Like the Garden of Eden

Ezekiel was a prophet who lived in Babylon during the time of the Jewish captivity. His writings foretold of the destruction and captivity of Jerusalem and their eventual restoration. Ezekiel spoke in chapter 36 of God’s plans to restore Jerusalem. Ezekiel said that God’s plan to restore his people was not due to their repentance and acknowledgement of their sins. Rather, God decided to restore them based on the integrity of his name which he would maintain against the surrounding nations. “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” (Ezekiel 36:22).

God also promised to change the hearts of the people and cleanse them from their sins. “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:27). Ezekiel further prophesied about God’s plans to bless the people and give them an abundant harvest. “I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations” (Ezekiel 36:30).

One of Ezekiel’s final declarations was that God would allow the nation of Israel to become like the garden of Eden. This would be restoring it back to the state of Eden before the fall of Adam. The idea that God would restore his people and their nation to such an abundant state like that of Eden is remarkable. There is nothing that God has done in the bible for his people that is not available to us. We live under the Abrahamic covenant and lay hold of the promises of God. We declare that wherever we live, that God will bless and multiply us. We declare that God will cause us to live in such abundance that people around us will say, they are living like the garden of Eden.

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth”” (Genesis 1:28).

A.P.-Y.