October 15

Read: Ezekiel 36:23-25

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean (Ezekiel 36:25).

Ye Shall Be Clean

To be holy means to be free from sin, to be entirely clean in the sight of God. Moffatt translates our text, “I will pour clean water over you, cleansing you from all your impieties.” The impurities from which God proposes to cleanse us are bur impieties, those things in our lives that are unlike himself.

God’s purpose is that we shall be like Him, and that we shall help others to be so. This was His purpose in creation: It is still His plan for our lives.

We are not called to be the people of God on account of already being holy; God calls us in order that we may become holy. God showed Ezekiel that He was saving His people out of Babylonian captivity and was taking them back to their homeland in Canaan, But this external restoration was to be accompanied by an inner transformation. There must be a cleansing and a renewing of their hearts. Thus God leads every repentant sinner back to the promised land of forgiveness and fellowship. But He proposes to do more. He consecrates His redeemed people to “serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74-75). . ‘

As the careful housewife washes a dish clean of all that is distasteful and then rinses it to be sure it is as clean as it ought to be, so God proposes to cleanse His people and fit Us for His own use. With glad hearts we sing:

The cleansing stream, I see, I see! I plunge, and, oh, it cleanseth me! Oh! praise the Lord, it cleanseth me, It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me!

— Phoebe Palmer