A New Spirit Within

Ezekiel 11 closes the temple vision with both judgment and hope. Ezekiel says the Spirit lifted him to the east gate, where twenty-five men, including Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people, gave wicked counsel. Their saying that the city was the cauldron and they were the meat expressed false security: they believed they were the choice portion, safe within Jerusalem, while the exiles were the scraps thrown away.

God turned their picture around. Those who had filled the city with violence would not find it a safe pot; they would be brought out and judged at the border of Israel. As Ezekiel prophesied, Pelatiah died, and Ezekiel fell on his face, crying out, Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? The prophet's heart for his people shows through even in judgment.

God's answer is one of the great promises of the book. The Jerusalem leaders had told the exiles to go far away from Yahweh, but God said he himself would be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they had come. He would gather them and give them one heart and a new spirit, taking the stony heart out of their flesh and giving them a heart of flesh, so they would walk in his statutes. They will be my people, and I will be their God. Then the glory left the city for the mountain on the east. In the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.