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?”
At this point I am not sure just what transgressions are but I know they are bad and I don’t want them. I am more than happy to cast them off, but I need a little guidance in how to cast these things off. The word cast suggest we throw them away. I have thrown away sins all my life but many just coming back like they had a rubber band attached to the.
First just what are transgressions? Are they not the same thing as sin and iniquities or are they in a class by themselves? 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 something. Tracing this word to its Semitic root I find it comes from an old Canaanite word for being terrified. Do you ever watch these disasters films, like a plane that experiences trouble. Everyone recognizes the captain is in charged. All are fearful but will trust the captain. Yet you always have one fellow who is so terrified that he will not trust the captain’s directions or orders. He is so terrified, he thinks the captain just does not understand the situation but he does and he rebels against the captain and tries to get the other passengers to join with him and follow his plan and not the captain’s plan. That obnoxious, pain in the neck, why does the story always have one, passenger is committing a pasa’ or what we call a transgression. To transgress against God is to face a terrifying situation and rather than trust God you trust in your own devices or plans built out of fear and then try to get others to follow your plan. For instance you do your taxes and discover, to your horror, that you owe a few thousand dollars that you do not have. God tells us to deal honestly and trust Him. But instead you panic, you begin looking for deductions you are not entitled to, you scratch out sources of income that Uncle Sam cannot trace to you and eventually you bring your IOU to Uncle Sam to an IOU from Uncle Sam. You breathe a sigh of relief. Sure it was dishonest, but everyone does it and if you are caught you will just pay a fine and that is it. Except for one thing, out of panic out of not trusting God, you rebelled against His plan to follow a righteous and honest life. You have pasa’ transgressed not only against dear Uncle Sam but against God as well.
You must cast away that transgression which means a lot of faith and trust in God to help you pay what you really owe. You see the Hebrew word for cast is shalak and it is found in an Hiphil imperative form. This makes this casting businesss both causative and a command. The word shalak is a word used when a king, not wanting to execute a person for some treasonous act, but at the same time realizing he can no longer be a part of his kingdom then shalak the poor slob. That is he would be banished from the kingdom. He could no longer partake in the benefits of being a citizen of that kingdom, which includes, most importantly protection, from outside influences and no pension. Thus we are commanded to banish any acts that go against the will, design or plan of God out of our lives. Homosexuals can argue all they want that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality and indeed you can translate the key passages to mean something else, but one thing you cannot argue it the obvious. A man and woman are commanded to reproduce. It is not only commanded but it is also God’s plan and design. Thus to argue that they will not carry out this command, not because they are physically incapable of it, or because they have chosen a chaste lifestyle to serve God in another capacity, they have chosen to follow their lifestyle because they are rebelling against God’s design and plan and wanting to do it their own way. That’s a good definition of pasa’ or transgressions. But there are many other ways to pasa’ God. We are commanded to fellowship with other believers and live in peace with them. If someone is on the worship team and you are not and you sit back during the entire worship service thinking: “I can sing better than that, I play an instrument better than that, he is just up there because he knows how to politic and is part of the inner circle and I am not and so no one appreciates my talent etc. etc. etc.” That attitude is disruptive and causes disorder and you are rebelling against God’s design and plan – pasa’ transgression.
But soft, it is not easy to throw off or banish shalak these feelings. 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 banish cast off has a built in commentary. 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. It sounds too simple to simply say: “Pray.” But prayer is a pretty powerful thing and I have met many who have found victory in casting off their transgressions through prayer. Sorry I can’t give you a better answer than that, but old fashioned prayer is really the key. It must be from the heart and filled with faith.
I know that because that is what it says in this verse. If you can’t pray with your heart, make 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 “Casting away of all your transgressions” and then that will make you a new heart. Just make the decision to cast it off and God will do the rest with your heart. The word make is ‘ashah. 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, making a decision to abandon and banish these transgressions will bring the power of God to change our hearts so that it may be emptied of all its transgressions and filled with the presence of God. That will break the rubber band from springing that transgression back to you.
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 word about this 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 a 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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