Ezekiel was already in Babylon when he prophesied around the same time as Jeremiah in the early decades of the sixth century BC. We have been looking at just a few of the messages he delivered to bring hope to the Jews in Exile. We thought about the promises in Ezekiel 34 that the Lord will be Israel’s shepherd, replacing Israel’s leaders who were bad shepherds. We looked at the glorious promises of cleansing and a new heart and a new Spirit in Ezekiel 36. Last time we thought about God breathing life into the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. Chapters 40 to 48 look ahead to the new Temple which will be built when the Exiles will return to rebuild Jerusalem. God’s glory will fill the temple once again, the priesthood will be restored and they will offer sacrifices to God once again. Then in Ezekiel 47 we come to this inspiring prophecy about the river of life flowing out from the new temple.
Especially in hot countries in the Middle East, rivers like the Jordan and the Nile are sources of water which are vital for all forms of life. But it should go without saying that this prophecy is not talking about a literal river of water. As with so many prophecies, the river is symbolic. It represents the abundance of God’s blessings. Throughout the Bible the river is the symbol of God’s grace and provision. It is also a picture of the God’s promised glorious salvation – cleansing, peace, joy and love.
Psalm 46 had pointed forward to this river of blessing.
Psalm 46 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Isaiah had also looked forward to the streams in the desert which God would provide to bless his chosen people.
Isaiah 43 18 ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.
The prophet Joel had used the same picture of a river flowing out of the temple bringing life everywhere it flowed.
Joel 3 18 “In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the LORD’s house and will water the valley of acacias.
So now let’s look at Ezekiel’s wonderful prophecy of the river of life
Ezekiel 47:1 The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me round the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.
We begin with the source of the river. It is flowing from the new Temple. Of all the places on earth, the Temple in Jerusalem is where God is most present. The Temple is the place where God lives, where God’s people go to meet with Him and to worship God and to receive His blessings. Water flows from God Himself. Quite rightly, because God is the source of all life and all blessings.
More specifically, the source of the waters is the altar. The altar is where sacrifices are offered for sin. The altar is the source of forgiveness. The waters flow out from the altar and from the Temple into the world. God is the source of the river. But there is something else which is remarkable about it.
Ezekiel 47 3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits (that’s about 500 yards) and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep.
Every other river gets stronger as it goes downstream because of feeder streams adding to the body of water. But this river of life is different. It gets deeper and stronger all by itself. All the water flowed directly from the source. This river didn’t need feeder streams to grow deeper and deeper. God’s river of life does not need anything else added to it from the world to make it grow. All by itself the river gets deeper and deeper. And deeper still.
4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, ‘Son of man, do you see this?’
The river of God flows out from the Temple getting deeper and deeper as it goes. God’s river brings ever increasing blessings to more and more people and places. And the way the depth of the river is always increasing gives us an invitation to keep on going deeper and deeper with God. There is always more and more of God and of his blessings to discover and experience. God’s desire is that we should be continually moving deeper and deeper with Him. Some Christians are content just to dip their toes into the waters of life. Some Christians like to paddle ankle deep or even go knee-deep but no further. Some Christians like to wade in the river of life but are afraid to go any deeper. Perhaps they are scared that they will end up in over their heads. Perhaps they are afraid that they will drown – but God will never let us drown.
Isaiah 43 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
Just a few Christians are brave and trusting enough to go swimming in God’s river of life, to be out of their depth where their feet can’t touch the river bed anymore. To just be carried along by the current of God’s love and power to wherever God wants to take them. None of us should want to spend our lives keeping our feet on dry land. We shouldn’t be content just to dip our toes into God. We each have the choice – we can paddle around on the edges, or we can go swimming. We should all be ready to dive in deep into the river of life.
Snoopy was sitting droopy-eyed at the entrance of his kennel. He sighed deeply. “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. There’s such little hope for advancement.” In the Christian life there is always hope for advancement! We can always go deeper with God.
There’s a beautiful song by Doug Horley & Noel Richards.
I WANT TO BE OUT OF MY DEPTH IN YOUR LOVE,
Feeling Your arms so strong around me.
Out of my depth in Your love, Out of my depth in You.
Learning to let You lead, Putting all trust in You;
Deeper into Your arms, Surrounded by You.
Things I have held so tight, Made my security;
Give me the strength I need To simply let go.
Out of my depth in Your love, Out of my depth in You.
The river of life gets deeper and deeper. If nothing else, Ezekiel’s wonderful prophecy of the river is an invitation to each one of us to go deeper and deeper with God. But then we see how the river also brings new life.
Ezekiel 47:6 …. Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.
Wherever the river flows, everything the river touches will live. Because the river consists of flowing water, not still water, but constantly moving, constantly refreshing. It provides an abundance of all kinds of fish for food. And also many kinds of trees.
Ezekiel 47 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.’
The trees supply abundant fruit for food, every month and not just once a year, because they are constantly nourished by the river of life. And the leaves of the trees provide healing.

Isaiah had also foretold trees growing beside flowing streams.
Isaiah 44 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
In Isaiah’s prophecy, the trees beside the river represented the people of God receiving abundant blessings. We find that same picture in Psalm 1.
Psalm 1 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.
The trees growing by the river represent the people of God. And did you notice that Isaiah was also explicit that the flowing streams represented God pouring out his Holy Spirit on His people.
Isaiah 44 3 … I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
The river of the Holy Spirit brings abundant life to God’s people. In turn the trees bring food and healing to the world.
Ezekiel 47 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.’
I am sure you will have noticed how this prophecy about the river of life is echoed in the book of Revelation. The river gives us a picture of the blessings we look forward to in glory.
Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
In the celestial city all God’s blessings of the river of the water of life will flow out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. But Jesus has told us we do not need to wait until glory. Believers can experience these waters here and now. Christians receive a foretaste of all the blessings of heaven here and now through the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria,
John 4 13 … whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
And Jesus made this promise to his disciples.
John 7 37 … ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
As believers we can experience the living waters of the Holy Spirit here and now flowing into our lives, fulfilling the promise of Ezekiel 47. But the river does not just flow into us. It also flows out through us and from us out to others. We are the new temple, where God lives by his Holy Spirit, as we learned from 1 Peter 2 and also from Ephesians 2. So as Christians we are not only the first recipients of the blessings of the river of life. As the new Temple we are also the channels of the river of God’s living waters to the needy world. God blesses us so that we take his blessings to others.
There are two seas in Palestine – the Sea of Galilee, fresh and full of life, and the Dead Sea, bitter and lifeless. Water flows into the Sea of Galilee and then out again in the Jordan River. The Dead Sea is also fed by the Jordan river, but it is dead because it has no outlet. This makes it the most salty body of water on earth, containing almost ten times as much salt as sea water. Some Christians are like the Sea of Galilee, fresh and abundantly fruitful. Some other Christians are like the Dead Sea, bitter and barren, because they are always taking in but never giving out.
RIVER, WASH OVER ME, Cleanse me and make me new.
Bathe me, refresh me and fill me anew, River wash over me.
So here is Ezekiel’s glorious prophecy of the river of life. It points us to the blessings we can receive through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It also challenges us to be channels of those blessing to a needy world. And it invites us to step out in faith and go deeper and deeper with God.
We spent last Sunday in the Swiss city of Basel on the banks of the mighty river Rhine, which is the second largest river in Western and Central Europe. Where we were the river is around two hundred yards wide. It was a baking hot day and the banks of the river were filled with people sunbathing. Lots of them were going out into the water to swim. Many were just floating downstream. Then half a mile or a mile later they would get out of the water, walk back along the bank and then go straight back in to swim again. Are we just dipping our toes into the rivers of the water of life? Or are we prepared to be like those people, ready to dive in and swim out of our depth and let the mighty river of the Holy Spirit carry us wherever he chooses?

I am sure you know the song with the chorus: “Dem bones Dem bones Dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord.” We may think this song of hope is a very old spiritual, although in fact it was written less than a century ago. It has been recorded by various artists and also used in different television programmes. The song has introduced many people to the passage from Ezekiel chapter 37 we read tonight, which recounts the prophet’s vision of a Valley of Dry Bones. It brings a message of hope to hopeless situations. God can bring dead dry bones back to life. This speaks to us about the nation of Israel scattered in Exile in Babylon. It points us to the wonderful salvation we have received through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the vision also gives us hope as we look at the discouraging state of the church in our nation today.
Let’s start with the APPLICATION TO ISRAEL IN EXILE
Scattered across Babylonia, the Israelites faced a hopeless situation. As hopeless as a valley filled with the dead dry bones of warriors who had fallen in a battle long, long ago. That was how the Israelites would have seen themselves. Could there be any hope in such a desperate situation?
Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me to and fro among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’
Can these bones live? Humanly speaking of course the answer is no. Never. From a human point of view, with Jerusalem ransacked and the Temple destroyed, the nation of Israel was finished. But the prophet realises that what is impossible for human beings is not necessarily possible with God.
‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign LORD, you alone know.’
With God there is always hope. Anything is possible for God. Jeremiah was probably familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah from centuries earlier.
Isaiah 26 19 But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
Even as early as Isaiah and Jeremiah the Israelites believed in the possibility of resurrection.
4 Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.” ’
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
At God’s command the dead dry bones joined together again to make skeletons. Flesh and skin covered the bones so the bodies were complete again. But they were still dead. God needed to do something more to bring the dead bodies back to life.
9 Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” ’ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

The breath of God gives life. Just as it had been in the beginning when God created human beings.
Genesis 2 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
It was the God’s breath which gave life to Adam and Eve and it was the breath of God which gave life to the bodies in the valley of dry bones.
At this point we should remind ourselves that there is a single Hebrew word which means wind, breath and spirit. That word is rûaḥ. It is translated into Greek as pneuma, which similarly means either wind, breath or spirit. So when God commands Ezekiel to prophesy, this is what it means.
9 … “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: come, breath/wind/spirit, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” ’ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath/wind/spirit entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
God’s divine energy, the breath of God, the Spirit of God, gives life even to the bodies of the dead and brings them back to life again.
This vision was a message of hope for Israel. They felt their situation was hopeless, but nothing is beyond God’s saving power.
11 Then he said to me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” ’
Here is the promise for Israel. Their dry bones will live again! God will put his Spirit into his people and they will come to life again.
We see the same promise of the Holy Spirit again in Ezekiel 39.
Ezekiel 39 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

So there is hope for Israel. God will bring his salvation by pouring His Spirit out on each one of his chosen people. New life for dry bones.
But this promise of life in the graveyard has a wider APPLICATION TO EVERY HUMAN BEING.
Without God our situation is desperate and hopeless. By nature every human being is dead in trespasses and sins. But just as God could bring a valley of dry bones back to life, God can bring life from death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The breath of God, the Holy Spirit gives us life. This was in the background of what Jesus said to Nicodemus.
John 3 3 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ …
5 … ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’
The wind, the breath of God, gave life to the dry bones in the valley. So the wind of God, the breath of God, the Holy Spirit brings new birth and new life to those who believes in Jesus. Spirit gives birth to spirit.
So we receive new life in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit. We thought about these wonderful promises in Ezekiel 36 last week.
EZEKIEL 36 24 ‘ “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Made clean from all impurities, a new heart which is not hard as flint but instead is inclined to obey God, the Holy Spirit helping us to serve God and a special relationship with God. These are the gifts of salvation promised in Ezekiel offered to everybody who puts their trust in Jesus Christ our Saviour.
So the vision of the valley of dry bones spoke to Israel and it speaks to every person who puts their trust in Jesus as Saviour. But this passage has always had a third significance for Christians.
We should think of its APPLICATION TO CHURCHES
When we look at the state of the church in Britain today, some might think it was pretty hopeless. We could easily be depressed by the spread of secularisation and religious pluralism along with the rise of materialism, consumerism and celebrity culture. We can see post-modern relativism and post truth creeping into the church as they have across society. We see numerical decline even in Baptist churches, with average memberships dropping by 10% every decade. And we may be most discouraged by the ways that so many churches are being led astray by false teaching and false teachers, abandoning beliefs held by Christians across the centuries in important issues such as the nature of salvation, the uniqueness of Christ as the only way to the Father, and the nature of Christian marriage. Many people might think the church in Britain today looks more like a valley of dry bones than the living vibrant body of Christ. Churches today don’t look very much like the first Christians in the book of Acts. We look much more like the Exiles scattered across Babylon, trying desperately to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land. Without God’s intervention, the churches are indeed in a hopeless situation. But Ezekiel’s vision gives us a message of great hope.
3 He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign LORD, you alone know.’
Humanly speaking, the church seems to be, if not long dead, then certainly dying. At best, the church sometimes looks like Ezekiel’s description of the dry bones when God’s salvation was only half way through.
7And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Sometimes the church looks like skeletons with tendons and flesh and skin and bones, but with no breath in them. But nothing is impossible with God. He can bring our dry bones back to life. And he can breathe the breath of life, His Holy Spirit, back into us again, just as he did in Ezekiel’s vision and just as He did for the Israelites in Exile.
9 Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” ’ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
What the church needs, what we all need, is the Holy Spirit of God to breathe life into us again. We need to come to life and stand up on our feet as the vast army of the Lord! We need revival!
13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live,
We need a fresh Pentecost – a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the promises in Ezekiel and in the book of Joel.
Joel 2:28 I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
We need God to renew his church! We need God’s love and power breaking in and sweeping us away! The mighty river of God’s love flowing through us cleansing and refreshing and sweeping aside the barriers in our lives.
I am reminded of the words of A.W. Tozer I have often quoted.
“Orthodox Christianity has fallen to its present low estate from lack of spiritual desire. Among the many who profess the Christian faith, scarcely one in a thousand reveals any passionate thirst for God. We fear extremes and shy away from too much ardor in religion as if it were possible to have too much love or too much faith or too much holiness.
Pray on, fight on, sing on. Do not underrate anything God may have done for you before. Thank God for everything up to this point but do not stop here. – Press On into the deep things of God. Insist upon tasting the profounder mysteries of redemption. Refuse to be aver¬age or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment. Unless you do these things you will reach at last (and unknown to you) the graveyard of orthodoxy and be doomed to live out your days in spiritual mediocrity!” (AW Tozer Root of the Righteous pp 55-56)
We need the breathe of life to sweep through us. God can bring a valley of dry bones back to life. We need to come to life and stand up on our feet as the vast army of the Lord! Come Holy Spirit.
Come Holy Spirit. Lord send revival. And Lord, let it begin with me!

We come this evening to the heart of the messages of hope which the prophet Ezekiel delivered to the Jews in Exile scattered in Babylon in the first part of the sixth century BC. God makes a number of wonderful promises to the Exiles.
24 ‘ “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
God will bring his people back from Babylon into the promised land of Canaan and to the holy city of Jerusalem. The ruins will be rebuilt and the Land will once again be blessed with abundance. More wonderful still, God will cleanse his people from their idols and he will have a closer relationship with them than ever before. Before we look in detail at what God was promising to do, we need to understand just why God was going to act. The people had rebelled against God by injustice and idol worship. So in his judgment God had banished them into Exile. But that had diminished God’s name in the eyes of the surrounding nations.
20 And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, “These are the LORD’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.” 21 I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.
So God was going to restore his people again. But it was important that they understood why he was doing so. It wasn’t for them – it was for the sake of his own name and his reputation.
22 ‘Therefore say to the Israelites, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: it is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
Israel did not deserve to be restored. They were still guilty and deserving of punishment. But for the sake of his name and his reputation God was going to bring blessing to them.
32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign LORD. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!
So God would bring his people home again – but all for the sake of his glory and his holy name.
34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. 35 They will say, ‘This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.”
God was going to bring his chosen people the Jews back to the promised land once again. But that was only the first part of the wonderful masterplan of salvation. Listen as Ezekiel unveils the plans God had for his people.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Salvation begins with cleansing
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
God would purify his people. Their sins would be forgiven. Their idols would be cast aside and driven out. This cleansing was essential but it was only the preparation for what was to follow.
God would give his people a new heart
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
The problem the Israelites had always had was that their hearts were hardened. The Jews in the years leading up to the Exile had stubbornly refused to repent, just like Pharaoh in the time of Moses. Like the people of Nineveh in Jonah’s time, they Jews were proud and stiff-necked. Looking back, the prophet Zechariah described the problem like this.
Zech 7 11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
Hearts as hard as flint. So God would perform a heart transplant. He would remove their rock-hard hearts and replace them with tender hearts which would be responsive and faithful to God. Cleansing and a new heart were both just to prepare the way for what was to follow.

The gift of the Holy Spirit
27 And I will put my Spirit in you
We read of different occasions in the Old Testament where God put his Spirit on people, or where the Spirit came down on them. Here we have an even more glorious promise. I will put my Spirit in you. This is not the Holy Spirit coming upon a person to equip them for a particular task and then leaving them again. The Holy Spirit will enter into God’s people and remain within them permanently. I will put my Spirit in you. The promise of the Holy Spirit is repeated five chapters later.
Ezekiel 39 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
The gift of the Holy Spirit was given to enable the Israelites to keep their side of the covenant.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
In their own strength the Jews by and large had consistently failed to keep their side of the covenant. They had disobeyed the law of Moses in so many ways. But the Holy Spirit living inside them would enable them to keep the Law. This was the essence of the new covenant God would make with his people which was promised in Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31 33 ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,’ declares the LORD.
‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, “Know the LORD,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’
declares the LORD.

The Holy Spirit living in each Israelite would give each one a personal relationship with God and at the same time help them to keep God’s law.
A deeper relationship with God
28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
That had been God’s plan from the start. Remember God’s words through Moses to the people when he instituted the Covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai.
Exodus 19 4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
God had always wanted a special relationship with the people of Israel. Now they would be made clean. They would have new hearts. God would put his Holy Spirit within them and at long last they would be his people and he would be their God.
God had actually made very similar promises earlier in Ezekiel. In the years leading up to the Fall of Jerusalem, God had urged the Jews to repent.
Ezekiel 18 30 ‘Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offences; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offences you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
God had urged Israel to repent, but he had also promised them a new heart and a new spirit.
Ezekiel 11 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
The new heart God would give to the Jews would be an undivided heart, a united heart, integrity of heart, hearts which will not betray them so that they would be single-mindedly devoted to God. Then truly, they will be my people and I will be their God. And these blessings will last forever.
Ezekiel 37 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them for ever. 27 My dwelling-place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them for ever.” ’

God will cleanse his people from their idols. He will take away their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh. God will put his Holy Spirit inside each one so that they obey his laws. So they will be his people and they will be his God.
This is the wonderful salvation which God promises through Ezekiel. We begin to see it being fulfilled from the Day of Pentecost. Hearts of stone replaced with hearts of flesh and the gift of the Holy Spirit living in God’s chosen people. Remember the promises that Jesus made about the Advocate, the Helper, the paracletos.
John 14 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever—17 the Spirit of truth. … he lives with you and will be in you. 20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 23 … My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. … the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 16 13 … when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
This work of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer is the fulfilment in our earthly lives of God’s promises in Ezekiel 36. Of course the ultimate fulfilment will only come when the church, the bride of Christ, meets her bridegroom in glory.
But right now we can already enjoy all the blessings of the new salvation which is promised in Ezekiel 36. We have been washed clean. God has given each one of us a new heart and we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit living in each one of us. we are God’s people and he is our God. That is the gift of Pentecost which we celebrate today.

Psalm 100 begins like this
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
This is just one of a dozen places in the Old Testament which describe God’s chosen people of Israel as his flock and God as the shepherd of Israel. That is the background to these prophecies in Ezekiel which pronounce God’s judgment on the leaders of Israel, the Kings and the Priests, who should have been shepherds over the people but had failed in their responsibilities.
The armies of Babylon invaded Israel and overran Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in 597 BC. Over the next decade the Jews were taken into Exile and dispersed across the Babylonian Empire. Ezekiel was already in Babylon when he was prophesying around the same time as Jeremiah. He delivered 52 oracles, often using prophetic symbolism. Verbal messages from God were introduced by ‘the word of the Lord came to me’. Visions were introduced by ‘the hand of the Lord was upon me’. Chapters 1-32 of the Book of Ezekiel foretell God’s judgment in the Fall of Jerusalem which was recorded in Ezekiel 33:21-22. We are going to enjoy a handful of sermons from Chapters 33-48 which brought messages of hope to the Exiles.

God’s judgment had fallen on the nation of Israel in the shape of invasion and defeat, the destruction of the Temple and Exile to Babylon. The blame lay fairly and squarely on the Kings and Priests who had cosmically failed in their duties of taking care of Israel.
Ezekiel 34:1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
The first part of this chapter spells out all the ways in which the Kings and Priests had failed to take care of the flock. To begin with, they had only taken care of themselves and not taken care of the nation. These bad shepherds had lived off the people instead of caring for them.
3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
Shepherds had particular responsibilities for the sheep in their care and the leaders of Israel had failed in those duties in caring for the people.
4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.
A shepherd’s job was to take care of the weak and the sick and to look after the injured. Sheep being silly animals they tended to wander off and get lost and it was the shepherd’s job to search for the lost sheep and bring back the strays. The Kings and the Priests of Israel had not stopped the people from wandering away from God. They had not searched for the lost sheep and brought them back. Quite the reverse – too often it was actually the bad shepherds who had led the people astray. It was the kings who had made alliances with foreign nations and it was the priests who had led the people into worshipping foreign gods. Worse than that,
You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
The kings and the priests had exploited the people of Israel.
5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

God’s chosen people had wandered from him, and the leaders of Israel had failed to search for them and bring them back to God. Judgment had come down and the people had been taken into Exile. This was all the fault of the bad shepherds of Israel, and so God’s judgment will come down especially on them.
7 ‘ “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 10 this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.

“I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.” God will bring a special judgment down on the leaders of Israel.
I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves.
The kings and priests had not protected the faith of Israel. They had not taken care of the poor and needy. But God is a God of justice. – he will not let the sins of the bad shepherds go unpunished. They would be removed from their privileged roles. This is indeed what happened. Those who had been the Kings and the Priests of Israel were mostly wiped out during the Exile.
Lest we think that this prophecy is just a part of history from two and a half thousand years ago, we should recognize the warning to bad shepherds in every generation. The New Testament describes ministers and church leaders as shepherds of the flock. Sadly there are some church leaders today who exploit the flock and get rich at the expense of the flock. Some ministers fail in their duties to take care of the flock and bring healing to the flock. Some allow God’s people to be deceived by false teaching and devoured by wild animals even today. Some church leaders fail to seek out and save the lost sheep. These words of condemnation are as much for the bad shepherds in today’s church as they were then.
Yet in all of this there is a word of hope.
I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

The Kings and Priests of Israel had mostly been bad shepherds. But there will be one Shepherd who will be the Good Shepherd for God’s chosen people. David the Shepherd King had acknowledged the LORD God to be his Shepherd.
Psalm 23 1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
The Lord who is the Good Shepherd provides for all the needs of his sheep.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

More than that, the good shepherd protects his sheep even through the greatest of dangers.
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

The bad shepherds had failed in their responsibilities and the people of Israel were reaping the consequences. But God himself promises to be the good shepherd which the flock needs.

11 ‘ “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.
The people of Israel were scattered in Exile. God would look after them where they were, wherever they found themselves. More than that, He would then bring them back from where they had been scattered.

I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.

So God would bring all his chosen people back to himself.
14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
God will provide for all his people’s needs and he will bring them healing.
15 I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.

God will be the good shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep and brings them home rejoicing. So many beautiful promises for the people of Israel languishing in Exile in Babylon. But there is a second note of judgment to come for others who had failed in their responsibilities.

I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

Much of the blame for the Exile fell on the bad shepherds, the leaders of Israel. But some among the people of Israel were also guilty. Prophets like Isaiah and Amos say much more about the ways that rich people in Israel had shared in exploiting the poor and the widows and the orphans and the refugees. The sleek and strong in the flock had oppressed the weak and the powerless and the marginalised. Some had grown fat at the expense of others. So God is going to bring justice back to his chosen people and sort out the sheep and the goats.

17 ‘ “As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

The rich and powerful had oppressed the poor and needy and the God of justice would put that right again.
20 ‘ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: see, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.
God would remove injustice from Israel. Again we should not imagine that these prophecies were only for Israel or only for those days. God is still the God of justice. God is still just as angry about greed and exploitation where the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. God will bring judgment once again, even in our generation. But he will also provide a Saviour, a new shepherd.
23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.
This doesn’t mean that the one shepherd will be great king David brought back to life. Rather it is a descendent of David who will reign on David’s throne and bring God’s justice to the people, as Isaiah also promised. The rest of the Ezekiel chapter 34 spells out the wonderful blessings God will give to his people in a new covenant. There will be peace and safety and security.

25 ‘ “I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety.

God will bless his people with all kinds of abundance.
26 I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land.

God will give his people safety and security and they will be free from any fears.
They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid.

Abundance will remove any fear of hunger or thirst.
29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.

In all of this, the greatest blessings will be all wrapped up in the unique relationship God’s chosen people will enjoy with their God.
30 Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. 31 You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.” ’

The people of Israel are his people. He is their God. God will send a descendent of David to be their Good Shepherd. And we can see how all of this fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus, and especially in Jesus’s words in John chapter 10 where Jesus himself claims to be the Good Shepherd. You may not have noticed before, but see how many of the things Jesus claims for himself were all actually foretold in Ezekiel 34.

John 10 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Jesus himself was the true shepherd of Israel, and the true sheep recognized him as their Messiah and Saviour.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, ‘Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Jesus himself is the gate to eternal life. The bad shepherds who had come before him were thieves and robbers who had exploited the sheep. But Jesus was not like that.

11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Here indeed is how everybody can recognize that Jesus is not one of the bad shepherds, but is indeed the Good Shepherd, by his loving sacrifice on the cross.

14 ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep

As members of God’s flock all Christians know Jesus and he knows us, as just as closely as the Father and the Son know one another. This personal relationship we have with God is what eternal life is all about. And Jesus promises we are safe and secure in his care.

John 10 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.’

Jesus is indeed the good shepherd, great David’s greater Son. He brought all these blessings of peace and prosperity and security, just as they were foretold and promised in Ezekiel chapter 34, and so much more besides.