The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, while the house of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it with their conduct and actions. Their behavior before me was like menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath on them because of the blood they had shed on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered among the countries. I judged them according to their conduct and actions. When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name, because it was said about them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave his land in exile.’ Then I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went.
“Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: It is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you went. I will honor the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the LORD—this is the declaration of the Lord GOD—when I demonstrate my holiness through you in their sight.
“‘For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine on you. I will also make the fruit of the trees and the produce of the field plentiful, so that you will no longer experience reproach among the nations on account of famine.
“‘You will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and detestable practices. It is not for your sake that I will act—this is the declaration of the Lord GOD—let this be known to you. Be ashamed and humiliated because of your ways, house of Israel!
“‘This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by. They will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and demolished are now fortified and inhabited.” Then the nations that remain around you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was demolished and have replanted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken and I will do it.
“‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I will respond to the house of Israel and do this for them: I will multiply them in number like a flock. So the ruined cities will be filled with a flock of people, just as Jerusalem is filled with a flock of sheep for sacrifice during its appointed festivals. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate your inner life. In what specific areas has your heart grown into a “heart of stone”—stubborn, numb, or resistant to God’s conviction and the needs of others?
God cleanses his people not because they earned it, but for the sake of his holy name. As you confess your sins today, how does the illumination of God’s unmerited grace change the way you view your own failures?
For further insight, read this devotional written by Kraig McNutt, M.Div.
Behind the Country Church
based on Ezekiel 36:16-30
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” —Ezekiel 36:26
For more than 30 years I had a “heart of stone.”
My biological father took off before I was born, leaving my mom struggling with two toddlers and a baby on the way. As a boy, I learned of this and began to hate him. I thought he earned it. He never came around, never sent a birthday present, not even a Christmas wish.
By age 10, my hatred had hardened into a heart of stone — calcified bitterness with a thick crust of latent anger. Then, in 2001 I was driving down the road on the way home from work, singing “Angry All The Time” by Tim McGraw. Somewhere around the second refrain I saw my six-year-old daughter’s face in my mind—as I was driving.
She asked me, “Daddy, why do you have to be angry all the time?” Her words synced with the lyrics to McGraw’s country hit, and it felt like the Spirit of the Lord smacked me dead between the “eyes of my heart” with a heavenly two-by-four! I pulled off to the side of the road, behind a little white country church, and started bawling. At some point I asked the Lord, “Why am I so angry, Heavenly Father?”
The reply came quickly, not audible, but unmistakably from the Lord, “You are angry toward your biological father, and you need to forgive him.” I pleaded with the Lord right there to forgive me of my hatred and anger toward my father—for my heart of stone—and to give me a heart of flesh.
And you know what? He did! Weeping in repentance behind that little church, God instantly gave me the ability to forgive my father, and he even gave me compassion to reach out to him.
As I drove home the rest of the way, I could tell the lava-anger underneath was gone. I had peace with God—and would soon find peace with my biological father, just weeks before he died. That’s another story.
Ezekiel wrote from exile, watching everything collapse, but God’s promise and mercy continued. The God of Israel offered his wayward children something no one could manufacture—a new heart, given by God himself. Just like I needed for my thirty years of calcified bitterness. One afternoon behind a country church, and the heart of stone was gone. The heart of flesh was given. Not earned. Not worked for. Given.
He is still giving.
Pray for illumination, that God’s word would be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.