Sunday School Corner

A New Spirit
March 1, 2009


Background Scripture: Ezekiel 11:14 – 21
Lesson Passage: Ezekiel 11:14 – 21

Ezekiel, a Jewish priest, was deported to Babylon during Judah’s final years prior to the fall of Jerusalem. Many historians believe that Ezekiel was a young man who had just entered the priesthood at the age of thirty. It was while he was in captivity that Ezekiel received his call to be a prophet of God to the exiled Jews. He described it as occurring while among some other Jewish exiles by a Babylonian river. (The anonymous writer of the 137th Psalm alluded to the Jewish captives gathering on a river bank in Babylon and lamenting their condition of exile away from Zion.) Although the Jews seemed preoccupied with wanting to return to the land of Canaan, Ezekiel’s prophecy seemed to constantly point towards the need for a spiritual revival among the Jews. Ezekiel was given a disappointing vision of the glory of God departing from the temple in Jerusalem. This was an indication that God was no longer among Israel apparently because Israel had ceased walking with God. God made it very clear that Israel’s suffering was because of their spiritual problems. As conditions in Judah had worsened, there were false prophets telling the people that it was all temporary and that everything would return to normal. In fact, Jeremiah had remained in Jerusalem during much of those latter years and was punished by the Jews for rebuking the false prophets. Ezekiel’s task was very different. Ezekiel was included in one of the early groups that were deported to Babylon and he had to prophesy to those in captivity. His prophecy was not so much that of comfort as it was explanatory. Since God’s glory had departed from the temple in Jerusalem and many of the Jews had been deported by the Babylonians, what was it going to take to please God? First, Israel needed to see their spiritual condition the way that God saw it. Second, Israel needed to come to the conclusion that they were not capable of correcting their own spiritual condition. And finally, Israel needed to accept that God still loved them and was willing to fix what was wrong so that they could first be restored to him and then future generations would return to Canaan. This sounds simple enough but the first step is usually the hardest. So it was with Israel. Our first point of agreement with God has to be a spiritual assessment of ourselves. How does God see us? How well do we stack up against God’s expectation of us? It is both vain and worthless to compare ourselves to each other. If we all miss the mark then we could never have a proper reference to compare against. We must use God’s standard. Only after a fair assessment of ourselves spiritually can we proceed to receive God’s restoration that is so dearly needed. We desire that which is physical but we must first receive that which is spiritual. A new spirit was what God prescribed for Israel. This would lead to a new attitude and proper actions befitting those that are called by God’s name.


Robert C. Hudson
February 24, 2009