Ezekiel 11:19

One heart. Oneness of purpose and of action would characterize the new Israel of God. Unfortunately the failure of Israel prevented the fulfillment of this promise. Jesus prayed that the blessing might be fulfilled in the Christian church. His prayer was briefly realized in the fervency of the early church, the multitude of whom “were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32). Unfortunately, the unity was of short duration. Grievous wolves, not sparing the flock, entered in and tore the believers asunder (Acts 20:29). There has been disunity in the Christian world ever since, a condition that will continue until, at the return of our Lord, “we all come in the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:13).

Stony heart. The experience of the changed heart is descriptive of the experience of the new birth, more fully revealed in the NT (John 3:3–8; etc.), though by no means applicable only to the Christian Era. God’s means of salvation have been the same in all ages, but there has been a gradual unfolding of the divine purpose; not that God holds men in ignorance to their disadvantage, but their unwillingness to accept the revelations from heaven often places a limitation on what God is able to reveal. Precious rays rejected make impossible the sending of further illumination. This was the case with Israel. Had the returning exiles fully entered into the experience here described, more and more light would have been sent. Unfortunately, they were content with the crippling restrictions posed by their interpretation of the old covenant, and so the fuller light of the gospel came only with the Messiah.