June 6, 2022

Passage Read: Ezekiel 8-11
Meditation Verses: 11:17-20

Thought

Those who remained in Jerusalem looked on the exiles as lost and hopeless, and they rejected them, as if they themselves were the better, were chosen, the favored of God. But God says of the exiles that it is those He will bring back to Jerusalem after it is destroyed, and they will return and cleanse the city of its hateful things and abominations. And He will give them a new heart of flesh and remove their heart of stone, so that they may walk in obedience to His statutes and judgments. The new heart given by the Lord is one that will love the Lord's Word and ways, to do them. The new heart promised to those who come to the Lord is a heart of respect and obedience to the Lord.

Application

It is ultimately through the Gospel that we are saved and made new and given hearts of flesh. So the Gospel should produce respect and obedience to God's Word, even to the commands and judgments of the Lord throughout Scripture. All the ceremonial commands are fulfilled in Christ, so there is no longer needed any sacrifice or separation from external things that made one unclean. It is what comes from out of the heart that actually makes one unclean, and these things are forbidden by the moral law and judgments in the Old Testament. How we behave, how we treat God and one another, these are the things God has always been concerned about. And the new heart we receive in Christ should care about those things, walking in obedience to commands that have always been true, required and expected.