Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

    Israel had a problem. The problem wasn’t the exile that they were experiencing as Ezekiel wrote his prophecy. The expulsion from the land was a symptom of the problem. I’m sure there were those living then, who would have said the exile was absolutely their biggest problem, but they would have been wrong. 

    Their problem went all the way back to their days in Egypt. Ever since then, they had an ongoing issue with idolatry. They had per-iods of faithfulness to God, but those were the remarkable ones. It was, sadly, more common for them to be giving into the temptation of idolatry. Why would they have had such problems? Couldn’t they see that they were better off when they followed God? Their prob-lem was that they had a heart condition. It was serious. Terminal. They had hard hearts. So hard as to be stony! What they needed was a transplant. 

    God knew all this of course. He knew that they were never going to be able to solve this problem with better effort. No amount of resolve on their problem would suffice. No self-help book, no motivational speaker, would ever make lasting change. Without the needed heart transplant they were doomed. 

    Fortunately, God not only could diagnose the problem, but He had the ability to effect the cure. He Himself would give them a new heart. He would remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. The first recipients of God’s transplant surgery were gath-ered in an upper room in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost just 50 days after Jesus was raised from the dead. They had met there that day like most days since the unbelievable events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

    But on that day, God came in answer to Ezekiel’s prophecy!

Acts 2:1-4a When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit 

    God’s promise had come at last! The evidence was not so much the wind or the fire. The evidence was exemplified in Peter. Just a few weeks before he had been so intimidated by a serving girl that he denied Jesus three times. After his heart transplant, he is a new man! He is brave and bold and enabled to do what he could never do before! The rest were similarly changed. It wasn’t that they tried harder. They had new hearts!

        

Blessings,   

Pastor Russ