Want To Be Clean?

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. [Ezekiel 36.25-27]

This prophecy is about Jesus. Jesus, God's Living Word, is the living water that cleanses us. 

“If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” [John 4.10]

What Ezekiel reveals is that Jesus, the Word, cleanses away our idolatry - our own failed way - our sin. We are not clean as long as our idolatry exists. 

If we want to be clean, we MUST get rid of our idols.

Jesus calls all people unto Himself - His cleansing - in the following way:

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24] 

What Jesus demanded is the same thing God demanded: 

“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. [Exodus 20.2-6]

As long as our idolatry exists (in that we have not been cleansed by the Word, Jesus), we retain a stony, stubborn heart, and, we are powerless to obey God's regulations.

The problem with a stony, stubborn heart is that it lies undetected within a person.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? [Jeremiah 17.9]

The only way to know the human heart in all its stony, stubborn, wickedness, is to know God's Word: His-written-Word-revealing-His-Living-Word (Jesus)-confirming-the-written-Word. 

Jesus' Living Water is the only cleansing remedy for all the filth of our idolatry - the well from which springs all our sin. The Apostle Paul said it like this:

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. [Ephesians 5.25-27]

The promises made in Ezekiel 34 are invalid as long as idolatry exists in God's people,

“I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. The orchards and fields of my people will yield bumper crops, and everyone will live in safety. When I have broken their chains of slavery and rescued them from those who enslaved them, then they will know that I am the LORD. They will no longer be prey for other nations, and wild animals will no longer devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will frighten them. “And I will make their land famous for its crops, so my people will never again suffer from famines or the insults of foreign nations. In this way, they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them. And they will know that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Sovereign LORD. You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture. You are my people, and I am your God. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!” [Ezekiel 34.25-31]

There is an unmistakable distinction between God's people (cleansed from idolatry by the Living Water - the Living Word, Jesus) and the rest of the world. At least, there should be...

We must understand that a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is not an abstract idea! Ezekiel 34.25-31 (identifying God's people as remarkably unaffected in a degraded world) and Ephesians 5.25-27 (identifying God's people as glorious, without spot or wrinkle) both attest to the fact that a Christ-follower's life stands out from the rest of the world with clear and obvious distinction.

The caveat however is found early in Ezekiel 34:

Then this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them. “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. And though you were my shepherds, you didn’t search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock. I will take away their right to feed the flock, and I will stop them from feeding themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths; the sheep will no longer be their prey. [Ezekiel 34.1-10]

The shepherds, representing religion, ae more interested in shearing the sheep than protecting them. Instead of competently leading God's people away from idolatry, religion leaves God's people unattended and vulnerable, because all religion wants and needs is the milk, wool, and meat of the "sheep" - their money. Religious leaders who "shepherd" God's people in indistinct, abstract religion void of the distinct and miraculous power of God do so because that is what idolatry does! Idolatry, for its own financial gain, distracts God's people, leading them away from relying on God ALONE. Religion accomplishes this distraction by flooding God's people with abstract theologies, doctrines, and denominations thus effectively diluting (and muddying) the pure Living Water of the Word - Jesus Christ. Consequently, idolatry is left intact and God's people are none the wiser.

Until God's people understand that Jesus Christ is the antithesis of idolatry, religion will continue to do its worst - Ezekiel's timelessly relevant words will be lost in abstract religion and the Church will remain powerless and ineffective in the world today:

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. [Ezekiel 36.25-27]

Father, the more I meditate on today's One Year Chronological Bible reading, the more I realize how revelatory Ezekiel's words are for us in our present time. May we get it right in understanding that Jesus is the Living Word, and that, unless we give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Him, we are hopelessly filthy and idolatrous. May Your Word, and the cleansing it brings, transform us into "the glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish... holy and without fault." So be it.