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Welcome to the Cross References podcast on the Book of Ezekiel. In this study, you learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and most importantly, how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
Whether you’re a newbie Christian or a veteran Bible reader, my goal is that God’s Word will make more sense to you after every episode.
Host: Luke Taylor
The Abrahamic Covenant vs the Mosaic Covenant
Ezekiel 36:28-38
Ezekiel series, Part 68
Introduction
There’s a strange contradiction in God’s promises to the Jewish people.
In Genesis 12, God makes a covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Israel. In Genesis 17:7, God told Abraham that His covenant with him and his descendants would be an everlasting covenant.
But then in Leviticus 26, God warns that if the Jewish people break His commandments, He will kick them out of their land.
And then we know from our studies in the book of Ezekiel that that’s exactly what happened. In fact, in Ezekiel 16, God even tells us that the covenant was broken.
This was in the 500s BC. But God had said He was making an everlasting covenant around 2000 BC. So since when does “everlasting” have an expiration date after 1500 years? How can God say that a covenant can ever be broken if God had already promised it was everlasting?
And does this mean that the Jewish people actually have no right to the claim of the land of Israel today?
Now, I actually believe there are NO contradictions in God’s Word, and that when we think we’ve found one, we actually just need to rightly divide the Word of Truth to figure out how it all fits together.
And that’s what we’ll do today as we finish up Ezekiel 36 on the Cross References podcast.
[theme music]
V28-32, the return
Welcome to the book of Ezekiel: a Cross References Bible study where we learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
My name is Luke Taylor, and I’m in covenant with God because I’m saved. I’ve accepted His offer of the blood of Jesus for my sins.
But this isn’t the only covenant in the Bible, and we’ll be studying some of those other covenants today.
And we’ll finally wrap up chapter 36 of Ezekiel. This is probably the chapter I’ve slowed down on the most as I’ve worked my way through the book of Ezekiel, and we’ll keep taking it slow for the next few chapters ahead.
So far in this chapter, we’ve discussed how prophecy has a literal fulfillment. That Bible prophecy was fulfilled literally in the past, and this is why I believe future prophecies will have a literal and not an allegorical fulfillment someday. This is what we discussed in verses 1 through 15.
Then we looked at what God has to say about the sanctity of His name in verses 16 through 23.
Then we really slowed down as we spent a couple lessons discussing what it means that God gives us a new heart and a new spirit in verses 24 through 27. And as I said, today we’ll read the rest of the chapter’s verses, and I’d like to use them to explain a theological concept that seems to be something many Christians find confusing and debate over a lot.
At the heart of it is this question: is God finished with the Jewish people, or does God still have a future plan for them? I’m a Christian who tends to take the perspective that God still has a plan for the Jews.
Kind of a side-note here, but one of the evidences that I base that on is that Satan seems to think the same thing. If you look at the illogical rise of antisemitism throughout the world, the way the Jewish people have been treated all throughout history, obviously Satan keeps trying to kill them. Keeps trying to wipe them all out. Keeps trying to generate hate against them. So it seems clear to me that even though ironically many Christians think God may be done with Israel, Satan seems to believe otherwise.
And so today we’ll be analyzing some verses that relate to this question of whether God is done with the Jews. And we pick this up today at a time in Israel’s history when it had indeed been kicked out of their land, and so many of they themselves probably think that God is done with them, but God is promising right here that He’s going to bring them back into it.
Ezekiel 36:28-30
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.
God promises to restore them to the land right here, and we know this will happen because about 70 years later, a Persian King comes to be in control of this land that used to belong to Israel, and he is going to issue a decree that the Jews can return home.
Now, sadly, most of the people hearing this in Ezekiel’s day are not going to live to see it, but this is a hope for the future of their people. There’s that famous verse in
Jeremiah 29:11 that says
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
And that verse is famous because Christians love to quote that over themselves as if it’s a promise from God to us today. And I hope God blesses and prospers you, but this verse is not about you. This verse is not about me. This verse was about those Jewish people who were held in captivity by the Babylonians back in Ezekiel and Jeremiah’s day. Let’s back it up one verse and get the full context.
Jeremiah 29:10-12
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
So what Jeremiah was talking about right there is the exact same thing that Ezekiel has been discussing here in chapter 36. God is going to give them a new heart and a new spirit. They’re going to be drawn to worship God again with a renewed focus on obedience to Him.
This will come very true; after the events of the Babylonian captivity, Israel no longer struggled with the sin of idolatry. They were obedient to God at great cost during times like the Maccabean Revolt between the testaments. This was what even led to the origin of the Pharisees in the days of Jesus; the Pharisees went a bit overboard in their devotion to holiness, even inventing some rules that God never said. It was wrong; but their zeal was based on good intentions. And how they never wanted to get kicked out of their land again like they were before.
V31-32, Genuine Repentance
This has been a pretty happy and positive chapter so far, but this next section of verses sound a little dour compared to the rest of it. But I don’t actually think what it’s talking about is all that bad.
Ezekiel 36:31-32
31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
So God is saying, when you go through this process of being kicked out of your land and then brought back in- or in other words, being saved from your sins- you will be filled with regret and self-loathing. Ezekiel is telling them about the great sorrow they will feel once they have been forgiven and realize the gravity of what they’ve done.
And I actually think this sorrow is a good thing. It’s a good thing to feel regret over your past actions if they were something we shouldn’t have done. That’s an appropriate response to our past sins. And that grief that we fill over the stuff we’ve done wrong is a sign that we’ve undergone some growth since then.
We’re probably all familiar with some lingering embarrassment for things we said and did as a teenager. Some shame. We’ve probably all wished before that we could go back and have a do-over for some of those things. And not just as a teenager; regrets for things we’ve said or done in our marriages, regrets for things we did in our jobs. I don’t know about you but it is a great disappointment to me that time only moves in one direction, that I can’t go back and get a do-over for some of the actions I’ve done before.
But it’s also a good thing to feel that regret over how you acted in the past, because it means you’ve recognized that you did wrong and have had personal growth since then, whether you call it spiritual maturity or just basic maturity. You’re changed, you’re different, you’re better, you’re a new creation.
So this shame that we feel over our past sins is actually a good thing. It means we’ve grown since then. It means we have had a change of heart, that we’re accepting what we did wrong in the past and not excusing it but repenting of it. And what a good thing that is, because wouldn’t it be a miserable experience to not be able to admit you used to do some dumb stuff? Wouldn’t it be miserable to constantly make excuses for your past and be too prideful to admit where you had messed up?
Here’s a good rule of thumb: if you can’t look back at your younger self and realize you were an idiot, you’re probably still an idiot. I saw that on Facebook a while back and it fits pretty well with what we’re talking about right here.
Perhaps a more spiritual way of thinking about it could be this: the more holy you become, the less holy you feel.
That might sound a little bit confusing but that has been my experience. The closer I get to God, the less I feel like a good person. I relate a bit more to Isaiah when he came face-to-face with God and he shouted “woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.” The closer I draw near to the Lord, the less I feel confident about myself as a good person. Honestly, the more it exposes to me how sinful my heart really is.
So I’m going to assume that that’s a work of sanctification. That the more sanctified I become, the less sanctified I feel, because more and more of my own sinful heart is laid open before me and my own depravity is exposed to myself. And also, the less prideful or superior I feel to anyone else.
When you’re a baby Christian and you see Paul referring to himself as the chief of sinners, I can understand why he felt that way. I mean, the man killed Christians. But as time has gone on and I become more aware of my own wickedness, my selfishness, my sinful motivations, then I think Paul only said that about himself because I hadn’t come along yet.
So this pattern of realizing your own sinfulness and then being filled with regret, as Ezekiel says here in verses 31 and 32, I think that’s a very good thing for Israel to experience. It’s a good thing for us as we grow spiritually. Now I look back at some of the things I did as a teenager, or in my marriage, and I honestly kind of hate myself for how I acted. I said things to my parents or my wife that I would never say or even think today.
And I can’t go back and change it. But the only silver lining is that it means I’ve changed since then.
I know hate is a strong word, and I considered not saying it on this podcast, but look at what Ezekiel says here: you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities. That really flies in the face of a lot of modern psychology, which is all about self-love, self-care, self-esteem.
But as I said, if you don’t look back at yourself and realize you used to be kind of an idiot, you’re probably still an idiot. The more holy you are, the less holy you’ll feel.
When you were 20, you look back on yourself for some of the things you thought when you were 15 and realized how much of an idiot you were. When you were 25, you looked back on your 20-year-old self and realized what an idiot you were. When you were 30, you looked back on your 30-year-old self and realized how much of an idiot you were. Well anyway, now I’m 35 and I’ve just accepted that I’m probably just still an idiot. I’m gonna look back on some of the things I think today and realize how dumb I was. I hope I’ve got a thing or two figured out by the time I hit 50. We’ll see. But God is gracious to love me all through the process.
I won’t spend anymore time on these two verses because I actually, truly want to finish up chapter 36 today. But a good cross reference to this, if you ever want to read up on this subject some more, is II Corinthians 7:8-12. But let’s read our last verses for today and then talk about how God’s covenants work.
V33-38, The Regrowth of Israel
Ezekiel 36:33-38
33 “Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. 34 And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. 35 And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.
37 “Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. 38 Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
So this is a good summary of what we have studied in this chapter so far. If you go back 5 or 6 or maybe 7 weeks now to when we started chapter 36, the first lesson from this chapter was called “prophecy literally fulfilled.” And believe it or not, that was actually the most popular episode of this entire Ezekiel bible study. It got more downloads than any other Ezekiel lesson so far. That shocked me. It was not MY favorite by any means. I’d probably say it was the least interesting lesson of this chapter, because Bible prophecy being literal is such a basic fact on this show. But I guess there are a lot of you out there who wanted to hear more about Bible prophecy being literally fulfilled, so hey, glad you’re here.
On that lesson, we discussed how God had promised to bring Israel into her land again, and this was not symbolic or allegorical language. This really happened.
Then we talked about why God did it: for the sake of His name. Because He was protecting His reputation. And it gave God a bad name among the other nations and their gods when He had to punish His people the way He did.
And then we discussed the blessings of being brought back into relationship with God, a New Heart and a New Spirit. And we’re still in this section about the blessings of a relationship with God, but here it is discussing how Israel would be restored in her own land, that the land will grow again, it’ll be green again, and how the land of Israel will itself flourish and have new life in it again once Israel’s back in it.
Now, I feel like contextually, this is more about 500 BC than it is about 1948 AD. But I believe you could also say this about Israel today. It is being said about Israel today. That for much of the past 2000 years, it was a wilderness. A desert. It had degraded and been deforested. And ever since 1948, it’s seen flourishing growth in its land. It looks like a totally different place. It’s green. The population has boomed. GDP has boomed. They’re leading the world in areas of technology and agriculture and economics. So yes, I’m sure this was said in the decades after Ezekiel, but it’s also being said today, too.
And I’m sure you could also make a spiritual application to how, when God enters someone’s life, they change so much that onlookers can’t believe it.
But literally, the land is what’s in view here. As my NICOT commentary from Daniel Block says about these verses:
When Yahweh is through with his salvific actions, the surrounding nations will be forced to acknowledge his special relationship with his people and his land. The restoration of the deity-nation-land triad will vindicate the holy name of Yahweh.
So someday, EVERYBODY will recognize the relationship between God, Israel the people and Israel the land. The chapter ends with those famous words that Ezekiel says so often: then they will know that I am the Lord. Even some Christians today don’t want to acknowledge that the land belongs to the Jews. But Ezekiel says someday, EVERYBODY in the world will.
Two Covenants (with Craig from Awaiting Christ)
But let’s return to the question that we opened today’s lesson with: what is God’s relationship with Israel? He had said the land would always be theirs, but then He kicked them out and said the covenant was broken, but now He’s saying they can come back; what does this covenant mean, anyway?
Well, there are actually two different covenants we’re dealing with here: the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant.
The issue that confuses a lot of people here relates to Bible interpretation. Some merge these covenants into one. And then that leads to the issue where some Christians believe that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan for the future, because they say the New Covenant means the agreement God made with Abraham has been broken or annulled.
And it’s a tricky issue because you could certainly find verses in the Bible that suggest this. But I think it might actually be a little more complicated than this; that when God told Abraham in Genesis 17 that His covenant with Abraham would be everlasting, He meant that. Literally.
So to help break all this down for us, I am bringing in an expert today. A new friend of mine named Craig has the Awaiting Christ podcast, which is a really good podcast to listen to and I highly recommend it. Craig is a writer for GotQuestions.org, he has a ministry where he emphasizes the end times and prophecy and the return of Christ. And he gets a lot of flack online, so he doesn’t put his last name out there.
But I connected with Craig a while back because I saw online that a lot of the flack he gets is the exact same flack that I get with some of the same things that I talk about on my show here.
But anyway, Craig did an episode on the Awaiting Christ podcast about some of these theological issues and sorting things out. I want to play a bit of his episode, and it’ll last about 5 minutes or so, and then I’ll come back and explain why I wanted to share his thoughts on this today.
[play clip from his August 2, 2024 episode: Off the Cuff: Will Israel Be Saved… 6:39 (I’ve had it thrown at me) to 10:00ish or 18:49?)]
So again, that was Craig with Awaiting Christ podcast. Craig is actually going to join me on next week’s episode. I’m going to do a 30-minute conversation with him about dispensationalism. Because it’s the big $5 word I sometimes throw around on this podcast; really, it’s people throwing it at me, usually quite angrily, saying I only believe this or that because I’m a dispensationalist.
And I’m just kinda always like, OK, maybe I am. So what? Well, we’ll talk about the so-what with Craig next week and find out what dispensationalism is, exactly, and whether it’s actually some terrible thing like some want to make it out to be.
So anyway, make sure you’re subscribed today and we’ll share that interview next time. And then in two weeks, I think we’ll begin Ezekiel 37, which is the famous prophecy of the dry bones. What is that all about? Make sure you’re subscribed and you’ll get to figure all that out.
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion though: the covenant with Abraham is not the same as the covenant with Moses.
The Abrahamic Covenant is eternal. Unchanging. It does not depend on Israel’s obedience.
The Mosaic Covenant was broken; God brought the punishments on Israel that He warned about in places like Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
But the Abrahamic Covenant remains unchanged. Israel’s land did not go up for sale.
God’s promises are not like a coupon that have an expiration date attached. They’re more like those jeans I bought back in college that I haven’t gotten rid of because I swear I’ll fit back into them one of these days. Israel may have had to depart their land here and there throughout history, but God’s promise wasn’t annulled, and Israel came back. And those jeans are coming back someday, too.
God has a covenant with us, as well. And if you are covenanted with God through Christ, I have some good news about our covenant, found in
Philippians 1:6
he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Now, just a question: was God able to fulfill His covenant with Abraham? Has God done a pretty good job keeping Israel connected to their land? I would say He has. God has taken pretty good care of them. So anytime I’m doubting God’s ability to take care of me as well, all I need to do is pull out a map and look at that strip of land in the Middle East. Yes, they have some bad days. But they’re still there. And they aren’t going anywhere.
And they’ve had some bad days in their history. But so have I. And I may look back at some of the things I’ve done and loath myself for them. But God has been faithful to overlook and forgive my sins and give me a second chance. And a third chance, and a fourth, and I haven’t found the end of His grace yet.
So if God can take care of Abraham’s people for 4,000 years and counting, I can probably trust Him to take care of me as well.
That little strip of land in the Middle East the size of New Jersey that nobody seems to want to exist is still there; it’s flourishing, and it’s survived everything the world has thrown at it.
And Philippians 1:6 is still there, too.
Thanks for listening to this Cross References Bible Study on the Book of Ezekiel. This has been Luke Taylor, and I hope the Bible makes more sense to you after this episode.