13 Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?”
14 The word of the LORD came to me:
15 “Son of man, your brothers—your brothers who are your blood relatives and the whole house of Israel—are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘They are far away from the LORD; this land was given to us as our possession.’
16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’
17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’
18 “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols.
19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
You talk about the sovereignty of God working in people, especially when they want no part of what God wants...
God had sent them away from their land (v16) as punishment for forsaking Him (which is the natural state of fallen man). After Ezekiel cried out and asked if He would destroy the remnant, God said that He was their sanctuary while they were in a foreign land (v16). Then He said He would bring them back (v17). They WILL return and then God had them destroy the vile images and detestable idols (v18). How can I say that with confidence? Easy, God's Word tells us that He directs or determines the steps of man (Proverbs 16:9).
Now the verses I want to focus on:
Verse 19, what happens? God gives them an undivided heart and God put a new spirit in them. God will remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. All this is God’s doing WITHOUT any help or cooperation from the Israelites whatsoever - He’s Sovereign. He just did it according to His plan.
Then verse 20 - what is the result? THEN they will follow God’s decrees and be careful to keep God’s laws, and not before. It is clear that they did NOT follow God’s decrees and laws until AFTER He put in them an undivided heart and a new (living) spirit.
The point is, it was not until God gave them an undivided heart and a new spirit, not until AFTER he took out their heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, that they were able to satisfy God, that they pleased Him, that they obeyed him. God does not wait on man to DO something before He acts for that would be showing favoritism (Acts 10:34). God acts in accordance with His pleasure and will, and as a result, the changed man WILL respond.
I know those who believe in decisional salvation will claim that God did this as the result of their act of removing the vile images and detestable idols, but in verse 18 God is telling Ezekiel what they WILL do. This is a statement of future events, events over which God not only had control, but had ordained to occur! Please don’t forget that in his lost state, man hates God (John 3:20) AND that God determines the very actions a man takes (Proverbs 16:9). The people were His enemy and could do nothing pleasing to Him until God worked in them (Romans 8:7-8). God was telling Ezekiel WHY they would remove the idols, because He gave them an undivided heart and a new spirit. (That’s a good thing because their natural spirit is DEAD.)
It is my point that the prophesy in v18 (the destruction of the idols) was the result of what God did in verses 19 & 20.
The Israelites did not repent before God brought them back. A man with a heart of stone can’t repent - and in this analogy, ALL men are conceived with a heart of stone - it’s representative of a DEAD spirit.
The Israelites did not please God before He gave them an undivided heart and a new spirit.
The Israelites did not follow God’s laws and decrees before He removed their heart of stone and gave them a heart of flesh.
All of these actions are a RESULT of a Sovereign God working first.
Bottom Line: Sovereign means God gets His way. If God wants to save everyone, He would do it. The creature is beholden to God, not the other way around. God saves, man responds (John 6:37).
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