Believing in the Middle of the Valley: An Advent Message (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

On Christmas 1991, at the age of 3 ½, my parents got me a Super Nintendo. This Super Nintendo came bundled with the Super Mario World game. Also included in this Super Nintendo bundle came a coupon for a free Super Mario All-Stars, the first 4 Super Mario games on the previous system, affectionally now referred to the NES. My first 2 games (or should I say first 5 games) were Super Mario Bros game.

If you’re unfamiliar with Super Mario Bros. games, the plot is fairly simple. Bowser, the King of Koopas, has kidnapped Peach, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. The player’s job as Mario (or Luigi if you’re the second-born sibling) is to traverse the Mushroom Kingdom, avoiding Bowser’s henchman, to rescue Princess Peach. As the King of Koopas, Bowser will naturally send his koopa troopas out to get you, but he also has a special koopa troopa called Dry Bones. Dry Bones may look like just a skeleton version of normal koopa troopa, but its look gives it special powers. When Mario jumps on a regular koopa troopa, it retreats into its shell, and Mario can kick or throw it as he pleases. When Mario jumps on Dry Bones, Dry Bones turns into a pile of bones, with which Mario can do nothing. Mario has exit quickly, though, for he does not, Dry Bones will reassemble and come after him. Very few power ups can affect Dry Bones. Not even Mario’s super mushroom or fire flower can defeat Dry Bones. Mario needs rare items, like the invincibility star to defeat Dry Bones. This slightly more difficult version of the koopa troopa became quite popular, possibly due to being slightly more difficult. Dry Bones became so popular that more recent Mario games have introduced Dry Bowser, a Dry Bones version of Bowser. Now gamers wonder if “dry” has become for Nintendo a child-friendly way to say “dead.” If that’s the case, when I die, please refer to me as Dry Graham.  I would like my tombstone to read “Here lies Dry Graham.”

Now most likely, Dry Bones is simply to be the zombie version of the koopa troopa, an undead version of the Koopa, which, if you think about it, it is hard to kill something already dead. But see, this is where I see the myth that has become true, the gospel message written on every human’s heart. For this idea of dry bones coming back to life comes from does not come from the mind of a man, but rather, it comes from the mind of God, and God presented it to the prophet Ezekiel, as recorded in Ezekiel 37:1-14.

Before diving into Ezekiel 37:1-14, I would first like to address the oddity of an advent message coming from Ezekiel, or any Old Testament for that matter. Shouldn’t an advent message come from the New Testament? Let’s remember the purpose of Advent, which is to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus Christ. Now this is easy for us Christians living in the church age. We have a set date for the birth of Jesus (Let’s not get into the conversation of when Jesus was actually born and if that should impact the day we celebrate his Christ’s birth. That’s for another time.), so we can’t count backwards the days and weeks we need to prepare for it. To some extent, 4 weeks or 24 days is all that is needed. For the Old Testament Jews, however, the first coming of Christ was very much like the second coming of Christ to Christians in the New Covenant. They did not know the day and hour, so they had to perpetually prepare themselves. For them, Advent was 2 millennia in the making! Therefore, when we read this Old Testament passage, or when we any Old Testament passage for that matter, look at the Old Testament Hebrews as in the advent of the first coming of the Christ, and see how they prepare themselves for the coming Messiah.

Speaking of which, the second thing I would like to address, especially since we’re looking at an Old Testament prophecy book, is how to view Old Testament prophecy. For this, I have an illustration, which is commonly called “The Mountain Peaks of Prophecy.” Imagine two mountains, with a valley between them. The mountain on the left represents the first coming of Christ, as recorded in the Gospels. The mountain on the right represents the second coming of Christ, reported by John in the book of Revelation. The valley represents the church age. You are here. You are a Christian in the church age. Now if you were really standing a valley between two literally mountains, you would see two different, distinct mountains. In the same way, as a Christian in the church age, when you read biblical prophecies, you can easily categorize them into first coming of Christ and second coming because the first coming of Christ ones Jesus has already fulfilled in the past and the second coming of Christ one Jesus has yet to fulfill in the future. There exists another valley, however, to the left of both mountains. This valley represents the Old Testament. In this valley resides the Old Testament prophets, like Ezekiel. As Christian in the church, Christians see two distinct, different mountains, but what do Old Testament prophets see?

Perhaps they would see 2 mountains right besides each other, which means they foresee 2 different events, but they happen in direct sequential order, or 1 event will happen right after the other. Maybe they would see just 1 mountain with 2 peaks, or they foresee 2 different events happening at the exact the same. If you also think about it, if the front mountain is bigger than the back mountain, the front mountain could totally obscure the back mount. This might lead the prophet to see only 1 mountain, so all he prophesies, in his mind, is 1 event. Either way, he does not see a valley; he does not see a church age.

Don’t just pick on the Old Testament prophets. The New Testament apostles might have struggled with this. Consider Peter’s gospel message at the Pentecost in Acts 2. In Acts 2:17-21, Peter quotes in Joel 2:28-32. The first half makes sense in explaining what just happened. The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, and the apostles could do great and wonderful things, like speak in tongues, prophecy, see visions and dream dreams. That all makes sense to what just happened. Then the second half then talks about the sun going dark, the moon turning into blood, and signs of blood, vapor and smoke, signifying the Lord’s return. None of that has anything to do with what just occurred! Remember, Joel does not stand in the valley between the mountains. He stands in front of both mountains, and he sees 2 side-by-side mountains or 1 mountain.  Because of that, some people would even suggest Peter may have also thought the outpouring of the Holy Spirit signifies Jesus will return soon. Peter does have that perspective of the church age valley between the mountains, however, so I propose he recognizes this is the beginning of something that will come to fulfillment in the end. Now, finally diving into the book of Ezekiel, consider how Ezekiel might envision something that has a beginning and an end, which may have some space between them.


The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1–14 ESV) 

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ² And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

37:1. Called as an Old Testament prophet, God has gifted Ezekiel the Holy Spirit to fulfill his job. The Holy Spirit leads Ezekiel to the middle of a valley. The text never reveals the actual location of the valley, but Ezekiel 3:22 reveals Ezekiel has seen visions there before, so he probably expected another vision. In this vision, Ezekiel first notices the valley full of bones. Again, the text remains silent on the identity of these bones. Some have proposed these bones belong to those who died when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Judah, while other suggest it simply represents those who died during the years in exile.

37:2. Ezekiel continues to traverse the valley, inspecting the bones. Ezekiel had to carefully traverse the valley, making sure not to touch any of the bones. Not only did Ezekiel serve the Lord as a prophet, but he also served God as a priest. By touching a bone, he would become unclean, making him unfit for his priestly duties. Upon further observation, he notices the bones were very dry. Since Ezekiel currently resides in a dry, arid place, this is probably a desert valley. The exposed bones under the hot desert sun has baked the bones to a bleach white. By noting very dry bones, Ezekiel communicates to his audience these people, now reduced to skeletons, have been dead for a long time. Life has left their body a long time ago, with no chance of it returning. No one can argue these bodies are in a coma or unconscious, for they lack any organs. They must be dead.

37:3. The Lord asks Ezekiel an odd question, if the bones can live. The question may have saddened Ezekiel, as earlier in the book (Ezekiel 24:15-27 to be exact), Ezekiel’s wife had died, and this question may have reminded Ezekiel of the frailty of life. Ezekiel might have felt more confused, however, at what sounds like a trick question. He just observed very dry bones with no organs. No chance life could these bones come to life. It is impossible for a person to live as just a skeleton. Ezekiel, however, must have gotten a feeling, he was being set up for something. His simple answer “you know” not only has Ezekiel stating, “you know skeletons cannot become living human beings” but at the same time, he confesses, “But if they could, it would only be through you, my master Yahweh.”

37:4. The Lord follows his odd question with a strange request. Ezekiel must prophecy to these dry bones, so they may hear the word of the Lord. Prophecy is meant for people, so they may hear the word of their Lord. Prophesying to the bones foreshadows that which will come.

37:5-6. Ezekiel 37:5-6 records the prophesy Yahweh wanted Ezekiel to preach. Ezekiel should tell these bones that the Lord will give them breath, and flesh and tendons, thus restoring their life, as a testimony of Yahweh. Although not in order, this language should sound familiar. It sounds similar to the creation of man, as found in Genesis 2:7. In the creation account, God forms man’s bones and flesh (cf. Gen 2:23) out of the dust of the ground, and then he becomes a living being. In the same way, God will take these dry bones of one living humans, re-create them with the same flesh, tendons and breath they once had, and they will become living beings.

37:7-8. As an obedient prophet, Ezekiel does as Yahweh told him. Since Ezekiel speaks the words of the Lord, those words come into existence, and those words become true. At a sound and a rattling (or earthquake), the bones assemble themselves, they grow tendons and skin begins to envelop them. Again, seen here is the first half of the creation of man, as seen in Genesis 2:7. The man’s body forms, but they still have yet to receive breath.

37:9. Ezekiel must have become literally dumbstruck. I imagine his jaw dropping open in silence to what he has just witnessed. No one can really blame him. He came as close as possible to witnessing the creation of man, when the Lord first created a man. God has to command Ezekiel to continue, as seen in the double use of the imperative “prophesy.” Keep going! Don’t stop now! Almost there!

37:10. Ezekiel follow the Lord’s command, and before he knows it, he find standing before him a living army. Calling them a living army may hint that the dry bones once belonged to soldier who died in battle, perhaps warriors defending Jerusalem from Babylon. Personally, I think Ezekiel called them a living army to communicate the quality of the resurrection. These resurrected dry bones do not need life support. They are not weak and frail. They are healthy and strong, to the point that they could engage in warfare, a physically demanding labor.

37:11. Yahweh helps both Ezekiel and Ezekiel’s future audience by explaining the symbolism behind the vision. The bones represent “the whole house of Israel.” The “whole part” means that the Lord refers to Israel in Ezekiel 37:11-14 as all of Jacob’s descendants, then United Kingdom of Israel, not the Northern Kingdom of Israel alone. The very dry nature of the bones represents their loss of hope. Both Israel and Judah were exiled from the Promised Land because of their sin. They still felt the burden of the judgment for their sin. They had lost hope that their nation would once again be restored, and now they even began to lose hope that their people and culture could even survive exile. Just like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, they felt like they were wasting away into annihilation. Just like dry bones coming to life, it seemed impossible for a dead nation to come to full restoration, full unity and to thrive once again. Only a miracle could do that.

37:12-13. Yahweh now commands Ezekiel to preach a message similar to the one he preached to the dry bones to those in exile with him. Through Ezekiel, the Lord promises Israel that he will restore them. Even to those who have already died, he will open their graves and bring them back to life, so they too may experience the restoration. The resurrection of the dead would also prove that God provided the restoration, not a person or a people.

37:14. Finally, the Lord promises that he will put his Spirit in them. This use of Spirit creates a word play. In Ezekiel 37:6,9,10, the Hebrew text uses the Hebrew noun רוּחַ (ruach), which most English Bibles translate as “breath.” Then in Ezekiel 37:14, where English Bibles have “spirit,” the Hebrew Bible again uses רוּחַ (ruach). In general, רוּחַ (ruach) can mean “wind,” “breath” or “spirit.” Remember that the Hebrew language does not have abstract ideas. To convey an abstract idea, one must use a concrete idea to express that idea. In this case, comparing a spirit to a wind or a breath. Now recall that mentioned earlier Ezekiel 37:5-6 (and its fulfillment in Ezekiel 3:7-10) paralleled the creation of man in Genesis 2:7. That parallel breaks down, however, because Genesis 2:7 uses נִשְׁמַ֣ת (nishmat) for “breathe,” not רוּחַ (ruach). The wordplay here reveals that Yahweh will not only breathe life into the dead, but he will also breath the Holy Spirit into them, prophesying the indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon his people.

Some people might argue that this passage does not refer to the resurrection. They will remind you that Ezekiel merely had a vision, an “awake dream,” if you will. Therefore, the imagery in the vision is all symbolic, symbolizing restoring dead Israel back to life. To anybody thinking that way, I would draw them back to our two mountain peaks illustration. I believe Ezekiel two mountain peaks at the same time, either 2 side-by-side mountains or 1 mountain. Ezekiel 37:1-14 prophesies the full fulfillment of a promise to Israel, which will have beginning and a complete end. Ezekiel prophesies a fulfillment to the promise of restoration. Indeed, the Judah part of Israel will return to the land, but then they still find themselves under Persian rule. At the first Christmas, during the time of the birth of Jesus, the Jews found themselves in a very similar situation, in the Promised Land, but occupied by the Romans. These Jews did not feel restored. In fact, the Jews saw their Roman occupancy as a second exile in Babylon, which in turn the Jews described exile in Babylon as a second slavery, like the slavery in Egypt. For a full restoration to happen, everybody has to return to an unoccupied Promise Land, even those who died in exile. Thus, the promise of restoration has to involve resurrection.

Although verses about bodily resurrection rarely appear in the Old Testament, the idea resurrection carries throughout the whole Old Testament. For starters, ancient Jewish theology did not view a human as a dichotomy of the material and non-material, but rather, ancient Jewish philosophy believed in a person as a single unity. As a matter of fact, according to ancient Jewish theology, when the body separates from the soul/spirit, death occurs. Therefore, championing over death would require reuniting the body and the soul/spirit, as seen in Ezekiel 37:1-14. Outside this ancient Jewish theology, resurrection appears more explicitly in the Old Testament. Former prophets Elijah and Elisha both performed a miracle of resurrection, as seen in 1 Kings 17:17–24 and 2 Kings 4:18–37 respectively. Although Ezekiel never performed a miracle of resurrection, the relation between a prophet and resurrection still exists. Furthermore, Ezekiel does not stand alone as the only prophet speaking about resurrection. Both Isaiah and Hosea prophesy bodily resurrection in Isaiah 26:19 and Hosea 6:1-3 respectively, and both of them speak of it in terms of restoration. Not only do the prophets speak of resurrection, but so do the poets. 2 different psalms depict Yahweh rescuing the soul from the grave as an act of restoration. Job even takes it up a step and declares in Job 14:7-10 that restoration involves all dead things coming back to life, even plants. Restoration and resurrection have to come linked together.

Restoring Israel to the Promised Land played only as a smaller part in God’s grander plan. Israel had a bigger problem than exile. Every Israelite, every human being, faced death. If Yahweh could rescue Israel from exile and bring them back to the Promised Land, he could save them from death and bring them into life. The Lord promised both land and life, so when God’s people see themselves back in the land, they can trust God to set them free from death. Only the Lord can replace hopelessness, despair and adversity with hope, peace and love. Only God can replace exile and death with life. God’s people only need to believe.

This is the 3^rd week in Advent. At this point in time, in the traditional churches, like the UCC church in which I was raised, Advent has already covered the themes of hope and peace, and now, on this 3^rd week of advent, the theme of love. Hope, peace and love. Hope, peace and love are the complete opposite of what Israel felt in exile. In exile, Israel felt hopelessness, distress and animosity. They might have even doubted if their God loved them anymore. Through the vision the Lord gave Ezekiel, God emphasizes that he has remember his promises to Israel, and he will fulfill them by his mighty hand. God will do everything; Israel has nothing to do on their part. Israel merely has to believe. Then baby Jesus is born. This baby Jesus will grow up to an adult, and adult Jesus will preach the same message of restoration and resurrection. He himself raises 3 people from the dead (Jairus’s daughter, the man from Nain, Lazarus), and then the Trinity raises this Jesus from death, and the apostles are witnesses of the fact. Now those under Roman occupation have hope instead of hopelessness, peace instead of distress and love instead of animosity. They simply need to believe in Jesus.

In conclusion, in Ezekiel 37:1-14, we find Ezekiel in the middle of a valley. If Ezekiel represent the rest of his people, he feels hopelessness instead of hope, he feels unrest instead of peace, and he feels animosity instead of love. He may even forget the God loves him. Through his vision, God reminds him of a promise he has for Israel, a promise to restore and resurrect. Ezekiel, and the rest of Israel, simply needs to believe. Perhaps you feel like Ezekiel. You find yourself in a situation, exiled from hope, peace and love, feeling dead inside. God has promised you restoration and resurrection. Just believe.

So please, call me Dry Graham after I have died. Please do carve in my tombstone “Here Lies Dry Graham.” For it will remind the future generations of the resurrection yet to come.

Bibliography

Chisholm, Robert B. “The Major Prophets.” Holman Concise Bible Commentary. Edited by David S. Dockery. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998.

Cooper, Lamar Eugene. Ezekiel. Vol. 17. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994.

Dyer, Charles H. “Ezekiel.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.

McGregor, L. John. “Ezekiel.” Pages 716–44 in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham. 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.

If I Only Had A Heart (Ezekiel 36:26)

After my last sermon at my church, as I shook hands with the congregation members exiting, the pastor’s wife approached me. She thanked me for the sermon, and she commented about how I always use culture, or more specifically, pop culture, in my sermons, which she liked. Indeed, I do commonly mention some kind of culture as a sermon illustration. In my church, we’re talking about what being spiritually passionate looks like, and how we can become spiritually passionate. From what I noticed among my generation, my generation becomes spiritually passionate when they realized their faith is relevant to their lives and to their world, and they become less spiritually passionate when they cannot make that connection between their faith and their world. I fully believe in a saying that both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien lived by: “In Jesus Christ all the myths come true.” What this means, simply, is that God has written the gospel on our hearts, and therefore, sometimes some of the gospel appears in our stories. This is why I can so easily use culture as sermon illustrations. I have used the 90’s children’s show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to show how people desire to be transformed, as Paul wrote in Romans 12:2. I have used a Johnny Cash song to demonstrate that the heart longs for social justice, the social justice Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 1. I have used the sitcom the Office to display how everyone wants a second chance, like the second chance Jesus gave Peter in John 21. All these cultural artifacts, as I and many others like to call them, contain bits and pieces of the gospel, which reflect our yearning for the gospel.

 

I’ve already used televisions show and music, so this time, let’s use a movie. I know a lot of the previous examples I gave might be more relatable to young audiences because they are more recent, so let’s use a classic. It doesn’t get any more classic than The Wizard of Oz. My dad and his brothers, AKA my uncles, are very much into movies. They are always watching the lastest movies, either in the theatre or at home on DVD. Even after 50 years of watching movies, they still come back to The Wizard of Oz as a favorite. Just in case you’re not familiar with the book turned into a movie, Dorothy is a teenager living in rural Kansas. Not far into the movie, Dorothy realizes she’s not in Kansas anymore, but she finds herself in the land of Oz, thanks to a tornado. After a nasty encounter with a witch who wants her ruby red slippers, she feels quite unwelcomed and longs to go back home, but the only one who can bring her home is the Wizard of Oz, residing in Emerald City. The munchkins of Munchkin land inform Dorothy that she’ll get to Emerald City as long follows the yellow brick road.

On her travels along the yellow brick road, she meets three men who also need to see the Wizard of Oz for various needs. One of these men, the second, is the tin man. The tin man informs Dorothy that he was made without a heart, and he needs a heart. At first, the audience must assume the tin man is talking about a literal heart, the muscle that pumps blood. This might leave the audience scratching their heard. After all, why would a tin man need a muscle that pumps blood? But as the tin man sings his hit song for which this sermon is named, “If I Only A Heart,” the audience realizes the tin man is not talking about a literal heart. The tin man sings that he could be “tender, gentle, and awfully sentimental,” he could, “register emotion, jealousy and devotion, and he could be “kind of human,” if he only had a heart. Clearly, this isn’t the literal, physical heart. Instead, this is a metaphor, a symbol to represent emotions.

The tin man is not the only one to talk about the heart as a metaphor and a symbol. In fact, we use the heart as an expression and idiom a lot in the English language. You can have an aching heart, a big heart, a broken heart, a cold heart, a cowardly heart, an empty heart, an evil heart, a generous heart, a hard heart, a kind heart, a loving heart, a pure heart, a soft heart, a tender heart, a warm heart, a heart of glass, a heart of gold, a heart of a lion, a heart of stone, or the heart of a warrior. Furthermore, you can be half-hearted or whole-hearted, you can cross your heart and hope to die, eat your heart out, follow your heart, get to the heart of the matter, have your heart set on something, have a change of heart, have your heart in the right or wrong place, have a heart-to-heart talk, you can know something by heart, leave your heart somewhere, mean something from the bottom of your heart, pour your heart out and wear your heart on your sleeve. These are just some of the idioms and expressions, and there’s probably a lot more you can think of that I missed. After seeing this long list, I can’t help but wonder if we in the English language talk about the heart figuratively more than literally!

The Bible does the same thing. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for heart, lev, appears 252 times. In the New Testament, the Greek word for heart is kardia. For those in work in the medical field, that should be no surprise, as any medical term that involves the heart has kardia somewhere in it. For example, cardiac arrest is when the heart fails to pump blood. The Greek word kardia appears 156 times in the New Testament. That’s a total of 408 times the heart is mentioned in the Bible, and not a single one of those talks about the heart literally. Instead, they all talk about the heart figuratively. The heart symbolically represent emotions, attitudes, motives, intent, will and thought.

The Bible also is full of metaphors of the heart. The Bible talks about a blackslidden heart, burning heart, clean heart, closed heart, crooked heart, dark heart, deceitful heart, discerning heart, faint heart, faithful heart, foolish heart, glad heart, honest heart, humble heart, merry heart, open heart, overflowing heart, proud heart, renewed heart, righteous heart, silent heart and an uncircumcised heart. Furthermore, the Bible commands us to guard our heart, keep our heart, nourish our heart and strengthen our heart. The list goes on and on!

There’s one metaphor that I left out. That’s a new heart. That’s our metaphor for today, and that’s the metaphor that comes from our Scripture verse, Ezekiel 36:26.

Let me set the context on Ezekiel 36:26 by giving the whole context of Ezekiel 36. From our reading of the Old Testament, God has entered into a covenant with Israel. If Israel fulfills the conditions of the covenant by obeying the Law, Israel will receive blessings of land, seed (descendants) and many other blessings on top of that. If Israel did not fulfill the covenant, and they disobeyed the Law, God will remove his blessings and Israel will stand cursed. In the time of Ezekiel, we find just that. Israel has not fulfilled its end of the covenant, it has not obeyed the Law, it has sinned. They have not shown love to God because they have worshipped idols. They have not shown love to their neighbors, but have become quite violent towards each other. In Ezekiel 36:16,17, God confronts Israel about its sin. God blessed Israel with a land of their own, but Israel ruined their blessing by defiling it with idol worship and violated bloodshed. Therefore, in a covenant of obedience producing blessings and disobedience resulting in curses, God exiled Israel from the land he gave them into the lands of the gods they worshipped, as recorded in Ezekiel 36:18,19, for they did not hold up their end of the covenant. Sounds simple, right? But it’s not so simple. God entered a covenant with Israel in order to be a witness on how God loves his people, cares for his people, wants to be in a relationship and bless the people he’s created. While Israel sinned, thus deserving their punishment, it might seem like God has turned his back on his people, ruining the witness, as stated in Ezekiel 36:20,21. God, in his infinite omniscience, can imagine the people from other nations saying, “How can the God of Israel call himself loving and caring, yet will allow his people to be conquered and lose their land?” Ladies and gentlemen, as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. How many times have we heard those critical of Christianity say, “How can a good and loving God allow this suffering to happen to those people?” While this might be a question humans struggle with, the omniscient God has the answer. The Lord has the solution. God’s solution to this problem is to vindicate, or avenge, his name. How God will vindicate his name extends all the way to the end of the chapter, but we’re going to focus in on verses 22  to 32, since that paragraph contains our verse.

Ezekiel 36:22-32 

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.

In seminary, I typically have to read about four or five books, averaging about 300 pages, per class. If I have two classes, you can double that workload. And I have to do get that done in four months. So sometimes reading every line of every pages just isn’t feasible. So my seminary professors taught me how to speed read. Perhaps you are familiar with the method. You read the first line and the last line of each paragraph because those lines have the main point of the author. Everything in between is details that reinforce that main point. God really wants to make his point clear, for he pretty much repeats his main point at the beginning, verse 22, and the end, verse 32. Verse 22 reads, “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,” and verse 32 reads, “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.” Notice the similarities? God wants Israel to know that they did nothing to deserve the blessings they will receive. Rather, God merely blesses Israel to hold up his end of the covenant and demonstrate his love and faithfulness to his people. Instead of waiting for Israel’s obedience, God’s love and blessings should motivate Israel to fulfill their end of the covenant and obey! Perhaps our verse will help Israel do just that.
 

God will help Israel do just that by giving them a new heart, a heart of flesh. Now the flesh in “heart of flesh” does not have the same weight as the New Testament term for flesh (sarx, if you’re familiar with the Greek) does. In the New Testament, flesh means corrupt or fallen, but not in this Old Testament context. The “heart of flesh” contrasts the “heart of stone” earlier in the verse. Note the irony in this text. The Israelites have worshipped gods of stone, and therefore the Israelites’ hearts had become like that gods they worshipped: hard like stone. Therefore, God will give them “hearts of flesh,” hearts less like the idols and more like the true God. God will will soften their hearts. How will God soften their hearts? He will give them his spirit, the Holy Spirit. Once the Holy Spirit gets in there and gives Israel a new heart, a heart made of flesh, everything else will come naturally, as natural as the flowing of the paragraph the verse is in. Once Israel gets a new heart, a heart of flesh with the Holy Spirit inside, the Holy Spirit will help them obey the Law given to them. Once Israel obeys the Law, the condition of the covenant, Israel will once again receive the blessing promised, such as the Promised Land of Israel, and not just the land, but the a healthy and fruitful land. Then a cycle will begin. The blessings Israel receives will remind Israel of God’s faithfulness to the covenant, which will cause them to be faithful to the covenant. When Israel is faithful to the covenant, they will be blessed even more. The cycle goes on and on.
 

At this point, you might be thinking, “But I’m not Israel, and so this is not my covenant. What does this have to do with me?” Ah, but it is your covenant. I agree with many scholars when I say that I believe this is a prophecy of the New Covenant, the covenant that Jesus established with the church. In the New Covenant, Jesus offers a new heart! In the medical field, what you call it when a new heart replaces the old, bad heart? A heart transplant! A heart transplant, or cardiac transplant, is a surgery a working heart of a recently deceased donor heart is placed is the body of someone who needs a new heart. The first heart transplant was performed in 1967. In the first ten years of heart transplants, only 300 were performed. Now, almost ten times as many, about 3,500, heart transplants happen every year worldwide. Maybe you know one of those people who had a heart transplant. If you don’t former vice president Dick Cheny had a heart transplant. But this isn’t a physical heart transplant. This is a spiritual heart transplant. If you do not believe in Jesus, Jesus is offering you a spiritual heart transplant. If you believe in Jesus, Jesus has already performed a spiritual heart transplant, and he has given you a new heart!

What does this new heart look like in the believer?  First, the new heart brings about restoration and reconciliation. When the exiles finally returned home, the exiles knew God restored his relationship with the people. The evidence God provides Christians of a new heart is a spiritual change. Just like visitors of a foreign land coming home, we leave behind the desires of the world and the rebellion that demands we have it our way in order to seek God for forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. Second, a new heart has been washed clean from sin. Note in verse 25 of Ezekiel 36 that God wants to generally clean Israel of all its uncleanliness, but He also wants to cleanse Israel of specific sins they have committed, like idol worship. When Jesus gives you a spiritual heart transplant, he cleanses you not only in general, like your sinful nature, but he also cleanses you specifically of each and every sin. It doesn’t matter if that sin is past, present or future. Know for certain that when Jesus gives you a spiritual heart transplant, each and every sin has been scrubbed clean from your heart. Not a sin has been missed. Third, as I mentioned before and I will mention again, a new heart has the Holy Spirit within it. Radical spiritual change cannot happen without the Holy Spirit. Cleansing of sin cannot happen without the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 36:27 tells that the Holy Spirit is the only way we can even have a hope in following the Law. All this is only possible with the Holy Spirit. So naturally, it only make sense that a new heart has the Holy Spirit. Know that the Holy Spirit is there to guide you and to help you. Fourth, the new heart brings about a whole new relationship with God. Israel’s exile into a foreign land has deep symbolism. If Israel wanted to worship the idols of the enemy, then Israel would become part of the enemy and be exiled into their land. When God brings them back to their land, they are no longer the enemy, but rather, God’s people and God’s children. Paul in Romans makes it clear that when we are in sin, we are enemies of the holy God. When Jesus gives us a spiritual heart transplant, we are no longer enemies of God’ but you are a child of God. Finally, when Jesus gives us a spiritual heart transplant, that new heart hates to sin. As I said earlier, when Israel would see God’s faithfulness to the covenant, it would encourage them to fulfill their end of the covenant by not sinning. Similarly, when Jesus gives us a spiritual heart transplant, the new heart should hate sin. Our hearts should look always to avoid sin. When our heart faces temptation to sin, it fights it. When we do accidently mess up and sin, our heart immediately sets out to seek repentance. Just like eating something disgusting, sin should cause such a bitterness in us that we would wish to spit it out.

 

The truth is we all need spiritual heart transplant. Some of us still have dirty hearts, tainted from sin. Some of us have rebellious hearts, not wanting to submit to the lordship of our heavenly father. Some of us have a broken heart, still broken from broken relationships, which have hurt our relationship with God. If you have never have believed in Jesus as your lord and savior, your heart is dying in sin. You need a spiritual heart plant. Only Jesus is the surgeon who can take out that old, sinful heart and give you a new, clean heart. If you have never made the decision to believe in Jesus, make that decision today. If you have made that decision, Jesus has performed the spiritual heart transplant, and He has given you a new heart. But transformation and restoration isn’t a once and done thing. Our hearts are still in repair. Let that Holy Spirit inside your new heart convict you, and ask God for what needs to still be made new within you. If you lack evangelism, ask Jesus for a heart for the lost. If you need to spiritual grow, or see a need for spiritual growth in others, ask for a heart of discipleship and mentorship. If you find yourself apathetic to a person in need, ask for a loving a caring heart. If you find yourself struggling to practice your faith beyond Sunday, ask for a passionate heart.

Earlier, I mentioned Dick Cheny as the example of a heart transplant. Dick Cheny’s heart transplant was a peculiar one. Dick Cheny had to wait 20 months to get his new heart, over twice the waiting time for a heart transplant. Perhaps Cheny had to wait for so long due to his condition. At the time, Dick Cheny was seventy-one years old. He was in frail health, due to five heart attacks spanning over forty years. His heart transplant caused much controversy. Shouldn’t a heart transplant be given to someone younger and in better health? The heart transplant Jesus offers is nothing like that. There’s age limit or health check-up; God gives a spiritual heart transplant to anyone! There’s no waiting list; God gives anyone a spiritual heart transplant immediately upon asking for one. So come, ask for a new heart, and then embrace it.

Acknowledgements: I am grateful and thankful to Pastor John Blackburn, Spiritual Formation Pastor at Olathe Bible Church in Olathe, Kansas, for his sermon "A New Heart Within You," which he originally preached at Olathe Bible Church in Olathe, Kansas on April 15, 2012, for it gave me ideas for this sermon.