Ezekiel 35-36: A New Covenant, a New Heart and a New Spirit from God

We are now getting into the nitty gritty of Bible Prophecy. Understand that in these Old Testament prophecies, God is making promises to Israel — a new covenant — as well as the surrounding nations. Pastor Sandy Adams presents an excellent lesson on Ezekiel 36 and for time’s sake, I’ve embedded the video at the bottom. Let’s dig in…

First, God has some last words for Edom…

Ezekiel 35 – A Message for Edom

Again a message came to me from the Lord: ² “Son of man, turn and face Mount Seir, and prophesy against its people. ³ Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord:

“I am your enemy, O Mount Seir,
    and I will raise my fist against you
    to destroy you completely.
⁴ I will demolish your cities
    and make you desolate.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ “Your eternal hatred for the people of Israel led you to butcher them when they were helpless, when I had already punished them for all their sins. ⁶ As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, since you show no distaste for blood, I will give you a bloodbath of your own. Your turn has come! ⁷ I will make Mount Seir utterly desolate, killing off all who try to escape and any who return. ⁸ I will fill your mountains with the dead. Your hills, your valleys, and your ravines will be filled with people slaughtered by the sword. ⁹ I will make you desolate forever. Your cities will never be rebuilt. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁰ “For you said, ‘The lands of Israel and Judah will be ours. We will take possession of them. What do we care that the Lord is there!’ ¹¹ Therefore, as surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will pay back your angry deeds with my own. I will punish you for all your acts of anger, envy, and hatred. And I will make myself known to Israel (Jacob) by what I do to you. ¹² Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard every contemptuous word you spoke against the mountains of Israel. For you said, ‘They are desolate; they have been given to us as food to eat!’ ¹³ In saying that, you boasted proudly against me, and I have heard it all!

¹⁴ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The whole world will rejoice when I make you desolate. ¹⁵ You rejoiced at the desolation of Israel’s territory. Now I will rejoice at yours! You will be wiped out, you people of Mount Seir and all who live in Edom! Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 35 NLT

A Few Thoughts

• Mt. Seir is in Edom, settled by the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother.
• God chose Jacob/Israel over Esau.
• The Edomites cheered and laughed when Jerusalem was destroyed.
• God sees everything. Edom laughed at what caused God grief.
• God is a parent disciplining His wayward children.
• God keeps His promises of judgment and destruction — “Edom” no longer exists.

Going on …

Ezekiel 36 – Restoration for Israel

“Son of man, prophesy to Israel’s mountains. Give them this message: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord! ² This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Your enemies have taunted you, saying, ‘Aha! Now the ancient heights belong to us!’ ³ Therefore, son of man, give the mountains of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: Your enemies have attacked you from all directions, making you the property of many nations and the object of much mocking and slander. ⁴ Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. He speaks to the hills and mountains, ravines and valleys, and to ruined wastes and long-deserted cities that have been destroyed and mocked by the surrounding nations. ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My jealous anger burns against these nations, especially Edom, because they have shown utter contempt for me by gleefully taking my land for themselves as plunder.

⁶ “Therefore, prophesy to the hills and mountains, the ravines and valleys of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am furious that you have suffered shame before the surrounding nations. ⁷ Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I have taken a solemn oath that those nations will soon have their own shame to endure.

⁸ “But the mountains of Israel will produce heavy crops of fruit for my people—for they will be coming home again soon! ⁹ See, I care about you, and I will pay attention to you. Your ground will be plowed and your crops planted. ¹⁰ I will greatly increase the population of Israel, and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people. ¹¹ I will increase not only the people, but also your animals. O mountains of Israel, I will bring people to live on you once again. I will make you even more prosperous than you were before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹² I will cause my people to walk on you once again, and you will be their territory. You will never again rob them of their children.

¹³ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The other nations taunt you, saying, ‘Israel is a land that devours its own people and robs them of their children!’ ¹⁴ But you will never again devour your people or rob them of their children, says the Sovereign Lord. ¹⁵ I will not let you hear those other nations insult you, and you will no longer be mocked by them. You will not be a land that causes its nation to fall, says the Sovereign Lord.”

¹⁶ Then this further message came to me from the Lord: ¹⁷ “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by the evil way they lived. To me their conduct was as unclean as a woman’s menstrual cloth. ¹⁸ They polluted the land with murder and the worship of idols, so I poured out my fury on them. ¹⁹ I scattered them to many lands to punish them for the evil way they had lived. ²⁰ But when they were scattered among the nations, they brought shame on my holy name. For the nations said, ‘These are the people of the Lord, but he couldn’t keep them safe in his own land!’ ²¹ Then I was concerned for my holy name, on which my people brought shame among the nations.

²² “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. ²³ I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord. ²⁴ For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

²⁵ “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

²⁸ “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will cleanse you of your filthy behavior. I will give you good crops of grain, and I will send no more famines on the land. ³⁰ I will give you great harvests from your fruit trees and fields, and never again will the surrounding nations be able to scoff at your land for its famines. ³¹ Then you will remember your past sins and despise yourselves for all the detestable things you did. ³² But remember, says the Sovereign Lord, I am not doing this because you deserve it. O my people of Israel, you should be utterly ashamed of all you have done!

³³ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I cleanse you from your sins, I will repopulate your cities, and the ruins will be rebuilt. ³⁴ The fields that used to lie empty and desolate in plain view of everyone will again be farmed. ³⁵ And when I bring you back, people will say, ‘This former wasteland is now like the Garden of Eden! The abandoned and ruined cities now have strong walls and are filled with people!’ ³⁶ Then the surrounding nations that survive will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted the wasteland. For I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I say.

³⁷ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am ready to hear Israel’s prayers and to increase their numbers like a flock. ³⁸ They will be as numerous as the sacred flocks that fill Jerusalem’s streets at the time of her festivals. The ruined cities will be crowded with people once more, and everyone will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 36 NLT

God Scatters the Jews Again

• The Jews were in exile in Babylon, a pagan land. This was written c. 585 BC, to comfort them and give them hope. This was passed down from generation to generation.
• As we’ll see when we get to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, God brings the exiles home to Israel from Babylon after 70 years. Interestingly enough, they no longer worshiped the idols of the pagan nations. It seems they learned their lesson the hard way.
• In 70 AD, when the Romans destroy Herod’s Temple, they were scattered again among many nations.

God’s Promise of Regathering

• Since 1948, the Jews have been returning to Israel. I will get into this more in tomorrow’s post.
• For around 1900 years, the Jews have lived as strangers in strange lands looking for a peaceful place to settle and worship their religion.
• Everywhere they went they encountered prejudice, hatred, jealousy and persecution.
• From the Roman emperor Hadrian in 135 AD — who made it a capital offense to practice Judaism — to Hitler and the Holocaust, the Jews have suffered through antisemitism.

God’s Promise of Reviving the Land

• With the people gone, the land fell into desolation.
• The Arabs ruled the land for 400 years and the Turks for 800 years, yet it was never resettled.
• The land was stripped bare.
• Even the rains that watered the land dried up.
• Mark Twain visited Palestine in 1867 and described the land…

“Where prosperity has reigned and fallen; where glory had flamed and gone out; where beauty has dwelt, and passed away; where gladness was, and sorrow is; where the pomp of life has been, and silence and death brood in its high places, there the reptile makes his home, and mocks human vanity… To this region, one of the (biblical) prophecies is applied: ‘I will bring the land to desolation.’ No man can stand (in this land) … and say the prophecy has not been fulfilled.”

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

God’s Promise of a New Covenant

Enter the Jewish Messiah — Yeshua Hamashiach…

When Jesus came, the Jews were expecting the Messiah to come, chase out the Romans and create His Kingdom right then and there. However, Jesus came as a Savior. In John 3, Nicodemus, who’s a rabbi and Pharisee and knows the Old Testament prophecies, comes to Him, at night, asking…

“Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

³ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴ “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

⁵ Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”

John 3:2-5 NLT

Jesus confirmed what Ezekiel wrote. To enter the Kingdom of God, a person MUST be BORN AGAIN, then cleansed by water baptism, then receive the Holy Spirit in their hearts which will turn a hard heart from stone to flesh.

It’s a process that begins with belief, repentance, baptism and receiving…

Believe. Repent. Be Baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit.

• Believe — have Faith — that Jesus is the Christ and He died taking your sins away forever and that He rose from the dead 3 days later.
• Repent of your sins — stop sinning! Do a complete 180-degree turn in your life and surrender your life to Him. When you ask Jesus to forgive you He will. ALL your sins will be wiped clean — past, present, and future! And All means ALL!
• Be Baptized by water baptism — show the world and yourself that you have died to your old life and are born again in Christ.
• Receive the gift of Holy Spirit in your heart.

Invite Jesus into Your Heart and Receive the Gift of Grace, Joy, Peace, and the Confident Hope of Eternal Life…

Pastor Sandy Adam’s Lesson on Ezekiel 36-37

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Soli Deo Gloria! To God Alone Be the Glory!