, but that is secondary, maybe even tertiary).  Given this new heart, the LORD would cause His people to be obedient to Him and to walk in His statutes and obey Him.  More than that, He will put His very Sprit within us--something we lost at the Fall in the Garden.  Only after all this restoration of the people of God will the LORD be even slightly concerned about restoring the Land, which is an outward symbol if the covenant relationship between Him and His people.  When the people are living in covenant with the LORD as intended, there is much fruitfulness and blessing which cannot be explained naturally.  When they have broken the covenant and live in rebellion to the LORD, there is much barrenness and desolation that cannot be explained naturally.  We saw this during the 70 years of Exile that other tried to live in the Land and make it be fruitful for them and the LORD would not allow the Land to produce anything other than thorns and thistles for them.   However, He knew His people were returning to the Land and He would prepare it for them so that they would harvest what they had not planted or cultivated.  The trees, fields and vineyards would all be ready for harvest and would give abundant harvest right away, which is not the normal pattern--it usually take years to get the fields, groves, and orchards to reach full fruitfulness.

We may think the LORD is talking about something in the near future, but we know from the next statement that the LORD is looking into the distant future.  He says that they will remember their sin and will loathe it and they will sin no more.  That is not something that is going to happen while we live in these mortal, fallen bodies that have been corrupted by sin and have a sin nature.  The LORD will cause this transformation in His people for His good pleasure and for His glory.  He will make them holy as He is holy--a calling He has given to them (and us) that cannot be lived up to apart from this radical transformation that we look forward to.

In that day, the LORD will cause the Land to be full of inhabitants.  There will be more than enough room for all the people of God as the City of God, the New Jerusalem will be approximately 1,400 miles in each dimension (length, width and height) making it 1.96 million square miles in area (even larger in volume if we can take advantage of all the height).  The Land that was once desolate will be like the Garden of Eden where it was fruitful without much cultivation or labor.  Things naturally wanted to be reproductive and fruitful there.  There will be walled cities there and fortifications, but there will be no threat of attack.  Instead, it will simply be an expression of art and beauty like the walls of the New Jerusalem being built of twelve different kinds of precious stones that would catch the light and make rainbows of living color.  The gates of that city would be made of giant flawless pearls, but the gates would always be open for it will always be day and never night.

The LORD will allow the people of Israel to flourish and be fruitful and multiply.  I believe these will be the Gentile believers of other nations that have been grafted into the True Vine and made part of the True Israel.  The people of Israel will receive a harvest of souls they have no worked for, but the LORD will make us all one people as only He can.  That does not diminish the special relationship that He has with Israel in any way.  

John 10:16
English Standard Version
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

I believe this statement Jesus made in the gospel of John speaks to this "growth" that is being prophesied here in Ezekiel.  In either case, the purpose of all these actions is for people to know He is the LORD and to worship Him.  This is all for the sake of His Name and for His glory.