Ezekiel 36

Therefore, the Lord says He will demonstrate the HOLINESS of His name by restoring His people to their homeland. But the Lord adds: “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do this; it is for the sake of my holy name” (verse 22). God didn’t mean that He had no care for Israel; He simply meant that Israel didn’t deserve what He was about to do. He was going to restore the Israelites not because they were good but because He was good. By restoring His people, He would be demonstrating His holiness and His grace. “Then the nations will know that I am the LORD” (verse 23). The ultimate purpose behind all of God’s dealings with Israel was to let the entire world know that He was the one true God.

24–38 In these verses the Lord describes the restoration of Israel after the Exile. First, God will gather the Israelites and bring them back to their land (verse 24). Then He will sprinkle clean water on them, which symbolizes cleansing from sin (verse 25). Then God will give them a new heart and a new spirit (verse 26); instead of a cold, hard heart, He will give them a heart of flesh, a sensitive, teachable heart (see Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 11:19–20 and comments). God will do all this by putting His Holy Spirit in them (verse 27); it is His Spirit who will give them new hearts, new motivation, and new power to follow God’s decrees. God’s Holy Spirit enables the human spirit to do God’s will.

Finally, God will grant prosperity to His spiritually renewed people (verses 29–30,33–38). They will be ashamed when they see His kindness toward them, which they did not deserve; they will loathe themselves because of their sins (verses 31–32); they will remember and repent (see Ezekiel 20:43).

The Lord again reminds the Israelites that He is not doing all this because they deserve it, but because He wants to make Himself known, both to them and to the world (verse 36). He is doing this because centuries earlier He had promised to do it; He had promised to bless His people if they repented of their sins and turned back to Him (see Deuteronomy 30:1–10 and comment). Now this day of blessing was being promised anew to the discouraged exiles in Babylonia.⁷⁹