Gold for the heart - Ezekiel 35-37

Ezekiel 35

1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set your face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 And say to it, The Lord God says this; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against you, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you most desolate. 4 I will lay your cities waste, and you will be desolate, and you will know that I am the LORD. 5 Because you have had a perpetual hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: 6 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you: since you have not hated bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

When God was correcting His children, Israel, for their idolatry, the nation of Edom (the descendants of Esau) rushed in to kill them and steal their land (verse 10).
They became mercenaries, swords for hire rather than farmers and ranchers to earn their living.

Jeremiah 2:19 Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord GOD of hosts.

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap.

7 I will make mount Seir a ruin and a waste, and cut off from it him that passes through and returns. 8 And I will fill his mountains with his dead men: in your hills, and in your valleys, and in all your rivers, they will fall that are killed with the sword. 9 I will make you an everlasting desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited: and you will know that I am the LORD.

The Lord was there

10 Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there: 11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy that you have used out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged you.

Edom hated God’s people because they envied them.
Envy caused the Pharisees to crucify their Maker.
God takes no pleasure in destruction, but just like the Pharaoh of the exodus generation God used the judgment they brought on themselves to make Himself known to others to that they might choose more wisely and live.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways…?

12 And you will know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all your blasphemies that you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, they are desolate, they have been given to us to consume. 13 With your mouth you have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them. 14 The Lord God says this; When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15 As you rejoiced at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will do to you: you will be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they will know that I am the LORD.

We are never to rejoice at God’s discipline of others. We are also not to interrupt or interfere.
Think of God. Let your sympathy be for Him.
God does not want to have to correct or judge anyone.
He is love and wants to bless.
Our actions make correction and judgment necessary.
He sees all the evil and sin. It is disgusting and ugly to Him, just like when we have to clean up accidents after sick people or animals. We cause Him to labor with our sins.

Proverbs 24:17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles: 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

Isaiah 43:24 You have bought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices: but you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.

Lamentations 3:33 he does not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men.

Ezekiel 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord GOD: therefore turn yourselves, and live.

Ezekiel 36

The Lord, Sovereign of the universe, is jealous because of His great love

1 Also, you son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD: 2 The Lord God says this; Because the enemy has said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: 3 Therefore prophesy and say, The Lord God says this; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, so that you might become a possession to the rest of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people: 4 Therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; The Lord God says this to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and contempt to the rest of the nations that are round about; 5 Therefore the Lord God says this; Surely in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Idumea, that have appropriated my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with spiteful minds, to cast it out to be plundered.

God is jealous because he loves us greatly (John 15:13).
Where there is no love there is no jealousy.

Exodus 34:14 For you will worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, The Lord God says this; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations: 7 Therefore the Lord God says this; I have lifted up my hand, Surely the nations that are about you, they will bear their shame.

He is for us

8 But you, O mountains of Israel, you will shoot out your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they will soon come. 9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be tilled and sown: 10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities will be inhabited, and the wastes will be built: 11 And I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better to you than at your beginnings: and you will know that I am the LORD.

Their old estates are the allotments of property that were assigned when Joshua led the children of Israel in to conquer the Promised Land.
Each family was given a large portion of real estate that would belong to their family forever.
God promised even more.

12 Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel; and they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will never again bereave them of men. 13 The Lord God says this; Because they say to you, Your land devours men and has bereaved your nations; 14 Therefore you will no longer devour men or bereave your nations anymore, says the Lord GOD. 15 Neither will I cause men to hear in you the shame of the nations anymore, nor will you bear the reproach of the people anymore, neither will you cause your nations to fall anymore, says the Lord GOD.

Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD: and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

Psalm 144:15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yes, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.

16 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the defilement of a woman in her impurity. 18 Therefore I poured my fury on them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols with which they had polluted it: 19 And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

God is impeccably fair.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

20 And when they entered the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and have gone out of his land. 21 But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. 22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, The Lord God says this; I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the nations that you have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I will be sanctified in you before their eyes.

If the nations do not come to understand that God is the Lord—He alone, then they will die in their sins and burn in hell forever.
It is vital that they come to know the only true God.

Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to abide his indignation.

24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. 26 I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them. 28 And you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you will be my people, and I will be your God.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.

29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the grain, and will increase it, and lay no famine on you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, so that you will no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32 Know this, that I do not do this for your sakes, says the Lord GOD: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33 The Lord God says this; In the day that I have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be rebuilt. 34 And the desolate land will be tilled, where it once lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

God rebuilds the ruined places

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 have become fenced, and are inhabited. 36 Then the nations that are left around you will know that I, the LORD, build the ruined places, and plant what was desolate: I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it. 37 The Lord God says this; I also will let the house of Israel ask me to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so the waste cities will be filled with flocks of men: and they will know that I am the LORD.

In Ezekiel 20 God refused to let Israel ask Him for things because of their idolatries. Now here, in verse 37, God restores that privilege.

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened unto you.

John 14:13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Ezekiel 37

God breathes in life

1 The hand of the LORD was on me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, 2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open 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 Again he said to me, Prophesy on these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 The Lord God says this to these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life.

1John 3:20 God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

6 And I will lay tendons on you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live; and you will know that I am the LORD. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And when I beheld, look, the tendons and the flesh/muscles came up on them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, The Lord God says this; 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 up 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, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

He raises the dead to life

12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, The Lord God says this; Look at this, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And will put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I will place you in your own land: then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it, and performed it, says the LORD.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet he will live.

15 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 16 Moreover, you son of man, take one stick, and write on it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: 17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they will become one in your hand. 18 And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, Will you not show us what you mean by these? 19 Say to them, The Lord God says this; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand. 20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. 21 And say to them, The Lord God says this; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, where they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 22 And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king to them all: and they will no longer be two nations, neither will they be divided into two kingdoms anymore at all.

At he death of Solomon God divided the nation of Israel into two kingdoms because of Solomon’s idolatry: the northern kingdom was called Ephraim or Joseph and the southern kingdom was called the kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 11:31, 35).

23 And they will never again defile themselves with their idols or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so will they be my people, and I will be their God. 24 And David my servant will be king over them; and they will all have one shepherd: they will also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them. 25 And they will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, where your fathers have dwelt; and they will dwell in it, they, their children and their children’s children forever: and my servant David will be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also will be with them: yes, I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 And the nations will know that I, the LORD, do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore.

Sanctify means to set apart. God set His people apart to Himself.
We are sanctified to God today by His word, His truth.
Jesus revealed this in His prayer to the Father the night before He was crucified.

John 17:17 Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth. 9 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

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SUMMARY: Ezekiel 35-37

The Lord was there
The Lord, Sovereign of the universe, is jealous because of His great love
He is for us
God rebuilds the ruined places
God breathes in life
He raises the dead to life