Year 9, Day 162: Ezekiel 36

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are two very cool teaching points in Ezekiel 36.  Each of these points are cool because they are not only important to remember, but they are not typical lessons we expect to get from the Bible.  The Bible is primarily a book about God’s relationship with us.

In this overarching context, Ezekiel’s first message in this chapter is to the hills around Jerusalem.  So often we think of the planet as something over which we exercise dominion.  We see it as a source of wealth development.  We look to the land and see how we can strip it and consume it and build our edifices upon it.

God speaks to the land as having a purpose to fulfill with us.  He promises that the land will once more dwell with us.  He tells the land that under Him, when His people have been purified, that the land will be rebuilt and have purpose.  God’s creation is not ours to plunder.  God’s creation is ours to bring into fulfillment.

The second point drives home humbleness.  It comes at the very end of the passage where God is promising redemption and restoration.  God clearly tells us that He is going to restore the Hebrew for His sake.  He doesn’t do it for our sake.  He doesn’t do it because we deserve it.  He does it because it makes Him righteous.

This should humble us.  We like to think we earn God’s love.  We like to think that our time going to church and reading His Word earns His favor.  It doesn’t.  We do it to get closer to Him.  We do it because we need it, not Him.  He is righteous.  He is always righteous.  We are merely recipients of His grace given to us because He is righteous enough to bless us.

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