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 in Hebrew for cast is shalak which is found in a Hiphal (causative) imperative (command) form.  Thus there is something causing us to want to cast off our transgressions and we are being commanded to do so.  The word itself, shalak, suggests the idea of banishing or abandonment.  It would seem that from this particular form that God is filling us with such disgust over our transgressions that we are going to want to abandon them or banish them from our lives.

Yet,  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 itself may provide a clue. The word shalak is spelled Shin, Lamed and Final Kap.  This suggests that it is the power of God (Shin) through prayer (Lamed) that our transgressions are emptied from our hearts (Final Kap).

Note how the phrase, all your transgressions is preceded with an Aleph Taw or an eth which is simply a sign of the direct object and is in a construct to kol (all) pishe’ikem (transgressions). This is telling you that you cannot 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 pishe’ekim comes from a Semitic root word  pasa.’ It is a word used to express the idea of rebellion, sin or offending someone. It has its origins in a willful, conscious act, or what we call premeditation.  It involves outward manifestations of 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, lust or anger and we allow these feelings to be manifested in some action.   Note the passage continues by saying, which we have transgressed in them.  That sounds pretty redundant doesn’t it, to say the transgressions we transgressed in them?   That word  for in them is bam and is not to be overlooked.   In other words they were not a part of us to begin with, we walked right into them.  These are manifestations of behavior that are not a part of our sin nature, it is our sin nature that is driving us to jump into these mud holes.

Now as to why we must cast off all our transgression note that the verse says, make you a new heart.  Now how can we make ourselves a new heart? Did not David have to ask God to create in him a new heart?   Well the syntax seems to suggest that it is this casting away of all your transgressions that will make you a new heart. The word make is ’ashah.  The word is spelled Ayin which is deep spiritual insight, Shin representing the power of God and Hei the presence of God.  It is still God creating us a new heart, but He cannot do it until we allow our spiritual insight to recognize our transgressions, then the power of God can 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. We cannot control that, which is why Jesus had to die on the cross.  But these are sins that we allow or willful allow that are resulting from our sin nature. Apparently, we have some control over that. God will deal with our sin nature, but that doesn’t mean we cannot sin. There is another level of sin that we can still enter into because of our free will and we must also make a conscious decision not to commit sins that results from our sin nature or what the Apostle calls the old man that is within us.

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 but is also used to express the idea of 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, we get a new heart.  The word for heart is lev.  It is spelled  Lamed and Beth.  I have read that our English word love derives from this word lev or heart.  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 a Beth.   Together they make the word lev or heart, from the 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.