The Glory Of God Departs

God's Defiled Temple and the Holiness That Must Act 1:23

You would want justice. Now, let's change up this analogy for a bit. Let's say that it's not you with the house sitter, but rather it's God with His people in the temple in Jerusalem. What if you, God, came to Your temple and You found that all manner of pagan atrocities had been implemented therein?

That You had given the people clear direction, clear direction, what to do, and they had flaunted that? What if You came to Your temple and found the people had shown contempt, not only for Your house, but for You? What if they had desecrated that which was supposed to be holy? What if they had profaned that which was supposed to be pure?

Well, in time, You would act. Even though Your nature is mercy, and Your nature is to be patient and forbearing, You're also holy and just, and in time, You will act. Now, in the case of God's temple, how bad had things gotten? If it is a scale of 1 to 10 — as you hear this description in Scripture of the abominations and the like — on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad had things gotten in Jerusalem and the temple?

12? 20? 50? It's off the charts. There's no number to calibrate just how bad this had gotten.

Ezekiel's Vision: Shown the Abominations in the Temple 2:29

And to prove the point of today's reading in chapter 8, God says, alright Ezekiel, you're here by the river Chebar. I want to show you something. Here, come with Me. He takes him by a lock of hair.

And he takes him in a vision to the temple courts in order to show them. And he says, son of man, let me show you. You've been gone for five years. Let me show you what's happened while you've been gone.

Let me show you how far afield the people have gotten. Let me show you the sort of nasty stuff that they have been up to. And so in chapter eight, God gives Ezekiel, his prophet, this vision so that he would understand what had happened. And the vision is horrifying, especially to a man who was righteous and devout and who had trained to be a priest in the very temple that has now been messed up so significantly.

The First Commandment and the Image of Jealousy 3:17

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

— Exodus 20:3 (NKJV)

There's many things here that are horrifying. The very first thing, the very first thing which we saw in the text I read a few minutes ago, the very first thing that God shows Ezekiel when He comes to the temple courtyard, so to speak, was this big idol that had been set out outside.

A symbol of jealousy is referred to in the text. This large unnamed idol by one of the temple gates. So you go to the temple courtyards of God Most High, and Ezekiel finds that the very first thing that he sees is this idol. Now let me ask you, you remember the Ten Commandments, right?

What's the first one? Thou shalt have no other gods. All right, amen, we got that. No other gods beside me.

It's number one. It's the first one. This isn't hidden in the dust jacket of the Ten Commandments or Scripture. The very first commandment says thou shalt have no other gods.

Not one, not a tiny one, not a big one, and certainly not one that you put up in my own temple courtyard. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. So before Ezekiel has even peeked into the temple, before he's looked through the hole, looked through the door to see what's going on inside, before he even has this view, God shows him this idol in the courtyard, an idol that's referred to as an image of jealousy.

And when you hear that phrase, you've got to think, this sounds like a pretty bad idea, doesn't it? An idol, an image of jealousy. Now, in verse 6, God tells Ezekiel, says, All right, I can see you're astonished by this idol. So am I. But you haven't seen nothing yet.

Escalating Idolatry: Creeping Things, Tammuz, and Sun Worship 4:44

Just wait, because it gets worse. It gets worse than this. Now, what could be worse? Well, what did we read just a few moments ago?

In verse 10, we saw that God would then take Ezekiel through a hole into the inner court where a series of additional abominations had been committed. In verse 10, we read a few moments ago that as Ezekiel looked into the court, he saw this. He says, I went in and I saw, and there was every sort of creeping thing.

Every sort, not just one or two, all sorts of nasty things, creeping things, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, all of them. Again, not one or two or five or ten, every idol they could come up with was portrayed, Scripture says, portrayed around the walls. Can you imagine Ezekiel, this just, righteous, devout guy who had been training to be a priest in this very temple itself?

Can you imagine his face when God says, you haven't seen nothing yet? Look in here, and he looks in and sees that. Can you imagine the color draining from his face, the shock, even the anger that must have been on Ezekiel's face to look and see these things? If Ezekiel was angry, can you imagine how angry God must have been over these very things?

Because it's His house. All right, it gets worse still. We're just starting. It gets worse still.

Let's look at chapter 8, verses 13 through 16. I'll look at this text, and again, we'll kind of work our way through portions of these chapters. Chapter 8, verses 13–16. Let's see how it gets worse.

Verse 13: And God said to me, Turn again — in other words, look over here, look somewhere else — turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing. More severe, more wicked, greater abominations that they're doing. So verse 14, so he brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house, and to my dismay, you can see him clutching his chest, to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz, who is a Mesopotamian fertility god.

The women are there crying over this god. Verse 15, then he said to me, have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, and you will see greater abominations than these. You see, each step he's showing them, he says, you think you're shocked now?

Turn around. Look in another direction. You're going to even be more shocked. So he brought me into the inner court, verse 16.

He brought me to the inner court of the Lord's house. And there at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about 25 men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces towards the east. And they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

The Depravity of Indiscriminate Idolatry 7:22

All right. On top of the first idol, the idol of jealousy, on top of that, and on top of the creepy drawings that we talked about before, in verses 13 through 16, we also see that the Israelite women were weeping and crying and wailing over this idol of stone named Tammuz, which again is a Mesopotamian fertility god.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, he turns around and sees that others — leaders, leaders, elders, so to speak, of that day — that the leaders of Israel were worshiping — was 25 of them were worshiping the sun, which was one of the most widespread pagan practices that's ever existed — is to be, think to myself, what to worship today?

I know — the bright thing in the sky, I'll worship that. So that's what the people were doing. These people had no discretion — I want you to see that — they would worship anything. Scripture says that — the creeping drawings, every sort of idol, this thing, that thing, the other thing, the sun, Tammuz, what have you.

They would have worshipped anything, anything from our culture, the Hamburglar. They would take anything, a Happy Meal toy, and they would bend down before it. That was the nature of their depravity. They showed no discernment, no wisdom.

If they thought they could obtain some benefit by worshipping a block of wood, a stone, a Happy Meal toy, they would have done it. And the proof is in the pudding, because that's exactly what they were doing. Verses 13 through 16, we see that these people, they turn their back on the Creator.

The picture here we have in verse 16 is that they turn their back to the temple, right? They turn their back to where the manifest glory of God was, and they began to worship the sun. They turn their back on the Creator, and they worshiped created things. Now, if you're God, do you look at this and go, well, boy, these scamps, these scoundrels, that's some crazy stuff there.

Provoking God to Anger: The Coming Fury of Judgment 9:14

“Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

— Ezekiel 8:18 (NKJV)

Do you treat it as a trivial thing? Well, not so much. Let's see what God says in verses 17 and 18 to Ezekiel. Verse 17, and he said to me, have you seen this, O son of man?

I can't emphasize that enough. He takes him, he showed him all this stuff, and he says, have you seen this? Have you seen everything that I've been seeing. Is this a trivial thing to the house of Judah, to commit the abominations that they commit here?

Is this trivial? Is this small? Is this of no consequence that they do this? For they have filled the land with violence, and they have returned to provoke Me to anger.

Indeed, they put the branch to their nose. This was a pagan practice. Verse 18, Therefore, I will act in fury. They want so much to be like the pagan nations that I will treat even My own people like I treat the pagan nations.

I will act in My fury. I will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

The Privilege of Judah and the Fickleness of God's People 10:20

You know, at one point, God's people were divided into how many tribes? Twelve different tribes. They were descended from the sons of Jacob. Now with that said, some of the tribes come up more often than others in Scripture.

You could say that some were special, and one of the special tribes was Judah. Now why was Judah special? Can anyone name anyone that came out of the tribe of Judah? Jesus, that's a good answer.

What's another one? David, Solomon. This is the tribe of kings. Judah was a special tribe.

Jesus Himself was descended from the line of Judah. Now God had protected Judah over the generations. And at the time that Ezekiel was written, Judah is one of only two tribes that haven't been taken in exile. Judah has been looked after by God.

They have not been conquered. And with that said, in verse 17, listen to the grief on the heart of God. You can grieve the heart of God, to be clear. We see this in the New Testament as well.

And just with that sense of anguish and frustration and anger, God says this in verse 17. He says, is this a trivial thing? Is this a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits abominations. Those who know better, those who I have loved and taken care of, those who I have just kept in My wing and protected and preserved and loved and gave them everything under the sun.

Is it a small thing, Ezekiel, that these people who I showed every drop of love I have, that they would do such a thing? You know, it's one thing when the Babylonians acted in wicked ways. I mean, that's what you expected, right? It's one thing when the Philistines acted in wicked ways.

I mean, you read that and you go, well, that fits the character. That's really who they are. They were a pagan nation doing pagan things. It wasn't a surprise in the Old Testament when the Babylonians or Philistines acted in pagan ways because they were pagan nations.

They did not have a covenantal relationship with their maker. But the house of Judah did. The people of Israel did. They had been God's special people, called out from the world.

Not because they were bigger, smarter, or brighter than anyone else, but just because God said, I am pouring out My love on thee. They had known, historically, so many blessings from the privilege of being His called people. But the thing was, they were really forgetful about all that God had done in times past.

They were really fickle. God's people have always been fickle.

The Golden Calf: A History of Forgetful Idolatry 12:43

You go back to the time of the Exodus. God literally brings plagues out of the sky to take out Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Literally parts the Red Sea. They go through, they see the pillar of fire and smoke and the like by day, they're guided.

Then they get hungry, and what does God do? He literally brings manna from heaven, a source of food they'd never seen, in order to feed them, in order to take care of them. They saw this with their own eyes. They ate manna with their own mouths.

They experienced God's blessing, and they could look and see the pillar of fire. And then, then when they get to Sinai, what happens? Then the rumbling, the lightning, the clouds, they hear the voice. All of this, they saw and heard so much that demonstrated to them that God is real and God was there and He's on Mount Sinai.

And because they know they'd die if they even touched the mountain, they send Moses on up, right? They send Moses to go talk to God. But here's the thing. It took longer than they expected, right?

They send Moses up and then they're like, well, should be back any time now. Maybe before dinner, or this time tomorrow, Moses will come wandering in. And no, that's not what happens. Moses is gone.

How long? 40 days. Well, after a period of time, they said, well, I guess he's not coming back. What to do?

What do we do? And so they talked amongst themselves, and they determined, well, we got to worship something. I guess Moses isn't coming back. We don't know what happened to that guy, but we've got to worship something.

So what to do? And so they got with Aaron, and before long, they had a gold calf. They had an idol — an idol. It was so offensive to God, and even to Moses, that when Moses came down from the mountain bearing the Ten Commandments in his own arms, he sees this, and he says, dear heavens — he throws down and shatters the very thing that he just spent all that time on the mountain to acquire.

The people were fickle. Hardly any time had gone by, and these were people who literally had heard — heard — God's own voice, who had seen plagues and miracles and all the like. But because of the fickleness of their hearts and the sinfulness that exists within here, they turned and bowed down and worshipped the first thing that came along.

I wasn't kidding when I said people would worship the Hamburglar. They'll worship anything. It really doesn't matter. They'll come up with the most ridiculous things to bow down before or to give their attention to.

We have our own idols in these days. They're somewhat different. But the point is this. We are very willing and very able to turn our attention away from the one true God to whatever else, to whatever shiny thing exists that captures our affections.

Well, the people had done this over and over and over again.

The Patience of God: How Long Judgment Was Delayed 15:15

Now, do you think it's a surprise that God got angry? Roddy, is it a surprise that God got angry? No, it is not. What's a surprise, though, is this, how long it took.

I want you to think about that. We read about the severity of God's anger, and we say, ooh, that's pretty mean. That's Old Testament God, right? That's a tough God.

Well, here's the thing. The most surprising thing is not that he got angry over this. The most surprising thing is how long it took before he acted. The first moment the first person bows down to worship the sun in the temple courtyard, you would have thought that God would have, you know, smited right then and there — that that would have been the end of such a man.

The first moment someone says, you know what, let me take my chalk or my graphite or what have you, and I'll start etching, you know, pigs and cows and slippery serpents on the walls of the inner courts of the temple. You would have thought at the moment that the graphite hit the wall that God would have dealt with them.

But no, God is patient and forbearing. Even as the people were sinning, even in the most holiest places, he was patient with them. He sent them prophets to say, hey guys, stop, stop, stop. Come back to me.

But they didn't. It's not a surprise that God acted on such a people. What is a surprise is, again, how long it took — how patient he was. Remember, sometimes you think the Old Testament is all, that's where the angry God is.

That's where the patient God is — should be the way you look at it. That's where the patient God is, because the people constantly did what was right in their own eyes. It's a wonder he didn't flush the whole lot of them. But he was patient.

All right. Well, that said, by the time we get to verse 17 and 18, which we just read, the time of patience had ended, and the time of judgment had begun.

The Executioners and the Man with the Writer's Inkhorn 16:53

Let me look at chapter 9, verses 1 through 5, to see how that judgment was manifested. Chapter 9, verses 1 through 5: Then he called out in my hearing with a loud voice, and he said, Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.

And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces to the north, each with his battle axe in his hand. Now one man among them was clothed in linen and had a writer's inkhorn at his side, and they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been — on the mercy seat — the glory of God has gone up, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple.

It's moving, leaving, so to speak. And he called to the man clothed in linen who had the writer's inkhorn at his side, and the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put — put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over the abominations that are done within it.

In other words, mark the foreheads of those who are not like the idolaters, but rather those who cry about this sort of nonsense. So mark their foreheads. And to the others, he said in my hearing, Go after them throughout the city and kill. Do not let your eyes spare, nor have pity.

All right, what is going on in Ezekiel chapter 9? Who are these six guys that God calls into service in verse 1? And who is this guy dressed in linen whose job is to mark the foreheads of the righteous?

Passover 2.0: The Saving Mark on the Righteous 18:23

Well, let me ask you a question. Let's go back to Exodus again for a moment. Do you remember the Passover? Passover is that famous night when, after all the different plagues that God had sent, the Pharaoh's heart was still hardened, and he would not let my people go.

So God says, after this one, he will. After this plague, after this thing happens. And on the night of the Passover, the angel of death swept through Egypt. And those who did not bear a blood mark on the lintel of their doors, the angel of death entered in and killed the firstborn of each.

In other words, God killed the firstborn of each, those who were not marked. However, those households where perfect lamb's blood and unblemished lamb's blood had been placed on the lintel of the doorway, the angel passed over, passed them by. Why? Because they were marked, separated by the blood of the lamb.

There are gospel implications in that, obviously. With that said, there's something really similar going on here in chapter 9. In chapter 9, God says, I've got some divine messengers — we don't believe these to be regular Joes; we believe this is to be divine messengers — that are sent to bring judgment throughout the land.

In a sense, you could say that Ezekiel chapter 9 could be subtitled Passover 2.0. Passover 2.0. And that's because it's describing a very similar circumstances, where only those who are righteous would be given a saving mark from that which would otherwise befall them. And that's what verse 4 is talking about.

It says, go through the midst of the city and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations going on in the temple. Set them aside. Do not touch them. But as for the others, they will face my wrath.

Those who did not cry over the abominations but rather spread them were in danger. Those who did not weep over apostasy but embraced it were in trouble. And then we see that in verse 5, when God tells the other men, the other angels, go through the city and kill. Do not let your eyes spare, nor have any pity.

Now, can you guess — in a city with pagan idolaters just up to the gills, up to the rafters, a whole lot of them, every direction you look — in a city with this many pagan people doing this many horrible, atrocious things, can you guess who the first people to die were? Can you guess who the first people that God says you deal with them first before any others?

Can you guess who they were? The leaders, the priests, the elders, so to speak. Those in the religious leadership of Israel. It says that the first to die were the wicked apostate elders.

Those who stood on temple grounds and yet worshipped false gods — they were the first to bear His wrath. All right, for time's sake, let's look ahead.

The Chariot of God and the Departing Glory 21:07

“Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.”

— Ezekiel 10:18 (NKJV)

I'll look at part of chapter 10 now. In chapter 10, we're going to see Ezekiel is given another vision that's very similar to the one he had at the whole start of this whole thing, way back in chapter one. He's given a similar vision of the chariot of fire that we saw back in week one.

Specifically, chapter 10, verses 6 through 10, say this: Then it happened, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from among the wheels and among the cherubim, that he went in and he stood besides the wheel. And the cherub stretched his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, and took some of it.

He put it in the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. Then the cherubim appeared to have the form of a man's hand under their wings. And when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by another cherub.

The wheels appeared to have the color of a beryl stone. As for their appearance, all four looked like, as it were, a wheel in the midst of a wheel. Alright, here in chapter 10, we see the same thing we saw in chapter 1. We see a depiction of the throne, the glory of God, the chariot of God.

This is a recapitulation of what happened back in chapter 1 when Ezekiel first saw this chariot of fire come to him. Held up by angels, who were in turn intermixed with wheels within wheels, on top of which was a firmament, on top of which was God. So he sees this same thing. Now, the first time that he saw it back in Ezekiel 1, the most fascinating part of that — other than just seeing the chariot and the like — the most fascinating question Ezekiel probably had was, why am I seeing this here in Babylon?

Isn't the temple where God, the manifest glory, is supposed to be? Why here? Why in Babylon? The fact that God's chariot, His throne, His manifest glory, was moving from outside the temple — that was somewhat surprising to Ezekiel.

Now, why? Why is it surprising? Why is it significant? Well, the reason why is it significant is because up to this point, God's glory had always resided in the same place: between the angels, on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant, in the holy of holies, in the temple in Jerusalem.

That's where the glory of God had been. With that said, in Ezekiel 1, it had demonstrated a mobility, and here, chapter 10, it looks like God's throne is moving once again — even departing. Only this time, when it leaves the temple, it's never coming back. Now, what are we talking about here?

Let's look at verses 18 and 19 from chapter 10. Verse 18: Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. And then they went out, the wheels beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

Do you know one of the saddest, saddest verses in the whole Bible, certainly the Old Testament is? We just read it. Verse 18, we read this, the glory of the Lord departed. The glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple.

You know, for century after century, if you think when they came out from Egypt, when they were delivered from Egypt, from bondage to Pharaoh, God dwelt with them. The pillar of fire and smoke, he dwelt with the people. First, the tabernacle. Remember they made a tabernacle that could move from place to place when they were in the wilderness?

Well, God dwelt with them at this time. And then ultimately in the temple in Jerusalem, God dwelt with His people. You know, there was no other nation on earth that could make this sort of claim. There's no other temple on earth made by the hands of man in which the one true God had dwelt.

But now, now, God is leaving. Now, after all these centuries, after all these centuries, God's departing.

The People Left First: Jesus and the Second Temple's Desolation 24:57

Now, let me be clear about one thing, though. Even though the glory of God was departing here, even though He was leaving, here's the thing. The people had left Him first. The people had made it clear they did not want His presence.

They would stand with their back to the temple and bow down to Tammuz, the sun, or whatever pagan deities they desired. They had done everything short of signing an eviction notice to let the God of the temple know that He was no longer desired in the temple. And you know what? It wouldn't be the last time that they do this, because this wouldn't be the last temple.

Do you remember in the New Testament? At this point, remember, the first temple is destroyed. We see this in the book of Ezekiel. The first temple is destroyed by God's hand, and we'll get to that in the weeks to come.

It's destroyed. But in time, God's people are sent back. They return from exile, they come back to the land, and they build a second temple. It's not as majestic as the first, but a second temple is ultimately built.

With that said, you remember Jesus came to the second temple. And there was a time in Matthew 23 when He's preaching in the temple. He's standing there in this temple that had been profaned by money changers and others once again. And at that point, He's speaking to the religious leaders of His own day, religious leaders who are not that different from the religious leaders in Ezekiel's day, those who had turned their back on the God of heaven.

And as Jesus, the Son of God, stands in the temple sharing God's own word with the people, these leaders argued with Him. They disputed with Him. They even plotted to kill Him. And before He walked out, before He walked out for the last time, before Jesus walked out for the last time, never to set foot in the temple again, He said this.

He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen, as a hen who gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. You were not willing. See, your house will be left to you desolate.

For I say to you, you shall see Me no more until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now what did Jesus do after He said these words, after He dropped the mic? What did He do? He left.

He left. And then when He was outside the temple, He went over to the east, went to the east towards the Mount of Olives. And even then, his disciples are still talking up the temple. And He says, guys, guys, trust Me on this.

Not one stone is going to be left on another on this temple. Jesus left the temple. He went to the east. And you could say the moment that He did so, having just talked about desolation which is coming, the moment that He left so, you could say that the glory of God had departed the temple to the east for the second and last time.

And just like in Ezekiel's day, desolation would follow.

Ezekiel's Anguish and the Heart of a True Intercessor 27:42

The glory of God had departed once again. But that said, if we go back to chapter 10 of Ezekiel, imagine Ezekiel, and you see the glory of God departing again. This is a guy who'd been trained to be a priest, and the vision of God departing the temple — I mean, the first stuff he saw was terrible enough.

He saw all the idols and apostasy and abominations, and that had to just be like a knife to the heart of this prophet. But then the glory of God, he sees it to pick up, to depart the temple itself. If you're Ezekiel, a man who'd been trained to be a priest, this had to be just the hardest moment of your life.

And to know that upon God's departure, the death and destruction would follow to the people. If you were Ezekiel, this had to be more than you could bear. And it was more than he could bear. In chapter 11, verse 13, Ezekiel fell on his face in anguish over what he had seen.

Specifically, verse 13 says this, that I fell on my face and I cried with a loud voice. And I said, Ah, Lord God, will you make a complete end of the remnant of Israel? Ezekiel could not bear what was about to happen. Now, he knew it was right, and he knew it was appropriate, but it still broke his heart.

And for what it's worth, that's the heart of a true man of God. One who intercedes with people who deserve worse, who deserve death. One who pleads for grace for those in harm's way. One who says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

God loves an intercessor. He loves the merciful. God loves those who model His own Son's desire for charity and forgiveness, even for those who've gone far afield. And God loved Ezekiel because that was Ezekiel's heart for his own people.

A Little Sanctuary: God's Promise of a New Heart and Restoration 29:30

With that said, God is going to encourage Ezekiel at this moment. He's going to encourage him because he knows Ezekiel has just had the hardest day of his life. Let's look at God's response as we close in verses 14 through 20 from chapter 11. This is God comforting Ezekiel.

Once again, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get far away from the Lord, this land has been given to us as a possession.

Therefore say this, thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone. Therefore say, thus saith the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples.

One day this will happen. I will gather you from the peoples, I will assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. This is a promise for the future. Verse 18, and they will go from there, and they will take away all of its detestable things and its abominations from there.

And then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. They shall be my people, and I will be their God.

For Ezekiel, you had to stand a little bit taller that moment. Because you realize God's not done. It's not over. There can be times on our own personal walk where we think, I've gone so far afield that God's got to be done with me, and the answer is no. The answer is that the grace of God is not limited by time or space or distance or even the depth of your own sins, but rather God beckons and calls us close.

And when we repent and come to Him through faith, He forgives us of our sins and He lifts us up and gives us a sort of hopeful expectation that He gave to Ezekiel here. They shall be my people — the very people that messed up so horribly. Many of them will perish. Many of them will be scattered into pagan nations.

They'll be exiled into Babylon for this great season of time. And yet the time is going to come when they're going to come back. I will bring them back. They will sweep away the abominations and the apostasy.

The temple will be rebuilt in my time. They will be my people. Once again, they will be my people, and I will be their God. And even when they are in exile, I'll watch over them there.

Daniel lived out his days in exile. Daniel was cast into a lion's den. Did he perish? No, because God was a sanctuary to him.

God's promises, His faithful promises, were not abdicated by the faithlessness of the people. And that's what he says. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. In today's reading, the people had been unfaithful to the extreme.

In today's reading, God's people had committed spiritual adultery against him. And it would have been understandable if God had wiped His hands of them. It would have been understandable if God had just smote every last one of them and been done with things. However, God had made them a promise.

God had made them a promise. And in these last verses, God reminds Ezekiel, I'm not done with them. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, the same holds true. God's arms are open.

The invitation is to come to him. Let's pray.