Ezekiel 36:25

"And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stoney heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the vine, and the increase of the field, that ye may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations. Then shall ye remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and ye shall loathe yourselves in you own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations."

THE SPIRITUAL CLEANSING OF ISRAEL

"Ye shall be clean from your filthiness ... a new heart will I give you ... I will put my Spirit within you ..." (Ezekiel 36:25,26.27). As Pearson analyzed this cleansing of Israel, it consisted of three steps: "(1) the forgiveness of sins; (2) regeneration; and (3) the reception of the Holy Spirit."[11] Significantly, none of these was available under the Law of Moses. Only under the gracious terms of the New Covenant has there ever been available to mortal men such blessings as these. There was no forgiveness of sins under Moses; there was no Holy Spirit within all the people; there was no regeneration.

Conservative scholars have no trouble at all with this passage. The cleansing of Israel will take place in the kingdom of Messiah established by the First Advent of the Son of God. Just as the terms of Israel's peace, prosperity, and security in regard to their possession of Canaan were conditional; so also are the promises here with regard to their forgiveness, their regeneration, and their receiving the Spirit of God.

The double tragedy is that Israel's hardening and rebellion against God hindered their return to Palestine and greatly reduced the blessings; and the second phase of it was that, for the vast majority of them, they rejected the Christ, preferring to die in their sins.

"This prophecy teaches that this cleansing of Israel would be through the New Covenant, as in Jeremiah 31:31-34. This would follow the return of Israel to Canaan, where, in time, the people would accept the Messiah as their Saviour through whose death sin would be forgiven; their former iniquity would be remembered no more; they would despise themselves for their former sins; and in possession of a new heart and the Spirit of God, they would lead righteous lives."[12]

The new Testament reveals that this projection was frustrated, although not completely, by the apostate and rebellious Israel. That "righteous remnant" mentioned ages previously in the writings of the great prophets of God persevered in their devotion to the kingdom of heaven. The relatively small group who were faithful to the Word of God rallied around the holy apostles of Jesus Christ, forming the nucleus of the New Israel of God, under whose leadership virtually the whole world were turned to Christianity. There is nothing in all history to compare with this.

"I will sprinkle clean water upon you ..." (Ezekiel 36:25). This metaphor probably came from the Mosaic law which prescribed the sprinkling of water mingled with ashes of a red heifer in the ceremonial cleansing of certain guilt. However, since the whole passage speaks of the New Covenant, it appears that Hebrews 10:22; John 3:5; Ephesians 5:25-26; Titus 3:5, etc. provide the true anti-type of which the Levitical sprinkling was only a symbol.

"It is clear enough in this passage that the physical return of Israel to Canaan does not hold the center of the stage; this was only a preliminary to the bestowal of salvation upon all men."[13]

"I will call for the grain, and multiply it ..." (Ezekiel 36:29). It is strange that commentators do not make more of the fact that the rich and abundant places of the earth today are precisely those lands which operate under Christian principles, and where, although imperfectly, God through Jesus Christ is worshipped continually by vast numbers of the people.

In the last dozen years, the United States alone has been feeding half of the vast empire of the Russians, where Christianity has been outlawed for three generations. Does this tell us anything? We believe that it does. Where are the vast populations of earth suffering from famine and starvation? It is precisely in those places where there is the least evidence of any knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May our beloved nation never forget the source of their bounty, attributing it to themselves, their system of government, their economic system, or anything else except Almighty God "from whom all blessings flow!."

Cook has wisely noted that in Ezekiel we have a shift of emphasis from the nation or the country to the individual, "From congregation to the individual, from the letter to the spirit, from the Law to the Gospel, and from Moses to Christ."[14] To this we would add, "from the Old Israel to the New Israel."