COMMAND! | Ezekiel 36:16-38 with Philip Morrow

Readers and hearers of Leviticus will often come away confused about purity. On its face, purity seems to be a prerequisite for communion with God, one that we accomplish on our part before attempting to worship Him. But chapter 8 tells us something counterintuitive: purity itself is also a gift of God, given to us in anticipation of our communion with Him. Ezekiel 36 makes this quite clear, as God informs His people in exile that He Himself will purify them and bless them–not solely out of concern for them, but out of concern for His holy name that had been profaned among them.

If God chooses to purify us before we even *want* to meet with Him, how might this change our response to His good grace? For Ezekiel, it ought to convict us of sin and exhort us to turn from it.