December 29, 2012 – Ezekiel 11

We end this section with a vision of hope for those that had been scattered throughout the world.  They would be brought back to their home and they would be given hearts to love God and take down the atrocities that were there before.  The image of a heart of stone verses a heart of flesh is a stark one.  Not only does it bring to mind an openness to God, but life itself.  We are to have a heart that is open to God, not made of stone so that God cannot come into it.  That is the more common understanding.  But think about what having a heart of stone literally means.  It is death.  The heart of stone cannot pump the life giving blood in your body.  Without a heart of flesh, you are dead.  God isn’t just saying that you need to be open to Me, He is saying that if you are not open to Me, if you continue to have a heart of stone, you will die, you cannot survive with a heart of stone.