Restoration And Renewal

Thoughts:

In the passages from Ezekiel (36: 24-26). God is talking to the people of Israel. The Israelites knew God; they experienced His faithfulness; they knew that they were His chosen people. They had seen His hand of judgment upon them when He took them from their promised land and made them captive in Babylon. They lost it.

Points:

Exile: Israel's exile in Babylon represented their derelict from God's kingdom. They were lost in their sin, for they put their trust in their own hands' work. They lived to satisfy their desires rather than to please God. They only loved themselves and did not love God and their neighbor as He commanded them.

God tried to warn the Israelites and tell them that they were lost. He showed them by their exile. But they could not get it. Why? Because they had hearts of stone so hard that they could not receive or take in what God was trying to tell them. Their spirits remained hard and unreceptive.

In a book by (Dr. Dick Eugenio, p. 52), Restoration and Renewal, The central issues were idolatry. Several factors brought about the exile; First, no doubt that it was the outcome of Israel's sin that caused God to punish them (Lam. 1:5; Ezek. 39:21-24; Neh. 9:29-31). Looking at the exile from an international perspective, it seems apparent that it resulted from the rise of Neo-Babylonian. As a result, the nation was destroyed and carried away into captivity. It should not surprise us that both explanations above are correct, for as Yahweh is the Lord of history, we should expect both history and Scripture to mesh perfectly. (Eugenio, p 52). The central issues were idolatry and apostasy. Religious laxity was prevalent, and public and private morality were deficient. Moreover, intermarriage with foreigners threatened the community, would mingle with the pagan environment, and lose its identity.

Restoration: The Israelites cried out to Yahweh with awareness of their sin "And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: 'Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?' (Ezekiel. 33:10). God answered that the key to their survival was repentance — turning their backs on sin. (This was genuine and heartfelt repentance among God's people for many generations). God, in His grace, had promised His people that He would bring them back (Jer. 29:10) and that He would use Cyrus as His anointed instrument (Isa. 44:28; 45:1–4). Cyrus was God's instrument when the time came, issuing a special decree, freeing the Jews to return to their land (2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4). Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of restoring God's people after the exile.

Renewal: (Ezekiel 36:26). " I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." why did God say taking away the heart of stone and giving one of flesh? First, we must understand that a heart of stone never gives sympathy and empathy. Second, God wants to remove the heart of stone and change it into a heart of flesh. Flesh beats - compassion that pleases the Lord (Eugenio, p 56). they will no longer defile themselves with their idol and vile images. The renewal was a covenant of God to them. The people returned to the land repentantly. And they never broke the covenant again because of idolatry; this led to continual covenant discipline.

Additional Bible Reference:

Jeremiah 29:4-14

Conclusion:

The story of the Israelites' exile from Babylon has no different, at least in our natural, fallen state. Our hearts are hardened to the call of God to repent and put our trust in Jesus. We have seen how there is no good in us. How left to our own devices, we are lost; we cannot even receive the gift of eternal life on our own, taking away the heart of stone and giving one of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). We need the Lord to take the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh. A heart beats companion that pleases the Lord.