God performs heart transplants
Ezekiel 11:14-20
14 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 15 Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘They have gone far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.’ 16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far away among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they have gone. 17 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel….19 I will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
The people of Israel believed the temple in Jerusalem was central to their worship of God. When a significant portion of the population was taken into exile in Babylon and other places, those who remained in Jerusalem said of those who had been taken into exile – “They are far from the Lord” (vs. 15). This was said implying that those in exile were spiritually lost because they far away from the temple.
In response to this analysis God says, “I have been the sanctuary of those who have been living in exile away from Jerusalem. I have been with them in all the places to which they have been scattered.” Second, God says, “I will gather them to this place and make both those in exile and those not in exile into a people again.”
God will do this by giving the people a heart transplant, they will get new hearts, hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone. They will be given hearts and spirits tuned to God and God’s ways.
In our lives we have loved ones who are living far away, we wonder if God is with them, we need to hear the promise here: God is with them. In our lives we have loved ones who are living far from God, God goes them as well. We are invited to pray that God will reach them and gather them to himself. We look forward to the day when we are given new hearts and new spirits, hearts and spirits shaped to follow God’s way.
PRAYER:
God whose reach knows no limits, we rejoice that no one is beyond the reach of your call, beyond the reach of being drawn to you. We bring before you (name the people you would like God to gather into relationship with God’s self), asking that you call them so they can hear and draw them so they can feel your pull in their lives. Gather all your people into your people that we might be given hearts of flesh. In Jesus’ name. Amen.