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Ezekiel 11 (ESV)
14 And the word of the Lord came to me: 15 “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.’ 16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’ 17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ 18 And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”
REFLECTION:
From God’s perspective, the Judahites who were taken into captivity were a faithful group, while those who remained in Jerusalem were an evil group, which is exactly the opposite of people’s concept. The surface of a person can deceive, but God is the God who searches the heart. Idol worshipers worship in the temple in Jerusalem, but they cannot find the true sanctuary. However, those loyal exiles will still be protected by God even if they are in a foreign country. Similarly, our external circumstances cannot reflect our true relationship with God. Those who seem to be safe and smooth may be far away from God, while those who have experienced hardships have peace in their spirit with the protection of God. “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (v. 19), this metaphor may have originated from the process of making mummies in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians believed that there was a “satisfactory judgment” after death. Therefore, they replaced the heart of the mummy with a stone in the shape of a beetle to prevent the dead from being betrayed by the heart during the trial and endangering the next life. But God’s heart-changing operation is the opposite of Egypt. He will replace the hard stone heart with a soft flesh heart. This is what David prayed for, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”(Ps. 51:10), which is the new covenant promised by God (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). When the people of God no longer look for false gods, the hard and stubborn “stone heart” will be replaced by a tender, obedient, and responsive flesh heart. This new life is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit. We must realize that this is God’s work and we should strive to escape from sin. When we do this, God will gives us new opportunities to guide us to new growth. Have we received such a “new heart”?
PRAYER:
Ask God to give you more humility and obedience, to make your heart soft and fervent, and to have new acceptance and new growth in God’s words every day; ask God to give you more love and greater faith, so that you will be more sensitive to the life and spiritual needs of relatives and friends around you, take practical actions to care for and guide them, so that they also receive a “new heart” given by God.
HYMN:
Create In Me A Clean Heart O God – youtu.be/2fVliokreqE
