Sermon on Ezekiel 36:33-38

^{Ezekiel 36:33} ” ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. ³⁴ The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. ³⁵ They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” ³⁶ Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.’

    ³⁷ “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Once again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep, ³⁸ as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD .”

 

Much of Ezekiel’s message to Israel had been judgment.  They had been pursuing other gods, they had been trying to make life work out by violating the commandments of the true God, and they had presumed upon the grace of God and believed that nothing bad would happen to them.  But God made it clear that there was a consequence to their wrong living by sending a powerful nation against them who conquered them, defeated them, and exiled them from their land.  They devastated the land and especially the temple.

And here comes Ezekiel again with a message from the Lord.  Oh boy, we can guess what this is going to be about!  But its not what they expected.  It is a message of hope with promises so amazing that they seem too good to be true.  Cleansed from all our sins?  Become like the garden of Eden?  Rebuilt and replanted?  This is wonderful!  Okay, what’s the catch?  There is none.  “I will yield to the plea of Israel and do this for them.”

Have you ever seen a neglected garden?  Weeds and grass growing high, choking out the flowers.  The flowers looking colorless and too few and far between.  Eventually you may not see any flowers at all.  It had so much promise, but now it looks like something the Grinch would plant.  You come to it hoping for beauty, aroma, rest and pleasure, but instead you find disappointment.  You wish someone had done what was needed.  What were they thinking?  Did they think the garden would last without tender and diligent care?  Were they hoping for the garden fairy to come and wave a magic wand over it and poof, beautiful garden?  Someone made choices that caused the beauty of this garden to fade.

Did your life feel like this?  Did you not see the beauty of your garden and so you made choices that brought disarray, chaos, confusion, until your life felt like a snarl of messy weeds, full of tumult and disorder?  When people passed by did they experience disappointment because they expected beauty, aroma, rest and pleasure and got a holy mess?

And yet, you were still a garden.   And God saw your garden and knew the possibilities.  And so he began pulling the weeds, preparing the soil, replanting new flowers.  He saw the garden of Eden and he wanted others to see it, too, and know that he had taken the care to restore and rebuild this lovely garden.  And now your lives have all the marks of his husbandry.  He heard your plea, whether you knew what you were pleading for or not, and he answered your cry for restoration.

And now when people come to you, they find refreshing, joy, love, a beauty of spirit that draws on the beauty in them.  They can experience the pleasure that God meant the garden to provide.  The right choices are being made, the right paths followed, the care being given to deal with the problems that sprout up all the time.  Because you have dealt with the pain that led you to make such wrong choices and because you have cried out to the God who delights to rescue and restore, you are here tonight living a new life in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, the master Gardener.

And it is fitting that tonight you bring flowers to represent your unborn children.  Because God is also making them and their lives into part of this garden of your life and family.  He has planted them in the garden of heaven, and they are thriving under his care.  He knew you didn’t really want to abandon them.  He knew you would want to see them some day.  And as he did with Adam and Eve, he comes to them in the cool of each day and fellowships with them in the garden of Eden.

Oh, he has so much joy in his heart for you tonight!  He has so much joy in his heart for your children!  And now the Lord says,

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. (Song of Solomon 4:16)

 Now he calls you,

the garden of his delight. (Isaiah 5:7, God’s Word translation)  Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. (Isaiah 51:3)

He delights in expectation now as you come to offer expressions of new understanding, of thanksgiving, of confession, of praise, and of joy.  Will you come and share your hearts with us?