“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do them. And they will be my people and I will be their God.”
The constant change of person is an indication of Ezekiel's excitement at the prospect. He was writing in an exalted state and exact grammar was of secondary importance.
The returning people would be made as one with a united heart (compare Jeremiah 32:39), they would be ‘the house of Israel' and no longer Israel and Judah, or split by tribal loyalties, and they would be inwardly transformed. Their stony hearts would become hearts of flesh, softened and responsive. They really would be ‘the flesh' (Ezekiel 11:3), the chosen of Yahweh. There would be no more hardheartedness but a determination to walk according to Yahweh's instruction, to obey Him and fulfil all His requirements. Once again they would be His own people, and He would again be their God in the fullest sense (see also Ezekiel 36:25-28).
There is an interesting contrast between these promises and Ezekiel 18:31 where God tells them to repent of their transgressions and make for themselves a new heart and a new spirit. There He knew, of course, that they would not do it. Thus here and in Ezekiel 36:25-28 He promises that grace will conquer disobedience and bring about in His people what He has commanded.
That this would be through the working of God's Spirit goes without saying, as is evidenced in His then present working in Psalms 139:7; Psalms 143:10 and in Ezekiel 36:26-27; Deuteronomy 30:6; Isaiah 44:2-5; Jeremiah 31:33; Joel 2:28-29; Zechariah 4:6. While the great work of the Spirit awaited the Upper Room and Pentecost, God's Spirit has worked in His own through all ages (e.g. John 3:1-6 before Pentecost).
The working of God through the centuries has always had this in mind. It found partial fulfilment at the return from exile as men sought God afresh and put away all idolatry (Ezra 4:1-3; Ezra 6:19-21; Nehemiah 8-10), and as His Spirit worked in them for the rebuilding of the temple (Zechariah 4:6). But it was only partial. They were still partially lacking (Ezra 9:1-2; Ezra 9:10-15; Ezra 10:15; Ezra 10:44; Nehemiah 5:1-9; Nehemiah 13:7-29). It found partial fulfilment in the Upper Room and at Pentecost and what followed, continuing still today. But again His people have shown themselves to be still partially lacking. But it will find its final fulfilment when we are made like Him and see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
Note the contrast of ‘take away'. When His people ‘take away' the abominable things (Ezekiel 11:18) Yahweh will at the same time ‘take away' their stony heart (Ezekiel 11:19). The new birth and repentance and doing away with sin go hand in hand.