Ezekiel 36:25 - Meaning and Application

God’s people might lose heart when they think about restoration. They may feel unworthy of such kindness, and they may also feel unfit for it because they are still sinful. The earlier verses answered the first concern by saying that God would act for his own glory, not because of their worthiness. These verses answer the second concern by promising that God will prepare them by his grace, and then give them the mercy he planned.

This was partly fulfilled in a striking way through the Babylonian captivity. While the Jews were in Babylon, it cured them of their tendency toward idolatry, or false worship. But the promise reaches further than that. It is also a picture of the covenant of grace, God’s saving promise in which he gives spiritual blessings through Christ and the Spirit. As chapter 34 moved from the promise of return to the promise of Christ, the great Shepherd, so this passage moves to the promise of the Spirit and his work in us. We need Christ’s merit for justification, being counted right with God, and we need the Spirit for sanctification, being made holy.

God first promises to do a good work in them so they will be ready for the good he means to do for them (Ezekiel 36:25-27). A similar promise was already given in Ezekiel 11:18-20. He says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you,” which points to cleansing from sin. It means the blood of Christ, applied to the conscience, washes away guilt, just as the water of purification removed ceremonial uncleanness. It also points to the grace of the Spirit, poured over the whole soul, cleansing it from corrupt desires and habits. Naaman was cleansed from leprosy by dipping in the Jordan, and in a higher way God cleanses sinners from sin. Christ himself was clean, or else his blood could not cleanse us, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes us holy.

God says, “From all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” He repeats the same truth in Ezekiel 36:29, “I will save you from all your uncleannesses.” Sin stains people, and idolatry stains them in a special way. It makes sinners hateful to God and a burden to themselves. When guilt is pardoned and the sinful nature is renewed, then they are cleansed from their filthiness. There is no other way to be saved from it. God promises this so that he may be made holy in them, as Ezekiel 36:23 says. We cannot honor God’s name unless he first sanctifies our hearts. We cannot live for his glory except by his grace.

God also promises to give them a new heart, a better inner disposition than they had before. He will work from the inside out, bringing about a full change in their lives. Everyone who belongs to the new covenant, and has a right to the new Jerusalem, has a new heart and a new spirit. These are necessary if they are to walk in new life. This is the divine nature believers share in through God’s promises.

Instead of a heart of stone, God will give a heart of flesh. A heart of stone is cold, hard, and unable to receive God’s work or return loving feelings to him. A heart of flesh is soft and tender. It has spiritual feeling, knows spiritual pain and joy, and follows God’s will. Renewing grace makes as great a change in the soul as turning a dead stone into living flesh.

God also promises to deal with our inability to do our duty. He says he will cause them to walk in his statutes. He will not only show them the right way, but also incline them to walk in it. He will give them wisdom, desire, and active strength for every good work. To do this, he will put his Spirit within them as a teacher, guide, and sanctifier, one who makes them holy. God does not force people to obey by outside pressure. Instead, he causes them to obey by an inward principle of life.

We should also notice how we are meant to respond to this promise. God says, “You shall keep my judgments.” If God does his part according to the promise, we must do ours according to the command. The promise of grace, which gives us power for duty, should stir us up to constant care and effort in doing our duty. God’s promises should lead us to his commands as our rule, and his commands should send us back to his promises for strength. Without his grace, we can do nothing.

God next promises to bring them into covenant with himself. The heart of the covenant of grace is this: “You shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28). It is not saying, “If you will be my people, then I will be your God.” It is true that we cannot expect God to be our God unless we are his people, but here God speaks first in grace. He chose us and loved us first, not we him. So even the condition comes as a promise, not as a reward for merit or works. He says, “You shall be my people,” meaning, “I will make you so. I will give you the nature and spirit of my people, and then I will be your God.” This is the foundation and crown of a believer’s happiness. It is heaven itself (Revelation 21:3, Revelation 21:7).

God also promises to do for them all the good their condition requires. When they are prepared for mercy, they will return to their land and settle there again (Ezekiel 36:28). God will bring them back, not because they deserve it, but because of the promise made to their fathers. He gave the land to them at first for that reason, not because of their merit (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). He is gracious because he has said he will be gracious. This same order appears in Ezekiel 36:33. “In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities,” God says, “I will cause you to live in the cities.” First he removes sin, then he restores comfort. That is God’s way of mercy.

Then they will enjoy plenty of good things. When they are saved from the uncleanness that held good things back, God says, “I will call for the grain and increase it” (Ezekiel 36:29). Plenty comes when God calls for it, and the abundance he sends will keep growing. When he speaks the word, both the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field will increase. As the people increase, so will the produce needed to feed them. The one who gives mouths to feed will also give food. Famine had been one of their judgments, and it was a deep shame for them to starve in a land known for fruitfulness. But now God says, “I will lay no famine on you.” None are under that punishment unless he lays it on them.

Then they will no longer suffer the shame of famine. No one will be able to mock them as people whom God leaves short of what they need. In fact, they will not only be freed from the disgrace of want, but they will be known for plenty. The land that had long lain empty in the eyes of everyone who passed by, some looking on it with scorn and some with pity, will be worked again (Ezekiel 36:34). After lying uncultivated for so long, it will become even more fruitful.

Notice that God will call for the grain, yet they still must till the soil to get it. This shows that even promised blessings must be worked for. God’s promise does not replace our effort, it stirs it up and gives it hope. God will so bless the work of the diligent that everyone passing by will take note of it with amazement (Ezekiel 36:35). They will say, “See the great change here, this land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, a desert turned into a paradise.” God has honors ready for his people that will make up for the contempt they now endure, and he will be honored in them.

This great increase in both the people and the produce of the land is compared (Ezekiel 36:38) to the large flocks of cattle brought to Jerusalem for sacrifice at one of the sacred feasts. Even the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people, not like the flocks that cover the pastures (Psalm 65:13), but like the holy flock brought into the courts of the Lord’s house. A large crowd is truly a lovely sight when all are devoted to God, like a holy flock offered to him as living sacrifices. Crowds are beautiful in God’s temple.

This blessed change will have happy effects. First, it will bring God’s people to honest repentance for their sins (Ezekiel 36:31). Then they will remember their evil ways and hate themselves for them. This shows what sin really is, something hateful and filthy, the thing that the Lord hates. It also shows the first step toward repentance, which is serious memory of our sins, thinking them over carefully and naming them plainly.

We must remember our sins against ourselves, not only our worst crimes, but also our faults and weaknesses, the things we did that were not good, not as good as they should have been. We must think not only of direct disobedience, but also of every time we fell short of God’s law. True repentance always includes self-loathing, a holy shame and confusion of face. “You will hate yourselves in your own sight,” because you will see how ugly you made yourselves in God’s sight.

Self-love lies at the root of sin, so it is fitting that we should be ashamed when we see how foolish our sin was. Yet this struggle with ourselves is meant to lead us, on good grounds, to peace with ourselves again. The strongest help toward gospel repentance is a sense of God’s mercy. When God settles them in the midst of plenty, then they will hate their sins even more. God’s kindness should overpower our badness and lead us to repentance. The more we see how ready God is to receive us when we repent, the more ashamed we should feel that we ever sinned against such love. A heart is very hard if it will not melt under this.

Second, this change will affect their neighbors, because it will bring them to a clearer knowledge of God (Ezekiel 36:36). The nations around them, who spoke wrongly about God, for all who speak badly of him speak in ignorance, will begin to understand better when they see the land of Israel restored. They will learn that God can rebuild the most ruined cities and replant the most ruined lands. They will also see that even if his favor toward his people seems blocked for a time, it will not end forever.

They will be brought to know the truth of God’s word by seeing how exactly his works match what he has spoken to Israel: “I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.” With us, saying and doing are two different things. It is not so with God.

God sets these things before them, not as payment for their worth, but as the answer to their prayers. They must not think they have earned them. “Not for your sake do I do this,” he says, “let it be known to you” (Ezekiel 36:22, Ezekiel 36:32). Instead, they should be ashamed and confounded because of their own ways. God is doing all that he has promised, and it is as sure as if it were already done. Even present events are moving toward it.

First, they must give up any idea that their good works deserve this. When God first brought Israel into Canaan, he clearly warned them against thinking that it was because of their righteousness (Deuteronomy 9:4-6). It is not because of their good qualities or good deeds, and not because God needs anything from them or expects gain from them. When he shows mercy, he acts by royal right, not because we have earned it. This is said very strongly: “Be it known to you, it is not for your sakes,” because we are quick to think too highly of our own merit and slow to let go of it. In one way or another, God will make all his favorites know and confess that it is his grace, not their goodness, his mercy, not their merit, that made them what they are. So the glory belongs not to them, but to him.

Second, they must repent of their evil ways. They must admit that the mercies they receive from God are not only undeserved, but have been deservedly forfeited a thousand times over. So they should be far from boasting in their good works. They should instead be ashamed and confounded for their evil ways, and then they are best prepared to receive mercy.

Yet they must also know that they must desire and expect this mercy (Ezekiel 36:37). “I will still let the house of Israel ask me for this.” God has spoken, and he will do it, but he will be sought for it. He requires his people to seek him, and he will move their hearts to do so when he comes toward them in mercy.

They must pray for it, because prayer is how God is sought and asked after. What God promises must become the subject of our prayers. By asking for the promised mercy, we give glory to the Giver, show that we value the gift, confess our need, and honor prayer, the very thing God has chosen to honor.

Christ himself had to ask, and then God gave him the nations for his inheritance. He had to pray to the Father, and then the Father sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. If that is true of Christ, then we should certainly ask if we want to receive.

They must also consult the oracles of God, that is, seek God’s word and direction, and in that way God is sought and asked about. The mercy in view must be more than a work of providence, that is, more than a general act of God’s ordering care. It must be a child of promise, something God has pledged in his covenant. So the promise must be looked to, and prayer must be made with faith fixed on that promise. The promise should guide our hopes and also support them.

We see both of these ways in Daniel, speaking for the house of Israel, when he was about to ask God for great things on their behalf. He studied the Scriptures and understood from the books, especially the book of the prophet Jeremiah, both what to expect and when to expect it. Then he set his face to seek God in prayer (Daniel 9:2, Daniel 9:3). The lesson is clear: our fellowship with God must be kept alive by the word and prayer in all his dealings with us, and in both we must seek him.