Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
There’s this powerful series of promises in Ezekiel chapter 36, given by God to His people in captivity in Babylon. He’s about to bring them back to Palestine. Here’s some of what He says:
I will . . . come to help you because I have a concern for you (verse 9).
I will . . . bring you back, not because you deserve it, but to protect my holy name—the name you have dishonoured while scattered abroad (22).
I will . . . show how holy my name is when I reveal it through you before the eyes of the other nations (23).
I will . . . sprinkle you with clean water and you shall be clean, your filth will be washed away (25).
I will . . . “give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27, NLT).
I will . . . be your God and you will be my people (28).
I will . . . care for you with good crops, fields that can again be farmed, cities will be rebuilt, people will want to live in them (30-36).
I will . . . do this, not because you deserve it. In fact, you should be ashamed of what you have done, but I will cleanse you of your sins (32, 33).
I will . . . do it because I have promised. Everyone will know I am the Lord (36, 38).
God is always the initiator, we the recipients. Of course, we can choose to accept or reject His offers. Reject? How sad would that be?
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