Ezekiel: God's Desire

Ezekiel 34:11-16; 36:22-28; Psalm 139:1-12

Intro: Remember when you were younger and you were sick and you didn’t want to take your medicine. Cherry cough medicine was my least favorite. But you had to take it because it was good for you it would help heal your sore throat. Or a lot of peoples nightmare when mom or dad pulled out the hydrogen peroxide to help clean up a wound that you got after falling off your bike. When we were younger we looked at it as pain and thought it would not help us but now, and I hope you realize this now, we see these things as helpful for our bodies.

This is sort of what God was dealing with when He was restoring the nation of Israel. The people were running from Him still and He was still pursuing them. He was doing this to heal them and bring them back to their land. God finds His people or sheep as we will see here in our passages.

God desires to renew us because He loves us and is present with us always.

1. God the Caring Shepherd

Read: Ezek. 34:11-16

There are some words repeated in this passage what are they? The most important one that we are going to focus on is shepherd and how God is a caring shepherd for us. Israel had suffered as verse 12 states it a “cloudy and dark day” When Jerusalem fell. This is set after Jerusalem was taken down and destroyed and all of the people were scattered even more than they had already been in exile. This was a dark day for those who were exiled because Jerusalem to them was a beacon of hope.

When the city fell their hopes shattered. The people of Israel were in a dark place and had no where to go. They were scattered sheep as we see in the passage. God says in this passage how like a shepherd finds his sheep and feeds them God would do the same for the people of Israel.

He has promised He would feed them and restore. God cared for His people and wanted to restore them and give them hope.

God does this with us today He gives us hope even in our darkest days and that is the hope of Jesus and spending eternity with Him. God is the same caring shepherd today as He was with the people of Israel.

2. God’s Gift of Renewal

Read: Ezek. 36:22-28

God values His name we saw last week when God talked about the history of Israel that He could have showed His wrath to them and just wipe them out but multiple times He says for His name sake He did not. God made a promise to the people of Israel that He would be their God and protect them.

God uses His name as the basis for His promise to renew His people. He wanted people to see how faithful He was to His name and His people.

God promised that He would gather His people that were scattered among the nations and bring them back to their land and cleanse them (vs. 24-25).

God then promises that He would give them a new heart and His Spirit that they will walk in His way and not rely on their own strength (vs. 26-27)

Today as believers we have the Holy spirit within us. When we got saved we had a new purpose in life and that was to glorify God and serve Him. Just how God wanted the people of Israel to rely on His strength we need to do the same we cannot rely on our own strength when it comes to overcoming temptation. We must rely on God and the Spirit.

In verse 28 God promises to them again that He would be their God. God will protect them, love them and stay faithful to them. God promises renewal in their hearts and with His relationship with His people.

3. God is all knowing

Read: Psalm 139:1-12

God is always present with us. We saw in these two passages of Ezekiel that the nation of Israel was scattered their city was destroyed and they felt they had no hope and that they were alone. One thing that the people struggled with was God was still with them God is always present and He knows us.

Yes these people have profaned God’s name over and over again but God stays with them He is faithful to His people. God is still with us today. God is always present in our highs and in our lows. God knows us also He knows what we are feeling He knows what struggles we are going through.

Recognizing that God’s intimate knowledge and presence is a source of strength leads us to embrace renewal and transformation in our lives.

This is something that the people of Israel must recognize. They were to embrace this renewal that God had promised to them.

Con: The people of Israel were running away from God but He kept pursuing them to heal their nation and to renew them. Like how our parents take care of us when we are sick or when we have a wound God takes care of His people He is always with them and ever present with them and He promises renewal.