Ezekiel 11:20

11:14-21 The pious captives in Babylon were insulted by the Jews who continued in Jerusalem; but God made gracious promises to them. It is promised, that God will give them one heart; a heart firmly fixed for God, and not wavering. All who are made holy have a new spirit, a new temper and dispositions; they act from new principles, walk by new rules, and aim at new ends. A new name, or a new face, will not serve without a new spirit. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. The carnal heart, like a stone, cannot be made to feel. Men live among the dead and dying, and are neither concerned nor humbled. He will make their hearts tender and fit to receive impressions: this is God's work, it is his gift by promise; and a wonderful and happy change is wrought by it, from death to life. Their practices shall be agreeable to those principles. These two must and will go together. When the sinner feels his need of these blessings, let him present the promises as prayers in the name of Christ, they will be performed.

That they may walk in my statutes,.... Have their conversation ordered according to the will and word of God; to which there is neither will nor power, till God gives a new heart and spirit, or works in them both to will and to do: and keep mine ordinances, and do them; all things appertaining to religion and worship, both in public and private: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; it will appear by walking in the statutes of the Lord, and by keeping his ordinances, that they are his people, made willing in the day of his power to serve him; and by having covenant blessings bestowed on them, the grace of God wrought in them, his fear upon them, and new hearts and spirits given them, that he is their covenant God and Father; by this means, what under the prevalence of idolatry was hid, will now be made manifest.

Verse 20. - That they may walk in my statutes, etc. Out of the new spirit there was to grow the new life - a life of righteousness and obedience, as in worship, so also in the acts of man's daily life and his dealings with his neighbours. So, and not otherwise, could the actual relation of Jehovah correspond to the ideal, as it had been declared of old ( Exodus 6:7 ; Leviticus 26:12 ; 1 Samuel 12:22 ; 2 Samuel 7:23 ). This, for Ezekiel, was the crowning blessedness of all, as it had been that of earlier and contemporary prophets ( Hosea 2:23 ; Jeremiah 24:7 ). To that thought he returns again and again, as to the anchor of his hope ( Ezekiel 14:11 ; Ezekiel 27:14 ; Ezekiel 36:28 ; Ezekiel 37:23, 27 ). Ezekiel 11:20

Compare Revelation 21 . The identity of thought and language in Ezekiel, predicting the new kingdom of Israel, and in John, foretelling the kingdom of heaven, forces upon us the conclusion that the prophecy of Ezekiel has an ultimate reference to that climax which John plainly indicates. Ezekiel 11:19 One heart - So long as the Israelites were distracted by the service of many gods, such unity was impossible; but now, when they shall have taken away the "abominations" from the land, they shall be united in heart to serve the true God. Stony heart ... heart of flesh - The heart unnaturally hardened, and the heart reawakened to feelings proper to man.

This is the end grace aimeth at, converting us to God, that we may walk with God. Walk: see Ezekiel 11:12 . My statutes; the rule of religious worship. Mine ordinances; standards in civil affairs and matters of right and wrong with men. They shall be my people; they shall give themselves up to me for to be my people, to love me, trust me, and to worship and. obey me, and I will take them to be mine; I will approve, encourage, bless, guide, and protect them, that it shall be seen they are my peculiar people. This contains all duty and privilege, as including both, and is again inculcated in the other part of the promise. I will be their God, to pardon sin, give grace, supply wants, guide their ways, accept their duties, defend their persons, and lead them to glory. See Ezekiel 36:25-28 Jeremiah 31:33 , where Jeremiah, contemporary to Ezekiel, proposeth the same promise to this people.

Promise of the Gathering of Israel out of the Nations Ezekiel 11:14. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 11:15. Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren are the people of thy proxy, and the whole house of Israel, the whole of it, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, Remain far away from Jehovah; to us the land is given for a possession. Ezekiel 11:16. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Ye, I have sent them far away, and have scattered them in the lands, but I have become to them a sanctuary for a little while in the lands whither they have come. Ezekiel 11:17. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I will gather you from the nations, and will collect you together from the lands in which ye are scattered, and will give you the land of Israel. Ezekiel 11:18. And they will come thither, and remove from it all its detestable things, and all its abominations. Ezekiel 11:19. And I will give them one heart, and give a new spirit within you; and will take the heart of stone out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh; Ezekiel 11:20. That they may walk in my statutes, and preserve my rights, and do them: and they will be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 11:21.

But those whose heart goeth to the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will give their way upon their head, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - The prophet had interceded, first of all for the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 9:8), and then for the rulers of the nation, and had asked God whether He would entirely destroy the remnant of Israel. To this God replies that his brethren, in whom he is to interest himself, are not these inhabitants of Jerusalem and these rulers of the nation, but the Israelites carried into exile, who are regarded by these inhabitants at Jerusalem as cut off from the people of God. The nouns in Ezekiel 11:15 are not "accusatives, which are resumed in the suffix to הרחקתּים in Ezekiel 11:16," as Hitzig imagines, but form an independent clause, in which אחיך is the subject, and אנשׁי גאלּתך as well as כּל־בּית ישׂראל sa llew sa the predicates. The repetition of "thy brethren" serves to increase the force of the expression: thy true, real brethren; not in contrast to the priests, who were lineal relations (Hvernick), but in contrast to the Israelites, who had only the name of Israel, and denied its nature. These brethren are to be the people of his proxy; and toward these he is to exercise גּאלּה. גּאלּה is the business, or the duty and right, of the Gol.