Ezekiel 18:31 “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O House of Israel?”
The word cast is shalak in Hebrew and is in a Hiphil imperative form. This is causative and a command. As we discussed in class, as an imperative, God is commanding us to cast (banish, abandon) our transgressions. Being in a Hiphil form this comes when he fills us with such disgust over our transgressions that we are caused to cast them away.
But soft, I have met many who are disgusted with their transgressions and are trying to throw them off or abandon them, but they just keep coming back, particularly addictions. How are we to abandon our transgressions? The word shalak explains itself. It is spelled with a Shin, Lamed and final Kap. Thus it is the power of God (Shin) through prayer (Lamed) that our transgressions are emptied from our hearts (Final Kap).
Not that the phrase, “all your transgressions” is preceded with an eth and is in a construct form. You can not cast off some of your transgressions and keep the ones you want, it is an all or nothing process. This is important as you will find out in the following paragraphs.
The word transgression in Hebrew is pasa.’ This means to rebel, sin, and offend. But more specifically it is talking about a conscious, willful rebelling against the power of God, it is speaking in words and actions, anger, lust and jealousy. These transgressions are not just those of the addict and the obvious sinners. This applies to all of us who feel a surge of jealous, or lust or anger. Note the passage continues by saying, “which we have transgressed in them.” That is pretty redundant isn’t it, to say the transgressions we transgressed in them? That word bam (in them) is important. In other words they were not a part of us to begin with, we walked into them. As one of my students said: “So if you’re going to throw rocks at this thought, throw them at him” What he is saying is throw rocks at the sin nature that is in us. In other words, these are sins or mud holes that our sin nature is driving us to jump into.
Now as to why we must cast off all transgression note that the verse says,“Make you a new heart.” Now how can we make ourselves a new heart? Well if you look at the syntax you will find that it is the “Casting away of all your transgressions” that will make you a new heart. The word make is ’ashah. So just how do we make or create a new heart? Note the word is spelled Ayin – deep spiritual discernment and insight, Shin – the power of God and Hei – the presence of God. Through our spiritual insight in recognizing our transgressions, the power of God will change our heart so that it may be emptied of all its transgressions and filled with the presence of God. This is not casting off our sin nature, God deals with that on another level, these are the sins resulting from our sin nature.
It also says we will have a new spirit. This is a play on words chadash rauch. This is very close to chadosh rauch or Holy Spirit. The word rauch means spirit and it also means a pleasant scent. Where our hearts were once a stench in the nostrils of God, it will become a sweet scent to the nostrils of God through the cleansing work of Jesus Christ through whose divine power, our transgressions are emptied from our heart and then filled with the Holy Spirit – presence of God.
Finally, a new heart. The word heart is lev. It is spelled Lamed, Beth. This is where we get out English word, love from. When God cleanses our heart, it becomes love. As a rabbi once told me, the very last letter of Torah (Old Testament) is a Lamed and the first letter is beth. Together they make the word lev or heart, for with Torah we find the Love of God as well as the love of fellow man. But why does this combination appear only reversed? Because this love can only be fully created after we have obeyed the entire Word of God and we allow the word of God to complete love in us.
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