The Salt Covenant

The Eternal Covenant

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The Book of Ezekiel to Eternity

Sprinkling of Water

• Ezekiel 36:25  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

Cleansing water through the once time sacrifice of a Red Hefer outside of camp, Numbers 19, The Law of the Dead. (this sacrifice was repeated once after the exile, because they lost the Holy Water when the temple was destroyed in 586 BC). The Holy Water was made after the Hefer was burned in its entirety, the ashes were crushed and mixed with water. When someone dies, the priest was to use Hyssop to sprinkle this water in the house of the dead, on the clothes of the dead and on all who touched the dead person. The priest who performed the sacrifice will stay outside for 3 days … when the water ran low, they would add more water for the next generation, and the next …

The Red Hefer:          

• Numbers 19  The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and intestines. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening. “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them. “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days.They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them. “This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean. “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days. “For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death. The man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify them. Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and that evening they will be clean. But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean. This is a lasting ordinance for them. “The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening.”

The law of the red heifer is a shadow of Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law.

• Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Just as the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer and water ceremonially cleansed the Children of Israel from death, Jesus Christ’s blood cleanses us. Death is the great defilement … sin is death.

• Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Only through the cleansing of the red heifer’s ashes could they be allowed into the Temple. Only those in Christ are spiritually clean(because of who He is, not because of anything we could do).

• Hebrews 9:12 "He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

Hyssop is used throughout the bible.

• Exodus 12:22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.

• Psalm 51:7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Jesus Christ washes us clean by His atonement ... He took ALL of our sins upon Himself.

• Leviticus 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

• Hebrews 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

• Hebrews 9:13-14 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

• Luke 22:44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

The Heifer had to be perfect, and was never to have been yoked. Jesus was without sin and voluntarily laid down His life.

• Numbers 19:2 “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke.

• Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

• 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• Hebrews 13:11-14 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

• Hebrews 10:1-4  The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

• Hebrews 10:9-12 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God

• Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Just as the Red Heifer had to be led outside of camp, Jesus was led outside Jerusalem. Jesus’ sacrifice was once and forever. Jesus sprinkles His blood on us, to cleanse us, because we, who are in Him, are His Temple.

This ritual of sprinkling of water in the Old Testament was because of the dead. But, we are dead by our very nature. Jesus will sprinkle on us spiritually, His blood by faith - and we will be clean from eternity to eternity. It is a symbol of awakening the dead! The dead (& his clothes & his house) defiled the whole house - The sprinkling of water on all this cleansed the whole house.

• Ezekiel 36:25-28 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

He will raise us from dead with a new heart, which is a new life … as a new creation …

A new spirit is God’s spirit, making us a new creation – the source of this new creation is God, Himself.

• John 1:12-13 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

This new spirit is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 

In Ezekiel 37 (dry bones),  Ezekiel is in the spirit replies to God, when asked if the bones can live, “Lord, you know.” God uses His children to do His work, he uses Ezekiel’s mouth to prophesize. Anytime you preach the gospel and people are saved, God is using you to announce life on that person.

• 2 Corinthians 4:1-10  Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

• Ezekiel 37:11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’

This is who we were before our salvation, we were without hope, cut off of God’s people, but this new covenant – later he is speaking of putting 2 sticks together in Ezekiel 37:15-28, to illustrate bringing Judea and Israel (the northern & southern kingdom) back as the people of God … Paul will borrow this illustration in a different way in Ephesians 2. God removed the wall between the court of the House of God and outside the court of the House of God (the court of the gentiles) - bringing the gentiles and the Jews together.

• Ephesians 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility

• Ephesians 2:21 In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

The Egyptians regarded the Israelites as ‘unclean’ because they were shepherds (raising sheep), so they separated themselves from them. Our Savior, Jesus IS the Good Shepherd, rejected by humanity, separated by people who are outside Him. The Israelites were being lead to the promised land and in the process they were unfaithful to God. So, God had them exiled for the second time. After 70 years they learned their lesson and came back to the promised land. In the year 70 they were scattered all over the globe until today.

In Ezekiel 47 Ezekiel saw the House of the Lord. Out of the Eastern side of the House of the Lord, he saw water coming out from beneath the curtain. He is not allowed to enter, because he is not a Priest (only the High Priest can enter the Holy of Holies). This water is flowing from the seat of God’s Throne. When the High Priest enters the Holy of Holies, He sprinkles the blood of the sacrifice on in in front of the mercy seat.

• Leviticus 16:15 (KJV) Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat

• Exodus 25::22 (KJV) There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

When the Priest sees God’s glory with his eyes, the forgiveness of the Nation is accepted (for one year).

• Ezekiel 47:1  The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.

So, the water Ezekiel sees coming from beneath the curtain is coming from the presence of the Lord. This water becomes a big river and on both sides of the river – there is tree after tree … and this water cleans all water in its path as new trees appear. Ezekiel begins to walk in the water and finds it is a river with no end. This water heals the sea of its salt as it enters the sea. The sea becomes fresh water. Unlike any other tree, it bears fruit for eating and leaves for healing and this water is coming from the throne of God to His people.

• Ezekiel 47:4-5, 7-9, 12   He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

  • Revelation 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

In Ezekiel 47 there were countless trees. In Revelation 22 there is one tree – on both sides of the river – the river is coming from the throne of God and the lamb – the Holy Spirit is the river …

• John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Just as the water of the sea is healed by the river that flows from God … the living water of the Holy Spirit heals us.

Thousands of thousands of trees are seen in Ezekiel 47 … so, millions of millions of people, from all nations, will be one body.

• Revelation 22:3 The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve him.

The tree heals nations … all who eat of the tree are spiritually nourished and healed. The holy water flows from the Holy of Holies, from the throne of God, to all nations … producing life, and then it flows from those who are healed, producing life giving fruit. All are welcome to eat and be healed and be filled with living water. The source of this living water comes from the presence of the Lord.

• John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

• John 7:38 (Jesus says) Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

This gift of the Holy Spirit is for all who believe. The seas and oceans of humanity will come alive again and then all these trees will be one body – the Body of Christ.

The book of Ezekiel was fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah (not because of who we are, but because of who He is). It was to fulfill God’s promise that was given to humanity before Abraham by hundreds and thousands of years in Gen 3:15.

• Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

‘You’ is the serpent (satan), the ‘woman’s offspring’ is Jesus Christ.

The true Israel, is the true vine, which is Jesus Christ, who came and transformed the throne from the Holy of Holies. He came to make all who believe a living temple for the same spirit that was coming from God’s throne now flows from the heart of all believers.

• John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

That’s why Ezekiel called it a river that no one can cross, because it is eternal – it has no end.

• Ezekiel 36: 26-28  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

• Hebrews 8:10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

• 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

In The Old Covenant of the Old Testament, the Heart of Stone - God wrote the 10 commandments on stone

• Exodus 31:18 When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

In The New Covenant of the New Testament, the Heart of Flesh  - The Holy Spirit has written God's law on the hearts of all who are a new creation in Christ.

• Jeremiah 31-34 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”