Day #250

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Ezekiel 35-37 - Audio
Ezekiel 35-37 - Reading

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Ezekiel 35-37

Chapter 35 – The Edomites, descendants of Esau, wanted to reclaim by force their stolen birthright – the lands of Israel and Judah. This ambition would be stopped by God’s judgment of Edom, a necessary prerequisite for Judah’s restoration. In Deut. 2:2-8 Israel was forbidden to take the territory of Edom because God had given it to the descendants of Esau.

v. 1 – Mount Seir is identified with Edom just as Mount Zion is identified with Judah.

v. 10 – The two nations refers to Israel and Judah. Edom’s land grab was condemned.

Chapter 36 – The honor of God’s name would be vindicated by a show of power among the nations when He brought Israel back home. A total transformation would be required. The root of God’s restoration of His people would be His holiness. Their resettlement in the land would also involve a change in their nature. The life-giving Spirit of God would create in them the will and ability to follow God.

v. 8-15 – “But you” signals a transition: although the address has been to the “mountains of Israel”, now the focus is on Israel’s promising future, rather than its bleak, enemy-ridden past.

v. 17-23 – “defiled” – The exile resulted from God’s regard for His own holiness. The ultimate purpose of all things in history, including Israel’s exile, was and is the glory and honor of God.

v. 26-27 – God’s initiative moves from external to internal with the gift of a new heart and new spirit. The outer purification will be no use without the inner disposition to live rightly before God. The connection of “water” and “Spirit” lies behind John 3:5. “I will put my Spirit within you” predicts and effective inward work of God in the new covenant.

v. 33-36 – The land enjoys the benefits of the people’s cleansing. The mention of Eden emphasizes the nature of this act as re-creation. One appointed function of Israel’s experience in the land was to show the whole world a restored Edenic life, lived in God’s presence and with His blessing.

v. 38 – Then they will know is a fitting conclusion to a passage in which recognizing the true God is paramount.

Chapter 37 – The image of resurrection in Ezekiel’s vision portrayed the spiritual renewal God’s people needed if they were to be restored. Like the creation of Adam, the recreation of God’s people occurred in two stages: forming and then filling with the breath of life.

v. 4-6 – God commands Ezekiel to do what seems pointless (prophesy over these bones) and includes the promise that He will perform the impossible – bring them back to life. The key to “resuscitation” is stated in v. 5: breath is the Hebrew ruakh, the same word used for “the Spirit” in v. 1, in which appears seven more times in the vision.

v. 14 – The fundamental lesson of the vision is repeated: when the Spirit is present, God’s people are enabled to live. This is the only basis on which hope can be held out to the despairing community.

v. 15-28 – Ezekiel performed another symbolic action. Two sticks, one bearing the name of the southern kingdom, Judah, and the other that of the northern kingdom, Israel, were held end to end in Ezekiel’s hand so that they appeared to be joined.

v. 24 – Ezekiel described the future ruler as “king”, possibly a subtle way of distinguishing this future ruler from any that Israel had even known. This future ruler is identified in the NT as Jesus.

v. 25-28 – “will live there forever” – Ezekiel clearly spoke of an eschatological reunification, evidenced by his repeated use of “forever”.

v. 28 – Ezekiel looked for a renewed city of God. Over 600 years later John had a similar vision (Rev. 21), but of a city needing no temple building.