Ezekiel 36:1-38

Restoration, redemption, reconciliation and revival are all words that describe the work of God in the hearts of men.  This is God’s purpose in the world and it is God’s plan for the nation of Israel.  God has disciplined His people and they have been taken captive into the nations.  However, this does not mean God has forgotten His people and more importantly this does not mean God has forgotten His promises.  God has a plan and is sovereignly at work in the history of this world to bring mankind back to Himself.  Since the Fall, a breech has been established between God and man that impairs our fellowship, skews our view and pollutes our worship.  God has bridged that breech through the cross of Christ and is in the process of restoring us fully to Himself through His redemptive plan.  Israel serves as a divine illustration and instrument of God for the fulfillment of God’s plan for reconciliation.

GOD WILL RESTORE ISRAEL TO HER LAND: Due to Israel’s rebellion, He has had to judge the nation severely and they have been killed, taken captive or made refugees in the surrounding nations.  These nations have now begun to question the power of God and are helping themselves to the land God had promised to the nation of Israel.  The nations are becoming self-righteous and pretending they are now the owners of the property.  Certainly there would be many of the exiles who would consider the land and the promises of God to have been forfeit.  Ezekiel makes it clear that this is not the case.  Israel has been judged but in a very similar way the surrounding nations will be judged and in the process Israel will be restored to her land.  The cities will once again thrive and the fields will once again produce.  God is faithful to His promises and will not leave one of them unfulfilled.  We can rest in God’s faithfulness and trust that no matter what our current circumstances might be; God is at work to bring about His plan of restoration through redemption in Christ. 

GOD WILL RESTORE HIS NAME IN THE NATIONS: The captivity of Israel was not only an embarrassment to the nation of Israel; it was also an embarrassment to the Lord.  The nations mocked Israel’s weakness and captivity; however, in so doing they were also mocking the Lord.  His name, power, faithfulness, goodness and love were being called into questions.  The surrounding nations were blaspheming the name of the Lord and worshiping their false idols in place of the Lord.  God makes it very clear He will bring about the restoration of the nation of Israel, not because they deserve it or have somehow earned it.  The reason He will bring about this restoration is for His own name’s sake.  Israel’s rebellion not only reflected upon their character, but was a blight on the very name of the Lord.  God wants to be worshiped in all the nations and would bring about Israel’s restoration in order to promote His own glory in all the nations.  This is still God’s goal in the history of the world and the cause to which every believer has been called to dedicate his or her life.  God’s glory in the nations is our priority in life.


GOD WILL RESTORE MAN’S HEART TO HIMSELF: The restoration of Israel to the land, the restoration of God’s fame is all a part of God’s plan to bring about the restoration of man’s heart to sweet and complete fellowship with Him.  The physical restoration of Israel to the land would be brought about through a genuine repentance of sin in the nation and recognition of God’s provision for sin.  God is not only promising physical restoration but a spiritual transformation in the hearts of Israel.  One day the nation of Israel that has been repeatedly exiled in the nations due to their rebellion will be gathered back to the land God promised them but more importantly, their hearts will be transformed into hearts that worship God alone as the source of hope and life.  He is the only one worthy of worship, but the fall of man has caused our hearts to go after and worship idols of our own imaginations and after our own lusts.  God’s plan of redemption is to change the hearts of man through the preaching of the Gospel and the presence of His Holy Spirit in our lives.  All who trust Christ have been given the Spirit of God who implants within us a new nature.  This is God’s work to reconcile man’s heart to Himself so we can worship Him perfectly in a manner even greater and more perfect than Adam and Eve were able to experience prior to the Fall.  The restoration through the work of Christ is far greater than the destruction of sin achieved through Satan’s desception.

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