Principle: God is the Perfect Promise Maker because He Is the Perfect Promise Keeper

It amuses us, does it not, to hear politicians spout endless promises in efforts to pimp the foolish into trusting them to redeem what the disasters they themselves have wrought? Suddenly the border is important; suddenly taxes are too high; suddenly national security is important, etc. The list goes on and on. Would it not be nice to know someone who not only makes promises of weal but also keeps them?

Connection to Ezekiel 36: In Ezekiel 36, God speaks through his servant Ezekiel. And God does it “for [his] holy name” (Ez 36:21, ESV). Listen to God’s words of promise to vindicate his holiness and to create a clean people, a people who love the Lord, a people whose hearts have been circumcised, and to lead them at the hand of the good shepherd:

²² “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. ²³ And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. ²⁴ I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.^[a] 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ez 36:22-28, ESV).

Takeaway: It is important to rightly interpret the Old Testament (and all Scripture) in the light of the whole metanarrative of the Bible. Ezekiel was writing to an exiled people. But he was giving them promises from the Lord about restoration, redemption, and a faithful one who would guide them. In the near sense, God would return the Jewish exiles to Israel under Ezra, Nehemiah, and others. They would return to their land. But the faithful shepherd did not come until the second person of the triune God took on flesh and dwelled among us (John 1). The good shepherd is Christ himself, who took on flesh (Philippians 2:6-11) and came in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4). God made promises of his Spirit that would indwell a particular people. He made those promises in Ezekiel. And in Christ, they are fulfilled. Unlike slithering politicians whose forked tongues lull the foolish into servitude, God both promises and delivers, and the warrant is none other than Christ.