Ezekiel, Nicodemus, and the Fulfillment of Prophecy

Last Sunday, I had the privilege to preach at First Baptist Church Eldon, Missouri. My focus was on John 3 and the wonderful encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus that culminated with, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus, this devout, religious Jew, needed a new birth.

I am praying for Israel. In my time of sermon preparation, I was reminded that all of Israel needs to be born again, as did Nicodemus. I recognize the need to take Old Testament texts in their context. In its context, God promised Israel that he would bring them out of the Babylonian captivity and back into the land (Ezekiel 36:24). He did that in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Never again did Israel dabble with false gods.

Israel would be scattered again. While there was a Jewish presence in the land, there was not a nation called Israel until 1948. From all over the earth, the Jewish people moved “home.” They rebuilt lives after the Holocaust and rebuilt a nation. Please read these words from Ezekiel 36:24-28.

“For I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgements and do them.

And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people and I will be your God.”

What is my point? Israel is in the land. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” even so, Israel today needs the complete fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. They are in the land of the Lord but desperately need the Lord of the land. Israel needs the complete fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Jesus’s words to Nicodemus await fulfillment. They need a new birth.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:26, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

Brothers and sisters, pray for the people of Israel. Pray for the salvation of Israel.