EZEKIEL 36 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Hope for the Mountains of Israel

1 “Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.

BARNES, "The “mountains of Israel” are opposed to “Seir,” the mount of Edom Eze_35:3.

CLARKE, "Prophesy unto the mountains of Israel - This is a part of the preceding prophecy though it chiefly concerns the Jews. In it they are encouraged to expect a glorious restoration, and that none of the evil wishes of their adversaries should take place against them.

GILL, "Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel,.... The land of Judah, which was very mountainous, at least one part of it, called the hill country, Luk_1:39 and now the country being cleared of men through the captivity, and other desolating judgments, there were none but bare mountains to speak unto: or, "prophesy concerning the mountains of Israel" (d); the inhabitants of them, or those that should be restored to them, concerning their future happiness and comfort: some render it, "against the mountains of Israel" (e); but the later prophecies of them are in their favour, and not against them: and say, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord; concerning the destruction of their enemies, and concerning the temporal blessings that should be

1

bestowed on them.

HENRY 1-4, "I. The compassionate notice God takes of the present deplorable condition of the land of Israel. It has become both a prey and a derision to the heathen that are round about, Eze_36:4. 1. It has become a prey to them; and they are all enriched with the plunder of it. When the Chaldeans had conquered them all their neighbours flew to the spoil as to a shipwreck, every one thinking all his own that he could lay his hands on (Eze_36:3): They have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the heathen, to the residue of them, even such as had themselves narrowly escaped the like desolation. No one thought it any crime to strip an Israelite. Turba Romae sequitur fortunam ut semper - The mob of Rome still praise the elevated and despise the fallen. It is the common dry, when a man is down, Down with him. 2. It has become a derision to them. They took all they had and laughed at them when they had done. The enemy said, “Aha! even the ancient high places are ours in possession, Eze_36:2. Neither the antiquity, nor the dignity, neither the sanctity nor the fortifications, of the land of Israel, are its security, but we have become masters of it all.” The more honours that land had been adorned with, and the greater figure it had made among the nations, the more pride and pleasure did they take in making a spoil of it, which is an instance of a base and sordid spirit; for the more glorious and prosperity was the more piteous is the adversity. God takes notice of it here as an aggravation of the present calamity of Israel: You are taken up in the lips of talkers and are an infamy of the people, Eze_36:3. All the talk of the country about was concerning the overthrow of the Jewish nation; and every one that spoke of it had some peevish ill-natured reflection or other upon them. They were the scorning of those that were at ease and the contempt of the proud, Psa_123:4. There are some that are noted for talkers, that have something to say of every body, but cannot find in their hearts to speak well of any body; God's people, among such people, were sure to be a reproach when the crown had fallen from their head. Thus it was the lot of Christianity, in its suffering days, to be every where spoken against.

JAMISON, "Eze_36:1-38. Israel avenged of her foes, and restored, first to inward holiness, then to outward prosperity.

The distinction between Israel and the heathen (as Edom) is: Israel has a covenant relation to God ensuring restoration after chastisement, so that the heathen’s hope of getting possession of the elect people’s inheritance must fail, and they themselves be made desolate (Eze_36:1-15). The reason for the chastisement of Israel was Israel’s sin and profanation of God’s name (Eze_36:16-21). God has good in store for Israel, for His own name’s sake, to revive His people; first, by a spiritual renewal of their hearts, and, next, by an external restoration to prosperity (Eze_36:22-33). The result is that the heathen shall be impressed with the power and goodness of God manifested so palpably towards the restored people (Eze_36:34-38).mountains of Israel — in contrast to “Mount Seir” of the previous prophecy. They are here personified; Israel’s elevation is moral, not merely physical, as Edom’s. Her hills are “the everlasting hills” of Jacob’s prophecy (Gen_49:26). “The enemy” (Edom, the singled-out representative of all God’s foes), with a shout of exultation, “Aha!” had claimed, as the nearest kinsman of Israel (the brother of their father Esau), his vacated inheritance; as much as to say, the so-called “everlasting” inheritance of Israel and of the

2

“hills,” which typified the unmoved perpetuity of it (Psa_125:1, Psa_125:2), has come to an end, in spite of the promise of God, and has become “ours” (compare Deu_32:13; Deu_33:15).

K&D 1-15, "The Restoration and Blessing of IsraelEze_36:1. And thou, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah: Eze_36:2. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because the enemy saith concerning you, Aha! the everlasting heights have become ours for a possession: Eze_36:3. Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because, even because they lay you waste, and pant for you round about, so that ye have become a possession to the remnant of the nations, and have come to the talk of the tongue and gossip of the people: Eze_36:4. Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and hills, to the low places and valleys, and to the waste ruins and the forsaken cities, which have become a prey and derision to the remnant of the nations round about; Eze_36:5. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Truly in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the remnant of the nations, and against Edom altogether, which have made my land a possession for themselves in all joy of heart, in contempt of soul, to empty it out for booty. Eze_36:6. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the low places and valleys, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, in my jealousy and fury have I spoken, because ye have borne the disgrace of the nations. Eze_36:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I, I have lifted up my hand; truly the nations round about you, they shall bear their disgrace. Eze_36:8. But ye, ye mountains of Israel, shall put forth your branches, and bear your fruit to my people Israel; for they will soon come. Eze_36:9. For, behold, I will deal with you, and turn toward you, and ye shall be tilled and sown. Eze_36:10. I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel at once; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the ruins built. Eze_36:11. And I will multiply upon you man and beast; they shall multiply and be fruitful: and I will make you inhabited as in your former time, and do more good to you than in your earlier days; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Eze_36:12. I will cause men, my people Israel, to walk upon you; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be an inheritance to them, and make them childless no more. Eze_36:13. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because they say to you, “Thou art a devourer of men, and hast made thy people childless;” Eze_36:14. Therefore thou shalt no more devour men, and no more cause thy people to stumble, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Eze_36:15. And I will no more cause thee to hear the scoffing of the nations, and the disgrace of the nations thou shalt bear no more, and shalt no more cause thy people to stumble, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah.This prophecy is uttered concerning the land of Israel, as is plainly declared in Eze_36:6; whereas in Eze_36:1 and Eze_36:4 the mountains of Israel are mentioned instead of the land, in antithesis to the mountains of Seir (Eze_35:1-15; see the comm. on Eze_35:12). The promise takes throughout the form of antithesis to the threat against Edom in Eze_35:1-15. Because Edom rejoices that the Holy Land, which has been laid waste, has fallen to it for a possession, therefore shall the devastated land be cultivated and sown again, and be inhabited by Israel as in the former time. The heathen nations round about shall, on the other hand, bear their disgrace; Edom, as we have already observed, being expanded, so far as the idea is concerned, into all the heathen nations surrounding

3

Israel (Eze_36:3-7). In Eze_36:2, יב the enemy, is mentioned in quite a general ,האmanner; and what has already been stated concerning Edom in Eze_35:5 and Eze_35:10, is her predicted of the enemy. In Eze_36:3 and Eze_36:4 this enemy is designated as a remnant of the heathen nations; and it is not till Eze_36:5 that it is more precisely defined by the clause, “and all Edom altogether.” The ים ג round about (אשר, Eze_36:4, compared with Eze_36:3) are the heathen nations which are threatened with destruction in Ezekiel 25 and 26, on account of their malicious rejoicing at the devastation of Jerusalem and Judah. This serves to explain the fact that these nations are designated as שארית ים the rest, or remnant of the heathen nations, which ,הגpresupposes that the judgment has fallen upon them, and that only a remnant of them is left, which remnant desires to take possession of the devastated land of Israel. The epithet applied to this land, ת everlasting, i.e., primeval heights, points back to the ,במת גבע לם ע of Gen_49:26 and Deu_33:15, and is chosen for the purpose of representing the land as a possession secured to the people of Israel by primeval promises, in consequence of which the attempt of the enemy to seize upon this land has become a sin against the Lord God. The indignation at such a sin is expressed in the emotional character of the address. As Ewald has aptly observed, “Ezekiel is seized with unusual fire, so that after the brief statement in Eze_36:2 'therefore' is repeated five times, the charges brought against these foes forcing themselves in again and again, before the prophecy settles calmly upon the mountains of Israel, to which it was really intended to apply.” For יען ת .see the comm. on Eze_13:10 ,ביען שמ is an infinitive Kal, formed after the analogy of the verbs ל'ה (cf. Ewald, §238e), from שמם, to be waste, to devastate, as in Dan_8:13; Dan_9:27; Dan_12:11, and is not to be taken in the sense of נשם, after Isa_42:14, as Hitzig supposes. שאף, to pant for a thing; here it is equivalent to snapping at anything. This is required by a comparison with Eze_36:4, where היה לבז corresponds to ת שמ ללעג and ,ושאף to 'תעלו על שפת שפת In the connection .וגו ן שפה ,לש signifies the lip as an organ of speech, or, more precisely, the words spoken; and ן the ,לשtongue, is personified, and stands for איש ן לש (Psa_140:12), a tongue-man, i.e., a talker.

In Eze_36:4 the idea expressed in “the mountains of Israel” is expanded into mountains, hills, lowlands, and valleys (cf. Eze_31:12; Eze_32:5-6); and this periphrastic description of the land is more minutely defined by the additional clause, “waste ruins and forsaken cities.” אם לא in Eze_36:5 is the particle used in oaths (cf. Eze_5:11, etc.); and the perfect דברתי is not merely prophetic, but also a preterite. God has already uttered a threatening word concerning the nations round about in Ezekiel 25, 26, and Eze_35:1-15; and here He once more declares that they shall bear their disgrace. אש קנאח is the fiery jealousy of wrath. כלא is an Aramean form for כלה (Eze_35:15). For בשאט למען see Eze_25:6. In the expression ,נפש מגרשה לבז noisserp, which has been rendered in various ways, we agree with Gesenius and others in regarding מגרש as an Aramean form of the infinitive of גרש, with the meaning to empty out, which is confirmed by the Syriac; for מגרש cannot be a substantive, on account of the למען; and Hitzig's conjecture, that לבז should be pointed לבז, and the clause rendered “to plunder its produce,” is precluded by the fact that the separation of the preposition למען by the insertion of a word between, is unexampled, to say nothing of the fact that ,ל

4

מגרש does not mean produce at all. The thought expressed in Eze_36:6 and Eze_36:7 is the following: because Israel has hitherto borne the contempt of the heathen, the heathen shall now bear their own contempt. The lifting of the hand is a gesture employed in taking an oath, as in Eze_20:6, etc. But the land of Israel is to receive a blessing. This blessing is described in Eze_36:8 in general terms, as the bearing of fruit by the mountains, i.e., by the land of Israel; and its speedy commencement is predicted. It is then depicted in detail in Eze_36:9. In the clause כי קרבו א the Israelites are ,לבnot to be regarded as the subject, as Kliefoth supposes, in which case their speedy return from exile would be announced. The כי shows that this cannot be the meaning; for it is immediately preceded by 'לעמי yb 'יש , which precludes the supposition that, when speaking of the mountains, Ezekiel had the inhabitants in his mind. The promised blessings are the subject, or the branches and fruits, which the mountains are to bear. Nearly all the commentators have agreed in adopting this explanation of the words, after the analogy of Isa_56:1. With the כי in Eze_36:9 the carrying out of the blessing promised is appended in the form of a reason assigned for the general promise. The mountains shall be cultivated, the men upon them, viz., all Israel, multiplied, the desolated cities rebuilt, so that Israel shall dwell in the land as in the former time, and be fruitful and blessed. This promise was no doubt fulfilled in certain weak beginnings after the return of a portion of the people under Zerubbabel and Ezra; but the multiplying and blessing, experienced by those who returned from Babylon, did not take place till long after the salvation promised here, and more especially in Eze_36:12-15.

According to Eze_36:12, the land is to become the inheritance of the people Israel, and will no more make the Israelites childless, or (according to Eze_36:14) cause them to stumble; and the people are no more to bear the contempt of the heathen. But that portion of the nation which returned from exile not only continued under the rule of the heathen, but had also in various ways to bear the contempt of the heathen still; and eventually, because Israel not only stumbled, but fell very low through the rejection of its Saviour, it was scattered again out of the land among the heathen, and the land was utterly wasted...until this day. In Eze_36:12 the masculine suffix attached to וירשוrefers to the land regarded as הר, which is also the subject to היית and סף It is not till .תEze_36:13, Eze_36:14, where the idea of the land becomes so prominent, that the feminine is used. שכלם, to make them (the Israelites) childless, or bereaved, is explained in Eze_36:13, Eze_36:14 by אכלת, devouring men. That the land devours its inhabitants, is what the spies say of the land of Canaan in Num_13:32; and in 2Ki_2:19is it affirmed of the district of Jericho that it causes משכלת, i.e., miscarriages, on account of its bad water. The latter passage does not come into consideration; but the former (Num_13:32) probably does, and Ezekiel evidently refers to this. For there is no doubt whatever that he explains or expands שכלם by אכלת אדם yb. Although, for example, the charge that the land devours men is brought against it by the enemies or adversaries of Israel (אמרים ,they say to you), the truth of the charge is admitted ,לכםsince it is said that the land shall henceforth no more devour men, though without a repetition of the שכל. But the sense in which Ezekiel affirms of the land that it had been אכלת י and was henceforth to be so no more, is determined by ,אדם וג לא תכשלי ד ,אthou wilt no more cause thy people to stumble, which is added in Eze_36:14 in the place of משכלת י ג היית in Eze_36:14. Hence the land became a devourer of men by the fact

5

that it caused its people to stumble, i.e., entangled them in sins (the Keri תשכלי for תכשלי is a bad conjecture, the incorrectness of which is placed beyond all doubt by the לא־תכשלי ד ע of Eze_36:15). Consequently we cannot understand the “devouring of men,” after Num_13:32, as signifying that, on account of its situation and fruitfulness, the land is an apple of discord, for the possession of which the nations strive with one another, so that the inhabitants are destroyed, or at all events we must not restrict the meaning to this; and still less can we agree with Ewald and Hitzig in thinking of the restless hurrying and driving by which individual men were of necessity rapidly swept away. If the sweeping away of the population so connected with the stumbling, the people are devoured by the consequences of their sins, i.e., by the penal judgment, unfruitfulness, pestilence, and war, with which God threatened Israel for its apostasy from Him. These judgments had depopulated the land; and this fact was attributed by the heathen in their own way to the land, and thrown in the teeth of the Israelites as a disgrace. The Lord will henceforth remove this charge, and take away from the heathen all occasion to despise His people, namely, by bestowing upon His land and people the blessing which He promised in the law to those who kept His commandments. But this can only be done by His removing the occasion to stumble or sin, i.e., according to Eze_36:25. (compared with Eze_11:18.), by His cleansing His people from all uncleanness and idols, and giving them a new heart and a new spirit. The Keri יי ג in Eze_36:13, Eze_36:14, and Eze_36:15 is a needless alteration of the Chetib י - .ג In Eze_36:15 this promise is rounded off and concluded by another summing up of the principal thoughts.

COFFMAN 1-7, "Verse 1

ISRAEL'S RETURN TO PALESTINE; AND THE NEW COVENANT

This chapter falls into two major divisions: (1) the external restoration of Israel to their homeland (Ezekiel 36:1-15), and (2) the spiritual restoration of Israel (Ezekiel 36:16-38). The smaller subdivisions will be noted below in our commentary.

THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL EDOM

Ezekiel 36:1-7

"And thou, son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye 6

mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: because the enemy hath said against you, Aha! and the ancient high places are ours in possession, therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken up in the lips of the talkers, and the evil report of the people; therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and a derision to the residue of the nations that are round about; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: surely in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land unto themselves for a possession with all the joy of their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because ye have borne the shame of the nations: therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I have sworn, saying, Surely the nations that are round about you, they shall bear their shame."

"To the mountains and to the hills of Israel" (Ezekiel 36:1,4,6)). The hills are included here as one of the outstanding physical features of Palestine and have no reference to the idolatrous worship associated with the high places during Israel's residence there.

"Throughout the first fifteen verses of this chapter, there is a studied contrast with what was stated concerning Edom in the previous chapter."[1] Many have pointed out that Ezekiel 35 and the first fifteen verses here are actually a single chapter.

"These first seven verses betray an intensity of patriotic feeling not often seen in Ezekiel; it seems that the outrages of the nations against Israel are still in his mind as he begins this prophecy of future blessing for Israel."[2]

Note that the word "therefore" is used six times in this single paragraph, followed each time with the words, "Thus saith the Lord."

7

"On the lip of the talkers ..." (Ezekiel 36:3). This is an effective expression for the slanderers who were taking advantage of Israel's being cast out of Palestine to push their blasphemous charges that Jehovah was a defunct god, no longer able to protect or bless his people. It was precisely this attitude of the pagan nations of that era that required God's destruction of them. In the universally accepted theology of the pagan world of that time, the only gods were the local deities, identified with geographical limitations; and many of the Hebrews (Jonah, for example) held the same view. Therefore, if disaster befell a people, it proved the incompetence and weakness of the god of their land. This emphasizes what a compound tragedy the apostasy of Israel actually was, not merely for themselves, but for all men. The apostasy of Israel demanded God's destruction of their state and the captivity of their people; and then the pagan reaction and blasphemous charges based on that disaster required the destruction of the pagan world itself.

"I have spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom ..." (Ezekiel 36:5). This emphasizes the connection with Ezekiel 35. "Edom here stands as a representative of all pagan nations."[3]

A summary of the meaning of these first fifteen verses is that, "The highlands of Seir (Edom) which seemed to be beginning an era of great prosperity will lose all the trump cards they think they hold; and the highlands of Israel, which seemed to have lost all hope and all power of recovery, will not only survive but will enjoy a period of unparalleled prosperity, to the disappointment of their enemies."[4]

TRAPP, "Verse 1

Ezekiel 36:1 Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:

Ver. 1. Prophesy to the mountains of Israel.] Better things than thou didst to Mount Seir in the foregoing chapter. See Isaiah 3:10-11. {See Trapp on "Isaiah 3:10"} {See

8

Trapp on "Isaiah 3:11"}

Ye mountains.] That is, ye mountaineers, qui sere asperi atque inculti. Sed

“ Nemo adeo ferus est qui non mitescere possit,

Si modo culturae patientem accommodet aurem. ”

- Horace

POOLE, "The land of Israel is comforted with a prospect of the ruin of its spiteful neighbours, and of its own blessings promised by God, Ezekiel 36:1-15. Israel was rejected for their sin, and shall be restored with blessings for the sake of God’s name only, Ezekiel 36:16-38.

Also, Heb. And.

Prophesy, declare from me, and in my word,

unto the mountains of Israel; the inhabitants wasted or in captivity, speak concerning the mountains, that is, the land of Judah and Israel, which was a country full of mountains, which were now horrid, unplanted.

Hear what further revenge I will take on Edom, and on other nations that wasted you: this continued to the end of the 6th verse. And hear what good I will do to you: this from the 7th to the end of the chapter.

9

The word of the Lord; the severe judgments against your enemies, his gracious promises to you.

EBC, "The prophet’s mind is still occupied with the sin of Edom as he turns in the thirty-sixth chapter to depict the future of the land of Israel. The opening verses of the chapter (Ezekiel 36:1-7) betray an intensity of patriotic feeling not often expressed by Ezekiel. The utterance of the single idea which he wishes to express seems to be impeded by the multitude of reflections that throng upon him as he apostrophises "the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate ruins and deserted cities" of his native country (Ezekiel 36:4). The land is conceived as conscious of the shame and reproach that rest upon it; and all the elements that might be supposed to make up the consciousness of the land-its naked desolation. the tread of alien feet, the ravages of war, and the derisive talk of the surrounding heathen (Edom being specially in view)-present themselves to the mind of the prophet before he can utter the message with which he is charged: "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I speak in My jealousy and My anger, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen: therefore I lift up My hand, Surely the nations that are round about you-even they shall bear their shame" (Ezekiel 36:6-7).

The jealousy of Jehovah is here His holy resentment against indignities done to Himself, and this attribute of the divine nature is now enlisted on the side of Israel because of the despite which the heathen had heaped on His land. But it is noteworthy that it is through the land and not the people that this feeling is first called into operation. Israel is still sinful and alienated from God; but the honour of Jehovah is bound up with the land not less than with the nation, and it is in reference to it that the necessity of vindicating His holy name first becomes apparent. There is what we might almost venture to call a divine patriotism, which is stirred into activity by the desolate condition of the land where the worship of the true God should be celebrated. On this feature of Jehovah’s character Ezekiel builds the assurance of his people’s redemption. The idea expressed by the verses is simply the certainty that Canaan shall be recovered from the heathen dominion for the purposes of the kingdom of God.

The following verses (Ezekiel 36:8-15) speak of the positive aspects of the approaching deliverance. Continuing his apostrophe to the mountains of Israel, the prophet describes the transformation which is to pass over them in view of the

10

return of the exiled nation, which is now on the eve of accomplishment (Ezekiel 36:8). It might almost seem as if the return of the inhabitants were here treated as a mere incident of the rehabilitation of the land. That of course is only an appearance caused by the peculiar standpoint assumed throughout these chapters. Ezekiel was not one who could look on complacently

"Where wealth accumulates and men decay";

nor was he indifferent to the social welfare of his people. On the contrary we have seen from chapter 34 that he regards that as a supreme interest in the future kingdom of God. And even in this passage he does not make the interests of humanity subservient to those of nature. His leading idea is a reunion of land and people under happier auspices than had obtained of old. Formerly the land, in mysterious sympathy with the mind of Jehovah, had seemed to be animated by a hostile disposition towards its inhabitants. The reluctant and niggardly subsistence that had been wrung from the soil justified the evil report which the spies had brought up of it at the first as a "land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof." [Numbers 13:32] Its inhospitable character was known among the heathen, so that it bore the reproach of being a land that "devoured men and bereaved its nation." But in the glorious future all this will be changed in harmony with Jehovah’s altered relations with His people. In the language of a later prophet, [Isaiah 42:4] the land shall be "married" to Jehovah, and endowed with exuberant fertility. Yielding its fruits freely and generously, it will wipe off the reproach of the heathen; its cities shall be inhabited, its ruins rebuilt, and man and beast multiplied on its surface, so that its last state shall be better than its first (Ezekiel 36:11). And those who till it and enjoy the benefits of its wonderful transformation shall be none other than the house of Israel, for whose sins it had borne the reproach of barrenness in the past (Ezekiel 36:12-15).

III.

The next passage (Ezekiel 36:16-38) deals more with the renewal of the nation than with that of the land; and thus forms a link of connection between the main theme of this chapter and that of chapter 37. It contains the clearest and most

11

comprehensive statement of the process of redemption to be found in the whole book, exhibiting as it does in logical order all the elements which enter into the divine scheme of salvation. The fact that it is inserted just at this point affords a fresh illustration of the importance attached by the prophet to the religious associations which gathered round the Holy Land. The land indeed is still the pivot on which his thoughts turn; he starts from it in his short review of God’s past judgments on His people, and finally returns to it in summing up the world-wide effects of His gracious dealings with them in the immediate future. Although the connection of ideas is singularly clear, the passage throws so much light on the deepest theological conceptions of Ezekiel that it will be well to recapitulate the principal steps of the argument.

We need not linger on the cause of the rejection of Israel, for here the prophet only repeats the main lesson which we have found so often enforced in the first part of his book. Israel went into exile because its manner of life as a nation had been abhorrent to Jehovah, and it had defiled the land which was Jehovah’s house. As in chapter 22 and elsewhere, bloodshed and idols are the chief emblems of the people’s sinful condition; these constitute a real physical defilement of the land, which must be punished by the eviction of its inhabitants: "So I poured out My wrath upon them [on account of the blood which they had shed upon the land, and the idols wherewith they had polluted it]: and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries."

Thus the Exile was necessary for the vindication of Jehovah’s holiness as reflected in the sanctity of His land. But the effect of the dispersion on other nations was such as to compromise the honour of Israel’s God in another direction. Knowing Jehovah only as a tribal god, the heathen naturally concluded that He had been too feeble to protect His land from invasion and His people from captivity. They could not penetrate to the moral reasons which rendered the chastisement inevitable; they only saw that these were Jehovah’s people, and yet they were gone forth out of His land (Ezekiel 36:20), and drew the natural inference. The impression thus produced by the presence of Israelites amongst the heathen was derogatory to the majesty of Jehovah, and obscured the knowledge of the true principles of His government which was destined to extend to all the earth. This is all that seems to be meant by the expression "profaned My holy name." It is not implied that the exiles scandalised the heathen by their vicious lives, and so brought disgrace on "that glorious name by which they were called," [James 2:7] although that idea is implied

12

in Ezekiel 12:16. The profanation spoken of here was caused directly not by the sin but by the calamities of Israel. Yet it was their sins which brought down judgment upon them, and so indirectly gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. There were probably already some of Ezekiel’s compatriots who realised the bitterness of the thought that their fate was the means of bringing discredit on their God. Their experience would be similar to that of the lonely exile who composed the forty-second psalm:-

"As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me;

While they say daily unto me,

Where is thy God?". [Psalms 42:10]

Now in this fact the prophet recognises an absolute ground of confidence in Israel’s restoration. Jehovah cannot endure that His name should thus be held up to derision before the eyes of mankind. To allow this would be to frustrate the end of His government of the world, which is to manifest His Godhead in such a way that all men shall be brought to acknowledge it.

Although He is known as yet only as the national God of a particular people, He must be disclosed to the world as all that the inspired teachers of Israel know Him to be-the one Being worthy of the homage of the human heart. There must be some way by which His name can be sanctified before the heathen, some means of reconciling the partial revelation of His holiness in Israel’s dispersion with the complete manifestation of His power to the world at large. And this reconciliation can only be effected through the redemption of Israel. God cannot disown His ancient people, for that would be to stultify the whole past revelation of His character and leave the name by which He had made Himself known to contempt. That is divinely impossible; and therefore Jehovah must carry through His purpose by sanctifying Himself in the salvation of Israel. The outward token of salvation will be their restoration to their own land (Ezekiel 36:24); but the inward reality of it will be a change in the national character which will make their dwelling in the land

13

consistent with the revelation of Jehovah’s holiness already given by their banishment from it.

At this point accordingly (Ezekiel 36:25) Ezekiel passes to speak of the spiritual process of regeneration by which Israel is to be transformed into a true people of God. This is a necessary part of the sanctification of the divine name before the world. The new life of the people will reveal the character of the God whom they serve, and the change will explain the calamities that had befallen them in the past. The world will thus see "that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity," [Ezekiel 39:23] and will understand the holiness which the true God requires in His worshippers. But for the present the prophet’s thoughts are concentrated on the operations of the divine grace by which the renewal is effected. His analysis of the process of conversion is profoundly instructive, and anticipates to a remarkable degree the teaching of the Old Testament. We shall content ourselves at present with merely enumerating the different parts of the process. The first step is the removal of the impurities contracted by past transgressions. This is represented under the figure of sprinkling with clean water, suggested by the ablutions or lustrations which are so common a feature of the Levitical ritual (Ezekiel 36:25). The truth symbolised is the forgiveness of sins, the act of grace which takes away the effect of moral uncleanness as a barrier to fellowship with God. The second point is what is properly called regeneration, the giving of a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). The stony heart of the old nation, whose obduracy had dismayed so many prophets, making them feel that they had spent their labour for nought and in vain, shall be taken away, and instead of it they shall receive a heart of flesh, sensitive to spiritual influences and responsive to the divine will. And to this is added in the third place the promise of the Spirit of God to be in them as the ruling principle of a new life of obedience to the law of God (Ezekiel 36:27). The law, both moral and ceremonial, is the expression of Jehovah’s holy nature, and both the will and the power to keep it perfectly must proceed from the indwelling of His Holy Spirit in the people, It is thus Jehovah Himself who "saves" the people "out of all their uncleanness" (Ezekiel 36:29), caused by the depravity and infirmity of their natural hearts. When these conditions are realised the harmony between Jehovah and Israel will be completely restored: He will be their God, and they shall be His people. They shall dwell forever in the land promised to their fathers; and the blessing of God resting on land and people will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that they receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations (Ezekiel 36:28-30).

14

Having thus described the process of salvation as from first to last the work of Jehovah, the prophet proceeds to consider the impression which it will produce first on Israel and then on the surrounding nations (Ezekiel 36:31-36). On Israel the effect of the goodness of God will be to lead them to repentance. Remembering what their past history has been. and contrasting it with the blessedness they now enjoy, they shall be filled with shame and self-contempt, loathing themselves for their iniquities and their abominations. It is not meant that all feelings of joy and gratitude will be swallowed up in the consciousness of unworthiness; but this is the feeling that will be called forth by the memory of their past transgressions. Their horror of sin will be such that they cannot think of what they have been without the deepest compunction and self-abasement. And this sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, reacting on their consciousness of themselves, will be the best moral guarantee against their relapse into the uncleanness from which they have been delivered.

To the heathen, on the other hand, the state of Israel will be a convincing demonstration of the power and godhead of Jehovah.. Men will say, "Yonder land, which was desolate, has become like the garden of Eden; and the cities that were ruined and waste and destroyed are fenced and inhabited" (Ezekiel 36:35). They will know that it is Jehovah’s doing, and it will be marvellous in their eyes.

The last two verses seem to be an appendix. They deal with a special feature of the restoration, about which the minds of the exiles may have been exercised in thinking of the possibility of their deliverance. Where was the population of the new Israel to come from? The population of Judah must have been terribly reduced by the disastrous wars that had desolated the country since the time of Hezekiah. How was it possible, with a few thousands in exile, and a miserable remnant left in the land, to build up a strong and prosperous nation? This thought of theirs is met by the announcement of a great increase of the inhabitants of the land. Jehovah is ready to meet the questionings of human anxiety on this point: He will "let Himself be inquired of" for this. The remembrance of the sacrificial flocks that used to throng the streets leading to the Temple at the time of the great festivals supplies Ezekiel with an image of the teeming population that shall be in all the cities of Canaan when this prophecy is fulfilled.

15

Such is in outline the scheme of redemption which Ezekiel presents to the minds of his readers. We shall reserve a fuller consideration of its more important doctrines for a separate chapter. One general application of its teaching, however, may be pointed out before leaving the subject. We see that for Ezekiel the mysteries and perplexities of the divine government find their solution in the idea of redemption. He is aware of the false impression necessarily produced on the heathen mind by God’s dealings with His people, as long as the process is incomplete. On account of Israel’s sin the revelation of God in providence is gradual and fragmentary, and seems even for a time to defeat its own end. The omnipotence of God was obscured by the very act of vindicating His holiness; and what was in itself a great step towards the complete revelation of His character came on the world in the first instance as an evidence of His impotence. But the prophet, looking beyond this to the final effect of God’s work upon the world, sees that Jehovah can be truly known only in the manifestation of His redeeming grace. All the enigmas and contradictions that arise from imperfect comprehension of His purpose find their answer in this truth, that God will yet redeem Israel from its iniquities. God is His own interpreter, and when His work of salvation is finished the result will be a conclusive demonstration of that lofty conception of God to which the prophet had attained.

Now this argument of Ezekiel’s illustrates a principle of wide application. Many objections that are advanced against the theistic view of the universe seem to proceed on the assumption that the actual state of the world adequately represents the mind of its Creator. The heathen of Ezekiel’s day have their modern representatives amongst dispassionate critics of Providence like J. S. Mill, who prove to their own satisfaction that the world cannot be the work of a being answering to the Christian idea of God. Do what you will, they say, to minimise the Evils of existence, there is still an amount of undeniable pain and misery in the world which is fatal to your doctrine of an all-powerful and perfectly good Creator. Omnipotence could, and benevolence would find a remedy; the Author of the universe, therefore, cannot possess both. God, in short, if there be a God, may be benevolent, or He may be omnipotent; but if benevolent He is not omnipotent, and if omnipotent He cannot be benevolent. How very convincing this is-from the standpoint of the neutral, non-Christian observer! And how poor a defence is sometimes made by the optimism which tries to make out that most evils are blessings in disguise, and the rest not worth minding! The Christian religion rises superior to such criticism mainly in virtue of its living faith in redemption. It does

16

not explain away evil, nor does it profess to account for its origin. It speaks of the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together even until now. But it also describes the creation as waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. It teaches us to discover in history the unfolding of a purpose of redemption the end of which will be the deliverance of mankind from the dominion of sin and their eternal blessedness in the kingdom of our God and His Christ. What Ezekiel foresaw in the form of a national restoration will be accomplished in a world-wide salvation, in a new heavens and a new earth, where there shall be no more curse. But meanwhile to judge of God from what is, apart from what is yet to be revealed, is to repeat the mistake of those who judge Jehovah to be an effete tribal deity because He had suffered His people to go forth out of their land. Those who have been brought into sympathy with the divine purpose, and have experienced the power of the Spirit of God in subduing the evil of their own hearts, can hold with unwavering confidence the hope of a universal victory of good over evil; and in the light of that hope the mysteries that surround the moral government of God cease to disturb their faith in the eternal Love which labours patiently and unceasingly for the redemption of man.

THE CONVERSION OF ISRAEL

IN one of our earlier chapters (Chapter 5 above) we had occasion to notice some theological principles which appear to have guided the prophet’s thinking from the beginning. It was evident even then that these principles pointed towards a definite theory of the conversion of Israel and the process by which it was to be effected. In subsequent prophecies we have seen how constantly Ezekiel’s thoughts revert to this theme, as now one aspect of it and then another is disclosed to him. We have also glanced at one passage. [Ezekiel 36:16-38] which seemed to be a connected statement of the divine procedure as bearing on the restoration of Israel. But we have now reached a stage in the exposition where all this lies behind us. In the chapters that remain to be considered the regeneration of the people is assumed to have taken place; their religion and their morality are regarded as established on a stable and permanent basis, and all that has to be done is to describe the institutions by which the benefits of salvation may be conserved and handed down from age to age of the Messianic dispensation. The present is therefore a fitting opportunity for an attempt to describe Ezekiel’s doctrine of conversion as a whole. It is all the more desirable that the attempt should be made because the national salvation is the central interest of the whole book; and if we can understand the prophet’s teaching on this subject,

17

we shall have the key to his whole system of theology.

1. The first point to be noticed, and the one most characteristic of Ezekiel, is the divine motive for the redemption of Israel-Jehovah’s regard for His own name. This thought finds expression in many parts of the book, but nowhere more clearly than in the twenty-second verse of the thirty-sixth chapter: "Not for your sakes do I act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went." [Ezekiel 36:22] Similarly in the thirty-second verse: "Not for your sakes do I act, saith the Lord Jehovah, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." [Ezekiel 36:32] There is an apparent harshness in these declarations which makes it easy to present them in a repellent light. They have been taken to mean that Jehovah is absolutely indifferent to the weal or woe of the people except in so far as it reflects on His own credit with the world: that He accepts the relationship between Him and Israel, but does so in the spirit of a selfish parent who exerts himself to save his child from disgrace merely in order to prevent his own name from being dragged in the mire. It would be difficult to explain how such a Being should be at all concerned about what men think of Him. If Jehovah has no interest in Israel, it is hard to see why He should be sensitive to the opinion of the rest of mankind. That is an idea of God which no man can seriously hold. and we may be certain that it is a perversion of Ezekiel’s meaning. Everything depends on how much is included in the "name" of Jehovah. If it denotes mere arbitrary power, delighting in its own exercise and the awe which it excites, then we might conceive of the divine action as ruled by a boundless egotism, to which all human interests are alike indifferent. But that is not the conception of God which Ezekiel has. He is a moral Being, one who has compassion on other things besides His own name, [Ezekiel 36:21] one who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live. [Ezekiel 18:23;, Ezekiel 33:11] But when this aspect of His character is included in the name of God, we see that regard for His name cannot mean mere regard for His own interests, as if these were opposed to the interests of His creatures; but means the desire to be known as He is, as a God of mercy and righteousness as well as of infinite power.

The name of God is that by which He is known amongst men. It is more than His honour or reputation, although that is included in it according to Hebrew idiom; it is the expression of His character or His personality. To act for His name’s sake therefore, is to act so that His true character may be more fully revealed, and so that

18

men’s thoughts of Him may more truly correspond to that which in Himself He is. There is plainly nothing in this inconsistent with the deepest interest in men’s spiritual well-being. Jehovah is the God of salvation, and desires to reveal Himself as such; and whether we say that He saves men in order that He may be known as a Saviour, or that He makes Himself known in order to save them, does not make any real difference. Revelation and redemption are one thing. And when Ezekiel says that regard for His own name is the supreme motive of Jehovah’s action, he does not teach that Jehovah is uninfluenced by care for man; if the question had been put to him, he would have said that care for man is one of the attributes included in the Name which Jehovah is concerned to reveal.

The real meaning of Ezekiel’s doctrine will perhaps be best understood from its negative statement. What is meant to be excluded by the expression "not for your sakes"? It might no doubt mean, "not because I care at all for you"; but that we have seen to be inconsistent with other aspects of Ezekiel’s teaching about the divine character. All that it necessarily implies is "not for any good that I find in you." It is a protest against the idea of Pharisaic self-righteousness that a man may have a legal claim upon God through his own merits. It is true that that was not a prevalent notion amongst the people in the time of Ezekiel. But their state of mind was one in which such a thought might easily arise. They were convinced of having been entirely in the wrong in their conceptions of the relation between them and Jehovah. The pagan notion that the people is indispensable to the god on account of a physical bond between them had broken down in the recent experience of Israel, and with it had vanished every natural ground for the hope of salvation. In such circumstances the promise of deliverance would naturally raise the thought that there must after all be something in Israel that was pleasing to Jehovah, and that the prophet’s denunciations of their past sins were overdone. In order to guard against that error Ezekiel explicitly asserts, what was involved in the whole of his teaching, that the mercy of God was not called forth by any good in Israel, but that nevertheless there are immutable reasons in the divine nature on which the certainty of Israel’s redemption may be built.

The truth here taught is therefore, in theological language, the sovereignty of the divine grace. Ezekiel’s statement of it is liable to all the distortions and misrepresentations to which that doctrine has been subjected at the hands both of its friends and its enemies; but when fairly treated it is no more objectionable than any other expression of the same truth to be found in Scripture. In Ezekiel’s case it

19

was the result of a penetrating analysis of the moral condition of his people which led him to see that there was nothing in them to suggest the possibility of their being restored. It is only when he falls back on the thought of what God is, on the divine necessity of vindicating His holiness in the salvation of His people, that his faith in Israel’s future finds a sure point of support. And so in general a profound sense of human sinfulness will always throw the mind back on the idea of God as the one immovable ground of confidence in the ultimate redemption of the individual and the world. When the doctrine is pressed to the conclusion that God saves men in spite of themselves, and merely to display His power over them, it becomes false and pernicious, and indeed self-contradictory. But so long as we hold fast to the truth that God is love, and that the glory of God is the manifestation of His love, the doctrine of the divine sovereignty only expresses the unchangeableness of that love and its final victory over the sin of the world.

2. The intellectual side of the conversion of Israel is the acceptance of that idea of God which to the prophet is summed up in the name of Jehovah. This is expressed in the standing formula which denotes the effect of all God’s dealings with men, "They shall know that I am Jehovah." We need not, however, repeat what has been already said as to the meaning of these words. Nor shall we dwell on the effect of the national judgment as a means towards producing a right impression of Jehovah’s nature. It is possible that as time went on Ezekiel came to see that chastisement alone would not effect the moral change in the exiles which was necessary to bring them into sympathy with the divine purposes. In the early prophecy of chapter 6 the knowledge of Jehovah and the self-condemnation which accompanies it are spoken of as the direct result of His judgment on sin, [Ezekiel 6:8-10] and this undoubtedly was one element in the conversion of the people to right thoughts about God. But in all other passages this feeling of self-loathing is not the beginning but the end of conversion; it is caused by the experience of pardon and redemption following upon punishment. [Ezekiel 16:61-63;, Ezekiel 20:43-44; Ezekiel 36:31; Ezekiel 20:32] There is also another aspect of judgment which may be mentioned in passing for the sake of completeness. It is that which is expounded in the end of the twentieth chapter. There the judgment which still stands between the exiles and the return to their own land is represented as a sifting process, in which those who have undergone a spiritual change are finally separated from those who perish in their impenitence. This idea does not occur in the prophecies subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem, and it may be doubtful how it fits into the scheme of redemption there unfolded. The prophet here regards conversion as a process wholly carried through by the operation of Jehovah on the mind of the people; and what we have next to

20

consider is the steps by which this great end is accomplished. They are these two-forgiveness and regeneration.

3. The forgiveness of sins is denoted in the thirty-sixth chapter, as we have already seen, by the symbol of sprinkling with clean water. But it must not be supposed that this isolated figure is the only form in which the doctrine appears in Ezekiel’s exposition of the process of salvation. On the contrary forgiveness is the fundamental assumption of the whole argument, and is present in every promise of future blessedness to the people. For the Old Testament idea of forgiveness is extremely simple, resting as it does on the analogy of forgiveness in human life. The spiritual fact which constitutes the essence of forgiveness is the change in Jehovah’s disposition towards His people which is manifested by the renewal of those indispensable conditions of national well-being which in His anger He had taken away. The restoration of Israel to its own land is thus not simply a token of forgiveness, but the act of forgiveness itself, and the only form in which the fact could be realised in the experience of the nation. In this sense the whole of Ezekiel’s predictions of the Messianic deliverance and the glories that follow it are one continuous promise of forgiveness, setting forth the truth that Jehovah’s love to His people persists in spite of their sin, and works victoriously for their redemption and restoration to the full enjoyment of His favour. There is perhaps one point in which we discover a difference between Ezekiel’s conception and that of his predecessors. According to the common prophetic doctrine penitence, including amendment, is the moral effect of Jehovah’s chastisement, and is the necessary condition of pardon. We have seen that there is some doubt whether Ezekiel regarded repentance as the result of judgment, and the same doubt exists as to whether in the order of salvation repentance is a preliminary or a consequence of forgiveness. The truth is that the prophet appears to combine both conceptions. In urging individuals to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of God he makes repentance a necessary condition of entering it; but in describing the whole process of salvation as the work of God he makes contrition for sin the result of reflection on the goodness of Jehovah already experienced in the peaceful occupation of the land of Canaan.

4. The idea of regeneration is very prominent in Ezekiel’s teaching. The need for a radical change in the national character was impressed on him by the spectacle which he witnessed daily of evil tendencies and practices persisted in, in spite of the clearest demonstration that they were hateful to Jehovah and had been the cause of the nation’s calamities. And he does not ascribe this state of things merely to the

21

influence of tradition and public opinion and evil example, but traces it to its source in the hardness and corruption of the individual nature. It was evident that no mere change of intellectual conviction would avail to alter the currents of life among the exiles; the heart must be renewed, out of which are the issues both of personal and national life. Hence the promise of regeneration is expressed as a taking away of the stony, unimpressible heart that was in them, and putting within them a heart of flesh, a new heart and a new spirit. In exhorting individuals to repentance Ezekiel calls on them to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit, [Ezekiel 18:31] meaning that their repentance must be genuine, extending, to the inner motives and springs of action, and not be confined to outward signs of mourning. But in other connections the new heart and spirit are represented as a gift, the result of the operation of the divine grace. [Ezekiel 11:19;, Ezekiel 36:26-27]

Closely connected with this, perhaps only the same truth in another form, is the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit of God. [Ezekiel 36:27; Ezekiel 37:14] The general expectation of a new supernatural power infused into the national life in the latter days is common in the prophets. It appears in Hosea under the beautiful image of the dew, [Hosea 14:5] and in Isaiah it is expressed in the consciousness that the desolation of the land must continue "until spirit be poured upon us from on high." But [Isaiah 32:15] no earlier prophet presents the idea of the Spirit as a principle of regeneration with the precision and clearness which the doctrine assumes in the hands of Ezekiel. What in Hosea and Isaiah may be only a divine influence, quickening and developing the flagging spiritual energies of the people, is here revealed as a creative power, the source of a new life, and the beginning of all that possesses moral or spiritual worth in the people of God.

5. It only remains for us now to note the twofold effect of these operations of Jehovah’s grace in the religious and moral condition of the nation. There will be produced, in the first place, a new readiness and power of obedience to the divine commandments. [Ezekiel 11:20;, Ezekiel 36:27] Like the apostle, they will not only "consent unto the law that it is good"; [Romans 7:10] but in virtue of the new "Spirit of life" given to them, they will be in a real sense "free from the law," [Romans 8:2] because the inward impulse of their own regenerate nature will lead them to fulfil it perfectly. The inefficiency of law as a mere external authority, acting on men by hope of reward and fear of punishment, was perceived both by Jeremiah and Ezekiel almost as clearly as by Paul, although this conviction on the part of the prophets was based on observation of national depravity rather than on their

22

personal experience. It led Jeremiah to the conception of a new covenant under which Jehovah will write His law on men’s hearts; [Jeremiah 31:33] and Ezekiel expresses the same truth in the promise of a new Spirit inclining the people to walk in Jehovah’s statutes and to keep His judgments.

The second inward result of salvation is shame and self-loathing on account of past transgressions. [Ezekiel 6:9; Ezekiel 16:63; Ezekiel 20:43; Ezekiel 36:31-32] It seems strange that the prophet should dwell so much on this as a mark of Israel’s saved condition. His strong protest against the doctrine of inherited guilt in the eighteenth chapter would have led us to expect that the members of the new Israel would not be conscious of any responsibility for the sins of the old. But here, as in other instances, the conception of the personified nation proves itself a better vehicle of religious truth from the Old Testament standpoint than the religious relations of the individual. The continuity of the national consciousness sustains that profound sense of unworthiness which is an essential element of true reconciliation to God, although each individual Israelite in the kingdom of God knows that he is not accountable for the iniquity of his fathers.

This outline of the prophet’s conception of salvation illustrates the truth of the remark that Ezekiel is the first dogmatic theologian. In so far as it is the business of a theologian to exhibit the logical connection of the ideas which express man’s relation to God, Ezekiel more than any other prophet may claim the title. Truths which are the presuppositions of all prophecy are to him objects of conscious reflection, and emerge from his hands in the shape of clearly formulated doctrines. There is probably no single element of his teaching which may not be traced in the writings of his predecessors, but there is none which has not gained from him a more distinct intellectual expression. And what is specially remarkable is the manner in which the doctrines are bound together in the unity of a system. In grounding the necessity of redemption in the divine nature, Ezekiel may be said to foreshadow the theology which is often called Calvinistic or Augustinian, but which might more truly be called Pauline. Although the final remedy for the sin of the world had not yet been revealed, the scheme of redemption disclosed to Ezekiel agrees with much of the teaching of the New Testament regarding the effects of the work of Christ on the individual. Speaking of the passage Ezekiel 36:16-38 Dr. Davidson writes as follows:-

23

"Probably no passage in the Old Testament of the same extent offers so complete a parallel to New Testament doctrine, particularly to that of St. Paul. It is doubtful if the apostle quotes Ezekiel anywhere, but his line of thought entirely coincides with his. The same conceptions and in the same order belonging to both, -forgiveness (Ezekiel 36:25); regeneration, a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 36:26); the Spirit of God as the ruling power in the new life (Ezekiel 36:27); the issue of this, the keeping of the requirements of God’s law; [Ezekiel 36:27; Romans 8:4] the effect of being ‘under grace’ in softening the human heart and leading to obedience (Ezekiel 36:31; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 7:1-25); and the organic connection of Israel’s history with Jehovah’s revelation of Himself to the nations." [Ezekiel 36:33-36; Romans 11:1-36]

PETT, "Introduction

Chapter 36 Israel Will Be Restored.

This glorious picture of the restoration of Israel emphasises their spiritual restoration in the land, a restoration which will make the nations recognise that He is Yahweh. This in the end is always God’s purpose for Israel, that through them and their witness all nations will come to the light of Yahweh (Genesis 12:3; Exodus 19:6; Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6-7; Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 60:3; Isaiah 66:18; Zechariah 14:9; Zechariah 14:16-21).

The idea of ‘Israel’ has always been both inclusive and exclusive. Those of any nation who sought to enter the covenant with Yahweh were welcomed and adopted into Israel (Exodus 12:48). Those who disobeyed His covenant would be rejected (Exodus 32:33; Leviticus 20:6; Hosea 1:9; Zephaniah 1:4-6; Romans 11:20. That indeed was the significance of the death penalty for many transgressions in the Law. They were cut off from Israel). Thus the stranger was officially always welcomed and could become an Israelite by adoption, circumcision and commitment (Exodus 12:48; Deuteronomy 23:3 also assumes it with reservations). Indeed a great multitude from many nations were so adopted in Exodus 12:38, and entered into the covenant at Sinai. Throughout Israel’s history the same happened, and thus we have such people as Uriah the Hittite clearly recognised as Israelites.

24

The Jews in the period before the birth of Jesus also recognised Gentiles who turned to Israel’s God, and were circumcised, as on equality with them (in theory at least). And the great controversy over circumcision in the early church was precisely because Christians were seen as becoming a part of the true Israel, as Paul regularly stressed (Romans 11:17; Galatians 3:7; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:13-14; Ephesians 2:19). Indeed he saw Israel as an olive tree into which branches could be grafted, and from which branches could be cut off. Believing Gentiles were grafted in, as they always had been. Unbelieving Jews were cut off. And if unbelieving Jews wished to be restored to being Israelites they must be grafted in again by believing (Hosea 2:23; Romans 11:17; Romans 11:23). It was the church which was now the true Israel (Galatians 6:16; Revelation 7:4-8; Revelation 12:17).

Thus Peter and James could describe Christians as ‘the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion’ (James 1:1) or as ‘the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion’ (1 Peter 1:1) (the Dispersion was the name given to Jews scattered around the world). Neither give any hint that they are distinguishing between Jewish and Gentile Christians, which would be remarkable if it were so, especially as Peter in his letter refers to Gentiles as non-Christians.

So ‘Israel’ has always been a fluid conception and the church was seen to be Israel in truth, not just some vague idea of a ‘spiritual Israel’. Indeed the above facts exclude anyone else as being finally seen as Israel by the church. The Jews were the Jews. The church was the true Israel, foreknown by God (Romans 11:2 compare Romans 8:29). It is true that Paul calls the Jews ‘Israel’ in Romans 9-11, but he also specifically says there that they were not really Israel (Romans 9:6). The elect were Israel. The rest were blinded. Indeed all who are truly Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). So he did not see the old Israel as really Israel any more. It was not a question of Israel being superseded by the church, the church was seen as the true continuation of Israel. We must bear this in mind as we consider this chapter.

The first part of the chapter splits into two parts. Ezekiel 36:1-7 reflect on God’s judgment on the surrounding neighbours, and Ezekiel 36:8-15 confirm the blessing that is to come on Israel.

25

Verse 1-2

“And you son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh. Because the enemy has said against you, “Aha!”, and “The ancient high places are ours in possession”.

Having spoken words of doom to Mount Seir, Yahweh now spoke to the mountains of Israel. He gave as the background against which He was going to work in restoration the cynicism of Edom, which reflected on Himself. Firstly they had said, “Aha!” in a knowing way. They had cast doubts on what Yahweh was doing, and had hinted that He was powerless and unable to help His people. And secondly they had claimed that Yahweh’s inheritance was theirs to take possession of.

That they recognised that they were acting against Yahweh comes out in that they saw themselves as taking possession of ‘the ancient high places’. This was ironic. To them the ancient high places were the heart of Israel’s religion (compare 2 Chronicles 32:12; Isaiah 36:7 for a similar misconception). They had seen the fervid activity there and had thought that it was central to Yahwism. Now they gloated, they and their gods would take possession of them. The use of ‘ancient’ might suggest that they felt that Israel and Yahweh had usurped them in that they were there before Israel arrived. So this was intended to be a direct attack on Yahweh.

There were of course ancient high places such as at Bethel, Shechem, Gibeon and Gilgal, to name but four, which had had an honourable (as well as a dishonourable) history (see Genesis 31:13; Genesis 35:7; Joshua 24:1; Joshua 24:25-26; 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 9:13-14; 1 Samuel 9:19; 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 11:15; 1 Kings 3:4). They were local sanctuaries where men had felt that they could meet with God and offer sacrifices other than before the tabernacle, probably places where they considered that God had recorded His name (Exodus 20:24). And some therefore see this verse as indicating a deliberate attempt by Edom to take over the genuine ancient sanctuaries of Judah and Israel. Then ‘ancient’ is seen as signifying that they had been given to them by Yahweh long ago so that it was blasphemy to seize them. But the ‘high places’ had become a source of Israel’s downfall, as Moses had

26

realised that they would, and elsewhere in Ezekiel ‘high places’ always has a bad sense, so that that would suggest we see it as having the same sense here.

Others however see ‘high places’ here as simply indicating the hills and mountains of Israel (compare Amos 4:13; Micah 1:3; Habakkuk 3:19) which Edom purposed to take over, seeing the verse as indicating Judah’s longstanding right to be there as having been given the land by Yahweh. Its use elsewhere in Ezekiel, however, tends to be against this interpretation.

PULPIT, "Prophesy unto the mountains of Israel. This prediction must be read in contrast, first, to that delivered against the mountains of Seir in the last chapter (35.), and, secondly, to that uttered against the mountains of Israel at an earlier stage of Ezekiel's activity (Ezekiel 6:1-14.). That "the mountains of Israel" was a familiar expression for the land of Israel, see Ezekiel 6:1; Ezekiel 17:22; Ezekiel 33:28; Ezekiel 34:14; Ezekiel 37:22; Ezekiel 38:8; and comp. Psalms 121:1; Isaiah 52:7.

2 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The enemy said of you, “Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession.”’

CLARKE, "Because the enemy hath said - The Idumeans thought they would shortly be put in possession of all the strong places of Israel; the ancient high places shall be ours.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God,.... By the mouth of the prophet, who was bid to 27

prophesy: because the enemy had said against you, aha: rejoicing at the calamity of God's people, particularly the Edomites or Idumeans, as in the preceding chapter; and who are chiefly meant; and also the Ammonites and Tyrians, Eze_25:3, even the ancient high places are ours in possession; or, "the high places of the world shall be unto us for a possession" (f); the land of Israel, according to Kimchi and others, was the highest part of the world, Jerusalem the highest part of that land, and the temple was built on the highest part of the city; and all these the Edomites claimed as their own, the land, city, and temple, and thought themselves sure of the same, as if they had them in actual possession; even the hilly part of the country, which had been so from the creation, and where stood many of the fortified and frontier towns and cities; which as strong as they were, or had been, they fancied would easily fall into their hands, now such desolations were made in the land.

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:2. Because the enemy hath said— This prophesy is a continuance of that preceding. The Idumeans had made their boast, that they should become masters of the mountainous parts of Judaea, where the ancient fortresses were placed, which commanded all the rest of the country. See Lowth and Calmet.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:2 Thus saith the Lord GOD Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:

Ver. 2. Because the enemy hath said.] The Church fareth the better for her enemies petulancies and insolencies against her.

Even the ancient high places.] Or, The everlasting altitudes. Judea lay high; the Church is much higher.

Are ours in possession.] Thus the Edomites triumphed before the victory. So did the Spaniards in 1588, and God heard them, {as Ezekiel 35:13} for he is all-ear, all-eye, &c. He is jealous for his people, [Zechariah 1:14] and jealousy is quick sighted, quick conceited.

28

POOLE, " Many were the enemies of God’s people, but they so conspired in one design, with one consent, and were so one in their humours, and enmity, and carriage, that the prophet speaks of them as one, and particularly of Edom.

Aha; rejoicingly and with insulting pride, as Ammon did, Ezekiel 25:3, and Tyre did, Ezekiel 26:2, which see.

The ancient high places; the everlasting hills; but this is common with other hills, whose foundations, as these of Israel, are from the beginning, and shall be to the end. What they aim at is a deriding of Israel, who by promise from God claimed these mountains as a perpetual inheritance, but were now cast out of it, and they hereby tax the God of Israel as not keeping his promise. So they blaspheme God and insult over his people.

Ours; our right, as of the elder house, now conquerors and feudatories to him that hath subdued them; thus they pretend right to justify their injustice.

In possession; we are now where we should have been these one thousand one hundred and sixty years or more, where we thought we would be one time or other, in spite of them and all their boasts of their God; we are where we will keep, and none shall put us out. Such impious brags were their ruin, and are implied in the words.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:2

Because the enemy hath said against you. The ground of Jehovah's purposed proceeding against Edom and the surrounding heathen peoples (Ezekiel 36:3, Ezekiel 36:5) is expressly declared to be the jubilation over the downfall of Israel, and the eagerness with which they sought to appropriate to themselves her forsaken land. Aha! Exulting over Israel's misfortune (comp. Ezekiel 25:3; Psalms 40:16). The ancient high places, which Israel's enemies fancied had become theirs in possession, were probably "the everlasting hills" of Genesis 49:26 and Deuteronomy

29

33:15, the principal mountains of Palestine, which, as Havernick finely observes, were "the honorable witnesses and indestructible monuments of that ancient blessing spoken by Israel's ancestor, and still resting on the people;" and to assail which was, in consequence, not only to sin against Jehovah, but to attempt an enterprise foredoomed to failure and shame. At the same time, Plumptre's suggestion ('Ezekiel: an Ideal Biography,' Expositor, vol. 8.284; and Unpublished Notes) is not without plausibility, that, considering the special significance of the term bamoth in Ezekiel, the phrase should be held as referring to the sanctuaries which stood upon those heights—including, of course, the chief sanctuary, or temple (Schroder); in support of which the dean cites the frequency with which the enemies of Israel, as, for instance, the Assyrians and the Moabites, in their inscriptions, boasted that they had captured these sanctuaries.

3 Therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because they ravaged and crushed you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious talk and slander,

BARNES, "(Eze 36:3) Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:

GILL, "Therefore prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God,.... Who heard all the enemy said, and knew all their designs and purposes, their schemes and devices: because they have made you desolate; ravaged their country, destroyed their cities, burnt their temple, and carried them captive, and left the land without men or cattle:

30

and swallowed you up on every side; all their neighbours, being their enemies, were like ravenous beasts of prey, gaping upon them with their mouths; and, observing the low condition into which they were brought by the king of Babylon, helped forward the destruction; and everyone shared in the spoil and plunder nearest to them they could conveniently come at: that ye might be a possession to the residue of the Heathen; either to those that were left in the land by the king of Babylon, or to the rest of the Heathen nations round about them: ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people; reproached, defamed, and made a proverb and byword, by every foul mouthed prating fellow.

JAMISON, "Literally, “Because, even because.”swallowed you up — literally, “panted after” you, as a beast after its prey; implying the greedy cupidity of Edom as to Israel’s inheritance (Psa_56:1, Psa_56:2).lips of talkers — literally, “lips of the tongue,” that is, of the slanderer, the man of tongue. Edom slandered Israel because of the connection of the latter with Jehovah, as though He were unable to save them. Deu_28:37, and Jer_24:9 had foretold Israel’s reproach among the heathen (Dan_9:16).

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:3. Because they have made you desolate, &c.— Because the residue of the nations, which surround you, gape ever you, since you were laid waste, that you may become their possession; and ye are, &c. Houbigant. The meaning of the last phrase in the verse is, "Your calamities have made you become a proverb and a reproach among the heathen round about you, according to the threatenings of the prophets denounced against you." See Jeremiah 24:9.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD Because they have made [you] desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and [are] an infamy of the people:

Ver. 3. Because they have.] Heb., Because and because; importing earnestness and heat of indignation. So Leviticus 26:43.

And ye are taken up in the lips of talkers.] Heb., Ye are made to ascend upon the lip of the tongue, and upon the evil fame of the people. God takes it extreme ill that his

31

people should be traduced and defamed; which yet hath been their lot in all ages; but he will not fail to vindicate them, and to avenge them.

POOLE, " Because they, Edomites, and others with them,

have made you desolate; first broken your strength, wasted your cities, and burnt the temple, and waylaid you, to cut off them that were escaped at last.

Swallowed you up; devoured you, as hungry beasts devour the prey.

On every side; from all coasts of the land, through the whole.

That ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen; that such of the heathen as remained here might have, what they no where else could have, being the scum and worst of men, an inheritance and possession; so unnatural was Edom, that east out his own kindred, to bring in the vilest of men and the most barbarous strangers.

Ye are taken up in the lips of talkers; you are the subject on which wild and foul mouths discourse, which is explained, in that the people ever talked of them with reproach, and branding them as infamous. This was foretold to Israel, Jeremiah 24:9, and they were advised to prevent it.

PETT, "Verse 3

“Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, because, even because they have made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of nations, and you are taken up on the lips of gossips, and the evil report of the people. Therefore you mountains of Israel hear the word

32

of the Lord Yahweh, Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountain and to the hills, to the watercourses (streams and rivers) and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities which are forsaken, who are become a prey and a derision to the residue of the nations who are round about, therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Surely in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, who have appointed my land to themselves for a possession, with all joy in their heart, with malice of soul, to cast it out as a prey.”

Note the continual use of ‘therefore’ (see also Ezekiel 36:6-7) and the way the sentences pile up. It is intended to indicate the depths of feeling behind the words. The words were spoken in passion.

God was angry because His people, having been made desolate, had been made further desolate by what was left of the scavenging surrounding nations, who had swallowed them up and sought to take possession of them. He was also angry that they had become the subject of casual conversation and rumour and evil reports (Ezekiel 36:3). So He in turn has spoken against those nations (Ezekiel 36:5), and He declared to the land of His inheritance (‘My land’) (Ezekiel 36:5), which those nations were trying to possess, that He would take further action (Ezekiel 36:7).

‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountain and to the hills, to the watercourses (streams and rivers) and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities which are forsaken, who are become a prey and a derision to the residue of the nations who are round about.’ Note the complete description taking in every part of the land. It indicated that He was fully aware of its position and was concerned for every part of it. Not one part would be ignored.

‘Surely in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, who have appointed my land to themselves for a possession, with all joy in their heart, with malice of soul, to cast it out as a prey.’ Indeed He was so concerned for the land that He had given His people, for ‘His land’, that he had passed sentence on the aggressors in the ‘fire of His jealousy’, that is, in His deep concern over what was His. Note too that He points out the attitude of the aggressors. They acted with a fierce joy and with deep malice. They had no scruples.

33

They enjoyed taking their revenge. This more than justified the action against them.

Note too the point that He was protecting Israel’s land ready for their return. It could not be given to the nations because He yet had a purpose there for His people (Ezekiel 36:8).

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:3

Therefore. Ewald calls attention to the fivefold repetition of this conjunction, saying, "It repeats itself five times, the reasons [for God's judgments] against these enemies thrusting themselves forward, before the discourse calmly dwells upon the mountains of Israel, of which it is strictly intended to treat." As it were, the prophet's emotion is so strong, and his indignation against Israel's enemies so vehement, that, though he three times in succession begins to prophesy to the mountains of Israel, he on each occasion breaks off before he can get his message told, to expatiate upon the wickedness of Israel's foes. In the prophet's estimation that wickedness was so heinous as to inevitably carry in its bosom appropriate retribution. Because—literally, because and because, or even because, a reduplication for the sake of emphasis, as in Ezekiel 13:10 and Le 26:43—they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side; literally, wasting of and panting after you (are) round about. Fairbairn, Ewald, and Smend, deriving שמותfrom נשם, "to pant," rather than from שמם, "to lay waste," translate, "because there is snapping and puffing at you round about," which Plumptre thinks "falls in better with the context," since "the prophet's spirit seems to dwell throughout on the derision rather than the desolation to which his country, the mountains of Israel, had been subject." And ye are taken up ; literally, ye are made to come, if ותעלו be an imperf; niph. of עלה, "to go up "(Rosenmüller, Schroder); or, ye are come, if it be imperf; kal of עלל, "to press, or go in" (Ewald, Havernick); or, ye are gone up, if it be second pers. kal of עלה (Hitzig, Smend). In the lips of talkers; literally, upon the lip of the tongue—the lip being regarded as the instrument or organ with which the tongue speaks. Havernick unnecessarily takes "the tongue" as equivalent to "people" in the parallel clause—a signification לשון has only in Isaiah 66:18; while Kliefoth views it as synonymous with "slander," as in Psalms 140:11, and translates, "upon the lip of slander and of the evil report of the people." Keil sees in "the tongue" a personification for the "tongue-man" or talker of Psalms 140:11; and

34

Gesenius considers the two clauses as tautological.

4 therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and the deserted towns that have been plundered and ridiculed by the rest of the nations around you—

CLARKE, "Therefore - thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, etc. - They shall neither possess mountain nor valley, hill nor dale, fountain nor river; for though in my justice I made you desolate, yet they shall not profit by your disasters. See Eze_36:5-7.GILL, "Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord,.... As in Eze_36:1, here repeated to raise and quicken their attention to what was about to be said to them: thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken; before only the mountains are spoken to, though the whole land was included; here the several particulars are given, which describe the whole, and which suffered in the calamity, and the inhabitants that dwelt in them or near them; who only can be supposed to hear the word of the Lord, though places are only mentioned, because of the great depopulation of them: which became a prey and derision to the residue of the Heathen that are round about; to the Tyrians, Philistines, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites; who mocked the Jews, rejoicing at their destruction by the king of Babylon, and seized upon as a prey to themselves what he left: or these are the residue of the Heathens round about Judea; who remained after the judgments threatened were executed on the above nations, foretold in chapters twenty five and twenty six, see Eze_36:36.

35

JAMISON, "Inanimate creatures are addressed, to imply that the creature also, as it were, groans for deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom_8:19-21) [Polanus]. The completeness of the renewed blessedness of all parts of the land is implied.derision — (Psa_79:4).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:4 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that [are] round about;

Ver. 4. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to the mountains.] For men there were hardly any left, or not very fit to be dealt with. See Ezekiel 36:1.

Which became a prey.] To those man eaters, [Ezekiel 36:3] qui diruerunt et devoraverunt, who did eat up God’s people as they ate bread, [Psalms 14:4] making themselves merry with their misery.

POOLE, "To the hills: now is added a particular of hills, valleys, &c., whereas before only the mountains were mentioned, but by them the whole land was understood; and to assure them thereof, all parts are here particularly mentioned: all that the enemy wasted shall be repaired, all that he took away shall be restored in kind, and those he derided shall be vindicated; their estates repaired, cities rebuilt and filled, their credit and honour cleared and vindicated. Their deliverance should be complete and full.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:4

The rivers (or, channels, bottoms, dales) were the water-courses, wadies, or ravines through which mountain streams flowed, as in Ezekiel 35:8; and the residue of the heathen were the surrounding nations that had mocked Israel in her degradation,

36

and were then profiting by her fall (comp. Psalms 79:4).

5 this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made my land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland.’

GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Because these Heathens have acted such an unkind and cruel part to Israel: surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken; in his fierce wrath and hot displeasure, resenting the ill usage of his people; hot with indignation against their enemies, having a fervent zeal for his own glory, and an affectionate concern for the good of his people. It is in the original text in the form of an oath, "if I have not spoken", &c. (g); let me be reckoned a liar, or not God; believe me that I have spoken, and in this warm manner; and have not only foretold in prophecy, and threatened the destruction of these nations, but have resolved and determined upon it in my own mind. So the Targum, "if I have not in the fire of my vengeance decreed in my word:'' against the residue of the Heathen, and against all Idumea; or Edom; the Edomites, even all of them, who of all the Heathen were the most inveterate and implacable enemies of the Jews, though related to them, and are therefore particularly mentioned as the objects of the divine vengeance: the reason follows, which have appointed my land into their possession; this land where his chosen people dwelt, and which he chose for them, and gave unto them; the land where he himself dwelt, and granted his presence; where his temple was, and he was worshipped. So the Targum,

37

"the land of the house of my majesty.'' Now this the Lord took ill at their hands, and resented, that they should lay out this land for themselves, and determine upon it as a possession and inheritance of theirs. With the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey; with the utmost joy they joined Nebuchadnezzar's army when he invaded the land of Judea and besieged Jerusalem, out of pure malice and spite to the people of the Jews, in order to eject them from the possession of their land, that it might become a prey to them; see Psa_137:7.

HENRY 5-8, " The expressions of God's just displeasure against those who triumphed in the desolations of the land of Israel, as many of its neighbours did, even the residue of the brethren, and Idumea particularly. Let us see, 1. How they dealt with the Israel of God. They carved out large possessions to themselves out of their land, out of God's land; for so indeed it was: “They have appointed my land into their possession(Eze_36:5), and so not only invaded their neighbour's property, but intrenched upon God's prerogative.” It was the holy land which they laid their sacrilegious hands upon. They did not own any dependence upon God, as the God of that land, nor acknowledge any remaining interest that Israel had in it, but cast it out for a prey, as if they had won it in a lawful war. And this they did without any dread of God and his judgments and without any compassion for Israel and their calamities, but with the joy of all their hearts, because they got by it, and with despiteful minds to Israel that lost by it. Increasing wealth, by right or wrong, is all the joy of a worldly heart; and the calamities of God's people are all the joy of a despiteful mind. And those that had not an opportunity of making a prey of God's people made a reproach of them; so that they were the shame of the heathen, Eze_36:6. Every body ridiculed them and made a jest of them; and the truth is they had by their own sin made themselves vile; so that God was righteous herein, but men were unrighteous and very barbarous. 2. How God would deal with those who were thus in word and deed abusive to his people. He has spoken against the heathen; he has passed sentence upon them; he has determined to reckon with them for it, and this in the fire of his jealousy, both for his own honour and for the honour of his people, Eze_36:5. Having a love for both as strong as death, he has a jealousy for both as cruel as the grave. They spoke in their malice against God's people, and he will speak in his jealousy against them; and it is easy to say which will speak most powerfully. God will speak in his jealousy and in his fury, Eze_36:6. Fury is not in God; but he will exert his power against them and handle them as severely as men do when they are in a fury. He will so speak to them in his wrath as to vex them in his sore displeasure. What he says he will stand to, for it is backed with an oath. He has lifted up his hand and sworn by himself, has sworn and will not repent. And what is it that is said with so much heat, and yet with so much deliberation? It is this (Eze_36:7), Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. Note, The righteous God, to whom vengeance belongs, will render shame for shame. Those that put contempt and reproach upon God's people will, sooner or later, have it burned upon themselves,perhaps in this world (either their follies or their calamities, their miscarriages or their mischances, shall be their reproach), at furthest in that day when all the impenitent shall

38

rise to shame and everlasting contempt.

JAMISON, "to cast it out for a prey — that is, to take the land for a prey, its inhabitants being cast out. Or the land is compared to a prey cast forth to wild beasts. Fairbairn needlessly alters the Hebrew pointing and translates, “that they may plunder its pasturage.”

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:5 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all [their] heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

Ver. 5. Surely in the fire of my jealousy.] Jealousy is hot as hell; [Song of Solomon 8:6] it is implacable, [Proverbs 6:34-35] and very vindictive. See Zechariah 1:14. {See Trapp on "Zechariah 1:14"} Here God swears he will be even with these Edomites.

Which have appointed my land.] This the Lord hath never done with, so ill be took it.

POOLE, " Surely; in the Hebrew it is in the form of an oath.

In the fire; in my hot displeasure.

Spoken against; threatened ruin and desolation to all the nations that are and have been enemies to Israel.

Idumea; the land in which the Edomites dwelt; the Hebrew is Edom.

Have appointed my land; have given or delivered, helped to take the land from my 39

people, and then left it in the hand of the Chaldeans, in hope it should be given back to them for their possession.

With the joy of all their heart; transported with joy; Jacob’s children put out, the heathen came in to possess the land, with rancorous minds, swelling with hatred, and from that acting with the utmost vigour to slay the inhabitants, that there might be no pretenders to the land, but that they might inherit it.

PULPIT, "Surely. אם־לא, the particle of adjuration, as in Ezekiel 5:11 ; Ezekiel 33:27; Ezekiel 34:8; Ezekiel 38:19. The fire of my jealousy. Zephaniah (Zephaniah 1:18; Zephaniah 3:8) uses the same phrase. Similar expressions occur in Ezekiel 21:31, "the fire of my wrath;" and Ezekiel 38:19, "in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath" (comp. Deuteronomy 4:24). Against all Idumea. Edom. As in Ezekiel 35:15, so here, it is the wickedness, more especially of the Edomites, that excites the prophet's indignation. They had not only concluded that Israel's territory should be to them for a possession, but they had done so with the joy of all their heart, and with despiteful minds; or, with contempt of soul (comp. Ezekiel 25:6, Ezekiel 25:15); i.e. with deadly (Ewald) or hearty (Smend) contempt. "The temper of the Edomites," writes Plumptre, "might almost serve as the regulative instance of the form of evil for which Aristotle ('Eth. Nit.,' 2, 7, 15) seems to have coined the word ἐπιχαιρεκακία, the temper which rejoices in the ills that fall on others." The concluding clause, to cast it out for a prey, has been differently rendered.

6 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I speak in my jealous wrath because you have suffered the scorn of the nations.

40

BARNES, "The shame of the pagan - The taunts which the pagan heaped upon them.

GILL, "Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel,.... And the inhabitants of it, for their comfort, in this their time of distress: and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, thus saith the Lord God, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury; with great zeal for his honour, and the interest of his people; and with indignation at his and their enemies: because ye have borne the shame of the Heathen; their calumnies and lies, their reproaches and scoffs, their injuries and abuses; all which were resented by the Lord, and therefore he determines to punish for them.

JAMISON, "the shame of the heathen — namely, the shame with which the heathen cover you (Psa_123:3, Psa_123:4).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:

Ver. 6. Say unto the mountains and to the hills.] To those lifeless creatures he directeth his speech, to show that every creature groaneth and waiteth for the redemption of our bodies. It fareth the better also in this life present, for the elect’s sake, as it was once cursed for man’s sin, and hath lain bedridden, as it were, ever since.

Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen.] This the Lord could not bear with any patience.

41

POOLE, " Say unto the mountains: see Ezekiel 36:4.

In my fury: see Ezekiel 36:5, where is no difference in the thing expressed, though a little difference in the expressing of it; there it was

the fire of my jealousy, here

in my jealousy and in my fury. Have borne the shame of the heathen; which in Ezekiel 36:5 is, being a

derision to the residue of the heathen; these loaded them with reproaches, and exposed them to contempt, and Israel could not prevent it, they were forced to bear it.

PETT, "Verses 6-8

“Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations (those outside of the covenant), Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, I have lifted up my hand, saying, Surely the nations who are round about you, they will bear their shame, but you, O mountains of Israel, you will shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they are at hand to come.”

The whole section from Ezekiel 36:3 to this point is one long expression of passion and concern. It was bringing out God’s deep concern for His people, and how they had been treated by those who were not the rod of His anger. He could chastise them for their good, but woe betide anyone else who sought to chastise them for the wrong reasons. Now we come to the crunch point. Those nations will bear their shame as they have shamed Israel, while Israel will eventually be restored.

42

‘Behold I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury.’ That is His deep passion and concern for His people and anger at the sinfulness of men who oppose them.

‘Because you have borne the shame of the nations (those outside of the covenant).’ The word for ‘nations’ includes the idea of being those outside the covenant. ‘The nations’ were those who were in contrast with the chosen people, the covenant people of God. And now the local nations had shamed Israel by their treatment of her, by sneering at her, by degrading her God, and by possessing her land.

‘Surely the nations who are round about you, they will bear their shame.’ What they have done to Israel will rebound on them. They too will be sneered at, their gods will be revealed as nothing, and their land will be taken from them.

‘But you, O mountains of Israel, you will shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they are at hand to come.’ In contrast Israel’s land, indeed Yahweh’s land, will yet prosper and be fruitful on behalf of His own people Israel. For while they may yet be absent, they will return, ‘they are at hand to come’. They are nearby awaiting the call, once they have received their deserts for their past sins.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:6, Ezekiel 36:7

Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen (i.e. the shame cast upon you by the heathen, see Ezekiel 34:29)… surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. Not the shame which should be cast upon them by Israel, which would be retaliation, but their own shame—the shame due to them in virtue of the Divine law of retribution (Ezekiel 16:52), their own curses come home to roost, Ezekiel seeming to distinguish between retaliation and retribution. "The law [of retribution] is demanded by the absolute righteousness of God. The judicial visitations of God cannot possibly be one-sided. Punishment can so much the less strike Israel alone, as precisely in its punishment the deep degradation of heathendom, its apostasy from God and its pride, has set itself forth in the most striking way" (Havernick). The

43

certainty that this law would operate in the case of the heathen no less than in that of Israel, the prophet expresses by representing Jehovah as having lifted up his hand, or sworn that it should be so (comp. Ezekiel 20:5, Ezekiel 20:6, Ezekiel 20:15, Ezekiel 20:23, Ezekiel 20:28; Ezekiel 47:14; Exodus 6:8; Numbers 14:30; Deuteronomy 32:40; and Virgil, 'AEneid,' 12.195, "Teaditque ad sidera dextram").

7 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn.

BARNES, "I have lifted up mine hand - i. e., I have sworn. Compare marginal reference.Their shame - They shall find their taunts come home to themselves.

GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... This being the case, the people of God being in distress, and under shame and disgrace, and the enemy insulting them, and triumphing over them: I have lifted up mine hand; solemnly swore; lifting up of the hand being a rite used by men when they swore, Gen_14:22, surely the Heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame; the punishment of their shame; that which is justly due to them for reproaching and putting to shame the people of God: or they shall be a laughing stock to others, and be reproached and derided themselves, and so be paid in their own coin; a just retaliation this for their treatment of the Jews.

JAMISON, "lifted ... mine hand — in token of an oath (Eze_20:5; Gen_14:22).they shall bear their shame — a perpetual shame; whereas the “shame” which Israel bore from these heathen was only for a time.

44

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that [are] about you, they shall bear their shame.

Ver. 7. I have lifted up mine hand.] Sworn solemnly. Men, when they swear, do so as taking God to witness. Three fingers they do often lift up, and hold down two, to signify, saith Lavater, that God, who is three in one, hath prepared a place in heaven for such as swear rightly, but will thrust down to hell those that forswear themselves.

They shall bear their shame.] They shall be paid home in their own coin, be overshot in their own bow, be covered with their own confusion.

POOLE, " Lifted up mine hand; sworn in my wrath, but in my truth also, Deuteronomy 32:40; and when men did swear solemnly, they did heretofore use this rite, Genesis 14:22.

The heathen that are about you; Moabites, Ammonites, and Idumeans shall be repaid in their own coin; I will, as sure as I am God, as sure as I can, so surely make them a taunt, a proverb, and a curse among men.

8 “‘But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home.

45

BARNES, "They are at hand to come - i. e., under Zerubbabel.

CLARKE, "For they are at hand to come - The restoration of the Jews is so absolutely determined that you may rest assured it will take place; and be as confident relative to it, as if you saw the different families entering into the Israelitish borders. It was near at hand in God’s determination, though there were about fifty-eight of the seventy years unelapsed.

GILL, "But ye, O mountains of Israel,.... Literally understood, as appears by what follows; for though they could not hear what was said, the proprietors of them could, now in captivity; and the efficacy of the word should be seen on them, producing the following effects: ye shall shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains, as was usual, as appears from the mount of Olives, and other places: and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; not only put forth branches, but bear fruit; and which should be given to the right owners, the people of Israel, and not to the Heathens, who had claimed the ancient mountains for their possession: for they are at hand to come; the Israelites; either by repentance, as Kimchi; or by a return from the Babylonish captivity, which was about forty or fifty years after this prophecy; and which was but a shadow and figure of their restoration in the latter day, yet to come; which might be said to be at hand, or near, with respect to God, with whom two or three thousand years are as nothing. The Targum is, "for the day of my redemption is near to come.''

JAMISON, "they are at hand to come — that is, the Israelites are soon about to return to their land. This proves that the primary reference of the prophecy is to the return from Babylon, which was “at hand,” or comparatively near. But this only in part fulfilled the prediction, the full and final blessing in future, and the restoration from Babylon was an earnest of it.

COFFMAN, "Verse 8"But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and

46

the waste places shall be builded; and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more bereave them of children. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because they say unto you, Thou land art a devourer of men, and hast been a bereaver of thy nation; therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nation any more, saith the Lord Jehovah: neither will I let them bear any more the shame of the nations, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nation to stumble any more, saith the Lord Jehovah."

ISRAEL'S RESTORATION TO PALESTINE (Ezekiel 36:8-15)

"They are at hand to come ..." (Ezekiel 36:8). Despite the fact that about forty years would yet expire before Israel reentered Palestine, their repatriation is represented as something "at hand." This is in keeping with the custom of all the prophets of considering that anything God has promised to do is actually "at hand," regardless of exactly when it will occur. The promise of God makes itas sure as if it had already happened.

Pearson has summarized the promises of Israel's re-entry into Palestine as inclusive of: "(1) The wonderful fruitfulness and productivity of the land; (2) the re-population of Palestine; (3) the elimination of scarcity; (4) freedom from reproach; and (5) the security and prosperity of the nation in a degree even surpassing their former estate' and the time of their `beginnings.'"[5]

We agree with Cook that these great promises of material blessings in their ultimate meaning were typical of the spiritual blessings in the times of Messiah; "But we may not doubt that the prophecy had as its first objective the return of prosperity to the land and the people, after their return from Babylon."[6]

The sad thing is that this projected picture of the restored Israel in Palestine never 47

turned out that way at all. There are two explanations offered by different schools of thinking as to the meaning of this fact. (1) The millennialists postpone the actual and complete fulfillment of these promises to some future time during the Millennium. (2) Others point out that, since all of God's promises are contingent, absolutely, upon some acceptable degree of obedience and cooperation of the people themselves to whom the promises came (See Jeremiah 17:7-10), and that no such obedience or cooperation on the part of Israel ever occurred, the prophecies have never been fulfilled, nor will they ever be. The continued apostasy of Israel, the further development of that judicial hardening already pronounced against the race of Israel by Isaiah 6:9, never diminished, but became worse and wore, until it was confirmed by Jesus Christ himself as terminal and irrevocable (Matthew 13:14f), resulting finally in their rejection and murder of the Christ himself when he came, incurring the judgment of destruction upon the nation and their city of Jerusalem, as recorded in Matthew 24, a judgment executed by the overthrow of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In view of all these things, the prophecies here were unfulfilled, nor shall they ever be fulfilled.

This writer accepts this explanation as correct and is fully convinced that the Jewish race, along with all other races, as such, are not vital factors at all in the problem of human redemption. God's message to all races and nations is simply this: "Whosoever will may come!" No man will ever be either saved or lost eternally on the basis either of his race or his "nation." Salvation, beginning with the Advent of Jesus Christ and ever afterward is an individual matter.

All of the wonderful things prophesied of Israel in this chapter, as regards their physical and temporal welfare, were things God intended to do and would have done if Israel had done their part.

Look what Israel did. When God ordered them to go back to Palestine, and when Cyrus the king of Persia himself authorized their departure and even paid part of the cost, only a pitiful little handful of the captives responded. The vast majority, according to Josephus, already growing wealthy in Babylon, elected not to go.

And the group that went, look what they did. Malachi records that the priesthood

48

itself turned out to be a bunch of robbers, robbing God himself; and the people were not paying their tithes, nor doing anything else that Jehovah had commanded; and even the ones who brought sacrifices brought the sick, the lame, and the blind and other illegal sacrifices. God even cursed the reprobate priesthood.

Malachi even challenged the people to obey the Law of Moses and to bring the whole tithe into God's storehouse, "Prove me now, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:10). Did it happen? Certainly not. The wickedness of Israel prevailed. This same wickedness prevented many other of the projected blessings of Israel from being given by the Lord.

And yet, enough of the promises were fulfilled to encourage and bless the remnant who "waited for the kingdom of God."

They were indeed returned to Palestine; the cities were rebuilt, the land repopulated, and they were the objects of God's signal protection, especially from the ravages of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. Also the hand of God is clearly seen in many other inter-testamental developments: (1) the provision of the Greek language as the near-universal medium of communication, (2) the tragedy leading to the building of synagogues, (3) the events leading to the reading of the prophets, along with the Law, in the weekly sabbath services, (4) the complete disillusionment of the whole pagan world with the prevailing paganism of the times, and (5) the development of the judicial hardening of all mankind as a prelude to the First Advent of Christ.

Also, throughout this period, the preservation of the Jewish records of the genealogies of the tribes and of the House of David made it possible for Jesus Christ Himself to be positively and accurately identified as the legitimate heir to the throne of David, and at the same time a descendant of David through Nathan instead of Solomon (Matthew 1 and Luke 3).

Feinberg freely admitted that these prophecies were not fulfilled upon the return of 49

Israel from Babylon, stating that, "The conditions depicted here are clearly millennial."[7] This opinion is echoed by a number of scholars; and as long as the fact of the reign of Christ in this present dispensation is understood as the Millennium, the opinion is correct. However, when the Millennium is projected as a literal thousand years reign of Jesus Christ on a literal throne in Jerusalem involving a wholesale return of racial Israel as Christ's followers, such notions must be rejected as unsupported by the Holy Scriptures. (For those who may be interested in the pursuit of this subject, see Revelation 20 of my series of commentaries on the New Testament.)

"Thou shalt no more devour men ... nor bereave ..." (Ezekiel 36:13). It will be remembered that this was precisely the charge that the unfaithful spies brought against "the mountains of Israel" when they gave their evil report to Moses (Numbers 13:32). It is still not clear what lay behind such a false charge. "A land incapable of supporting its people, or wherein they suffered loss through war or other divine scourges could be said to bereave the people."[8]

Whatever the basis of the saying and regardless of its truth or falsity, God here prophesied the termination of it.

"Israel shall no more bear the shame of nations ... neither shall (they) stumble any more ..." (Ezekiel 36:15). As we have already seen, "That portion of the nation which returned from captivity not only continued under the rule of the heathen, but also, in various ways, they continued to bear the contempt of the nations; and eventually Israel not only stumbled, but fell very low in their rejection of the Saviour; and the nation of Israel was again conquered, destroyed and scattered; and the land was utterly devastated and wasted."[9]

This projected return of Israel to Palestine implied a gathering of Israel from all the places where God had scattered them; and there is no way that the handful of returnees from Babylon fulfilled that intention upon God's part. When did such an ingathering happen.'? Cook, it appears to us, was absolutely correct when he declared that, "The reunion will be in those days when Israel shall be gathered into the Church of God."[10]

50

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:8. For they are at hand to come— For these things are about to happen in a short time. "The time of the deliverance of my people approacheth." There can be no doubt that, though this prophesy may have an immediate reference to the return of the Jews from Babylon; yet it has a farther reference to the general return of the Israelites, and to the universal reign of the Messiah. See Calmet.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

Ver. 8. Ye shall shoot forth your branches.] Reflourish and fructify; the Christian churches (those spiritual mountains) shall especially. [Revelation 22:2]

For they are at hand to come.] To come home out of captivity, or to return to God by repentance. The fall of Antichrist cannot be far off.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:8

For they are at hand to come. Keil and Plumptre make the subject of the verb the material blessings in which Israel's prosperity is depicted as consisting, viz. the foliage and fruit her mountains were soon to bear for the people of Jehovah. The majority of expositors believe the subject to be the people whose return from exile was in this way declared to be approaching. Nor is there any reason why Ezekiel should not have represented the return from exile as an event soon to take place, since of the seventy years of captivity predicted by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11) at least twenty years had passed, if its commencement be dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Ezekiel 33:21); and the fulfillment of Jehovah's promise was to the prophet so much a matter of certainty (Ezekiel 11:17) that his fervent imagination conceived it as at hand.

51

9 I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown,

CLARKE, "Ye shall be tilled and sown - The land shall be cultivated as it formerly was, when best peopled and at peace.

GILL, "For, behold, I am for you,.... For the mountains, that they might be cultivated and become fruitful, and be of advantage to their proprietors, and appear beautiful and lovely to behold, as well as to be useful: and I will turn unto you; the Lord had turned from them, and left them a prey to the enemy, whereby they were become desolate; but now he would turn unto them, and bless them, and make them fruitful, and return the right owners of them to them, who should greatly improve them: and ye shall be tilled and sown; manured and cultivated, and sown with wheat and barley, as in former times.

HENRY 9-15, "The promises of God's favour to his Israel and assurances given of great mercy God had in store for them. God takes occasion from the outrage and insolence of their enemies to show himself so much the more concerned for them and ready to do them good, as David hoped that God would recompense him good for Shimei's cursing him. Let them curse, but bless thou. In this way, as well as others, the enemies of God's people do them real service, even by the injuries they do them, against their will and beyond their intention. We shall have no reason to complain if, the more unkind men are, the more kind God is - if, the more kindly he speaks to us by his word and Spirit, the more kindly he acts for us in his providence. The prophet must say so to the mountains of Israel, which were now desolate and despised, that God is for themand will burn to them, Eze_36:9. As the curse of God reaches the ground for man's sake, so does the blessing. Now that which is promised is, 1. That their rightful owners should return to the possession of them: My people Israel are at hand to come, Eze_36:8. Though they are at a great distance from their own country, though they are dispersed in many countries, and though they are detained by the power of their enemies, yet they shall come again to their own border, Jer_31:17. The time is at hand for their return. Though there were above forty years of the seventy (perhaps fifty) yet remaining, it is spoken of as near, because it is sure, and there were some among them that should live

52

to see it. A thousand years are with God but as one day. The mountains of Israel are now desolate; but God will cause men to walk upon them again, even his people Israel,not as travellers passing over them, but as inhabitants - not tenants, but freeholders: They shall possess thee, not for term of life, but for themselves and their heirs; thou shalt be their inheritance. It was a type of the heavenly Canaan, to which all God's children are heirs, every Israelite indeed, and into which they shall shortly be all brought together, out of the countries where they are now scattered. 2. That they should afford a plentiful comfortable maintenance for their owners at their return. When the land had enjoyed her sabbaths for so many years, it should be so much the more fruitful afterwards, as we should be after rest, especially a sabbath rest: You shall be tilled and sown (Eze_36:9) and shall yield your fruit to my people Israel, Eze_36:8. Note, It is a blessing to the earth to be made serviceable to men, especially to good men, that will serve God with cheerfulness in the use of those good things which the earth serves up to them. 3. That the people of Israel should have not only a comfortable sustenance, but a comfortable settlement, in their own land: The cities shall be inhabited; the wastes shall be builded, Eze_36:10 And I will settle you after your old estates, Eze_36:11. Their own sin had unsettled them, but now God's favour shall resettle them. When the prodigal son has become a penitent he is settled again in his father's house, according to his former estate. Bring hither the first robe, and put it on him. Nay, I will do better unto you now than at your beginnings. There is more joy for the sheep that is brought back than there would have been if it had never gone astray. And God sometimes multiplies his people's comforts in proportion to the time that he has afflicted them. Thus God blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, and doubled to him all he had. 4. That the people, after their return, should be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the land, so that it should not only be inhabited again, but as thickly inhabited, and as well peopled, as ever. God will bring back to it all the house of Israel, even all of it (observe what an emphasis is laid upon that, Eze_36:10), all whose spirits God stirred up to return; and those only were reckoned of the house of Israel, the rest had cut themselves off from it; or, though but few, in comparison, returned at first, yet afterwards, at divers times, they all returned; and then (says God) I will multiply these men (Eze_36:10), multiply man and beast; and they shall increase, Eze_36:11. Note, God's kingdom in the world is a growing kingdom; and his church, though for a time it may be diminished, shall recover itself and be again replenished. 5. That the reproach long since cast upon the land of Israel by the evil spies, and of late revived, that it was a land that ate up the inhabitantsof it by famine, sickness, and the sword, should be quite rolled away, and there should never be any more occasion for it. Canaan had got into a bad name. It had of old spued out the inhabitants (Lev_18:28), the natives, the aborigines, which was turned to its reproach by those that should have put another construction upon it, Num_13:32. It had of late devoured the Israelites, and spued them out too; so that it was commonly said of it, It is a land which, instead of supporting its nations or tribes that inhabit it, bereavesthem, overthrows them, and causes them to fall; it is a tenement which breaks all the tenants that come upon it. This character it had got among the neighbours; but God now promises that it shall be so no more: Thou shalt no more bereave them of men (Eze_36:12), shalt devour men no more, Eze_36:14. But the inhabitants shall live to a good old age, and not have the number of their months cut off in the midst. Compare this with that promise, Zec_8:4. Note, God will take away the reproach of his people by taking away that which was the occasion of it. When the nation is made to flourish in peace, plenty, and power, then they hear no more the shame of the heathen (Eze_36:15), especially when it is reformed; when sin, which is the reproach of any people, 53

particularly of God's professing people, is taken away, then they hear no more the reproach of the people. Note, When God returns in mercy to a people that return to him in duty, all their grievances will be soon redressed and their honour retrieved.POOLE, " I am for you; favour you, and am pacified towards you, or I come towards you with redemption, that your old inhabitants may return to you with singing.

Turn unto you; look towards you, with regard to what hath been and is your estate, your sufferings, which were less than you deserved, yet were the greater because ye are mine. Your inhabitants gave me the back and sinned against me, and I turned the back on you and regarded you not; then all darkness covered you. now my face shall be towards you, and you shall prosper and be fruitful, to the comfort of those that shall dwell in you and plough and sow you.

PARKER, "What miracles of consolation there are! When God says "I am for you," what does he mean? Will he give us an account of his favour as he has given us an account of his opposition? We have that account in Ezekiel 36 :—

"I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded." [Will he do anything more?] "And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit." [Aught more?] "And I will settle you after your old estates." [Aught more?] "And will do better unto you than at your beginnings...." [He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."] "Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men" ( Ezekiel 36:9-12).

When does God give short measure? When did he give otherwise than pressed down, heaped up, running over? This is the consolation of Heaven; this is the measure of the divine benison. That blessing is to be physical: "Ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit." God does not fear to associate his name with our daily food. Why should we eat bread unblest by our own thanksgiving and prayer? God is not ashamed to have his name connected with the daily loaf and with

54

the daily goblet of water. When we go to the harvest-field we should think we are going to church; when we go to the well of springing water we should think we are going to a fountain rising in heaven. Your harvests are God"s; your fields are the green ways leading up to his sanctuary. Blessed are they whose bread and whose water are blessed, whose bed is an altar, whose home is a church. Not only physical, but social: "I will multiply men upon you,... and the wastes shall be builded." God would have all the earth inhabited. He would build men into organisations and brotherhoods; he would establish fraternities of souls. The Lord is never ashamed to associate himself with social economy, social purity, social progress. Not only physical and social, but municipal "And the cities shall be inhabited." Cities have not a good history; cities had a bad founder. The foundations of cities were laid by a murderer. But it hath pleased God to accept many human doings, and to purify them and ennoble them and turn them to purposes sanctified and most beneficial. The Lord never set a king over anybody with his own real consent. He gave the people the desire of their hearts, and plagued them every day since they got the answer, So he accepts the city, and he will do what he can with the municipalities, to inhabit them, and direct them, and purify them. Here is the area within which this divine consolation is to operate; it is physical, it is social, it is municipal: at every point God touches us with his rising light.

The Lord never concludes simply within the letter. At the last he invariably says something that opens up a distant and ever-receding because ever-enlarging horizon. He says in this instance, "I will do better unto you than at your beginnings." He is able, let us say again with rising thankfulness, to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. The Church constantly exclaims, Thou hast kept the good wine until now! We never can get in advance of God. When we have reaped our most abundant harvest, he says, This is only an earnest of the harvest you shall one day possess; I will do more for you and better unto you than at your beginnings. When does God move backwards? When does God give less and less to the children that love him and obey him? Whenever did the Lord cry, It is enough; further blessing you cannot have? Take all the types and illustrations supplied in Biblical history, and we shall ever find that the supply on the part of God never failed. Bring forth vessels now, said the prophet, and fill them: and they came to the last but two, the last but one, the very last of all, and when it was full, then the oil ceased,—plenty of oil for the vessels, none for the floor; plenty for use, none for waste. It is our vessels that give out, it is not the oil of the divine love that is exhausted. I will do better—better—better. It is the refrain of the divine song of divine government We never touch the horizon; as we approach, it recedes: so we

55

never touch the fulness of the divine blessing. Answered prayer is only another promise that the next prayer shall have a larger answer if itself represent a larger capacity and a larger love.

Then let us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us be no longer thoughtless; let us no longer limit the Holy One of Israel, saying, The Lord hath made an end of his Revelation , the Lord hath no more grace to give, no more love to show; he has given us the Cross. Paul says, If he has freely given us the Cross,—it is not an end, it is a beginning,— with the Cross he will also freely give us all things. In one sense the Cross is the culmination of love; in another sense it is the genesis of God"s affection. The Lord cannot be exhausted. His providence is ascending, expanding, deepening. This is the way of the Lord. Oh that we had hearkened unto his commandments and kept his law! then had our peace flowed like a river, and our righteousness had been as the waves of the sea.

We have not begun to know what God does for us; we have been too prone to yield ourselves to the seducer and the tempter when he told us that the age of miracles was past. That tempter waits to persuade us that all the great epochs of history are closed: the miracles are closed, inspiration is closed, communion with God in a very endearing sense of presence is closed. Why, then, it were better to have lived in the days of the prophets than in the days of the apostles, and better to have lived in the days of the apostles than to live under the full dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Is God"s a narrowing policy, a self-withdrawing, self-depleting economy? or does it move out in the other way, enlarging, expanding, heightening, advancing? Let those testify who have lived with God. We do not here at this particular juncture of the argument want the critic"s opinion; he ought not to have any opinion about such subjects, he is a dog in the sanctuary: when we come to these great heights and these close applications and inquiries we want the testimony of experience. When, therefore, we ask the question, Does God enclose himself in ever-narrowing paths, or does he pursue his gracious way in ever-expanding courses of graciousness and kindness? we await not the evidence of the critic, but the experience of the man who daily lives with God.

PETT, "Verse 9-10

56

“For behold I am for you, and I will turn to you and you will be tilled and sown, and I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it. And the cities will be inhabited and the waste places built”

The reason that the land would one day again be Israel’s was because Yahweh was ‘for them’, on their side and acting on their behalf. For He would again turn towards them and be their God. And the land would be possessed again by people from all the twelve tribes (‘all the house of Israel’ - and note the stress on this, ‘even all of it’), and would be farmed and well populated. The cities would be rebuilt and inhabited.

That this occurred history demonstrates. While there were Jews who had become disconnected from mainstream Judaism, intermarried or disowning their old nationality as they were absorbed by the nations, or wandering far away and losing contact, members of all twelve tribes were permanently resident in the land up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and were among the exiles in Babylon, and others would undoubtedly have returned to it from other places once it began to prosper again. (The concept of ‘Israel’ was ever fluid. Still today ‘Israel’ is only a small portion of Judaism). And the land would again be populated and prosper, inhabited by those who acknowledged the covenant.

But why was the actual land so important? It was promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:7 and often) to whom the possession of a future land was very important, it was given to his descendants and those who had joined with them in the covenant, and it was essential for the development of a people who would be witnesses to Yahweh as one people. Without the land they would have become divided and fractionalised, and their witness would have been watered down and have disappeared. But once that witness was established and crystallised through the writings of the Old Testament, and the son of David had come, and the Spirit had been poured out, the land ceased to be important and was taken away from them (Luke 21:24). The message had replaced the land.

But the graciousness and faithfulness of God is revealed in that God has not 57

forgotten His promises concerning the land so that it has now, in our day, been returned to those who see themselves as the earthly sons of Abraham. We must not overstress His purpose in this, but His purpose for the future in bringing them back to the land is possibly so that, having brought them together, He can do a great work among them in the eyes of the world by bringing large numbers of them to Christ their Messiah. While Scripture does not specifically require this there are suggestions that this might be so. So we can hope that their receiving again of the land is a preliminary to their finally enjoying the working of the Spirit, as God calls what were once His people to once again become part of His people and accept the Messiah (Romans 11:25-29). The land has become secondary, the blessing of all nations is primary, but this reminds us that God fulfils all His promises, even the secondary ones.

PULPIT, "I am for you. He had previously been against (Ezekiel 5:8; Ezekiel 13:8), but was now for Israel and against Seir (Ezekiel 35:3). This change of dispensation implied no mutation in God, but merely that, as God had previously visited Israel with judgment on account of sin, so henceforth would he visit her with grace on condition of repentance. I will turn unto you. Always it is presupposed that Israel turns unto Jehovah.

BI, "And ye shall be tilled and sown.A vision of the fieldI. Man’s heart by nature is like a waste field.

1. He brings forth no fruit unto God. Leave him alone and he will live unto himself. He will live and he will die a strange monstrosity in the world—a creature that has lived without his Creator. Methinks I see the great God coming to look at the man, even as a farmer might come to look upon his fallow field. He looks the whole field through. There is no thought for God, no consecration of time to God, no desire to honour God, no longing to produce in the world fresh glory to God, no effort to raise up to Him fresh voices that shall praise His name. He lives unto himself or to his fellow men, and having so lived, he so dies.2. Worse than this; the field that has never been ploughed or sown does produce something. There is an activity about human nature that will not let us live without doing. “No man liveth to himself.” Is there no wheat growing on that soil? no barley? no rye? Very well, then, there will be darnel, and cockle, and twitch, and all sorts of weed. So it is with the unrenewed heart. It is prolific of evil imaginations, wrong desires, and bitter envyings. As these ripen they bring forth ill words—idle, or, it may be, lascivious words, and perhaps atheistic, blasphemous words; and as these ripen they come to actions, had the man becomes an offender in his deeds, perhaps against

58

man, certainly against God. The apples of Gomorrah hang plentifully upon him.II. There is no hope for this field, unless God turn to it in mercy. “I am for you, and I will turn unto you.” Man never does of himself turn unto God, and that for obvious reasons. We are sure he never can, for he is dead in trespasses and sins. We are certain he never will, for by nature he hates anything like a new birth; and if he could make himself a new creature he would not, for Christ has expressly said, “Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life.” If you have turned, you know that the Lord has done it. Give unto Him the glory. If you have not been converted, God help you to cry unto Him instantly and earnestly, “Turn us, and we shall be turned.” Look unto Him who is exalted on high to “give repentance and remission of sins.” Seek ye unto Him, and ye shall live.III. When the field is to be put under cultivation it must be tilled. So when God turns to any man in His mercy there has to be an operation, a tillage, performed upon his heart. Common calling is addressed to every man, but effectual calling comes only to prepared men, to those whom God makes willing in the day of His power. Now, what is the plough wanted for? Why, it is wanted, first of all, to break up the soil and make it crumble. The more thoroughly pulverised the heart becomes, the better. The seed will never get into an unbroken heart. The plough is also wanted to destroy the weeds, for they must be killed. If the Lord save you, He must kill your drunkenness, He must kill your swearing, He must kill your whoredom, He must kill your lying, He must kill your dishonesty. These must all go; every single weed must be torn up; there is no hope for you while there is a weed living. The Lord make a clean sweep of the weeds, and burn them all! Well, now, mark you, in this tilling there are different soils. There is the light soil and the heavy soil; and so there are different sorts of constitutions. There are some men who are naturally tender and sensitive. Many, too, of our sisters are like Lydia: they soon receive the Word. There are others that are like the heavy clay soil; and you know the farmer does not plough both soils alike, or else he would make a sad mess of it. And so God does not deal with all men alike. Some have, as it were, first a little ploughing, and then the seed is put in, and all is done; but some have to be ploughed and cross ploughed; and then there is the scarifier and the clod crusher, and I know not what, which have to be rolled over them before they are good for anything; and perhaps, after all, they produce very little fruit. And, you know, the farmer has his time for ploughing. Some soils break up best after a shower of rain, and some do best when they are driest. So there are some hearts—ay, and I think almost all hearts—that are best ploughed after a shower of heavenly love has fallen upon them. They are in a grateful frame of mind for mercies received, and then the story of a dying Saviour comes to them as just that which will touch the springs of their hearts.IV. Unless God has tilled the heart, it cannot be sown with any hope of success. After ploughing there comes the sowing. When the heart is ready God sows it—sows it with the best of wheat. The wise farmer does not sow tail corn, but, as Isaiah says, he casts in “the principal wheat.” The seed which God sows is living seed. It shall grow, for God has prepared the soil for it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

10 and I will cause many people to live on you—59

yes, all of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

GILL, "And ye shall be tilled and sown.A vision of the fieldI. Man’s heart by nature is like a waste field.

1. He brings forth no fruit unto God. Leave him alone and he will live unto himself. He will live and he will die a strange monstrosity in the world—a creature that has lived without his Creator. Methinks I see the great God coming to look at the man, even as a farmer might come to look upon his fallow field. He looks the whole field through. There is no thought for God, no consecration of time to God, no desire to honour God, no longing to produce in the world fresh glory to God, no effort to raise up to Him fresh voices that shall praise His name. He lives unto himself or to his fellow men, and having so lived, he so dies.2. Worse than this; the field that has never been ploughed or sown does produce something. There is an activity about human nature that will not let us live without doing. “No man liveth to himself.” Is there no wheat growing on that soil? no barley? no rye? Very well, then, there will be darnel, and cockle, and twitch, and all sorts of weed. So it is with the unrenewed heart. It is prolific of evil imaginations, wrong desires, and bitter envyings. As these ripen they bring forth ill words—idle, or, it may be, lascivious words, and perhaps atheistic, blasphemous words; and as these ripen they come to actions, had the man becomes an offender in his deeds, perhaps against man, certainly against God. The apples of Gomorrah hang plentifully upon him.

II. There is no hope for this field, unless God turn to it in mercy. “I am for you, and I will turn unto you.” Man never does of himself turn unto God, and that for obvious reasons. We are sure he never can, for he is dead in trespasses and sins. We are certain he never will, for by nature he hates anything like a new birth; and if he could make himself a new creature he would not, for Christ has expressly said, “Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life.” If you have turned, you know that the Lord has done it. Give unto Him the glory. If you have not been converted, God help you to cry unto Him instantly and earnestly, “Turn us, and we shall be turned.” Look unto Him who is exalted on high to “give repentance and remission of sins.” Seek ye unto Him, and ye shall live.III. When the field is to be put under cultivation it must be tilled. So when God turns to any man in His mercy there has to be an operation, a tillage, performed upon his heart. Common calling is addressed to every man, but effectual calling comes only to prepared men, to those whom God makes willing in the day of His power. Now, what is the plough wanted for? Why, it is wanted, first of all, to break up the soil and make it crumble. The more thoroughly pulverised the heart becomes, the better. The seed will never get into an unbroken heart. The plough is also wanted to destroy the weeds, for they must be

60

killed. If the Lord save you, He must kill your drunkenness, He must kill your swearing, He must kill your whoredom, He must kill your lying, He must kill your dishonesty. These must all go; every single weed must be torn up; there is no hope for you while there is a weed living. The Lord make a clean sweep of the weeds, and burn them all! Well, now, mark you, in this tilling there are different soils. There is the light soil and the heavy soil; and so there are different sorts of constitutions. There are some men who are naturally tender and sensitive. Many, too, of our sisters are like Lydia: they soon receive the Word. There are others that are like the heavy clay soil; and you know the farmer does not plough both soils alike, or else he would make a sad mess of it. And so God does not deal with all men alike. Some have, as it were, first a little ploughing, and then the seed is put in, and all is done; but some have to be ploughed and cross ploughed; and then there is the scarifier and the clod crusher, and I know not what, which have to be rolled over them before they are good for anything; and perhaps, after all, they produce very little fruit. And, you know, the farmer has his time for ploughing. Some soils break up best after a shower of rain, and some do best when they are driest. So there are some hearts—ay, and I think almost all hearts—that are best ploughed after a shower of heavenly love has fallen upon them. They are in a grateful frame of mind for mercies received, and then the story of a dying Saviour comes to them as just that which will touch the springs of their hearts.IV. Unless God has tilled the heart, it cannot be sown with any hope of success. After ploughing there comes the sowing. When the heart is ready God sows it—sows it with the best of wheat. The wise farmer does not sow tail corn, but, as Isaiah says, he casts in “the principal wheat.” The seed which God sows is living seed. It shall grow, for God has prepared the soil for it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

JAMISON, "wastes builded — Isa_58:12; Isa_61:4; Amo_9:11, Amo_9:12, Amo_9:14, where, as here (Eze_34:23, Eze_34:24), the names of David, Messiah’s type, and Edom, Israel’s foe, are introduced in connection with the coming restoration.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, [even] all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

Ver. 10. All the house of Israel, even all of it.] The Israel of God in the kingdom of the Messiah, totum totum, quantum quantum, not one of them shall be missing.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:10, Ezekiel 36:11

I will multiply men upon you. Jehovah's promise contemplated a return of both sections of the Golah, the whole house of Israel, Ephraim as well as Judah (comp.

61

Ezekiel 20:40), to the land from which they had been deported, and a restoration of the united kingdom to a condition of prosperity in which its cities should again be inhabited, its ruined homesteads repaired, its fields cultivated, and its flocks and herds multiplied (see Ezekiel 16:55; Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 54:3; Isaiah 61:4)—a condition of prosperity so great that it should surpass any measure or degree of good fortune previously enjoyed (comp. Deuteronomy 30:5; Job 42:12).

11 I will increase the number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

CLARKE, "I will multiply upon you man and beast - The agriculturalist and the beast of burden.

And will do better unto you than at your beginnings - I agree with Calmet, that it would be difficult to show the literal fulfillment of this prophecy from the days of Zerubbabel to the birth of Christ. The colouring is too high for that period; and the whole falls in better with Gospel than with Jewish times.

GILL, "And I will multiply upon you man and beast,.... Not only men, but beasts also, of which the mountains had been deprived, being killed by the enemy for present use, or drove off for future subsistence; but now there should be an increase of them, which should feed upon the herbage of the mountains, and the rich pastures on them, to the great advantage of the proprietors: and they shall increase and bring forth; or, "multiply and increase" (h); both men

62

and beasts: and I will settle you after your old estates; that is, you mountains shall be inhabited by those that formerly dwelt in you, and you shall be enjoyed by your right owners; by those who had you in possession from the beginning, from the times of Joshua; by whom you were settled on them by lot, according to their several tribes: and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; not that the land should be better or more fruitful than in the times of Joshua, who led the people into and found it a land flowing with milk and honey, and abounding with all kind of fruit; or that the people should be more flourishing in temporal things than in the times of David and Solomon; for no such fruitfulness and prosperity took place upon the return from the Babylonish captivity: but rather this is to be understood of spiritual blessings and privileges in the times of the Messiah; and particularly when the Jews will be converted in the latter day: and ye shall know that I am the Lord; that is, the inhabitants of the mountains of Israel, the converted Jews, shall know and own the Messiah, and that he is Jehovah, the eternal God, and not a mere man.

JAMISON, "And I will multiply upon you man and beast,.... Not only men, but beasts also, of which the mountains had been deprived, being killed by the enemy for present use, or drove off for future subsistence; but now there should be an increase of them, which should feed upon the herbage of the mountains, and the rich pastures on them, to the great advantage of the proprietors: and they shall increase and bring forth; or, "multiply and increase" (h); both men and beasts: and I will settle you after your old estates; that is, you mountains shall be inhabited by those that formerly dwelt in you, and you shall be enjoyed by your right owners; by those who had you in possession from the beginning, from the times of Joshua; by whom you were settled on them by lot, according to their several tribes: and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; not that the land should be better or more fruitful than in the times of Joshua, who led the people into and found it a land flowing with milk and honey, and abounding with all kind of fruit; or that the people should be more flourishing in temporal things than in the times of David and Solomon; for no such fruitfulness and prosperity took place upon the return from the Babylonish captivity: but rather this is to be understood of spiritual blessings and privileges in the times of the Messiah; and particularly when the Jews will be converted in the latter day: and ye shall know that I am the Lord; that is, the inhabitants of the mountains of Israel, the converted Jews, shall know and own the Messiah, and that he is Jehovah, the eternal God, and not a mere man.

63

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better [unto you] than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 11. And will do better unto you.] This must necessarily be understood of spiritual blessings by Christ; for temporals, they never had the like to those in the days of Joshua, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, &c.

POOLE, " These verses contain much the same promise of future good which God engageth to do for Israel after their return out of Babylon. He will multiply men upon the mountains of Israel, he will increase them; now, lest any should reply there had been too many men on the mountains, even all the heathen, God addeth, they shall be all of them of the house of Israel, Jews, and they should settle and build the wasted cities, not Jerusalem only, but other cities also; even wasted houses shall be built, you shall have large stocks of cattle, that your condition shall be as in days of old.

Will do better unto you; I will give spiritual blessings instead of temporal, and Messiah’s kingdom shall hasten to you instead of that which was abolished: in whatsoever this better consisted, it is certain God performed his word.

12 I will cause people, my people Israel, to live on you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.

64

GILL, "Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you,.... And not beasts, as during the captivity; and that without fear of wild beasts, or any enemy; and not as travellers upon them, but as inhabitants of them; who shall walk to and fro upon them, as the owners of them, and doing their proper business there: even my people Israel; and them only: some read it, "with my people Israel" (i); as if other men, Gentiles called by grace, should dwell with the Jews at this time, particularly at their restoration in the latter day; which may be true, and, which seems to be the sense of the whole sixtieth chapter of Isaiah's prophecy: and they shall possess thee, and thou shall be their inheritance; that is, thou mountain; a change of number, meaning everyone of the mountains, even the whole land of Canaan, which was given to the Israelites for an inheritance; and was typical of the eternal inheritance in heaven: and thou shall no more henceforth bereave them; of men, or of children; or be no more the cause of their being childless, or of bereaving them of men; sins committed on the mountains being the cause of provoking the Lord to bereave them; or men should be no more killed upon them, as they had been.

JAMISON, "to walk upon you — O mountains of Israel (Eze_36:8)!thee ... thou — change from plural to singular: O hill of Zion, singled out from the other mountains of Israel (Eze_34:26); or land.thou shall no more ... bereave them of men - Thou shalt no more provoke God to bereave them of children (so the ellipsis ought to be supplied, as Ezekiel probably alludes to Jer_15:7, “I will bereave them of children”).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:12 Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, [even] my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them [of men].

Ver. 12. Thou shalt be their inheritance.] Yea, a type and pledge of that heavenly inheritance. [1 Peter 1:4 Revelation 21:1-10; Revelation 21:22-27; Revelation 22:1-5]

65

And thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them.] Provoke God to bereave them.

POOLE, " For years past since your captivity wild devouring beasts ranged up and down, but now, instead of such, men shall walk up and down in the mountains of Israel; I will take away the beasts from off you, and bring men upon you.

My people Israel; a people that are mine by covenant, whom I will own, my Israel.

They shall possess thee; Edom boasted he would possess you, O mountains; not Edom, or heathens, but your own ancient dwellers shall possess you, even Abraham’s seed.

Their inheritance, for perpetuity, as inheritances are.

Thou, O land of Canaan.

Bereave them; consume and destroy thine inhabitants.

13 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because some say to you, “You devour people and deprive your nation of its children,”

66

BARNES, "The judgments which God sent upon the land, had so destroyed the inhabitants that men deemed it a fatal land, which brought destruction to all that should occupy it (compare 2Ki_17:25).

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, because they say unto you,.... The Heathens that dwelt round about the land of Judea said to the mountains, or to the whole land, thou land devourest up men; eats up the inhabitants of it; which is part of the ill report the spies, in the times of Moses, brought on it, Num_13:32, to which the allusion is here; suggesting, that either the air was unwholesome; or that the land did not produce a sufficiency of food to support the inhabitants of it; or that the curse of God was upon it; and that one judgment or another was ever on it; either famine, or pestilence, or the sword of the enemy, or internal broils among themselves, or wild beasts, whereby the inhabitants of the land were wasted and consumed: and hast bereaved thy nations; the several tribes, of men and children; so that they were diminished and depopulated: the allusion seems to be to miscarrying women, or such who kill their children in the womb, and become abortive.

JAMISON, "Thou land devourest up men — alluding to the words of the spies (Num_13:32). The land personified is represented as doing that which was done in it. Like an unnatural mother it devoured, that is, it was the grave of its people; of the Canaanites, its former possessors, through mutual wars, and finally by the sword of Israel; and now, of the Jews, through internal and external ills; for example, wars, famine (to which Eze_36:30, “reproach of famine among the heathen,” implies the allusion here is).TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:13 Thus saith the Lord GOD Because they say unto you, Thou [land] devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

Ver. 13. Thou land devourest up men,] (a) scil., By pestilence, famine, sword, evil beasts: thou art an unlucky land, an unblest country, feral and fatal to thine inhabitants. Hesiod saith the like of his country Ascre; and another (b) of St David’s in Wales, that it is a place neither pleasant, fertile, nor safe. Strabo saith the like of Judea, but with a despiteful mind. {as Ezekiel 36:5} Those malevolent spies said no less. [Numbers 13:32]

POOLE, " They say; the heathen round about, the enemies of Israel, accuse the land of destroying its natives, and bring an evil report on it.

67

Devourest up men; either by intestine wars, or foreign invasions, or by unhealthful air, or by multitude of wild beasts, or by barrenness and famine, thou killest them, art like a womb that conceives often, but almost as often miscarrieth, as the word implieth.

Hast bereaved; consumed thy nations, so the French; deprived them of their hope of increasing in numbers of men, as a miscarrying womb deprives a family of hoped children.

PETT, "Verses 13-15

‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because they say to you, ‘you are devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation,’ therefore you will devour men no more, nor bereave (another reading is ‘cause to stumble’) your nation any more,” says the Lord Yahweh, “nor will I let you hear any more the shame of the nations, nor will you any more bear the reproach of the peoples, nor will you cause your nation to stumble any more,” says the Lord Yahweh.”

These words are still spoken to ‘the land’ as representing Israel. In Numbers 13:32 the land of Canaan is described as a land that ‘devours its inhabitants’. The idea there would seem to be that it was seen as a land of trouble and unrest, a land where death was commonplace. Here the parallel ‘bereaver of your nation’ would confirm this. But in the future there will be no more violent or premature death, nor will there be any reproach or shaming, nor will men stumble. Again we are carried into the environment of eternity with God, when all death and sin is done away.

The alternative reading ‘cause to stumble’ may well be correct. It is repeated in Ezekiel 36:15 and Ezekiel is fond of repetition. But the overall meaning is the same. The word signifies weakness, and therefore here stumbling morally through weakness. Compare Jeremiah 18:15; Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 14:9 for parallel thoughts.

68

14 therefore you will no longer devour people or make your nation childless, declares the Sovereign Lord.

BARNES, "Bereave - Or, as in the margin: i. e., the land shall not prove the ruin of its inhabitants by tempting them (as of old time) to the sin of idolatry

GILL, "Therefore thou shalt devour men no more,.... Or they shall be no more destroyed in thee by pestilence, famine, sword, or other means: neither bereave that nations any more, saith the Lord; or, "thou shalt not cause them to fall any more" (k), for so it is written, as in Eze_36:15, though the marginal reading is, "thou shalt not bereave", which we follow; and both are to be received, since miscarriages often come by falls.

JAMISON, "bereave — so the Keri, or Hebrew Margin reads, to correspond to “bereave” in Eze_36:13; but “cause to fall” or “stumble,” in the Hebrew text or Chetib,being the more difficult reading, is the one least likely to come from a corrector; also, it forms a good transition to the next subject, namely, the moral cause of the people’s calamities, namely, their falls, or stumblings through sin. The latter ceasing, the former also cease. So the same expression follows in Eze_36:15, “Neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more.”

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:14 Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 14. Neither bereave thy nations any more.] Either by consuming them, or spuing them out. {as Leviticus 18:28; Leviticus 20:22; Leviticus 26:20; Leviticus

69

26:22} See what is said of heaven, Revelation 22:3-5.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:14Thou shalt devour men no more. From the middle of Ezekiel 36:12 the form of address changes from the plural to the singular, the whole country, mountains, and valleys being regarded as one land, as in Deuteronomy 3:25. The charge preferred against the country by her enemies was that she had been a land that devoured men and "bereaved its nations" (or, "nation," Revised Version); literally, an eater-up of men and a bereaver of thy nations; i.e. of Israel and Judah, perhaps also of the Canaanites, their predecessors (Fausset), the image being that of a wild beast which ravages the population and makes them childless, as in Ezekiel 5:17 and Ezekiel 14:15 (Smend), rather than that of an unnatural mother, a Rabenmutter, as in 2 Kings 6:29, who devours her offspring (Ewald). This charge, in which, perhaps, the prophet detected an allusion to Numbers 13:32, had certainly in times past been true; not, however, as Hengstenberg suggests, because the land had been "an apple of discord for the Asiatic and African powers," or, as Ewald explains, because "the tremendous restlessness, the excited push and hurry of such a mentally active city must in any case have used up its inhabitants more rapidly;" but, as Keil, Plumptre, and others interpret, because of the judgments of sword, famine, and pestilence sent upon the land by Jehovah for its sins. These judgments had so destroyed its inhabitants, first the Canaanites, and latterly the two peoples of Israel and Judah, that "those who looked upon it deemed it a fatal land, which brought destruction to all who should occupy it" (Currey). In the golden age to which the prophet looked forward, no such reproach should be possible. Not only should the laud not bereave its nations (according to the Keri, followed by the Authorized and Revised Versions, as well as by Ewald and Smend), but (according to the Chethib, preferred by Keil, Kliefoth, Havernick, Heugstenberg, Schroder, and Plumptre) it should not even cause them (or it) to stumble; i.e. should no more cause its inhabitants to lapse into those sins, amongst which idolatry stood prominent, which entailed on them ruin. Hengstenberg's idea, that "moral stumbling is not to be thought of in this connection," is certainly to be rejected.

15 No longer will I make you hear the taunts of 70

the nations, and no longer will you suffer the scorn of the peoples or cause your nation to fall, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

BARNES, "Hear in thee the shame of the pagan - Hear the pagan putting thee to shame by their contemptuous words.

The reproach of the people - “Thy people” (thy rightful possessors) shall have no cause to reproach thee for want of fertility. Were the blessings promised here merely temporal they could not be said to be fulfilled. The land is still subject to pagan masters. The words must point to blessings yet future, spiritual blessings.In the following chapters to the end of Ezek. 39 the conflict between the world mid God is described in its most general form, and the absolute triumph of the kingdom of God fully depicted. The honor of God is asserted in the gathering together, and the purification of, His people. As the dispersion of the children of Israel was far wider and more lasting than the sojourn in Chaldaea, so the reunion here predicted is far more extensive and complete. The dispersion yet continues, the reunion will be in those days when Israel shall be gathered into the Church of God.

GILL, "Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the Heathen any more,.... Their calumnies and revilings, their scoffs and jeers: neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more; or be any more a taunt and a curse, a proverb and a byword of the people; or be their laughing stock, and the object of their derision: neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God; by famine, sword, or pestilence, or any other judgment caused by sin: or, "thou shalt not bereave" (l), as the marginal reading is; and which the Targum and many versions follow: now what is here promised, in this and the preceding verse, had not its full accomplishment upon the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity; for since that time their men have been devoured, and their tribes have been bereaved of them by famine, sword, and pestilence; and they have heard and bore the shame and reproach of the nations where they have been dispersed, and do to this day; wherefore these prophecies must refer to a future restoration of that people.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:15 Neither will I cause [men] to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more,

71

neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 15. Neither will I cause men to hear.] I will cut off all occasions, and remove all such stumblingblocks as whereat the nations dash and split themselves.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:15

Neither will I cause men to hear in thee—let thee hear, proclaim against thee (Revised Version); or literally, cause to be heard against thee—the shame of the heathen any more; i.e. the contemptuous speech uttered against thee by the heathen, equivalent to the reproach of the people; or, peoples; i.e. the reproach cast upon thee by the nations (see Ezekiel 16:57; Ezekiel 22:4; and comp. Joshua 5:9; Micah 6:16), rather than, as Curtsy suggests, the reproach cast upon thee by thy rightful possessors for want of fertility. This prophecy clearly looked beyond the return from exile under Zerubbabel and Joshua, Ezra and Neherajah, since under these leaders only a portion of the whole house of Israel reestablished themselves in Canaan, while the land was often afterwards subjected to reproach and oppression under heathen powers. At the same time, the homecoming from Babylon and the prosperity that ensued thereupon were partial fulfillments of the blessings here promised.

Israel’s Restoration Assured

16 Again the word of the Lord came to me:

72

GILL, "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,.... Here begins another prophecy, which was delivered about the same time with the former:

HENRY, "When God promised the poor captives a glorious return, in due time, to their own land, it was a great discouragement to their hopes that they were unworthy, utterly unworthy, of such a favour; therefore, to remove that discouragement, God here shows them that he would do it for them purely for his own name's sake, that he might be glorified in them and by them, that he might manifest and magnify his mercy and goodness, that attribute which of all others is most his glory. And, the restoration of that people being typical of our redemption by Christ, this is intended further to show that the ultimate end aimed at in our salvation, to which all the steps of it were made subservient, was the glory of God. To this end Christ directed all he did in that short prayer, Father, glorify thy name; and God declared it was his end in all he did in the immediate answer given to that prayer, by a voice from heaven: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again, Joh_12:28. Now observe here,

K&D 16-21, "The Salvation of Israel Founded upon Its SanctificationBecause Israel has defiled its land by its sins, God has scattered the people among the heathen; but because they also profaned His name among the heathen, He will exercise forbearance for the sake of His holy name (Eze_36:16-21), will gather Israel out of the lands, cleanse it from its sins, and sanctify it by the communication of His Spirit, so that it will walk in His ways (Eze_36:22-28), and will so bless and multiply it, that both the nations around and Israel itself will know that He is the Lord (Eze_36:29-38). - This promise is shown by the introductory formula in Eze_36:16 and by the contents to be an independent word of God; but it is substantially connected in the closest manner with the preceding word of God, showing, on the one hand, the motive which prompted God to restore and bless His people;, and, on the other hand, the means by which He would permanently establish the salvation predicted in Ezekiel 34 and Eze_36:1-15. - The kernel of this promise is formed by Eze_36:25-28, for which the way is prepared in Eze_36:17-24, whilst the further extension is contained in Eze_36:29-38.

Eze_36:16-21The Lord will extend His forbearance, for the sake of His holy name, to the people who have been rejected on account of their sins. - Eze_36:16. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze_36:17. Son of man, the house of Israel dwelt in its land, and defiled it with its way and its doings; like the uncleanness of the unclean woman, was its way before me. Eze_36:18. Then I poured out my fury upon them on account of the blood which they had shed in the land, and because they had defiled it through their idols, Eze_36:19. And scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed in the land; according to their way and their doings I judge them. Eze_36:20. And they came to the nations whither they came, and profaned my holy name, for men said of them, “These are Jehovah's people, and they have come out of His land.” Eze_36:21. And so I had pity upon my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations

73

whither they came. - The address commences with a description of the reasons why God had thrust out His people among the heathen, namely, on account of their sins and idolatrous abominations, by which the Israelites had defiled the land (cf. Lev_18:28 and Num_35:34). Their conduct resembled the most offensive uncleanness, namely, the uncleanness of a woman in her menstruation (Lev_15:19), to which the moral depravity of the people had already been compared in Isa_64:5. - In Eze_36:18 the consequence of the defiling of the land by the people is introduced with the impression ואשפ. In Eze_ויטמאו ,36:17 is the continuation of the participle ישבים; and the participle is expressive of the condition in the past, as we may see from the words ' ואשפ _The simile in Eze .וגו36:17 is an explanatory, circumstantial clause. For Eze_36:18, compare Eze_7:8, and for על' הדם Eze_22:3, Eze_22:6. The last clause, “and through their idols they have ,וגוdefiled it,” is loosely appended; but it really contains a second reason for the pouring out of the wrath of God upon the people. For Eze_36:19, compare Eze_22:15. א ויב in Eze_36:20 refers to בית־ישראל; but there is no necessity to read ויבאו on that account. It is perfectly arbitrary to supply the subject proposed by Kliefoth, viz., “the report of what had happened to Israel” came to the heathen, which is quite foreign to the connection; for it was not the report concerning Israel, but Israel itself, which came to the heathen, and profaned the sacred name of God. This is not only plainly expressed in Eze_36:21, but has been already stated in Eze_36:20. The fact that the words of the heathen, by which the name of God was profaned, are quoted here, does not prove that it is the heathen nations who are to be regarded as those who profaned the name of God, as Kliefoth imagines. The words, “these are Jehovah's people, and have come out of His (Jehovah's) land,” could only contain a profanation of the holy name of God, if their coming out was regarded as involuntary, i.e., as an exile enforced by the power of the heathen; or, on the other hand, if the Israelites themselves had denied the holiness of the people of God through their behaviour among the heathen. Most of the commentators have decided in favour of the former view. Vatablus, for example, gives this explanation: “if their God whom they preach had been omnipotent, He would not have allowed them to be expelled from His land.” And we must decide in favour of this exposition, not only because of the parallel passages, such as Num_14:16 and Jer_33:24, which support this view; but chiefly on account of the verses which follow, according to which the sanctification of the name of God among the nations consists in the fact that God gathers Israel out of its dispersion among the nations, and leads them back into His own land (vid., Eze_36:23 and Eze_36:24). Consequently the profanation of His name can only have consisted in the fact that Israel was carried away out of its own land, and scattered in the heathen lands. For, since the heathen acknowledged only national gods, and regarded Jehovah as nothing more than such a national god of Israel, they did not look upon the destruction of the kingdom of Judah and the carrying away of the people as a judgment of the almighty and holy God upon His people, but concluded that that catastrophe was a sign of the inability of Jehovah to defend His land and save His people. The only way in which God could destroy this delusion was by manifesting Himself to the heathen as the almighty God and Lord of the whole world through the redemption and glorification of His people. ואחמל על־שם so I had pity, compassion :קupon my holy name. The preterite is prophetic, inasmuch as the compassion consists in the gathering of Israel out of the nations, which is announced in Eze_36:22. as still in the future. The rendering, “I spared (them) for my holy name's sake” (lxx, Hävernick), is false; for חמל is construed with על, governing the person or the thing toward which the

74

compassion is shown (vid., Eze_16:5 and 2Ch_36:15, 2Ch_36:17).

COFFMAN, ""Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Wherefore I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood which they had poured out upon the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols; and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they came unto the nations, wither they went, they profaned my holy name, in that men said of them, These are the people of Jehovah, and are gone forth out of the land. But I had regard for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations, whither they went."

THE REASON FOR ISRAEL'S PUNISHMENT (Ezekiel 36:16-21)

"As the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity ..." (Ezekiel 36:19). The significance of this comparison lies in the fact that the Mosaic law required that a woman "in her uncleanness" was separated from the congregation (Leviticus 15:19ff), the point being in the case of Israel that their "uncleanness" was of a type that required them to be separated from the land of Israel.

"When they came into the nations ..." (Ezekiel 36:20). This paragraph points out that the continued profanation of the name of Jehovah in those countries where Israel had been scattered was due to what the citizens of those nations were saying.

"In that the men said of them, These are the people of Jehovah ..." (Ezekiel 36:20). The implication of pagan enemies in such remarks was that Jehovah was an incompetent and impotent god, unable to protect his people. Although not mentioned by Ezekiel here, Israel was to blame for the blasphemy that rose among the pagan nations in other ways. Paul clearly stated in Romans 2:21-24 that, "The Jews were thieves, adulterers, robbers of temples, idolaters, and transgressors of the law, and that they dishonored the name of God," by reason of whom, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles." What Ezekiel says here in no way nullifies

75

what Paul said.

The principal teaching of this whole paragraph is that the conduct of Israel, not only when they dwelt in Palestine, but afterward in the countries where they were scattered, fully justified and even demanded that God remove them from the promised land.

PETT, "Verse 16-17

Israel’s Past (Ezekiel 36:16-20).

‘Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation.”

The blood that was poured out through violence is here likened to a woman’s menstrual flow. The menstrual flow of blood was looked on with something akin to horror by the Israelite male. According to the Law it rendered the woman ‘unclean’ (Leviticus 15:19-24), so that anyone who touched her was unclean. So here the defiling of the land by their behaviour could be looked on as similar to the menstrual discharge. It rendered the land unclean before God, as ‘unholy’, and therefore not touchable by Him. Thus God withdrew in horror and kept apart. (The menstrual flow was presumably used as an example because the behaviour of the people included the wrongful spilling of blood).

PETT, "Verses 16-38

Israel’s Inglorious Past and Their Glorious Future (Ezekiel 36:16-38).

76

As we consider this section we should pause to consider the nature of Biblical prophecy. A Biblical prophet was not a foreteller like Nostradamus is seen as being, who declared events that would happen in the future so that people could mark them off and satisfy their curiosity about particular future historical events, he was rather one who declared what God was going to do. In his prophecy he was concerned with ends rather than specific historical events, except is so far as those events brought about the ends. Thus he would describe processes and then the end result, and the processes might occur at different points over periods of time, and the ends would not necessarily all occur at the same time. There were partial fulfilments followed by deeper fulfilments.

God does not split history into time periods (‘ages’) like we do, He sees the whole process going through from beginning to end in a continual line. Thus to the Apostles the time that they were living in was ‘the end of the ages’ (1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 9:26-28; 1 Peter 1:20), ‘the last days’ (Acts 2:17). There was nothing beyond but eternity. And His way of salvation was always the same, obtained through grace, by faith, and revealed by response to Him and seen as resulting from the work of the Spirit (Ezekiel 18:31; Psalms 51:10-12; Psalms 139:7; Psalms 143:10). That the outward manifestation of that faith altered through the ages is true, beginning with the primitive worship of Adam and Seth (Genesis 4:26), continuing with the family worship of Abraham (Genesis 12:8), moving on to the covenant worship resulting from Sinai, and then the Christian worship resulting from the new covenant, but at the heart it was the same and through it men came to God in responsive faith.

Thus prophecy took in all elements of this activity of God. And as the prophets looked forward, guided by the Spirit, they saw that certain things must be because of Who and What God is. But they did not attempt to present them chronologically, or in a time scale. What mattered was that they would happen, not the sequence or time schedule in which they would happen. Some they saw clearly, others they described pictorially, because they prophesied of things that were beyond their ability to put into words or to fully appreciate. They had no concept of Heaven, or of an afterlife, or of eternity. They saw the future as life continuing for ever as it was in the present, but at a different level. And they prophesied in those terms. It was the New Testament writers who were able to take those descriptions and demonstrate how they dealt with ideas that the prophets could not even have dreamed of. This

77

will come out in the passage we are now to study.

PULPIT, "The oracle, commencing with this verse and extending to Ezekiel 37:14, has an ultimate connection with that which precedes. Having predicted a golden age in the future for Israel, when her people should have returned from banishment her cities should again be inhabited and her fields cultivated, the prophet is directed

BI 16-17, "Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, son of man.The messengerHaving scattered over an open field the bones of the human body, bring an anatomist to the scene. Observe how he fits bone to bone and part to part, till from those disjointed members he constructs a framework, which, apart from our horror at the eyeless sockets and fleshless form, appears perfectly, divinely beautiful. Now, as with these different parts of the human frame, so is it with the doctrines of the Gospel, in so far as they are intelligible to our limited understandings. There is a difference, which even childhood may discern, between the manner in which the doctrines and duties of the Gospel are set forth in the Word of God, and their more formal arrangement in our catechisms and confessions. They are scattered over the face of Scripture much as the plants of nature are distributed upon the surface of our globe. There, for example we meet with nothing that corresponds to the formal order, systematic classification, and rectangular beds of a botanical garden; on the contrary, the creations of the vegetable kingdom lie mingled in what, although beautiful, appears to be wild confusion. On the same moor, on the surface of the same meadow, the naturalist collects grasses of many forms, and finds both enamelled with flowers of every hue. And in those primeval forests which have been planted by the hand of God, and beneath whose silent and solemn shades man still walks in savage freedom, trees of every form and foliage stand side by side like brothers. Now, although over the whole surface of our globe plants of every form and family seem thrown at random, amid this apparent disorder the eye of science discovers a perfect system in the floral kingdom; and just as, though God has planted these forms over the face of nature without apparent arrangement, there is a botanical system, so there is as certainly a theological system, though its doctrines and duties are not classified in the Bible according to dogmatic rules. Does not this circumstance teach us that He intended His Word to be a subject of careful study as well as of devout faith, and that man should find in its saving pages a field for the exercise of his highest faculties?I. That this portion of scripture, extending onwards from the 16th verse, presents an epitome or outline of the Gospel. Its details, with their minute and varied beauties, are here, so to speak, in shade; but the grand truths of redemption stand boldly up, much as we have seen from sea the summits of a mountain range, or the lofty headlands of a dim and distant coast. In the 17th verse, we have man sinning—“Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings.” In the 18th verse, we have man suffering—“Wherefore, I poured My fury upon them.” In the 21st verse, man appears an object of mercy—“But I had pity.” In the 22nd verse, man is an object of free mercy, mercy without merit—“I do not this for your sakes, O house of

78

Israel.” In the 24th verse, man’s salvation is resolved on—“I will bring you into your own land.” In the 25th verse, man is justified—“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” In the 26th and 27th verses, man is renewed and sanctified—“A new heart also will I give you,” etc. In the 28th verse, man is restored to the place and privileges, which he forfeited by his sins—“Ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.” “This land that was desolate, is become like the garden of Eden.” We have our security for these blessings in the assurance of the 36th verse—“I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it”; and we are directed to the means of obtaining them in the 37th verse—“I will yet for this be inquired of,” etc. Such is the wide and interesting field that lies before us. But before entering upon it, let us consider—II. Who is commissioned to deliver God’s message. Who and what is the chosen ambassador of heaven? An angel? No; but a man. “Son of man,” says the Lord. By this title Ezekiel is so often addressed that it forces all our attention Lord remarkable fact, that God deals with man through the instrumentality of man, communicating by men His will to men. The rain, in its descent from heaven, falls upon the surface of our earth, percolates through the porous soil, and, flowing along rocky fissures or veins of sand, is conveyed below ground to the fountain whence it springs. Now, although rising out of the earth, that water is not of the earth, earthy. The world’s deepest well owes its treasures to the skies. So was it with the revealed will of God. It flowed along human channels, yet its origin was more than celestial; it was Divine.

1. The kindness of God to man. The God of salvation, the author and finisher of our faith, might have arranged it otherwise. Who shaft limit the Holy One of Israel? The field is the world. And as the husbandman ploughs his fields and sows his seed in spring by the same hands that bind the golden sheaves of autumn, God might have sent those angels to sow the Gospel, who shall descend at the judgment to reap the harvest. But though these blessed and benevolent spirits, who are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, take a lively interest in the work; though watching from on high the progress of a Redeemer’s cause, they rejoice in each new jewel that adds lustre to His crown, and in every new province that is won for His kingdom; and though there be more joy even in heaven than on earth when man is saved, a higher joy among these angels over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons, yet theirs is little more than the pleasure of spectators. To man, however, in salvation, it is given to share, not a spectator’s but a Saviour’s joy; with his lips at least he tastes the joys of that cup for which Jesus endured the Cross and despised the shame. If theft parent is happy who has snatched a beloved child from the flood or fire, and the child, saved, and thus twice given hind, becomes doubly dear, what happiness in purity or permanence to be compared with his, who is a; labourer with God in saving souls?2. The honour conferred on man. Did Moses occupy a noble position when, taking advantage of some rock, he stood aloft amid the dying Israelites, and there, the central figure of the camp, on whom all eyes were turned, raised high that serpent, at which to look was life? Nobler his attitude, much holier his office, who with his foot on a dying world, lifts up the Cross—exalts Jesus Christ and Him crucified—that, whosoever looketh and believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. What dignity does this world offer, what glittering stars, what jewelled honours flash on her swelling breast, to be for one moment compared with those which they win on earth, and wear in heaven, who have turned souls from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the living, loving God? Each converted soul a gem in their crown,

79

they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, forever and ever. How has the hope of this touched, as with burning fire, the preacher’s lips, sustained his sinking heart, and held up the weary hands of prayer! It has proved an ample recompense for the scanty rewards which God’s servants have received at the hands of men, for the penury which has embittered their life, and the hardships which have pressed on their lot. You are “a son of man”; and as you bear the prophet’s title, whatever otherwise you may be, let me call you to the prophet’s office. The Master hath need, much need, daily need of you. Take a living, lively, loving interest in souls. Don’t leave them to perish. You are your brother’s keeper. Permanently and formally to instruct may be the duty of others, but to enlist is yours. “This honour have all His saints.”3. The wisdom of God. However highly gifted he may otherwise be, it is a valid objection to a preacher, that he does not feel what he says; that spoils more than his oratory. Once on a time an obscure man rose up to address the French Convention. At the close of his oration, Mirabeau, the giant genius of the Revolution, turned round to his neighbour, and eagerly asked, Who is that? The other, who had been in no way interested by the address, wondered at Mirabeau’s curiosity. Whereupon the latter said, That man will yet act a great part; and added, on being asked for an explanation, He speaks as one who believes every word he says. Much of pulpit power under God defends on that; admits of that explanation, or of one allied to it. They make others feel who feel themselves. How can he plead for souls who neither knows nor feels the value of his own? How can he recommend a Saviour to others who himself despises and rejects Him? It is true that a man may impart light to others who does not himself see the light. It is true that, like a concave speculum cut from a block of ice, which, by its power of concentrating the rays of the sun, kindles touch wood or explodes gunpowder, a preacher may set others on fire, when his own heart is cold as frost. It is true that he may stand like a lifeless fingerpost, pointing the way on a road where he neither leads nor follows. It is true that God may thus in His sovereign mercy bless others by one who is himself unblessed. Yet commonly it happens that it is what comes from the heart of preachers that penetrates and affects the heart of hearers. Like a ball red hot from the cannon’s mouth, he must burn himself who would set others on fire. We have read the story of a traveller who stood one day beside the cages of some birds, that tuned their plumage on the wires, struggling to be free. A wayworn and sun-browned man, like one returned from foreign lands, he looked wistfully and sadly on these captives, till tears started in his eye. Turning round on their owner, he asked the price of one, paid it in strange gold, and opening the cage set the prisoner free; thus he did with another and another, till every bird had flown away singing to the sides—soaring on the wings of liberty. The crowd stared and stood amazed. They thought him mad, till to the question of their curiosity he replied, I was once a captive; I know the sweets of liberty. And so they who have experience of guilt, who have felt the serpent’s bite, the poison burning in their veins, who on the one hand have felt the sting of conscience, and on the other the peace of faith, the joys of hope, the love, the light, the liberty, the life that are found in Jesus, they, not excepting heaven’s highest angels, are the fittest to preach a Saviour; to plead with man for God, and with God for man. During a heavy storm off the coast of Spain a dismasted merchantman was observed by a British frigate drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass were on her; and a canvas shelter on a deck almost level with the sea suggested the idea that even yet there might be life on board. With all their faults, no men are more alive to humanity than our rough and

80

hardy mariners; so the order instantly sounds to put the ship about; and presently a boat is lowered, and starts with instructions to bear down upon the wreck. Away after that drifting hulk go these gallant men over the mountain swell and roaring sea. They reach it; they shout; and now a strange object rolls from that canvas screen against the lee shroud of a broken mast. It is hauled into the boat. It proves to be the trunk of a man, bent head and knees together, so dried up and shrivelled as to be hardly felt within the ample clothes—so light that a mere boy lifted it on board. It is conveyed to the ship and laid on the deck. In horror and pity the crew gather around it. These feelings suddenly change into astonishment. The miserable object shows signs of life. The seamen draw nearer; it moves; and then mutters—in a deep sepulchral voice mutters—There is another man. Rescued himself, the first use the saved one made of Speech was to try to save another. Oh! learn that blessed lesson. Be daily practising it. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

They defiled it.—The defilerWhen with slow and lingering steps Adam and Eve came forth weeping from Paradise, and the gate was locked behind them, that was the bitterest home leaving the world has ever seen. Adam belay; the federal head of his family, they come not alone. A longer sad sadder procession follows them than went weeping on the road to Babylon. They are attended by a world in tears. Death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.I. Let us look at man sinning. “Ye have defiled the land.” Sin is presented here as a defilement. Pluck off that painted mask, and turn upon her face the lamp of God’s Word. We start—it reveals a death’s head. I stay not to quote texts descriptive of sin. It is a debt, a burden, a thief, a sickness, a leprosy, a plague, a poison, a serpent, a sting; everything that man hates it is; a load of curses and calamities beneath whose crushing, most intolerable pressure the whole creation groaneth. But leaving what is general let us fix our attention on that view of sin which the text presents. Here it is set forth as a defilement; and what else in the eye of God can deform, and does defile? Yet how strange it is, that some deformity of body shall prove the subject of more parental regrets and personal mortification than this most foul deformity of soul! Your manners may have acquired a courtly polish, your dress may, rival the winter’s snow, unaccustomed to menial offices, and sparkling with Indian gems, your hands may bear no stain, yet they arm not clean; nay, beneath that graceful exterior may lie concealed more foul pollution than is covered by a beggar’s rags. This son of toil, from whose very touch your delicacy shrinks, and who, till Sabbath stops the wheels of business, and with her kind hand wipes the sweat of labour from his brow, never knows the comfort of cleanly attire, may have a heart within, which, compared with yours, is purity itself. Beneath this soiled raiment he wears, all unseen by the world’s dull eye, the “raiment of needlework,” and the “clean linen” of a Redeemer’s righteousness.II. The nature of this defilement.

1. It is internal. Like snowdrift, when it has levelled the churchyard mounds, and, glistening in the winter sun, lies so pure, and white, and fair, and beautiful, above the dead that fester and rot below, a plausible profession may wear the look of innocence, and conceal from human eyes the foulest heart corruption. The grass grows green on the mountain that hides a volcano in its bowels. Behind the rosy 81

cheek and lustrous eye of beauty, how often does there lurk the deadliest of all diseases! Internal, but all the more dangerous that they are internal, such maladies are reluctantly believed in by their victims. They are the last to be suspected and the hardest to cure. To other than the physician’s skill or a mother’s anxious look, this youthful and graceful form never wears bloom of higher health, nor moves in more fascinating charms, nor wins more admiring eyes, than when fell consumption, like a miner working on in darkness, has penetrated the vital organs, and is quietly sapping the foundations of life. Like these maladies, sin has its seat within. It is a disease of the heart. It is the worst and deadliest of all heart complaints. Needing not food, but medicine, a new nature, a new heart, a new life, this is the prayer that best suits thy lips and meets thy case—Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.2. This defilement is universal. Our world is inhabited by various races; different specimens, not different species of mankind. The Mongolian, the Negro, the race early cradled among Caucasian mountains, and the Red Indians of the New World; these all differ from each other in the colour of the skin, in the contour of the skull, in the cast and character of their features. But although the hues of the skin differ, and the form of the skull and the features of the face are cast in different moulds, the features, colour, and character of the heart are the same in all men. Be he pale-faced or red, tawny or black, Jew, Greek, Scythian, bond or free, whether he be the lettered and civilised inhabitant of Europe, or roam a painted savage in American woods, or pant beneath the burning line, or wrapt in furs shiver amid Arctic snows, as in all classes of society, so in all these races of men, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”; “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” The pendulum, farther removed from the centre, vibrates more slowly at the equator than at the poles; the farther north we push our way over thick-ribbed ice, the faster the clock goes; but parallels of latitude have no modifying influence on the motions of the heart. It beats the same in all men; nor, till repaired by grace, does it in any man beat true to God. How can it be otherwise? The tree is diseased, not at the top, but at the root; and therefore no one branch of the human family can possibly escape being affected by sin. Man is the child of unholy parents, and how can a clean thing come out of an unclean?3. This evil is incurable. Hear the word of the Lord, Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord. Again, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Again, Why should ye be stricken any more, ye will revolt more and more? Of these solemn and humbling truths it were difficult to find a more remarkable illustration than that before us. What moral effect had God’s judgments on His ancient people? Were they cured by their afflictions, by trials that extended over long years of suffering? Did these arrest the malady? Had they even the salutary effect of preventing their sinking deeper into sin? By no means. As always happens in incurable diseases, the patient grew worse instead of better. “Seducers wax worse and worse.” As always happens when life is gone, the dead became more and more offensive. The brighter the sun shines, the more the skies rain, the thicker the dews of night, and the hotter the day, the faster the fallen tree rots; because those agents in nature which promote vegetation and develop the forms and beauty of life, the sounding shower, the silent dews, the summer heat, have no other effect on death than to hasten its putridity and decay. And even so—impressive lesson of the impotency of all means that are unaccompanied by the

82

Divine blessing—was it with God’s ancient people. Trust not., therefore, in any unsanctified afflictions. These cannot permanently and really change the condition of your heart. I have seen the characters of the writing remain on paper which the flames had turned into a film of buoyant coal; I have seen the thread that had been passed through the fire, retain, in its cold grey ashes, the twist which it had got in spinning; I have found every shivered splinter of the flint as hard as the unbroken stone: and let trials come, in providence, sharp as the fire and ponderous as the crushing hammer, unless a gracious God send along with these something else, bruised, broken, bleeding, as your heart may be, its nature remains the same. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Man sinningRange the wide fields of nature, travel from the equator to the poles, rise from the worm that wriggles out of its hole to the eagle as she springs from the rock to cleave the clouds, and where shall you find anything that corresponds either to our scenes of suicidal dissipation or the blood-stained fields of war? Suppose that, on his return from Africa, some Park, or Bruce, or Campbell were to tell how he had seen the lions of the desert leave their natural prey, and, meeting face to face in marshalled bands, amid roars that drowned the thunder, engage in deadly battle. Would he find one man so credulous as to believe him? The world would laugh that traveller and his tale to scorn. But should anything so strange and monstrous occur, or, while the air shook with their bellowings, and the ground trembled beneath their hoofs, should we see the cattle rush from their distant pastures, to form two vast, black, solid, opposing columns, and, with heads levelled to the charge, should these herds dash forward to bury their horns in each other’s bodies, we would proclaim a prodigy, asking what madness had seized creation. But is not sin the parent of more awful prodigies? Fiercer than the cannon’s flash, flames of wrath shoot from brothers’ eyes. They draw; they brandish their swords, they sheathe them in each other’s bowels; every stroke makes a widow, every ringing volley scatters a hundred orphans on a homeless world. Covering her eyes, humanity flies shrieking from the scene, and leaves it to rage, revenge, and agony. Sooner would I be an atheist and believe that there was no God at all, than that man appears in this scene as he came from the hand of a benignant Divinity. Man must have fallen.I. Apart from derived sinfulness we have personal sins to answer for. Come, let us reason together. Do you mean, on the one hand, to affirm that you have never been guilty of doing what you should not have done? or, on the other, that you were never guilty of not doing what you should have done? Could you be carried back to life’s starting post, leant you again an infant against the cradle, stood you again a child at your mother’s knee, sate you again a boy at the old school desk, with companions that are now changed, or scattered, or dead and gone, were you again a youth to begin the battle of life anew, would you run the self-same course; would you live over the self-same life? What! is there no speech that you would unsay? no act that you would undo? no Sabbath that you would spend better? are there none alive, or mouldering in the grave, none now blest in heaven, or with the damned in hell, to whom you would bear yourself otherwise than you have done? Have none gone to their account whose memory stings you, and whose possible fate, whose everlasting state fills you with the most painful anxiety? Did you never share in sins that may have proved their ruin, nor fail in faithfulness that might have saved their souls?

83

II. The guilt of these actual sins is our own. There are strong pleas which the heathen may advance in extenuation of their guilt; there are excuses which they, Stepping forward with some confidence to the judgment, may urge upon a just and merciful as well as holy God. What value may be given to these pleas, what weight they may carry at a tribunal where much shall be exacted of those who have received much, and little asked where little has been given, it is not for us to say, or even attempt to determine. But this we know, that we have no such excuse to plead, nor any such plea to urge, in extenuation of our offences, of one of a thousand of our offences. Supposing, however, that the plea were accepted, more than enough remains to condemn us, and leave guilt no refuge out of Christ. We talk of a natural bias to sin; but who has not committed sins that he could have avoided, sins which he could have abstained from, and did abstain from, when it served some present purpose to do so? Some years ago, on a great public occasion, a distinguished statesman rose to address his countrymen, and, in reply to certain calumnious and dishonourable charges, held up his hands in the vast assembly, exclaiming, These hands are clean. Now, if you or I or any of our fallen race did entertain a hope that we could act over this scene before a God in judgment, then I could comprehend the calm, the unimpassioned indifference with which men sit in church on successive Sabbaths, idly gazing on the Cross of Calvary, and listening with drowsy ears to the overtures of mercy. But are these, I ask, matters with which you have nothing to do? Beware! Play with no fire; least of all, with fire unquenchable. Play with no edged sword; least of all, with that which Divine justice sheathed in a Saviour’s bosom. Your everlasting destiny may turn upon this hour. Do you feel under condemnation? Are you really anxious to be saved? Be not turned from such a blessed purpose by the laughter of fools and the taunts of the ungodly. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

17 “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness in my sight.

CLARKE, "When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land - Had they continued faithful to me, they had never been removed from it: but they polluted it with their crimes; and I abhorred the land on that account, and gave both them and it up to the destroyers.

84

GILL, "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,.... The land of Canaan, which the Lord their God gave unto them; a land abounding with all good things, where they dwelt in great ease, plenty, and prosperity; and which also was a holy land, peculiarly chosen of God for his worship and service: they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: by their sinful ways and evil works: sin is of a defiling nature; it defiles the bodies and souls of men; it defiles their own, and it defiles others; it defiles a land, and the inhabitants of it, and makes them loathsome and abominable to a pure and holy God: their way was before me, as the uncleanness of a removed woman: of a menstruous woman in the time of her separation; when she was debarred the company of her husband, and might not enter into the sanctuary of the Lord: this shows what an evil thing sin is, what an uncleanness it is in the sight of God, how abhorrent sinful ways are to him; and though he was the husband of these people, yet, because of their sins, he separated from them, and removed them from and out of their land, as not fit to be in his presence, nor to live there.

HENRY 17-20, "How God's name had suffered both by the sins and by the miseries of Israel; and this was more to be regretted than all their sorrow, which they had brought upon themselves; for the honour of God lies nearer the hearts of good men than any interests of their own. 1. God's glory had been injured by the sin of Israel when they were in their own land, Eze_36:17. It was a good land, a holy land, a land that had the eye of God upon it. But they defiled it by their own way, their wicked way; that is our own way, the way of our own choice; and we ourselves must bear the blame and shame of it. The sin of a people defiles their land, renders it abominable to God and uncomfortable to themselves; so that they cannot have any holy communion with him nor with one another. What was unclean might not be made use of. By the abuse of the gifts of God's bounty to us we forfeit the use of them; and, the mind and conscience being defiled with guilt, no comfort is allowed us, nothing is pure to us. Their way in the eye of God was like the pollution of a woman during the days of her separation, which shut her out from the sanctuary and made very things she touched ceremonially unclean, Lev_15:19. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and which he cannot endure to look upon. They shed blood and worshipped idols (Eze_36:18) and with those sins defiled the land. For this God poured out his fury upon them, scattered them among the heathen. Their own land was sick of them, and they were sent into other lands. Herein God was righteous, and was justified in what he did; none could say that he did them any wrong, nay, he did justice to his own honour, for he judged them according to their way and according to their doings, Eze_36:19. And yet, the matter being not rightly understood, he was not glorified in it; for the enemies did say, as Moses pleaded the Egyptians would say if he had destroyed them in the wilderness, that for mischief he brought them forth. Their neighbours considered them rather as a holy people than as a sinful people, and therefore took occasion from the calamities they were in, instead of glorifying God, as they might justly have done, to reproach him and put contempt upon him; and God's name was continually every day blasphemed by their oppressors, Isa_52:5. 2. When they entered into the land of the heathen God had no

85

glory by them there; but, on the contrary, his holy name was profaned, Eze_36:20. (1.) It was profaned by the sins of Israel; they were no credit to their profession wherever they went, but, on the contrary, a reproach to it. The name of God and his holy religion was blasphemed through them, Rom_2:24. When those that pretended to be in relation to God, in covenant and communion with him, were found corrupt in their morals, slaves to their appetites and passions, dishonest in their dealings, and false to their words and the trust reposed in them, the enemies of the Lord had thereby great occasion given them to blaspheme, especially when they quarrelled with their God for correcting them, than which nothing could be more scandalous. (2.) It was profaned by the sufferings of Israel; for from them the enemies of God took occasion to reproach God, as unable to protect his own worshippers and to make good his own grants. They said, in scorn, “These are the people of the land, these wicked people (you see he could not keep them in their obedience to his precepts), these miserable people - you see he could not keep them in the enjoyment of his favours. These are the people that came out of Jehovah's land, they are the very scum of the nations. Are these those that had statues so righteous whose lives are so unrighteous? Is this the nation that is so much celebrated for a wise and understanding people, and that is said to have God so nigh unto them? Do these belong to that brave, that holy nation, who appear here so vile, so abject?” Thus God sold his people and did not increase his wealth by their price, Psa_44:12. The reproach they were under reflected upon him.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

Ver. 17. When the house of Israel.] Ubique Scriptura vindicat gloriam Dei, maxime autem hoc loco. (a) This place of Scripture doth singularly set forth the glory of God’s grace, while it showeth that man’s destruction is wholly of himself, his help only of God.

As the uncleanness.] As a menstruous clout, abhorred by all.

POOLE, " In their own land; in fullness, case, and security, as in days past they did.

They defiled it; brought in much sin and great guilt upon the land, i.e. on themselves who dwelt there, and sinned greatly.

86

By their own way; leaving my law, despising my counsel, forsaking my worship and temple.

By their doings; by their carriage and practices in their whole conversation.

As the uncleanness, & c.; or as one excommunicate, and cut off from the congregation, because of some great sin. Or, since idolatry is so often compared to fornication and whoredom, possibly it may be here the filthiness of spiritual whoredom. I hated and loathed the filthiness of their ways, as I would the impurity of a whorish woman prostituting herself for gain. The word may include the reward of a whore, as it doth Ezekiel 16:33.

PULPIT, "Their way was before me. Their ways and doings, i.e. their violent deeds and idolatrous practices (Ezekiel 36:18), were as morally loathsome in Jehovah's sight as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation was materially disgusting. The comparison may have been derived from Isaiah 64:6, but was as likely to have been original, seeing Ezekiel was a priest-prophet, to whom the details of the Levitical Law must have been familiar (comp. Ezekiel 18:6; Le 15:19).

18 So I poured out my wrath on them because they had shed blood in the land and because they had defiled it with their idols.

GILL, "Wherefore I poured my fury on them,.... Like a mighty flood that carries 87

all before it, in just retaliation for the blood they had shed upon the land; the innocent blood, as the Targum; the blood of righteous men, that opposed and reproved them for their sinful ways; the blood of the prophets, that were sent to warn them of them; and especially the blood of the Son of God; for this prophecy reaches further than to the times of the Babylonish captivity: and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it; or, "for their dung" (m); their dunghill gods; not only for their idols, and their idolatry, before the Babylonish captivity, which they after that were free from; but for the traditions of their elders, they set up against and above the word of God; and their own legal righteousness, their idols, the works of their hands, which wore as dung; and through their attachment to which they rejected Christ and his righteousness; and which brought wrath upon them, and them into their present captivity.

JAMISON, "The reason for their removal was their sin, which God’s holiness could not let pass unpunished; just as a woman’s legal uncleanness was the reason for her being separated from the congregation.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols [wherewith] they had polluted it:

Ver. 18. For the blood which they had shed.] These two gross sins are instanced, viz., murder and idolatry, lest they should plead, as in Jeremiah 2:35, "I have not sinned"; or as in Hosea 12:8, "In all my works they shall find none iniquity in me; that were sin."

POOLE, " Wherefore; these and other sins were the true cause that the land was emptied of men, there was no ground for the heathen’s calumny.

I poured my fury; I was angry with them, and the effects of my anger were such as made the land and cities desolate.

For the blood that they had shed; for murders committed in the land, and frequently charged on them, Ezekiel 22:3,6,9,12,27 23:45.

88

For their idols: idolatry was another of their sins, which brought desolation on them.

PETT, "Verse 18-19

“Because of this I poured out my fury on them, for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with idols, and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. According to their ways and according to their doings I judged them.”

The consequence of their behaviour was that God expelled them from the land so that it could be purified. Stress is especially laid here on two things, violence and idolatry. They shed blood wrongly, defiling the land, and they introduced idols which were an abomination to God. And He stresses that their judgment was based on their behaviour. They had brought what happened on themselves.

BI 18-19, "Wherefore I poured My fury upon them.Man sufferingI. God is slow to punish. He does punish; He shall punish; with reverent be it spoken, He must punish. Yet no hand of clock goes so slowly as His hand of vengeance. He does pour out His fury; but His indignation is the volcano that groans loud and long before it discharges the elements of destruction, and pours its fiery lavas on the vineyards at its feet. Where, when God’s anger has burned hottest, was it ever known that judgment trod on the heels of sin? A period always intervenes; room is given for remonstrance on His part, and for repentance upon ours. The stroke of judgment is like the lightning flash, irresistible, fatal; it kills,—kills in the twinkling of an eye. But the clouds from which it leaps are slow to gather; they thicken by degrees: and he must be intensely engaged with the pleasures, or engrossed in the business of the world, whom the flash and peal surprise. The mustering clouds, the deepening gloom, the still and sultry air, the awful silence, the big pattering raindrops, these reveal his danger to the traveller; and warn him away from river, road, or hill to the nearest shelter. And, heeded or unheeded, many are the warnings you get from God. As these prove, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let us do the same justice to our Father in heaven that we would render to an earthly parent. Would it be doing a father justice to look at him only when the rod is raised in his hand, and, though the trembling lip and weeping eyes and choked utterance

89

of his culprit boy, and a fond mother’s intercession, all plead with him to spare, he refuses, firmly refuses? In this, how stern he looks! But before you can know that father, or judge his heart aright, you should know how often ere this the offence had been forgiven; you should have heard with what tender affection he had warned that child; above all, you should have stood at his closet door, and listened when he pleaded with God on behalf of an erring son. Justice to him also requires that you should have seen with what slow and lingering steps he went for the rod, the trembling of his trend, and how, with tears streaming from his eyes, he raised them to heaven and sought strength to inflict a punishment which, could it serve the purpose, he would a hundred times rather bear than inflict.II. How He punished His ancient people. These were the children of Abraham, beloved for the father’s sake, the honoured custodiers of Divine truth; God’s chosen people, through whose line and lineage His Son was to appear. How solemn, then, and how appropriate, the question, If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Look at Judah sitting amid the ruins of Jerusalem, her temple without a worshipper, her silent streets choked with the dead: look at that bound, weeping, bleeding remnant of a nation toiling on its way to Babylon: look at these peeled and riven boughs; may I not warn you with the Apostle, If God spaced not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. If we speak thus, it is for your good. We arm ourselves with these thunders only, in the words of Paul, “to persuade you by the terrors of the Lord.” We have no faith in terror dissociated from tenderness. And as we trust more to drawing than to driving men to Jesus, we entreat you to observe that He who is the good is also a most tender Shepherd. Among the hills of our native land I have met a shepherd far from the flock and folds, driving home a lost sheep, one which had “gone astray,” a creature panting for breath, amazed, alarmed, foot-sore; and when the rocks around rang loud to the baying of the dogs, I have seen them—whenever it offered to turn from the path, with open mouth dash fiercely at its sides, and so hound it home. How differently Jesus brings back His lost ones! The lost sheep sought and found, He lifts it up tenderly, lays it on His shoulder, and, retracing His steps, returns homeward with joy, and invites His neighbours to rejoice with Him. Catching grace from His lips, and kindness from His looks, I desire to address you as becomes the servant of such a gentle, lowly, loving Master. Yet, shall I conceal God’s verity, and ruin men’s souls to spare their feelings? If any are living without God and Christ and hope and prayer, I implore them to look here: turn to this dreadful pit. With what fire it burns! How it resounds with moaning wail and woeful groans 1 Now, while we stand together on its margin, or rather draw back with horror, ponder, I pray you, the solemn question, Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? It is alleged by travellers that the ostrich, when hard pressed by the hunters, will thrust its head into a bush, and, without further attempt either at flight or resistance, quietly submit to the stroke of death. Men say that, having thus succeeded in shutting the pursuers out of its own sight, the bird is stupid enough to fancy that it has shut itself out of theirs, and that the danger which it has ceased to see has ceased to exist. We doubt that. This poor bird, which has thrust its head into the bush, and stands quietly to receive the shot, has been hunted to death. For hours the cry of staunch pursuers has rung in its startled ear; for hours their feet have been on its weary track; it has exhausted strength, and breath, and craft, and cunning, to escape; and even yet, give it time to breathe, grant it but another chance, and it is away with the wind; with wings outspread and rapid feet it spurns the burning sand. It is because escape is hopeless and death is certain that it has buried its head in that bush, and closed its eyes to a fate which it cannot avert. To man belongs the folly of closing his

90

eyes to a fate which he can avert. He thrusts his head into the bush while escape is possible; and, because he can put death and judgment and eternity out of mind, lives as if time had no bed of death, and eternity no bar of judgment. Be wise. Be men. Look your danger in the face. Flee to Jesus now. Escape from the wrath to come. To come? In a sense wrath has already come. The fire has caught, it has seized your garments; delay, and you are wrapt in flames. Oh! haste away, and throw yourselves into the fountain which has power to quench these fires, and cleanse you from all your sins. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

God’s punitive justiceDoes man ask, Why am I born with a bias to sin? why has another’s hand been permitted to sow germs of evil in me? why should I, who was no party to the first covenant, be buried in its ruins? To these questions this is my reply: I shrink from sitting in judgment upon my judge. Clouds and darkness are round about Jehovah now; but I feel confident that, when the veil of this present economy shall be rent, and expiring Time, echoing the cry of the cross, exclaims, It is finished, it shall be seen that righteousness and judgment are the pillars of Jehovah’s throne, that there is no unrighteousness with God. But although the permission of sin is a mystery, the fact of its punishment is no mystery at all; and, while every answer to the question, How did God allow sin? leaves us unsatisfied, to my mind nothing is plainer than this, that, whatever was His reason for permitting it to exist, He could not permit it to exist unpunished.I. The truth of God requires the punishment of sin. Some have fancied that they honour God most when, sinking all other attributes in mercy—indiscriminating mercy—they represent Him as embracing the whole world in His arms, and receiving to His bosom with equal affection the sinners that hate and the saints that love Him. They cannot claim originality for this idea. Its authorship belongs to the “father of lies.” Satan said so before them. It is the identical doctrine that damned this world. The serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die. Are your hopes of salvation resting on such a baseless fancy? If so, you cannot have considered in what aspect this theory presents that God for whose honour you profess such tender regard. We almost shrink from explaining it. You save the creature, but save him at a price more costly than was paid for sinners upon the Cross of Calvary. Your scheme exalts man; but far more than man is exalted, God is degraded. By it no man is lost; but there is a greater Joss. The truth of God is lost; and in that loss His crown is spoiled of its topmost jewel, His kingdom totters, and the throne of the universe is shaken to its deepest foundations. It is as manifest as daylight that God’s truth and your scheme cannot stand together. “Liar” stands against either God or you; and, in the words of the Apostle, you make God a liar. Nor is that all; my faith has lost the very rock on which it stood, as I flattered myself, steadfast and unmovable. For however awful the threatenings in His word may be, if God is not true to them, what security have I that He will prove true to its gracious promises?II. The love of God requires that sin should be punished. Let me at once prove and illustrate the point by a piece of plain analogy. This city, its neighbourhood, nay, the whole land, is shaken by the news of some most cruel, bloody, monstrous crime. Fear seizes the public mind; pale horror sits on all men’s faces; doors are double barred; and justice lets loose the hounds of law on the track of the criminal. At length, to the relief and satisfaction of all honest citizens, he is caught. He is tried, condemned, laid in irons, and waits but the sentence to be signed. To save or slay, to hang or pardon, is now the

91

question with him whose prerogative it is to do either. And the law is left to take its course. Now, by what motive is the sovereign impelled to shut up his bowels of mercy, and sign the warrant for execution? Is it want of pity? No; the fatal pen is taken with reluctance; it trembles in his hand; and tears of compassion for this guilty wretch drop upon the page. It is not so much abhorrence of the guilty, as love of the innocent, and regard for their lives, peace, purity, and honour, that dooms the man to death. If he were pardoned, and his crime allowed to go unpunished, neither man’s life nor woman’s virtue were safe. Unless this felon dies, the peace of a thousand happy families lies open to foul attack. Love for those who have the highest claim on a sovereign’s protection requires that justice be satisfied, and the guilty die. There are scenes of domestic suffering which present another, no less convincing, and more touching analogy. It has happened that, from love and regard to the interests of his other children, to save them from a brother’s contamination, a kind parent has felt constrained to pronounce sentence on his son, and banish him from his house. How sad to think that he may be lost! The dread of that goes like a knife to the heart; yet, bitter truth! painful conclusion! it is better that one child be lost than a whole family be lost. These lambs claim protection from the wolf; he must be driven forth from the fold. Love herself, while she weeps, demands this sacrifice; and, just because it is most lacerating, most excruciating, to a parent’s heart, it is in such a case the highest and holiest exercise of parental love to bar the door against a child. There have been parents so weak and foolish as to peril the morals, the fortunes, the souls of all their other children, rather than punish one; and in consequence of this I have seen sin, like a plague, infect every member of the family, and vice ferment and spread till it had leavened the whole lump. Divine love, however, is no blind Divinity: and God, being as wise as He is tender, sinners may rest assured, that out of mere pity to them He will neither sacrifice the interest nor peril the happiness of His people. Bleeding, dying, redeeming Love shall bolt the gates of heaven with her own hand, and from its happy, holy precincts exclude all that could hurt or defile.III. Unless sin is to be awfully punished, the language of scripture appears extravagant. The sufferings and misery which await the impenitent and unbelieving have been painted by God in most appalling colours. They are such that, for our salvation, His Son descended from the heavens and expired upon a Cross. They are such that, when Paul thought of the lost, he wept like a woman. They are such that, though a dauntless man, who shook his chain in the face of kings, whose spirit no sufferings could subdue, and whose heart no dangers could appall, who stood as unmoved amid a thousand perils as ever sea rock amid the roaring billows, he could not contemplate the fate of the wicked without the deepest emotion. What horror did David feel at the sight and fate of sinners! With his face turned up to heaven, you see a blind man approach the edge of an awful precipice; every step brings him nearer, nearer still, to the brink, Now he reaches it; he stands on the grassy edge. Oh, for an arm to reach him, a voice to warn him, a blow to send him staggering back upon the ground. He has lifted his foot; it is projected beyond the brink; another moment, a breath of wind, the least change of balance, and he is whirling twenty fathoms down. You stop your ears; shut your eyes; turn away your head; horror takes hold of you. Such were David’s feelings when he contemplated the fate of the wicked. The wrath of God is the key to the Psalmist’s sorrow, to an Apostle’s tears, to the bloody mysteries of the Cross. That was the necessity which drew the Saviour down. God certainly is not willing that you should perish; and by these terrors He would persuade you to accept salvation. Meditate on these words: pray over them—Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Still, it is not terror which is the power, the mighty power of

92

God. The Gospel, like most medicines for the body, is of a compound nature; but whatever else enters into its composition, its curative property is love. God, indeed, tells us of hell, but it is to persuade us to fly to heaven; and, as a skilful painter fills the background of his picture with his darker colours, God introduces the smoke of torment and the black thunder clouds of Sinai to give brighter prominence to the Cross, to Jesus, and His love to the chief of sinners. His voice of terror is like the scream of the mother bird when the hawk is in the sky. She alarms her brood that they may run and hide beneath her feathers; and as I believe that God had left that mother dumb unless He had given her wings to cover them, I am sure that He, who is very “pitiful,” and has no pleasure in the meanest creature’s pain, had never turned our eyes on the horrible gulf unless for the voice that cries, Deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions.

GILL, "nd I scattered them among the Heathen,.... First by the Chaldeans, in the various provinces of Babylon; and next by the Romans, in the various parts of the world; and in this condition they now are: and they were dispersed through the countries; or blown about as chaff, stubble, or any such like thing, is by the wind: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them; condemned and punished them as their evil ways and wicked works deserved, according to the rules of justice and equity; so that no injustice was done them, nor could any fault be justly found in the proceedings of God towards them.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

93

Ver. 19. And I scattered them among the heathen.] Whose idols they had worshipped, and whose manners they had imitated.

POOLE, " My hand scattered them, and what hand can retain the inhabitants that God will fling out?

They were driven away, as chaff before the wind. As their ways and doings provoked me, and deserved what I brought on them, so I judged them, and punished them with desolation.

PULPIT, "According to their way and according to their doings I judged them. The language hints at a correspondence between the punishment and the crime. As a woman in her separation was not only defiled, but separated from the congregation Le 15:19), so Israel, having defiled both herself and her land, required to be removed from it (Le Ezekiel 18:28). And she was. Jehovah scattered her among the heathen and dispersed her through the countries.

20 And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, ‘These are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.’

94

BARNES, "The defilement of the people described in order to its removal.Eze_36:20

They profaned my holy name - Caused it to be dishonored by the pagan who said in scorn, “This is the people of God.” The pagan, seeing the miserable state of the exiles, fancied that Yahweh was no more than a national god, powerless to protect his subjects.

CLARKE, "And when they entered unto the heathen - So bad were they, and so deeply fallen, that they profaned the Lord’s name among the heathen; and, on their account, the true God was blasphemed. These, say they, are the people of Jehovah! O what an abominable people are these! and what a being must that God be who can have and own such for his people!

GILL, "And when they entered unto the Heathen, whither they went,.... When the Jews went into the Heathen countries, whither they were carried captive, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans: they profaned my holy name; by their irreligion and immorality; by their violation of both tables of the law; by their wicked lives and conversations, whereby they gave the enemy an occasion to reproach them, their religion, and their God, Rom_2:24, when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land; these are the men that boast they are the people of the Lord, whom he has chosen above all people, and see what a wicked people they are; for their sins they are driven out of the land, and become our captives: or though they were the Lord's people, as they pretend, and were under his care and protection; yet he was not able to keep them in their own land, and deliver them out of our hands, but they are carried captive by us; and thus the name of God, his being and perfections, were blasphemed, and his word, worship, and worshippers, were ridiculed by them. The Targum is, "if these are the people of the Lord, how is it that they are gone out of the land of the house of his majesty?''

JAMISON, "profaned my holy name, when they — the heathensaid to them — the Israelites.These, etc. — The Israelites gave a handle of reproach to the heathen against God, who would naturally say, These who take usury, oppress, commit adultery, etc., and who, in such an abject plight, are “gone forth” as exiles “out of His land,” are specimens of what Jehovah can or will effect, for His people, and show what kind of a God this so-called holy, omnipotent, covenant-keeping God must be! (Isa_52:5; Rom_2:24).

95

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:20. These are the people, &c.— The Lord was with them, yet are they driven out of his land. Houbigant. As much as to say, "See what profligate wretches these are, who call themselves by the name of God's peculiar people; when it is evident that they are not so, by his having expelled them for their crimes out of the country which he has given them." See Houbigant.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These [are] the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

Ver. 20. These are the people of the Lord.] And these are the fruits of their religion. Are these the holy people? &c. Lactantius (a) complaineth of his times, that God’s truth was evil spoken of by the heathen, because Christians lived loosely and lewdly. Whereupon Erasmus (b) crieth out, O rem miseram! Oh, lamentable! Even in those purer times the piety of Christians was so much abated, that the gospel was therefore evil spoken of, for the evil lives of many that professed it. What marvel then, saith he, that Turks cry out upon us? that the banks of blasphemy are broken down in persons disaffected to the power of godliness?

POOLE, " When they entered; when they were come into Babylon, and entered into familiarity with the inhabitants as neighbours.

Profaned my holy name; did profanely sin against those precepts of my law, which heathens did know, venerate, and observe better than the Jews; or it may include the misery their sins had brought them to, which misery reflected upon their God in the opinion of the heathen.

They said, their heathen neighbours, to them, the miserable and profane Jews,

These are the people of the Lord; with taunt and cutting reprimand. These, these 96

captive slaves, that are most forlorn of men, will have it that their God is the Lord, the mighty and the good God, the true and faithful One, that gave them the land out of which they are driven. If he be good, as they boast, how comes it to pass his people are in such ill state? Or is he not able to better their state? Was he weak, and could not keep them in their own land? or doth he falsify his word? You miserable Jews, say what this meaneth. But by their impure life they opened the mouths of the heathen more to blaspheme, and call the holiness of God into question; when they saw his people so unholy, they concluded. As is the people so is their God; and this, as it was a great offence and scandal to the heathen, so it was a great dishonour to God.

PETT, "Verse 20

“And when they came to the nations to which they went, they profaned my holy name in that men said of them, “These are the people of Yahweh, and have come forth out of his land.”

But the other consequence was that it reflected on God’s name and reputation. By what had happened to them they had brought God’s name into disrepute, because the nations saw that they had had to leave the land and thus assumed that Yahweh their God could only be weak and helpless. Thus they degraded Yahweh to being a minor god of no importance.

PULPIT, "They profaned my holy Name; or, the name of my holiness. According to Kliefoth, the subject of the verb is "the heathen," but expositors generally regard it as "the house of Israel" of Ezekiel 36:17. Plumptre thinks that "while grammatically the words may refer to either the heathen or the exiles of Israel, possibly the sentence was purposely left vague, so as to describe the fact in which both were sharers," and cites in support of this view similar constructions in Isaiah 55:5 and Romans 2:24. What led to the profanation of Jehovah's Name by the heathen was the arrival among them, not of the news of the calamity which had befallen Israel (Kliefoth, Hengstenberg), but of the house of Israel itself; and the actual profanation lay in this, that, having beheld the exiles, they said, These are the people of the Lord, and they are gone forth out of his land. As the heathen

97

recognized only local divinities, they concluded Jehovah had either behaved capriciously towards his people and east them off (comp. Jeremiah 23:40; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 33:24), or had proved unequal to the task of protecting them so that they had been driven off (comp. Ezekiel 20:5, etc.; Numbers 14:16; Jeremiah 14:9). In either case, the honor of Jehovah had been lessened in the minds and tarnished by the words of the heathen, and inasmuch as this result had been brought about by Israel's sin, on Israel properly the blame lay.

21 I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.

BARNES, "I had pity for mine holy name - Render it: I “had” a pitiful regard to “Mine Holy Name.”

GILL, "But I had pity for my holy name,.... Had pity on the Jews for his name's sake, and not theirs; or he had a tender concern for his own honour and glory: which the house of Israel had profaned among the Heathen, whither they went; and therefore was resolved to take a method for the glorifying of it, and that in a way of special grace and mercy to his people; See Gill on Eze_36:20.

HENRY 21-24, " Let us now see how God would retrieve his honour, secure it, and advance it, by working a great reformation upon them and then working a great salvation for them. He would have scattered them among the heathen, were it not that he feared the wrath of the enemy, Deu_32:26, Deu_32:27. But, though they were unworthy of his compassion, yet he had pity for his own holy name, and a thousand pities it was that that should be trampled upon and abused. He looked with compassion on his own honour, which lay bleeding among the heathen, on that jewel which was trodden into the dirt, which the house of Israel, even in the land of their captivity, had profaned, Eze_36:21. In pity to that God brought them out from the heathen, because

98

their sins were more scandalous there than they had been in their own land. “Therefore I will gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land, Eze_36:24. Not for your sake, because you are worthy of such a favour, for you are most unworthy, but for my holy name's sake (Eze_36:22), that I may sanctify my great name,” Eze_36:23. Observe, by the way, God's holy name is his great name. His holiness is his greatness; so he reckons it himself. Nor does any thing make a man truly great but being truly good, and partaking of God's holiness. God will magnify his name as a holy name, for he will sanctify it: I will sanctify my name which you have profaned. When God performs that which he has sworn by his holiness, then he sanctifies his name. The effect of this shall be very happy: The heathen shall know that I am the Lord when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes and yours. When God proves his own holy name, and his saints praise it, then he is sanctified in them, and this contributes to the propagating of the knowledge of him. Observe, 1. God's reasons of mercy are all fetched from within himself; he will bring his people out of Babylon, not for their sakes, but for his own name's sake, because he will be glorified. 2. God's goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious; therefore he will sanctify his name by the pardon of sin, because it has been profaned by the commission of sin.

JAMISON, "I had pity for mine holy name — that is, I felt pity for it; God’s own name, so dishonored, was the primary object of His pitying concern; then His people, secondarily, through His concern for it [Fairbairn].

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

Ver. 21. But I had pity for my holy name.] So he hath still, or else it would be wide enough with us. Some render it, I spared, or tendered, mine holy name; and, to free it from those imputations, I freely forgave my people, and re-established them.

POOLE, " I had pity; I spared them, who in captivity continued to sin greatly against me, and for which sins I had just cause to cut them off; but I had pity.

For mine holy name; for my own sake, and for the glory of my name: had I destroyed them, the heathen would have concluded against my omnipotence and my truth. I preserved, I reduced, I re-established them for the honour of my mercy, truth, and power.

99

PETT, "Verses 21-23

God Will Restore His Reputation By What He Will Do In Returning the People to the Land and Pouring Out His Spirit on Them (Ezekiel 36:21-38).

“But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, I do not act for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name which you have profaned among the nations to which you went. And I will sanctify my great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them, and the nations will know that I am Yahweh,” says the Lord Yahweh, “when I am sanctified in you before their eyes.”

A ‘holy name’ is a name set apart by its uniqueness, distinctiveness and power, as well as by its righteousness. But none of this was apparent to the nations as a direct result of what had happened to Israel. They saw rather the opposite. So Yahweh was about to act so that the nations would recognise both His uniqueness, distinctiveness and power, and His righteousness. His uniqueness, distinctiveness and power because of the restoration of His people, and His power because of what he would do in them, and His righteousness because they would recognise why Israel had been expelled from the land, and would see the new righteousness resulting from the activity of Yahweh.

This brings out how Israel had failed so badly in their responsibility to be a kingdom of priests to the nations (Exodus 19:6). They had instead profaned His name before the world. But it was important for the world to know the living God, the Creator. So Yahweh Himself would perform the function of revealing Himself to the nations by His activities on Israel. He did not do it for their sakes but for the world’s sake, so that the world might know Him as He is.

His name would be set apart as holy and distinctive by two things. By the restoring of His people to their land, a land which He had ensured would still be available to

100

them when they returned, and by indwelling His Spirit within their lives in a total moral transformation. These were two separate activities, and certainly there is no reason to argue that the second would only happen once (and indeed the first has also happened more than once). In a sense it would be a continual process through which He would separate out a people for Himself.

‘I do not act for your sake.’ This is a vital lesson to learn. They, and we, deserved nothing. They had failed Him in every direction, and they had failed themselves. But far more important than them, and us, is that God should be known and revealed to the world. Without that there could be no salvation, no deliverance. Without that the saving purposes of God would fail. So by their own folly Israel had ceased to be important except as a means by which the world could see the glory and love of God, for they had forfeited their right to any privilege. That is why the concentration had now to be on redeeming the situation by using them as a means to reveal that love and glory.

PULPIT, "I had pity for mille holy Name. Havernick, after the LXX; wrongly renders, "I spared (them, i.e. Israel) for my holy Name s sake; but the preposition for or "upon" following the verb usually marks the object upon which the action of the verb terminates (see Ezekiel 16:5). Gesenius translates, "I will be sparing of my holy Name;" i.e. I will care for its honor.

22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.

101

GILL, "Therefore say unto the house of Israel,.... This is an order to the prophet, the son of man, Eze_36:17, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel; what he hereafter promises to do for them, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual; which he did, not on account of any deserts or worthiness in them; for they had none, having done nothing to merit his favour, but, on the contrary, everything to provoke the eyes of his glory: but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the Heathen, whither ye went; for the honour of his holy name, for the glory of his holy word, holy worship, and holy religion; all which were traduced and reproached among the Heathen, by reason of the ungodly behaviour of the Jews.

JAMISON, "not ... for your sakes — that is, not for any merit in you; for, on the contrary, on your part, there is everything to call down continued severity (compare Deu_9:5, Deu_9:6). The sole and sure ground of hope was God’s regard to “His own name,” as the God of covenant grace (Psa_106:45), which He must vindicate from the dishonor brought on it by the Jews, before the heathen.

K&D 22-28, "Eze_36:22-28For His holy name's sake the Lord will bring Israel back from its dispersion into His own land, purify it from its sins, and sanctify it by His Spirit to be His own people. -Eze_36:22. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I do it not for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye have come. Eze_36:23. I will sanctify my great name, which is profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, so that the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, when I prove myself holy upon you before their eyes. Eze_36:24. I will take you out of the nations, and gather you out of all lands, and bring you into your land, Eze_36:25. And will sprinkle clean water upon you, that ye may become clean; from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols will I cleanse you, Eze_36:26. And I will give you a new heart, and give a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. Eze_36:27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my rights, and do them. Eze_36:28. And ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to your fathers, and shall become my people, and I will be your God. - These verses show in what way the Lord will have compassion upon His holy name, and how He will put an end to the scoffing thereat, and vindicate His honour in the sight of the heathen. “Nor for your sake,” i.e., not because you have any claim to deliverance on account of your behaviour (cf. Isa_48:11 and Deu_9:6), but for my holy name's sake, i.e., to manifest as holy the name which has been profaned among the heathen, I do it, namely, what follows from Eze_36:23 onwards. The Lord

102

will sanctify His name, i.e., show it to be holy by proving Himself to be holy upon Israel. קדש is not equivalent to glorify, although the holiness of God involves the idea of glory. Sanctifying is the removing or expunging of the blots and blemishes which adhere to anything. The giving up of His people was regarded by the heathen as a sign of the weakness of Jehovah. This blot through which His omnipotence and glory were dishonoured, God would remove by gathering Israel out of the heathen, and glorifying it. Instead of לעיניכם, the ancient versions have rendered לעיניהם. This reading is also found in many of the codices and the earliest editions, and is confirmed by the great Masora, and also commended by the parallel passages, Eze_20:41 and Eze_28:25, so that it no doubt deserves the preference, although לעיניכם can also be justified. For inasmuch as Israelites had despaired in the midst of their wretchedness through unbelief, it was necessary that Jehovah should sanctify His great name in their sight as well. The great name of Jehovah is His almighty exaltation above all gods (cf. Mal_1:11-12). The first thing that Jehovah does for the sanctification of His name is to bring back Israel from its dispersion into its own land (Eze_36:24, compare Eze_11:17 and Eze_20:41-42); and then follows the purifying of Israel from its sins. The figurative expression, “to sprinkle with clean water,” is taken from the lustrations prescribed by the law, more particularly the purifying from defilement from the dead by sprinkling with the water prepared from the ashes of a red heifer (Num_19:17-19; compare Psa_51:9). Cleansing from sins, which corresponds to justification, and is not to be confounded with sanctification (Schmieder), is followed by renewal with the Holy Spirit, which takes away the old heart of stone and puts within a new heart of flesh, so that the man can fulfil the commandments of God, and walk in newness of life (Eze_36:26-28; compare Eze_11:18-20, where this promise has already occurred, and the necessary remarks concerning its fulfilment have been made). - With regard to the construction 'עשה אתאשר , to make or effect your walking, compare Ewald, §337b.

COFFMAN, "Verse 22

"Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which hath been profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land."

THE SPIRITUAL RESTORATION OF ISRAEL (Ezekiel 36:22-31)

103

"Which hath been profaned ... which ye have profaned among the nations ..." (Ezekiel 36:23). Let it be observed that the profanation is here indicated in its double nature, derived from the blasphemous words of the pagans, and from the conduct of Israel also. Not only did those citizens in pagan lands profane God's name, the word of the Lord states, "which ye have profaned."

There is not a more eloquent passage in the Bible stressing the fact that, in the last analysis, salvation was undeserved by ancient Israel, even as it is also undeserved in the New Israel. There is no such thing as a salvation from God being merited, deserved, or earned by the ones saved. The best Christians on earth are still unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10), even as were the citizens of ancient Israel. The reason for ancient Israel's return from captivity was not their merit, but the glory of God as required by his eternal purpose.

"I will bring you into your own land ..." (Ezekiel 36:24). Yes indeed, God did it through his servant Cyrus, just as he had promised more than a century earlier. There cannot possibly be any doubt that such an event as Cyrus' sending Israel back to Palestine would have been hailed as a signal act of God all over the world. The reestablishing of Israel in Canaan was a giant step indeed toward the redemption of the reputation of Jehovah as the God of all nations. What a shame it was that Israel's response was so inadequate, yet sufficient for God's purpose.

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:22. I do not this for your sakes— It cannot be denied, that it became the goodness of the God, to preserve the doctrine of the unity amidst an idolatrous world. But this could not have been effected according to God's plan of governing the moral world, but by a separation of one part from the rest; nor could such a separation be made any otherwise, than by bringing that part under God's peculiar protection. The consequences of which were, great temporal blessings. Now, as some one people must needs be selected for this purpose, it seems most agreeable to our ideas of divine wisdom, which commonly effects many ends by the same means, to make the blessings attendant on such a selection the reward of some high-exalted virtue in the progenitors of the chosen people. The separation was made for the sake of mankind in general; though one people became the honoured instruments, in reward of their fathers' virtues. And this is the language of the Scriptures, especially in this passage, where God promises to restore the Israelites after a short dispersion. "Thus saith the Lord, I do not this for your sakes, but for

104

mine holy name's sake."

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

Ver. 21. But I had pity for my holy name.] So he hath still, or else it would be wide enough with us. Some render it, I spared, or tendered, mine holy name; and, to free it from those imputations, I freely forgave my people, and re-established them.

POOLE, " I do not this, which I have done, sparing you and preserving you, and giving you favour in the sight of the heathen; nor do I that I am about to do for you, returning you to Judea, planting you, increasing you, and establishing you, and making you a blessing; I do not this for your sake, you deserve no such kindness from me.

For mine holy name’s sake; my infinite mercy is the spring and fountain; the vindicating my name from all imputation of weakness or unfaithfulness, and the magnifying the glory of my goodness, wisdom, truth, and power, are the reasons on which I do what I do for Israel.

Which ye have profaned; brought under suspicion with the heathen, who think that the only and almighty God should do better for his own and only people!

NISBET, "ALL OF GRACE

‘I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake.’

Ezekiel 36:22

105

There was an ineffaceable distinction between the mountains of Israel and Mount Seir, because the chosen people were in living covenant with Jehovah. He was for them, and would multiply men over the waste lands. He would even do better for them than at the beginnings. This is God’s way with His own. If it is needful to chastise them, He does not permanently reject, and He is particularly careful to bring them up out of their graves into a royal and wealthy place.

I. God’s reason of mercy is in Himself.—You cannot find the reason of God’s perpetual restoring mercy in anything that is in your heart. He loves us, because He will love us: He restores us, because His honour is implicated; He will at last bring us to glory, because it must never be said by His foes and detractors that He undertook more than He could complete. It would be to His eternal dishonour, if it could be said that evil was too strong for Him to cope with it; and the creature whom He had made, too weak and helpless for Him to redeem.

II. The return of Israel to Canaan was a small thing compared with the gracious work of inward renewal.—They had been commanded to make a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 18:31). Here God promises to do what He had enjoined. He will do this for us all, sprinkling our heart from an evil conscience, cleansing us by the indwelling fire of the Holy Spirit from all filthiness and idols, replacing the stony, unimpressible heart with a humble, teachable, and tender one. His grace can turn stones into living flesh, and the result shall be floods of penitential tears. Let us pray for these blessings to be ours, that those around us may acknowledge His hand.

Illustration

‘I have climbed, let me suppose, through a narrow mountain-pass. It was “glad, confident morning” when I started, and with every step I took the scene became more enchanting, and my spirits rose. But the prospect contracted. The hills closed in on me. The sun was hidden. A cold wind swept through the defile. My spirits drooped, and I could only doggedly plod along. But, by and by, the mountains opened out again; the pass was over; and under my feet stretched a fairer landscape

106

than that which thrilled me at the first.

To-day I may be in the gloomy chasm. My spiritual youth lies behind, and I am walking through an unlovely land. But my God is able and willing to conduct me forth from the pass into a region of fertility and beauty. Let me pray Him to do it. It will delight His own heart to respond to my cry.’

PULPIT, "Not for your sakes … but for mine holy Name's sake. Thus Jehovah repudiates the claim of merit on Israel's part (comp. Ezekiel 36:32); and if Israel had no claim on Jehovah for deliverance from the Babylonish exile any more than she had at first to be put in possession of Canaan (Deuteronomy 9:6), much less has fallen man a claim on God for salvation from the condemnation and dominion of sin (Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-10). As the essential holiness and righteousness of God were the real reason of Israel's exile and dispersion among the nations, so were these qualities in God the ultimate grounds to which Israel's recovery and restoration should be traced.

23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.

107

CLARKE, "I will sanctify my great name - By changing your hearts and your conduct, I shall show my hatred to vice, and my love to holiness: but it is not for your sakes, but for my holy name’s sake, that I shall do you good in your latter days.

GILL, "And I will sanctify my great name,.... The same with his holy name; for his greatness lies in his holiness; which name he sanctifies when he clears it from all charges and imputations; when he makes it appear to be holy and himself to be glorious in holiness; when he vindicates the honour of his name, not in a way of punishment, as he justly might, but in a way of grace and mercy; he sanctifies his name when he proclaims it, a God gracious and merciful; for it was in this way and manner he determined to make himself illustrious and glorious, and do honour to his name: which was profaned among the Heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; this is repeated again and again, to show the heinousness of this sin, how ill he took it at their hands, and what a concern it gave him: and the Heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes; when the Lord shall fulfil his promises, and deliver his people; when he shall sanctify, justify, and save them; and he shall be sanctified, served, and worshipped by them, and among them: it will be taken notice of by infidels themselves; and they shall hereby know, and be obliged to acknowledge, that the God of Israel is the only Lord God; that he is true and faithful to his word, righteous and holy, in his ways, the Lord God omniscient and omnipotent.

JAMISON, "sanctify — vindicate and manifest as holy, in opposition to the heathen reproaches of it brought on by the Jews’ sins and their punishment (see on Eze_36:20).

sanctified in you — that is, in respect of you; I shall be regarded in their eyes as the Holy One, and righteous in My dealings towards you (Eze_20:41; Eze_28:22).

COKE, "Verse 23

Ezekiel 36:23. And I will sanctify my great name— "I will give illustrious proofs of my power and goodness, and vindicate my honour from the reproaches wherewith it has been blasphemed among the heathens, because of your evil doings." This refers to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon; and it is observable, that this return was remarked by the heathens as a signal instance of God's providence towards them. Their general conversion will be a much more signal proof of his fulfilling of the promises made to their fathers; and the consequence of it, no doubt, the

108

complete conversion of the Gentile world.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I [am] the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

Ver. 23. And I will sanctify my great name.] I will recover my reputation among the heathen, by declaring my justice in your punishment, and my mercy in your restoration. God, as he is moved by his own grace to do his people good, so he aimeth therein at his own glory.

POOLE, " Will sanctify, by clearing it up, and removing the objection that the Jews’ sufferings and sins among the Babylonians had raised.

My great name; they gave the heathen occasion to think meanly and contemptibly of me, but I will show I am as great as good, in both infinite.

Was profaned: see Ezekiel 36:20,22.

Which ye have profaned; God chargeth the Jews with the blasphemies the heathen cast on God, the Jews were the cause of them, and they are therefore justly imputed to the Jews.

That I am the Lord; by what I do, the heathen shall know what I am, and from the great and good things I do for you, performing my promises, and purifying you, shall see I am great, good, faithful, and holy; then shall I be sanctified in you, as I have been profaned by you in their eyes: and so it was, Psalms 127:2.

109

PULPIT, "I will sanctify my great Name; i.e. the name of my holiness (Deuteronomy 28:58; Psalms 8:1; Malachi 1:11). As Israel's dispersion had caused that Name to be profaned, so Israel's restoration would secure that it should be magnified among the heathen (Ezekiel 38:23), who should learn from this event that their previous ideas of Jehovah, as a feeble and local divinity, had been wrong. The question whether your eyes, as in the Hebrew text, or "their eyes," as in many ancient versions, should be read is debated. The latter reading appears to be demanded by the usus loquendi of Ezekiel (see Ezekiel 20:41; Ezekiel 28:25; Ezekiel 38:16; Ezekiel 39:27), and is adopted by both English versions as well as by interpreters of eminence; but other expositors of equal name adhere to the former reading on the ground that the sanctifying of Jehovah's Name in the eyes of Israel was an indispensable preliminary to its sanctification in the eyes of the heathen. Havernick regards "their eyes" as "an obvious emendation to relieve a difficulty," to which in no case should criticism accord the preference; while Keil gives it the preference, though admitting that "your eyes" can be justified.

24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.

CLARKE, "I will take you from among the heathen - This does not relate to the restoration from Babylon merely. The Jews are at this day scattered in all Heathen, Mohammedan, and Christian countries. From these they are to be gathered, and brought to repossess their own land.

GILL, "For I will take you from among the Heathen,.... The Chaldeans and other nations, among whom they were carried captive; and the Papists, among whom many of them now are, often called Heathens and Gentiles in Scripture: this will be fully completed at the time of the Jews' conversion in the latter day: the phrase fitly expresses the act of divine grace, in taking his people from among the world by the effectual

110

calling: and gather you out of all countries; to himself, and to his Son, and to his church, and to some certain place from whence they will go up in a body to their own land, as follows: see Hos_1:11, and will bring you into your own land; into the land of Canaan literally understood, as well as into the church of God here, and into the heavenly country hereafter, of which Canaan was a type.

JAMISON, "Fulfilled primarily in the restoration from Babylon; ultimately to be so in the restoration “from all countries.”

POOLE, " The heathen purpose, as Pharaoh did, to detain you servants, and think it impossible any power should take you out of their hand or break the yoke; but I will do it. I will by my omnipotent hand rescue you from their power.

Gather you; they were scattered so through a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, that the heathen judged it impossible to reassemble them, but God will do this too. Will bring you into your own land: so many difficulties lay in their way of getting into their own land, that they thought them insuperable, so long a journey, so many enemies, and strong, crafty, and malicious, such weak, poor, and unarmed people, &c.; yet all these shall not prevent me; I will bring them safe to their own land, and settle them. When this is done, they shall confess, and the heathen shall confess, that I am great, good, wise, and faithful to my promise; a God not like theirs, but-worthy to be thought well of, and to be spoken well of, to be praised and obeyed.

SIMEON, "OUT-POURING OF THE SPIRIT ON THE JEWS

Ezekiel 36:24-28. I will take you from among the. Heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes: and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the

111

land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

IT will appear strange to say to a Christian assembly, that the true nature of Christianity is but little understood: but it is even so: for almost all persons regard it only as a code of laws, or a system of restraints: whereas, in truth, it is a mine of promises, of “exceeding great and precious promises,” which are made to every one who feels his need of them, and desires to embrace them. I say not that it does not also contain precepts; for no doubt it enjoins a total surrender of ourselves to God: but there is not any thing which it requires, which it does not also make over to us as a free gift of God for Christ’s sake. Take, for example, the passage before us. It is delivered to the Jews in their present dispersed state: and it provides for them all the blessings which they stand in need of, both in this world and in the world to come.

Let us consider these promises,

I. As delivered more immediately to the Jewish people—

Whatever reference these promises might have to the period of their return from Babylon, it is manifest that they did not receive at that time a full accomplishment; and, consequently, that we must look forward to the future restoration of the Jews as the period fixed for their final completion.

The Jews are destined to be restored to their own land—

[Of this, I conceive, there can be no reasonable doubt. The prophets speak so fully and so plainly on this subject, that we must divest language of all force and certainty before we can set aside the hope of their restoration to their own land. Whether that event shall precede or follow their conversion, I presume not to determine.

It should seem, from the writings of Moses, that the conversion of some, at least, will 112

precede their return to Palestine: “When thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity [Note: Deuteronomy 30:1-3.].” The Prophet Jeremiah, on the other hand, represents both events as simultaneous: “They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them [Note: Jeremiah 31:8-9.].” But in the passage before us, the prophet speaks of their conversion as subsequent to their restoration: “I will bring you into your own land: then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” All of these testimonies doubtless are true; and they are easily reconciled, by only referring them to the different stages of their conversion, as viewed in its commencement, its progress, and its consummation. But, whatever be determined with respect to this, their future restoration to the land of their fathers is as certain as any event which yet remains to be fulfilled.]

It is, however, not to this, but to the conversion of their souls, that I would chiefly draw your attention—

[This is indisputably promised to them in the words of my text. And it is surprising how universally this view of the passage has been overlooked by the Christian world. There are few passages of Holy Scripture that are more frequently cited by the preachers of the everlasting Gospel than this: but, as though we were determined to rob the Jews of their interest in them, we have always omitted the first and last verses of the text, and applied the remainder altogether to ourselves: thus cutting off, as it were, the head and the feet, which marked the promise as belonging to the Jews, that we might seize upon the body as our own exclusive property. It is surprising that benevolence, which certainly is characteristic of the Christian world, should never have led us to contemplate and delight in the prospects here set forth for the comfort of God’s ancient people. But we have been as unmindful of their spiritual interests as if no such promise had been ever made to them, yea, and as if no such people existed in the world. And this is the more remarkable, because the same connexion between their conversion to God and their restoration to their own land is generally marked in the prophetic writings, and especially in places where these peculiar promises are made to them [Note: See Ezekiel 11:17-20 and Jeremiah 32:37-39.]. But it is certain that God will bestow upon them all the blessings which are here specified; sanctifying them wholly to himself, and making them, as in the days of old, his own peculiar people. The gift of God’s Holy Spirit was declared, upon the day of Pentecost, to be reserved, not for the Jews of that day only, but “for them, and for their children, and for all that were

113

afar off, even as many as the Lord their God should call [Note: Acts 2:39.].”

In the promise which is made to them in my text, there is an especial reference to the consecration of the Levites under the Mosaic Law. They were separated from all the other tribes, to wait upon God in the more immediate services of his sanctuary: and for this purpose they were consecrated to the Lord with peculiar solemnity: “Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shall thou do unto them, to cleanse them: sprinkle water of purifying upon them.. …Then let them a young bullock with his meat-offering.. …and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin-offering and the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and thou shalt offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, unto the Lord, to make an atonement for the Levites [Note: Numbers 8:6-8; Numbers 8:12.].” Thus will God take that whole people for priests and for Levites [Note: Isaiah 66:21.]” in the latter day, and sanctify them wholly to himself as his peculiar people. He will, by the atoning blood of Christ, and by the influence of his Holy Spirit, cleanse them from all their filthiness, and from all their idols: he will altogether renew them, also, in the spirit of their minds, and cause them to walk as holily as any of their most eminent ancestors in the days of old. In the presence of the whole world shall they be thus exalted: and whereas their name is now “Lo-ruhamah, arid Lo-ammi,” as disowned, and cast off from God; they shall again be recognised as “Ammi, and Ruhamah;” that is, as his people who have obtained mercy at his hands; and “God will say unto them, Thou art my people, and I am your God [Note: Hosea 1:6-8; Hosea 2:1; Hosea 2:23.].” Would you see them in the very act of returning; and behold their reception with their reconciled God, the Prophet Jeremiah, in a fore-cited passage, exhibits them before you, “coming to their God with weeping and with supplications;” and God, with paternal tenderness, declaring to them, “I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born [Note: Jeremiah 31:8-9.].”

The Jews, it is true, think but little of these prospects; (they, alas! are occupied rather with expectations of a temporal Messiah, under whom they shall attain the summit of worldly aggrandizement:) but it becomes us to look forward to far higher things in their behalf, and to anticipate with delight their actual enjoyment of them.]

Whilst we rejoice in the prospects held forth in this prophecy to the Jewish people,

114

let us consider it also,

II. As applicable to the Church of God in all ages—

The promises here given are those of the new covenant [Note: Hebrews 8:8-10.]; and all who lay hold on that covenant, whether Jews or Gentiles, and whether now or in the millennial age, are alike interested in them. From the time that the Holy Spirit was sent forth by our ascended Saviour, have these blessings been poured out, in the richest abundance, on Gods Church and people; and, to every contrite and believing soul, God here promises his Holy Spirit,

1. To cleanse from sin—

[To cleanse from the guilt of sin is, in the first instance, the office of Christ, by the sprinkling of his blood. But it is the work of the Holy Spirit also; because it is he who reveals Christ to the soul, and enables us to apply to ourselves his precious blood. And, in fact, it is by implanting in our hearts the principle of faith, that he renews and sanctifies us after the Divine image: “He purifies our hearts by faith [Note: Acts 15:9.].” To what an extent we need his gracious influences, it is scarcely in the power of language to declare. Both “the flesh and the spirit of man” are altogether polluted and corrupt; as the Psalmist expresses it, “Our inward parts are very wickedness [Note: Psalms 5:9.].” Were all the thoughts and workings of our hearts as visible to men as they are to God, who is there amongst us that would not often be constrained to hide his face with shame and confusion? The idols, too, which we set up in the secret recesses of our hearts, alas! how numerous they are, and how fearfully have they provoked the Most High God to jealousy! But “from all our filthiness, and from all our idols, shall we be cleansed,” through the operation of the Spirit of God upon our souls; according as it is said by the Apostle, “Christ has loved the Church, and given himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish [Note: Ephesians 5:25-27.].” O! hear this, all ye who are weary and heavy laden with the guilt and burthen of your sins; and know assuredly, that if this is promised to the Jews in the Millennial age, it is no less promised to the

115

Christian Church, and shall be fulfilled to all who will believe in Christ.]

2. To renew the heart—

[Verily, in every unregenerate man is “an heart of stone.” Who does not feel this? Who has ever addressed himself to the work of repentance, and not found how insensible his heart is of sorrow. or of shame, even on a review of a whole life of sin? With earthly concerns we are easily moved; but not with the concerns of the soul, even though we know that the wrath of Almighty God is revealed against us, and that we are justly obnoxious to his everlasting displeasure. But God promises to “take away from us the heart of stone, and to give us an heart of flesh,” tender, contrite, abased before God in dust and ashes. Shall the Jews, on their restoration, “look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born [Note: Zechariah 12:10.]?” Shall they, in the day to which my text refers, “remember their own evil ways, and their doings which were not good, and lothe themselves in their own sight for their iniquities and abominations [Note: ver. 31.]?” And shall not such be the effects wrought on our souls, if the Spirit of God be truly poured forth upon us? Our hearts shall be altogether renewed; so that we shall be, as it were, “a new creation:” “old things shall pass away, and all things become new.” Our dark understanding shall be enlightened; our rebellious will be subdued; our earthly and sensual affections be “purified, even as God is pure.” Together with our views, our desires shall be renovated; and all our hopes and fears, and joys and sorrows, be brought into an accordance with them. In a word, we shall “be renewed, after the Divine image, in righteousness and true holiness.” O! what a blessed change! Who will not from this hour seek to be a partaker of it, through the abounding mercy of our promise-keeping God?]

3. To sanctify the life—

[What has been before spoken metaphorically, is here delivered in plain terms: “God will put his Spirit within us, and cause us to walk in his statutes, and do them.” Adverse as we are by nature to God, and ready to complain of “his commandments as grievous,” we shall be made to “delight in his law after our

116

inward man,” as soon as he has put his Holy Spirit within us: for “his law will then be written on the fleshy tables of our hearts.” There will be a constraining influence of our souls, which shall overcome all our natural reluctance, and make us the willing servants of our God. To state precisely how this work shall be wrought in us, is beyond our power: but methinks there is some analogy between the first creation of all things and this new creation which takes place in the soul of man. As an impulse was given to all the heavenly bodies, which are kept in their respective orbits by the attractive influence of the sun, around which they move, and whose radiance they reflect; so is there a divine impulse given to the soul of the regenerate man, who, from the first commencement of his course, yields to the attractions of “the Sun of Righteousness,” and fulfils his destined offices, to the praise and glory of his God. It is by his circuit only that the laws by which he acts are discovered; and they are known to proceed from God, because they lead him invariably to God: the effects produced upon his heart and life are decisive evidences that God is with him of a truth: they shew, that “He who hath wrought him to this self-same thing is God, who hath given unto him of his Spirit [Note: 2 Corinthians 5:5.].”]

Application—

1. Lay hold on these promises yourselves—

[You see how freely, and with what sovereign grace, God makes these promises unto you: for, if they are made to the Jews under their present state of degradation and wickedness, there is no one so debased or sinful, but that he may well appropriate them to himself, and seek an interest in them. You will take especial notice, that here are no conditions imposed in order to obtain an interest in them: nothing is required, but that we seek for these blessings in humble and fervent prayer [Note: ver. 37.]. As to the blessings themselves, every part proceeds from the unmerited love and mercy of God: in every clause, God’s will is pointed out as the one source of all the benefits. And when God is thus saying, “I will,” “I will,” “I will,” do these things for you, shall there be any reluctance shewn on our part? Shall it be said of us, as of the Jews of old, “How often would I have gathered you, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not?” O, brethren, let me rather entreat you, in reference to every clause, to add your hearty “Amen,” “So be it unto me, O Lord, according to thy will.” And I the rather urge this; because, without an experience of the things here promised, no soul from amongst you can ever behold

117

the face of God in peace. Say, I pray you, can you “be the Lord’s people, and Jehovah be your God,” whilst these things are disregarded by you? Can you ever be exalted to thrones of glory, if you be not first cleansed by the blood and Spirit of Christ from all your filthiness, and from all your idols? Must not your heart of stone be changed, and your ungodly life be rectified, before you can enjoy the felicity of heaven? Your own consciences will attest, that this change is necessary: and therefore let all of you, whatever your present character may be, lay hold on these promises, as the one ground of your hopes, and as the only means of securing the blessedness to which they lead.]

2. Endeavour to promote the acceptance of them among the Jews—

[It is a shame and a scandal to the Christian world, that they have shewn such indifference to the welfare of the Jews for so many centuries. And surely it is high time that we awake at last to some sense of our duty. Remember, I pray you, what is the object which you are called to effect: it is not the restoration of the Jews to their own land: that you may well leave to the providence of God to accomplish in his own time and way: it is rather the conversion of their souls to God which calls for your aid; and I appeal to you, whether that do not deserve your most active co-operation. You may say, perhaps, That is God’s work, and may also be left to him. But it was not thus that the Apostles judged, in reference to us Gentiles. They could not, by any power of their own, convert a single soul: but did they therefore decline to use the means which God himself had appointed? No: they preached Christ to all to whom they could gain access: and it was in confirmation of their word that the Spirit of God descended on their hearers. St. Peter, when speaking to Cornelius and his company, said, “To Christ give all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins.” And then it is particularly said, “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word [Note: Acts 10:43-44.].” Thus, in concurrence with your efforts, God in his mercy will return to his deserted people; and again “take them as his people, and be their God.” Surely, the very hope of this is sufficient to animate you in your exertions: and if only in a few instances you may be instrumental in effecting this blessed end, it will richly repay you for all the liberality that you can exercise, and all the labour you can bestow.]

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you 118

out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

Ver. 24. For I will take you, &c.] I will effectually call you out of darkness into my marvellous light, and cull you out from this wicked world. And this is the first thing that God here promiseth to his covenanters. More than this, he promiseth them in the following verses justification, sanctification, and preservation, or provision of temporal blessings, that nothing may be wanting to them that may make them happy. We should be often counting of this coin, telling of this treasure.

PETT, "Verse 24

“For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you to your own land.”

This gathering of the people of Israel back to the land began as a relative trickle on the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 1), and continued over a long period, with more and more people returning from all over the known world, until Israel was a recognised nation again established in its own land with its own capital city, relatively free from idolatry and worshipping in its own way. Interestingly enough the same is true of the present day restoration of Israel to its land. That too has been a slow process which is still going on. So neither was a once for all event. Both were continual events, in the first case at least, taking centuries.

PULPIT, "I will take you from among the heathen; or, nations. The first step in the sanctification of Jehovah's Name. A promise already given (Ezekiel 11:17; Ezekiel 20:41, Ezekiel 20:42), and afterwards repeated (Ezekiel 37:21). The mention of "all countries" shows the prophet's gaze to have been directed beyond the present or immediate future. The Israel of Ezekiel's time had not been scattered among and could not be gathered from all, countries; yet in the years that have passed since then Ezekiel's language as to Israel's dispersion has been literally fulfilled. Wherefore the inference is reasonable that the reassembling to which Ezekiel refers is an event that has not yet occurred, at least in its fullest measure and degree, but will only then be realized completely and finally when the scattered members of the

119

house of Israel shall have been received into the Christian Church (Romans 11:25, Romans 11:26).

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.

BARNES, "Ezekiel the priest has in view the purifying rites prescribed by the Law, the symbolic purport of which is exhibited in Heb_9:13-14; Heb_10:22. As the Levites were consecrated with sprinkling of water, so should the approved rite “sprinkling of water” thus prescribed by the Law and explained by the prophets, give occasion to the use of water at the admission of proselytes in later days, and so to its adoption by John in his baptism unto repentance. It was hallowed by our Lord when in His discourse with Nicodemus, referring, no doubt, to such passages as these, He showed their application to the Church of which He was about to be the Founder; and when He appointed Baptism as the sacrament of admission into that Church. In this sacrament the spiritual import of the legal ordinance is displayed - the second birth by water and the Spirit. As Israel throughout the prophecy of Ezekiel prefigures the visible Church of Christ, needing from time to time trim or purification - so does the renovated Israel represent Christ’s mystical Church Eph_5:26. The spiritual character of the renovation presumes a personal application of the prophet’s words, which is more thoroughly brought out under the new covenant (e. g., Heb_11:16). Thus the prophecy of Ezekiel furnishes a medium through which we pass from the congregation to the individual, from the letter to the spirit, from the Law to the Gospel, from Moses to Christ.

CLARKE, "Then - At the time of this great restoration - will I sprinkle clean water upon you - the truly cleansing water; the influences of the Holy Spirit typified by water, whose property it is to cleanse, whiten, purify, refresh, render healthy and fruitful.

From all your filthiness - From every sort of external and internal abomination and pollution.And from all your idols - False gods, false worship, false opinions, and false hopes.

120

Will I cleanse you - Entirely separate you.

GILL, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,.... Not baptismal water, as Jerom; an ordinance indeed of the Gospel, and to which the Jews will submit when converted; and which is performed by water, but not by sprinkling, nor does it cleanse from sin; and is administered by men, and is not an operation of God, as this is: rather the regenerating grace of the Spirit; though this does not purify from all sin, and besides is intended in the next verse: it seems best to understand it of the blood of Christ, the blood of sprinkling, and of justification from sin, and pardon of it by it; so Kimchi and Jarchi interpret of purification by atonement; and the Targum is, "I will forgive your sins, as one is cleansed by the water of sprinkling, and the ashes of a heifer, which is for a sin offering:'' and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you; the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin; by it men are justified from all things, and are made perfectly pure and spotless in the sight of God; they are cleansed from original sin, the pollution of their nature; from all actual sins and transgressions, which are very defiling; from sins of heart, lip, and life; even from such as are idols, set up in the heart, and served.

HENRY 25-27, "The people of God might be discouraged in their hopes of a restoration by the sense not only of their unworthiness of such a favour (which was answered, in the foregoing verses, with this, that God, in doing it, would have an eye to his own glory, not to their worthiness), but of their unfitness for such a favour, being still corrupt and sinful; and that is answered in these verses, with a promise that God would by his grace prepare and qualify them for the mercy and then bestow it on them. And this was in part fulfilled in that wonderful effect which the captivity in Babylon had upon the Jews there, that it effectually cured them of their inclination to idolatry. But it is further intended as a draught of the covenant of grace, and a specimen of those spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in heavenly things by that covenant. As (ch. 34) after a promise of their return the prophecy insensibly slid into a promise of the coming of Christ, the great Shepherd, so here it insensibly slides into a promise of the Spirit, and his gracious influences and operations, which we have as much need of for our sanctification as we have of Christ's merit for our justification.

I. God here promises that he will work a good work in them, to qualify them for the good work he intended to bring about for them, Eze_36:25-27. We had promises to the same purport, Eze_11:18-20. 1. That God would cleanse them from the pollutions of sin (Eze_36:25): I will sprinkle clean water upon you, which signifies both the book of Christ sprinkled upon the conscience to purify that and to take away the sense of guilt (as those that were sprinkled with the water of purification were thereby discharged from their ceremonial uncleanness) and the grace of the Spirit sprinkled on the whole soul to purify it from all corrupt inclinations and dispositions, as Naaman was cleansed from his leprosy by dipping in Jordan. Christ was himself clean, else his blood could not have been cleansing to us; and it is a Holy Spirit that makes us holy: From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. And (Eze_36:29) I will save you 121

from all your uncleannesses. Sin is defiling, idolatry particularly is so; it renders sinners odious to God and burdensome to themselves. When guilt is pardoned, and the corrupt nature sanctified, then we are cleansed from our filthiness, and there is no other way of being saved from it. This God promises his people here, in order to his being sanctified in them, Eze_36:23. We cannot sanctify God's name unless he sanctify our hearts, nor live to his glory, but by his grace. 2. That God would give them a new heart, a disposition of mind excellent in itself and vastly different from what it was before. God will work an inward change in order to a universal change. Note, All that have an interest in the new covenant, and a title to the new Jerusalem, have a new heart and a new spirit, and these are necessary in order to their walking in newness of life. This is that divine naturewhich believers are by the promises made partakers of. 3. That, instead of a heart of stone, insensible and inflexible, unapt to receive any divine impressions and to return any devout affections, God would give a heart of flesh, a soft and tender heart, that has spiritual senses exercised, conscious to itself of spiritual pains and pleasures, and complying in every thing with the will of God. Note, Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul as the turning of a dead stone into living flesh. 4. That since, besides our inclination to sin, we complain of an inability to do our duty, God will cause them to walk in his statutes, will not only show them the way of his statutes before them, but incline them to walk in it, and thoroughly furnish them with wisdom and will, and active powers, for every good work. In order to this he will put his Spirit within them, as a teacher, guide, and sanctifier. Note, God does not force men to walk in his statutes by external violence, but causes them to walk in his statutes by an internal principle. And observe what use we ought to make of this gracious power and principle promised us, and put within us: You shall keep my judgments. If God will do his part according to the promise, we must do ours according to the precept. Note, The promise of God's grace to enable us for our duty should engage and quicken our constant care and endeavour to do our duty. God's promises must drive us to his precepts as our rule, and then his precepts must send us back to his promises for strength, for without his grace we can do nothing.

JAMISON, "The external restoration must be preceded by an internal one. The change in their condition must not be superficial, but must be based on a radical renewal of the heart. Then the heathen, understanding from the regenerated lives of God’s people how holy God is, would perceive Israel’s past troubles to have been only the necessary vindications of His righteousness. Thus God’s name would be “sanctified” before the heathen, and God’s people be prepared for outward blessings.

sprinkle ... water — phraseology taken from the law; namely, the water mixed with the ashes of a heifer sprinkled with a hyssop on the unclean (Num_19:9-18); the thing signified being the cleansing blood of Christ sprinkled on the conscience and heart (Heb_9:13, Heb_9:14; Heb_10:22; compare Jer_33:8; Eph_5:26).from all your idols — Literal idolatry has ceased among the Jews ever since the captivity; so far, the prophecy has been already fulfilled; but “cleansing from all their idols,” for example, covetousness, prejudices against Jesus of Nazareth, is yet future.

COFFMAN, ""And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the

122

stoney heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the vine, and the increase of the field, that ye may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations. Then shall ye remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and ye shall loathe yourselves in you own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations."

THE SPIRITUAL CLEANSING OF ISRAEL

"Ye shall be clean from your filthiness ... a new heart will I give you ... I will put my Spirit within you ..." (Ezekiel 36:25,26.27). As Pearson analyzed this cleansing of Israel, it consisted of three steps: "(1) the forgiveness of sins; (2) regeneration; and (3) the reception of the Holy Spirit."[11] Significantly, none of these was available under the Law of Moses. Only under the gracious terms of the New Covenant has there ever been available to mortal men such blessings as these. There was no forgiveness of sins under Moses; there was no Holy Spirit within all the people; there was no regeneration.

Conservative scholars have no trouble at all with this passage. The cleansing of Israel will take place in the kingdom of Messiah established by the First Advent of the Son of God. Just as the terms of Israel's peace, prosperity, and security in regard to their possession of Canaan were conditional; so also are the promises here with regard to their forgiveness, their regeneration, and their receiving the Spirit of God.

The double tragedy is that Israel's hardening and rebellion against God hindered their return to Palestine and greatly reduced the blessings; and the second phase of it was that, for the vast majority of them, they rejected the Christ, preferring to die in their sins.

123

"This prophecy teaches that this cleansing of Israel would be through the New Covenant, as in Jeremiah 31:31-34. This would follow the return of Israel to Canaan, where, in time, the people would accept the Messiah as their Saviour through whose death sin would be forgiven; their former iniquity would be remembered no more; they would despise themselves for their former sins; and in possession of a new heart and the Spirit of God, they would lead righteous lives."[12]

The new Testament reveals that this projection was frustrated, although not completely, by the apostate and rebellious Israel. That "righteous remnant" mentioned ages previously in the writings of the great prophets of God persevered in their devotion to the kingdom of heaven. The relatively small group who were faithful to the Word of God rallied around the holy apostles of Jesus Christ, forming the nucleus of the New Israel of God, under whose leadership virtually the whole world were turned to Christianity. There is nothing in all history to compare with this.

"I will sprinkle clean water upon you ..." (Ezekiel 36:25). This metaphor probably came from the Mosaic law which prescribed the sprinkling of water mingled with ashes of a red heifer in the ceremonial cleansing of certain guilt. However, since the whole passage speaks of the New Covenant, it appears that Hebrews 10:22; John 3:5; Ephesians 5:25-26; Titus 3:5, etc. provide the true anti-type of which the Levitical sprinkling was only a symbol.

"It is clear enough in this passage that the physical return of Israel to Canaan does not hold the center of the stage; this was only a preliminary to the bestowal of salvation upon all men."[13]

"I will call for the grain, and multiply it ..." (Ezekiel 36:29). It is strange that commentators do not make more of the fact that the rich and abundant places of the earth today are precisely those lands which operate under Christian principles, and where, although imperfectly, God through Jesus Christ is worshipped continually by vast numbers of the people.

124

In the last dozen years, the United States alone has been feeding half of the vast empire of the Russians, where Christianity has been outlawed for three generations. Does this tell us anything? We believe that it does. Where are the vast populations of earth suffering from famine and starvation? It is precisely in those places where there is the least evidence of any knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May our beloved nation never forget the source of their bounty, attributing it to themselves, their system of government, their economic system, or anything else except Almighty God "from whom all blessings flow!."

Cook has wisely noted that in Ezekiel we have a shift of emphasis from the nation or the country to the individual, "From congregation to the individual, from the letter to the spirit, from the Law to the Gospel, and from Moses to Christ."[14] To this we would add, "from the Old Israel to the New Israel."

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:25. Then will I sprinkle clean water, &c.— The prophets generally borrow their images from the ceremonies of the Jewish religion, to convey an idea either of the detestable wickedness of the Jews, or of their amendment, as in this passage. Hence likewise the Jews derived their opinion of the Messiah; that one of his offices should be to sprinkle or baptize. Agreeably to which, when they suspected that John the Baptist was the Messiah, they expressly asked him why he baptized, if he were not the Christ? See Isaiah 52:15. John 19:21 and Bishop Chandler's Defence. It is in the church of Christ, says Calmet, that we behold the real and perfect accomplishment of the prophesy in the remaining part of this chapter. But it undoubtedly has also reference to the final restoration of the Jews.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Ver. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you.] He alludeth to the legal purifications, especially that made by the ashes of a red cow mixed with running water, wherewith the people were sprinkled, and so cleansed from legal defilement.

125

[Numbers 19:17-19] Semblably the saints, sprinkled with Christ’s blood from an evil conscience by the hyssop bunch of faith, and so washed with clean water [Hebrews 10:22] in baptism, the saving virtue whereof is permanent, [1 Peter 3:21] are justified and sanctified. [1 Corinthians 6:11] This blessed sprinkling David prayeth for. [Psalms 51:2] The Baptist also, and others, sprinkled those whom they baptized, both to answer the types of the law and this prediction of the prophet, understood by Jerome (a) of baptism, which is a visible sign and seal of our being washed from the filth of sin by the merit and Spirit of Jesus Christ. [Titus 3:5]

MACLAREN, "THE HOLY NATION

Ezekiel 36:25 - Ezekiel 36:38.

This great prophecy had but a partial fulfilment, though a real one, in the restored Israel. The land was given back, the nation was multiplied, fertility again blessed the smiling fields and vineyards, and, best of all, the people were cleansed ‘from all their idols’ by the furnace of affliction. Nothing is more remarkable than the transformation effected by the captivity, in regard to the idolatrous propensities of the people. Whereas before it they were always hankering after the gods of the nations, they came back from Babylon the resolute champions of monotheism, and never thereafter showed the smallest inclination for what had before been so irresistible.

But the fulness of Ezekiel’s prophecy is not realised until Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant is brought to pass. Nor does the state of the militant church on earth exhaust it. Future glories gleam through the words. They have a ‘springing accomplishment’ in the Israel of the restoration, a fuller in the New Testament church, and their ultimate realisation in the New Jerusalem, which shall yet descend to be the bride, the Lamb’s wife. The principles involved in the prophecy belong to the region of purely spiritual religion, and are worth pondering, apart from any question of the place and manner of fulfilment.

First comes the great truth that the foundation, so far as concerns the history of a 126

soul or of a community, of all other good is divine forgiveness [Ezekiel 36:25]. Ezekiel, the priest, casts the promise into ceremonial form, and points to the sprinklings of the polluted under the law, or to the ritual of consecration to the priesthood. That cleansing is the removal of already contracted defilement, especially of the guilt of idolatry. It is clearly distinguished from the operation on the inward nature which follows; that is to say, it is the promise of forgiveness, or of justification, not of sanctification.

From what deep fountains in the divine nature that ‘clean water’ was to flow, Ezekiel does not know; but we have learned that a more precious fluid than water is needed, and have to think of Him ‘who came not by water only, but by water and blood,’ in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of our sins. But the central idea of this first promise is that it must be God’s hand which sprinkles from an evil conscience. Forgiveness is a divine prerogative. He only can, and He will, cleanse from all filthiness. His pardon is universal. The most ingrained sins cannot be too black to melt away from the soul. The dye-stuffs of sin are very strong, but there is one solvent which they cannot resist. There are no ‘fast colours’ which God’s ‘clean water’ cannot move. This cleansing of pardon underlies all the rest of the blessings. It is ever the first thing needful when a soul returns to God.

Then follows an equally exclusively divine act, the impartation of a new nature, which shall secure future obedience [Ezekiel 36:26 - Ezekiel 36:27]. Who can thrust his hand into the depths of man’s being, and withdraw one life-principle and enshrine another, while yet the individuality of the man remains untouched? God only. How profound the consciousness of universal obstinacy and insensibility which regards human nature, apart from such renewal, as possessing but a ‘heart of stone’! There are no sentimental illusions about the grim facts of humanity here. Superficial views of sin and rose-tinted fancies about human nature will not admit the truth of the Scripture doctrine of sinfulness, alienation from God. They diagnose the disease superficially, and therefore do not know how to cure it. The Bible can venture to give full weight to the gravity of the sickness, because it knows the remedy. No surgery but God’s can perform that operation of extracting the stony heart and inserting a heart of flesh. No system which cannot do that can do what men want. The gospel alone deals thoroughly with man’s ills.

And how does it effect that great miracle? ‘I will put My Spirit within you.’ The new 127

life-principle is the effluence of the Spirit of God. The promise does not merely offer the influence of a divine spirit, working on men as from without, or coming down upon them as an afflatus, but the actual planting of God’s Spirit in the deep places of theirs. We fail to apprehend the most characteristic blessing of the gospel if we do not give full prominence to that great gift of an indwelling Spirit, the life of our lives. Cleansing is much, but is incomplete without a new life-principle which shall keep us clean; and that can only be God’s Spirit, enshrined and operative within us; for only thus shall we ‘walk in His statutes, and keep His judgments.’ When the Lawgiver dwells in our hearts, the law will be our delight; and keeping it will be the natural outcome and expression of our life, which is His life.

Then follows the picture of the blessed effects of obedience [Ezekiel 36:28 - Ezekiel 36:30]. These are cast into the form appropriate to the immediate purpose of the prophecy, and received fulfilment in the actual restoration to the land, which fulfilment, however, was imperfect, inasmuch as the obedience and renewal of the people’s hearts were incomplete. These can only be complete under the gospel, and, in the fullest sense, only in another order than the present. When men fully keep God’s judgments, they shall dwell permanently in a good land. Israel’s hold on its country was its obedience, not its prowess. Our real hold on even earthly good is the choosing of God for our supreme good. In the measure in which we can say ‘Thy law is within my heart,’ all things are ours; and we may possess all things while having nothing in the vulgar world’s sense of having. Similarly that obedience, which is the fruit of the new life of God’s Spirit in our spirits, is the condition of close mutual possession in the blessed reciprocity of trust and faithfulness, love bestowing and love receiving, by which the quiet heart knows that God is its, and it is God’s. If stains and interruptions still sometimes break the perfectness of obedience and continuity of reciprocal ownership, there will be a further cleansing for such sins. ‘If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ [Ezekiel 36:29].

The lovely picture of the blessed dwellers in their good land is closed by the promise of abundant harvests from corn and fruit-tree; that is, all that nourishes or delights. The deepest truth taught thereby is that he who lives in God has no unsatisfied desires, but finds in Him all that can sustain, strengthen, and minister to growth, and all that can give gladness and delight. If we make God our heritage, we dwell secure in a good land; and ‘the dust of that land is gold,’ and its harvests ever

128

plenteous.

Very profoundly and beautifully does Ezekiel put as the last trait in his picture, and as the upshot of all this cornucopia of blessings, the penitent remembrance of past evils. Undeserved mercies steal into the heart like the breath of the south wind, and melt the ice. The more we advance in holiness and consequent blessed communion with God, the more clearly shall we see the evil of our past. Forgiven sin looks far blacker because it is forgiven. When we are not afraid of sin’s consequences, we see more plainly its sinfulness. When we have tasted God’s sweetness, we think with more shame of our ingratitude and folly. If God forgets, the more reason for us to remember our transgressions. The man who ‘has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins’ is in danger of finding out that he is not purged from them. There is no gnawing of conscience, nor any fearful looking for of judgment in such remembrance, but a wholesome humility passing into thankful wonder that such sin is pardoned, and such a sinner made God’s friend.

The deep foundation of all the blessedness is finally laid bare [Ezekiel 36:32] as being God’s undeserved mercy. ‘For Mine holy name’ [Ezekiel 36:22] is God’s reason. He is His own motive, and He wills that the world should know His name,-that is, His manifested character,-and understand how loving and long-suffering He is. So He wills, not because such knowledge adds to His glory, but because it satisfies His love, since it will make the men who know His name blessed. The truth that God’s motive is His own name’s sake may be so put as to be hideous and repellent; but it really proclaims that He is love, and that His motive is His poor creatures’ blessing.

To this great outline of the blessings of the restored nations are appended two subsidiary prophecies, marked by the recurring ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ The former of these [Ezekiel 36:33 - Ezekiel 36:36] deals principally with the new beauty that was to clothe the land. The day in which the inhabitants were cleansed from their sins was to be the day in which the land was to be raised from its ruin. Cities are to be rebuilt, the ground that had lain fallow and tangled with briers and thorns is to be tilled, and to bloom like Eden, a restored paradise. How far the fulfilment has halted behind the promise, the melancholy condition of Palestine to-day may remind us. Whether the literal fulfilment is to be anticipated or no seems less important than to note that the experience of forgiveness {and of the consequent blessings

129

described above} is the precursor of this fair picture. Therefore, the Church’s condition of growth and prosperity is its realisation in the persons of its individual members, of pardon, the renewal of the inner man by the indwelling Spirit, faithful obedience, communion with God, and lowly remembrance of past sins. Where churches are marked by such characteristics, they will grow. If they are not, all their ‘evangelistic efforts’ will be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.

The second appended prophecy [Ezekiel 36:37 - Ezekiel 36:38] is that of increase of population. The picture of the flocks of sheep for sacrifice, which thronged Jerusalem at the feasts, is given as a likeness of the swarms of inhabitants in the ‘waste cities.’ The point of comparison is chiefly the number. One knows how closely a flock huddles and seems to fill the road in endless procession. But the destination as well as the number comes into view. All these patient creatures, crowding the ways, are meant for sacrifices. So the inhabitants of the land then shall all yield themselves to God, living sacrifices. The first words of our text point to the priesthood of all believers; the last words point to the sacrifice of themselves which they have to offer.

‘For this moreover will I be inquired of by the house of Israel.’ The blessings promised do not depend on our merits, as we have heard, but yet they will not be given without our co-operation in prayer. God promises, and that promise is not a reason for our not asking the gifts from Him, but for our asking. Faith keeps within the lines of God’s promise, and prayers which do not foot themselves on a promise are the offspring of presumption, not of faith. God ‘lets Himself be inquired of’ for that which is in accordance with His will; and, accordant with His will though it be, He will not ‘do it for them,’ unless His flock ask of Him the accomplishment of His own word.

POOLE, " He alludes to the sprinklings under the law, perhaps to that Numbers 19:9, which was for purification of sin; and Ezekiel 36:19,20. So God will purify them from their guilt. Clean water: some think it may refer to baptismal water; if so, it is to the blood of Christ, signified by it, and this, say the best expositors, is here intended, and this is

130

the blood of sprinkling, Hebrews 12:24.

Ye shall be clean; when sin is remitted, the person is indeed clean, both in the account of God and Christ.

From all your filthiness; though they have been many of all sorts, and among all ranks of men, yet multitude of sins shall not hinder me from pardoning.

From all your idols; that notorious great abomination, your multiplied idolatry, I will pardon that also, that ye may be clean. Thus remission of sin is promised.

PETT, "Verse 25-26

“And I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

Let us first consider what was here on offer. ‘Clean water’ is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. The ancients did not think in terms of clean water and dirty water. The only clean water could be caught in the falling mountain springs, and was comparatively rare, and they mostly bathed and drank with what we would call dirty water, but which they saw as relatively clean. Thus this description must be seen as having a special significance, and that significance was that it was ‘cleansed water’, water that had been (at least theoretically) made clean through sacrifice, sprinkled with blood or with the ashes of a heiffer.

In Leviticus the cleansing of a defiled house required sprinkling with a mixture of blood and ‘living’ water, the bird having been slain over the water (Leviticus 14:51), and in Numbers 8:7; Numbers 19:2-22 the ‘water of separation’ (Numbers 19:9; Numbers 19:20 - this was also called ‘living water’ - Numbers 9:17) is mentioned. It

131

was water that had been sprinkled with the ashes of a red heiffer (Numbers 19:2), and was kept aside for the purifying by sprinkling of those who had touched a dead body. Thus in both cases the water had been cleansed by sacrifice and the shedding of blood.

So when the priestly Ezekiel spoke of ‘clean water’ he had in mind water that had been cleansed by sacrifice. And indeed this was the only kind of water that was ever sprinkled. Thus the cleansing was to be through the blood of sacrifice, applied through the sprinkled water. This was probably also what the Psalmist had in mind in Psalms 51:7 (note the parallel phrase).

But this water was here to be sprinkled by God Himself acting as the high priest. Before anything else the people need to be cleansed, by the divine water of separation sprinkled on them by God, from their defilement brought on them by their sinful ways and their idolatry. There is no cleansing without the shedding of blood. This pointed forward to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1), and its efficacy depended on the One Who would be slain as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, Whose benefit reached backwards to ‘sins done aforetime’ (Romans 3:25).

It should be recognised and acknowledged that to the priest Ezekiel there could be no entry back into the promised land, now cleansed from defilement by time, without such a cleansing. Otherwise what purpose in the exile?

(We should note that washing with ordinary water never cleansed. It was only preparatory, and was regularly followed by the phrase ‘and will not be clean until the evening’. It only represented the washing away of ‘earthiness’ preparatory to cleansing (see Ezekiel 44:18). It did not itself cleanse).

Then they were to receive a new heart and a new spirit, indeed God’s Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27). The heart included the mind, the will and the emotions, it was the whole of the inner man. The spirit was the life principle within, the inner impulse, and while it could include the activities of heart, mind and will, it was also that which was

132

Godward (Ecclesiastes 3:21; Ecclesiastes 12:7), and was affected by God’s Spirit. So the idea here is of the renewing of the whole inner man, and of awakening towards God.

Its effect is then described. ‘And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.’ Instead of hardness there would be tenderness, instead of obduracy there would be yielding, instead of coldness there would be warmness, instead of disobedience there would be obedience. The law would be put in their inward parts and in their hearts, and they would ‘know Yahweh’ individually through the new covenant (compare Jeremiah 31:33-34).

These wonderful words must not be restricted to any particular moment in time, important though Pentecost was. This is the nature of Biblical prophecy. We need not doubt that it began on the first returning exiles, and it continued in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, when God worked through His Spirit in the life of Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4:6). It was continually on offer to His people (Ezekiel 18:31). But it certainly had a full expression at and after Pentecost (2 Corinthians 5:17), and through the ministry of Jesus (John 3:1-6; John 4:10-14; John 4:24; John 6:63; John 7:37-38; John 20:22), and continues today and will continue to the end. What began to be fulfilled at the return from exile has continued through the ages. The cleansing is constantly needed.

PULPIT, "Then (literally, and) I will sprinkle clean water upon you. The second step in the sanctification of Jehovah's Name, and one absolutely necessary to render the preceding either permanent or valuable, was the moral renovation of the people; and in this the first stage was the forgiveness of the people's sins. The image under which this is set forth, "sprinkling with clean water," would naturally present itself to a priest-prophet such as Ezekiel. Jarchi, Rosenmüller, Hengstenberg, and others suppose the allusion to be to the water of purification prepared by mixing running water with the ashes of a red heifer (Numbers 19:17-19), and in the account given of this rite the verb for "sprinkle" is that used by Ezekiel, viz. זרק . Havernick prefers the rite performed in the consecration of the Levites (Numbers 8:7, Numbers 8:21). Smend, who holds the priest-code had no existence in Ezekiel's day, traces the image to Zechariah 13:1 or Psalms 51:2, though he also cites Numbers 8:19. Hitzig, Kliefoth, and Currey think of the lustrations of the Law in general; and perhaps this best explains the prophet's language, since the element sprinkled is not "blood"

133

or "water mixed with ashes," but "clean water," "the best known means of purification" (Schroder). As to whether legal or moral cleansing were intended by the prophet, possibly Ezekiel drew no sharp distinction between the two, such as the New Testament draws between justification and sanctification; if he did, then the figure in the text must be taken as alluding rather to the former than to the latter—rather to the forgiveness of Israel's sin than to the regeneration of Israel's heart, which is next referred to.

BI 25-36, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you.The new heartAll God’s bestowal of good must begin with cleansing. The black barrier of sin lies across the stream, and before His full goodness can reach us it must be broken and swept away. Experience teaches us that not only is sin the direct cause of many of our sorrows, but that it so clogs the heart that it keeps God’s love out, like an iron shutter which excludes the sunshine. Our deepest need, then, is to be delivered from sin, and all attempts to banish human sorrow which do not begin with grappling with sin must fail, as they have failed. They are like physicians who treat a patient for pimples when he is dying of cancer. To sprinkle clean water upon a person or thing which had become unclean by touching a dead body was part of the Mosaic ritual. That practice is probably the source of Ezekiel’s metaphor, as his priestly descent would familiarise him with it. In any case, the substance of the Divine promise is cleansing, and we must not narrow it down to forgiveness only. The difference between that first washing with clean water and the subsequent gift of a new heart and spirit is not so much that the one promises pardon and the other sanctifying, as that the one is mainly negative—the removal of sin, both in regard to its guilt and its tyranny; and the other is positive—the giving of a new nature. Forgiveness never comes alone, but hand in hand with its twin sister, purity. And such double cleansing “from its guilt and power” is a Divine prerogative. But more is needed than even these blessings. The past having been thus dealt with, the future remains to be provided for. Therefore the prophet holds forth a still brighter hope, and comes still nearer to the very heart of New Testament teaching, in his assurance of the gift of a new life’s centre and power, a “heart of flesh,” from which shall come issues of a God-pleasing and God-inspired life. Two forces act on us all, and our sensitiveness to the one measures our non-sensitiveness to the other. Either we are “flesh” towards God, and “stone” towards the world, impressible by and yielding to Him, and unaffected by earth’s temptations, or our hearts are soft and weak as flesh towards them, and hard as the nether millstone towards God. But Ezekiel was given a glimpse into still deeper and more wonderful abysses of God’s givings, when he learned that the new spirit to be given was “My Spirit.” Ezekiel may not have had any conscious dogma about the Spirit of God, but he had been taught by that Spirit at least this much—the possibility of a Divine spirit entering into a human spirit, and being there the motive power. We know more than he did. Do we feel as deeply as he felt, that the only way by which our spirits can be kept pure, and give forth pure streams, is by God’s Spirit being within us? But what is the end of all these Divine gifts? A life of obedience. We are forgiven, cleansed, made sensitive to God’s touch, inspired with His Spirit, for this purpose most chiefly, that we may shape our lives by His will. Not a correct creed, not blessed emotions, but a life which runs

134

parallel with God’s will, should be the outcome of our religion. The result of obedience is abundance (verses 28-30). If there were anywhere a nation of people all obedient to God’s laws, no doubt it would be exempt from most of the ills that afflict our modern so-called civilisation. Suppose one of our great cities inhabited only by God-fearing men living by His law, most of the evils that make the scandal of our national profession of Christianity would die out, like a fire unfed by fuel. And if, individually, we ordered our footsteps by God’s word, we should find that even the rough ways became ways of pleasantness. It is forever true that “godliness” hath “promise of the life that now is,” even though its promise may not always be what the world calls “good.” The result of these lavish blessings within and without is deepened sense of unworthiness. The penitence that springs from experience of God’s love is far deeper than that which rises from dread of His wrath. When all fear of penal consequences is gone, and a new standard of judging ourselves is set up within by the indwelling Spirit, and when a flood of blessings has been poured on us, then we see, as never before, the sinfulness of sin against such a God. The higher a true Christian goes, the lower he lies. The more sure we are that God has forgiven us, the less can we forgive ourselves. The holiness and prosperity of the renewed Israel will reveal God to the world. The lives of men and communities, who are cleansed and blessed by God, proclaim Him to the world in His character of being able and willing to repair all the desolation of humanity, and build up our ruined nature in fairer shapes. Christian lives should be illustrated copies of the Gospel. Gardeners pick out their best plants for flower shows; would the great Gardener select us as specimens of what He can do? If not, it is not because His gift has been withheld, but because we have not taken, or not used, “the things that are freely given to us of God.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Man justifiedI intend to set forth the means by which He, who is most willing to save sinners, accomplishes His generous and gracious purpose. I am now to show you that famous breach by which the soldiers of the Cross, pressing on behind their Captain, with banners flying and sword in hand, have taken the kingdom, and, trampling under foot the powers of sin, have entered heaven as by a holy violence.I. God’s people are not chosen because they are holy. They are chosen that they may become holy, not because they have become so. It is after God elects that he justifies, as it is after He has justified that He sanctifies. This stands out very visibly in the terms of the text, “then will I sprinkle clean water upon you.” We do not hold good works cheap. We say that by them God is glorified; by them faith is justified; by them on the great day of judgment shall you, and I, and every man be tried. You are not to be justified by works, yet you are to be judged by works; the rule of that day being this—The tree is known by his fruit, and every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. The most important results often depend on the right adjustment of place and position. What a monster in nature, how hideous of aspect, and happily how brief its existence, were that body which should have its organs and members so arranged, that the hands occupied the place of the feet, and the heart palpitated in the cavity of the brain! And who, besides, does not know that the fruitfulness, the beauty, the very life of a tree depends not only on its having both roots and branches, but on these members being placed in their natural order? Well, if the order established in nature is of such consequence, I can confidently affirm that it is of as much consequence

135

to abide by the order established in the kingdom of grace. It is not enough that you hold right doctrines, nay, hold all the doctrines. Each right doctrine must be in its own right place. Are any of you attempting to make yourselves more pure and more penitent, that you may get up some claim to Divine mercy? In that you are trying to weave ropes of sand; and he who has set you to a task so impracticable knows right well that by and by you will abandon it in despair; and then, perhaps, returning to your old sins, like a drunkard to his cups after an irksome season of sobriety, you shall furnish but another illustration of the saying, The last state of that man is worse than the first. I would endeavour to disabuse your minds of so great an error. For that purpose let me borrow an illustration from such an asylum as a ragged school. That institution, like the Gospel that it teaches, opens its loving arms to the outcast, and seeks to train up to God the poor, perishing children whom its piety and pity have adopted. On entering these blessed doors, the only gate of hope to many, your attention is caught by a child, who is supported thereby the bounty of some generous Christian. The boy now can spell his way through the Bible, once a sealed book to him; now he knows the name, and in tones that have melted our heart he now sings sweetly of a Saviour who said, Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. These little hands are now skilful to weave the net, or ply the shuttle, which once were alert only to steal, or held out in pitiful emaciation for oft-denied charity. And now there is such sharp intelligence in his once languid eye, and such an open air of honesty in his beaming face, and such attention to cleanliness in his dress and person, and such buoyancy in his whole bearing, as if hope hailed a bright future for him, that these bespeak your favour. But were these the child’s passport to this asylum? Do you suppose that, when he wandered an outcast in the winter streets, shoeless among the snow, shivering in the cold, it was what now so interests you that caught the eye of pity? If you suppose that to these habits and accomplishments, acquired under a parental roof the child owed his adoption, how great is your mistake! This were to turn things upside down. He was adopted, not for the sake of these, but notwithstanding the want of them. It was his wretchedness that saved him. The clean hands and rosy cheek and eye lighted up with intelligence and decent habits and useful arts and Bible knowledge and all which now wins your regard, are the consequences of his adoption. They never were nor could be its cause Even so it is with holy habits and a holy heart in the matter of redemption; Ye have not chosen Me, lint I have chosen you, says God. Blessed truth!II. In redemption the saved are not justified by themselves, but by God. This is no recondite truth, one which we need to dig or dive for. The pearl lies in the hidden depths of the sea, but gold commonly near the surface of the earth; and like that precious ore gleaming from the naked rock, this truth shines on the face of my text. A child’s eye can catch it there and a child’s mind comprehend it. For how is a sinner made clean? but through the application of what is here called clean water; and by whom, according to the text, is that water applied? It is applied to the sinner, but not by the sinner. Observe what happens when the cry rises at sea—A man overboard! With all on deck you rush to the side; and, leaning over the bulwarks, with beating heart you watch the place where the rising air bells and boiling deep tell that he has gone down. Some moments of breathless anxiety, and you see his head emerge from the wave. Now, that man, I shall suppose, is no swimmer, he has never learned to breast the billows; yet, with the first breath he draws he begins to beat the water; with violent efforts he attempts to shake off the grasp of death, and, by the play of limbs and arms, keep his head from sinking. It may be that these struggles but exhaust his strength, and sink him all the sooner; nevertheless, that drowning one makes instinctive and convulsive efforts to save himself.

136

So, when first brought to feel and cry. “I perish,” when the horrible conviction rushes into the soul that we are lost, when we feel ourselves going down beneath a load of guilt into the depths of the wrath of God, our first effort is to save ourselves. Like a drowning man, who clutches at straws and twigs, we seize on anything, however worthless, that promises salvation. Thus, alas! many poor souls toil and spend weary, unprofitable years in the attempt to establish a righteousness of their own, and find in the deeds of the law a protection from its curse. There was a time, no doubt, when man held his fortunes in his own hand. That time is gone. Our power passed away with our purity. Impotence has followed the loss of innocence, and nothing is left us but poverty and a proud spirit. How few, who have been accustomed to a high position in society, are able to reconcile themselves to a humble one! I have seen such an one, when he had lost his wealth, retain his vanity, and continue proud in spirit even when he had become poor in circumstances. So is it with us in our low and lost estate. Spiritually poor, we are spiritually proud, saying, I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, while we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Even when we are in some degree sensible of our poverty, and know we cannot pay, like the unjust steward we are ashamed to beg. Indulging a pride out of all keeping with filthy rags, we will not stoop to stand at God’s door, poor mendicants, who ask for mercy. No. We shall work out our own salvation, nor be beholden to another. Nor, ordinarily, till the sinner learns, by prolonged and painful and unsuccessful trials, that he cannot be his own saviour, does this proud heart allow us to stand suppliants at the gate of mercy; our plea for pardon not our own merits; nothing, nothing whatever but a Saviour’s merits and a sinner’s misery. Yet thus and there we must stand if we would be saved. Jesus is a Saviour of none but the lost. Now, to bring us down to this humbling conviction, to draw from our lips and hearts the cry, Lord, save me, I perish, God often leaves awakened sinners to try their hand at working out their own salvation. God, in fact, deals with them as Jesus did with Simon Peter. Impetuous, self-satisfied, puffed up with vanity, to parade his power and prove his superiority to the other disciples, he will walk the sea. His Master allows him to try it. “Lord, save me, I perish.” Painful but profitable lesson! His danger and failure have taught him his weakness. Now, to such a state, and confession, all who are to be saved must first be brought.III. We are not justified or cleansed from the guilt of sin through the administration or efficacy of any outward ordinance. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” The question that we would urge on your most serious consideration does not concern the sign, but the thing signified. If you have got the living element, I care little, or nothing, through what church or by what channel it may flow. Have you got the living grace of God? In the words of an apostle, Have ye received the Holy Ghost?IV. We are justified, or cleansed from the guilt of sin, by the blood of Christ. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission”; and none, we may add, without its application. Where do we find this doctrine in the text? By what process of spiritual chemistry can this truth be extracted from it? There is water, and clean water, and sprinkling of water, it maybe said, but no word of blood; there is neither sign nor spot of blood upon the page, True, so it looks at first sight; but without the hand of Moses we shall see this water turned into blood. This at least is plain, that here, as elsewhere, water is but the sign of spiritual blessings. And a most expressive symbol we shall find it, if we but reflect on the important part that this element plays in the economy of nature. The circulation of this fluid is to the world what that of blood is to the body, or that of grace to the soul. It is its life. Withdraw it, and all that lives would expire; forests, fields, beasts, man himself would die. This world would become one vast grave; for water

137

constitutes as much the life as the beauty of the landscape; and it is true, both in a spiritual and in an earthly sense, that the world lives because heaven weeps over it. It was Christ’s choicest figure of Himself. Turning the eyes of thousands on His own person, as on a perennial fountain, one never sealed by winter’s frost, nor dried by summer suns, free, full, patent to all, He stood up on the last and great day of the feast, and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. All the world use water for washing as well as drinking; and the reference in the text is to that solvent power, by virtue of which it removes impurities, turning white what is black, and cleansing whatever is foul. It stands here, therefore, the figure of that which cleanses. The object to be cleansed is the soul; the defilement to be cleansed away is sin; and we now therefore address ourselves to the all-important question—Of what is this water the figure? The key to that question lies in the epithet “clean” water. The water is such as the Jews understood by clean water; not merely free from impurity, and in itself clean, but that maketh clean; in the words of the ceremonial law, “water of purifying.” This was prepared according to a divinely appointed ritual. Look how it was prepared, and you shall see it reddening into blood. Gathering the lowing herds from their different pastures, they sought up and down among them, till a red heifer was found; red from head to tail, from horn to hoof, mottled by no other colour, but all red; and one also on whose free neck yoke of bondage had never lain. What was that heifer? Spotless and separated from the common herd, she is a type of Him who was without spot or blemish, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. With neck on which yoke had never lain, she is a type of Him who said, The prince of this world cometh, and he hath nothing in Me. Red in colour, she is a type of Him whose feet were dipped in the blood of His enemies, and who, as seen by the prophet on His way from Bozrah, was red in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of His might. And what is this public procession, which conducts the heifer without the camp, but a figure of the march to Calvary? And what is her bloody death, but a type of that which Jesus suffered amid the agonies of the Cross? And what are these fires that burn so fiercely, and consume the victim, but a flaming image of the wrath of God, under which His soul was withered like grass? And what is the water mingled with this heifer’s ashes, but a type of the righteousness, which, imputed by God, received by faith, and applied to sinners, makes sinners just? For, as the Jew over whom that water was sprinkled became ceremonially clean, so the guilt of original and actual sin, all guilt, is removed from him (much the happier man), whom God sprinkles with the blood of Jesus, and to whom sovereign mercy imputes a Saviour’s merits. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Cleansing: a covenant blessingSin, to the awakened sinner, is his burden, his misery, his horror. It is a nightmare which haunts him; he can never escape from it. Like David, he cries, “My sin is ever before me.” Even when sin is forgiven, the memory of it often makes a man go softly all his days. It is therefore a very blessed thought on the part of our God to make the covenant to bear so much ripen our sin and our sinfulness, and especially to make it open with this unconditional promise of infinite love, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,” etc.I. God begins to deal with His people while they are yet in sin. He does not make promises of purification to them upon condition that they cleanse themselves; but He comes to them according to the riches of His grace, even when they are dead in trespasses and sins. He finds them in all their defilement, rebellion, and iniquity, and He

138

deals with them just as they are. His grace stoops to the ruin of the fall and lifts us up from it. If the covenant of grace did not deal with sinners as sinners I should be afraid to come to Christ; but because it opens its mouth wide to me while I am yet unclean and polluted by sin, I feel that it meets my case. You may notice in the text, or gather it therefrom by clear inference—that these people with whom God dealt were not only unclean, but they could not cleanse themselves, lit Is a rule with miracles, as well miracles of the Spirit as miracles of the body, that God never does what others can do. Cleansing cannot come from any other place, therefore seek it of the Lord, who says, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” If you go about through heaven, and earth, and hell, you shall find no other detergent that shall take away sin but the precious blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God. More than that, when God begins to deal with His people many of them have a special filthiness. “From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” The heathen of old once reported that ours was the religion of the most abandoned. They laughed at Christianity, for they said it was like the building of Rome, when Romulus received everybody that was in debt and discontented, and all the criminals from all the towns round about came to make the city of Rome. There is much truth in the statement; it is a very good figure, though meant to be a slander. The Lord does receive the devil’s runaways.II. God provides for the cleansing of those to whom He comes in sovereign grace. Where could this “clean water” be found by mortal man? God has provided a system of cleansing men, perfect in itself, and just, and right, and effectual. When under the old Mosaic law they took water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the unclean therewith, he was cleansed ceremonially; and now under the Gospel God has provided a wondrous way by which, being Himself perfectly pure, He can put away the impurities of our nature, and the iniquities of our lives.

1. It is a righteous way. Sin must not go unpunished; it would be ruinous that such a thing should be. Therefore the Lord took sin and laid it on His Son, that His Son might bear what was due for our transgressions. This the Lord Jesus did as our substitute and Saviour. In addition to that, God has given the Holy Ghost as a gift of Christ on His ascension; and that Holy Spirit is here to renew men in their hearts, to take away from them the love of sin, to give them a new life, to create in them a new heart and a right spirit, and so to change their inward longings and desires that their outward conduct shall become altogether different from what it was before.2. And what a simple way it is, as well as clean! The wisdom of God made the rite by which the leper was cleansed under the law very simple; but even more simple is the act by which God applies the merit of His dear Son to us.3. It is a way of universal adaptation, too; for wherever there is a soul on whom God has looked with love He can apply to that soul the blood of sprinkling.4. It is a way of unfailing efficacy, for He says, “From all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” He does not only attempt the cleansing, but He accomplishes it. What though your heart be like the Augean stable, the labours of Hercules shall be outdone by the wonders of Jesus.

III. God Himself applies this means of cleansing. Some of you remember when first the Lord revealed to you how much you needed to be cleansed: that discovery was a great part of the cleansing. Then did it not seem to you impossible that you could be cleansed from so much defilement? It seemed to me—I dare say it did to you—the most extraordinary thing in the world to believe in Jesus. I could not make it out. How could I 139

get to Christ? I could see that He was a Saviour. I could see that He saved others, and I was glad that He did; but the thing was, how could I ever come to be personally a partaker of His power to save? I heard about that woman touching the hem of the garment; and I felt that if Christ were before me, I would touch the hem of His garment with my finger; but I could not understand how I was to touch Him spiritually. To this day the simplest thing under heaven is perverted by our evil hearts into difficulty and mystery. Despite the simplicity of faith, no man ever would have savingly believed in Jesus Christ if the Lord had not guided him, and led him into faith. Oh yes, the clean water is provided, but the clean water must be sprinkled by another hand than ours if we are to be cleansed. And all the way through the rest of life it is just the same. “All things are of God.”IV. The Lord effectually cleanses all His people. First, He cleanses them from all their filthiness. Oh, what a vast “all” that is! All the filthiness of your birth sin; all the filthiness of your natural temperament and constitution and disposition. All the filthiness that came out of you in your childhood, that was developed in you in your youth, that still has vexed your manhood, and perhaps even now dishonours your old age. From all your actual filthiness, as well as from all your original filthiness, will I cleanse you. From all your secret filthiness, and from all your public filthiness; from everything that was wrong in the family; from everything that was wrong in the business; from everything that was wrong in your own heart—“From all your filthiness will I cleanse you.” And then it is added that we shall be cleansed “from all our idols.” We are all of us idolaters by nature and by practice. If there is anything that has our love more than God, it is an idol, and we must be purged from it. This is not a threatening but a promise: it is a great blessing to have our images of jealousy put away. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Ezekiel 36:32Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded.Free graceThere are two sins of man that are bred in the bone, and that continually come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves from the first error. Instead of looking to grace alone to sanctify us, we find ourselves adopting philosophic rules and principles which we think will effect the Divine work. We shall but mar it; we shall bring grief into our own spirits. But if, instead thereof, we in every word look up to the God of our salvation for help, and strength, and grace, and succour, then our work will proceed to our own joy and comfort, and to God’s glory. The other error to which man is very prone, is that of relying upon his own merit. Though there is no righteousness in any man, yet in every man there is a proneness to trust in some fancied merit. Human nature with regard to its own merit, is like the spider, it bears its support in its own bowels, and it seems as if it would keep spinning on to all eternity.I. I shall endeavour to expound this text. “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God.” The motive for the salvation of the human race is to be found in the breast of God,

140

and not in the character or condition of man. God, who doeth as He wills with His own, and giveth no account of His matters, but who deals with His creatures as the potter deals with his clay, took not upon Him the nature of angels, but took upon Him the seed of Abraham, and chose men to be the vessels of His mercy. This fact we know, but where is its reason? certainly not in man. Here, very few object. If we talk about the election of men and the non-election of fallen angels, there is not a cavil for a moment. Come, then, we must go further. The only reason why one man is saved, and not another, lies not, in any sense, in the man saved, but in God’s bosom. The reason why this day the Gospel is preached to you and not to the heathen far away, is not because, as a race, we are superior to the heathen; it is not because we deserve more at God’s hands; His choice of Britain, in the election of outward privilege, is not caused by the excellency of the British nation, but entirely because of His own mercy and His own love. We are taught in Holy Scripture that, long before this world was made, God foreknew and foresaw all the creatures He intended to fashion; and there and then foreseeing that the human race would fall into sin, and deserve His anger, determined, in His own sovereign mind, that an immense portion of the human race should be His children and should be brought to heaven. As to the rest He left them to their own deserts, to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, to scatter crime and inherit punishment. Now in the great decree of election, the only reason why God selected the vessels of mercy must have been because He would do it. As the fruit of our election, in due time Christ came into this world, and purchased with His blood all those whom the Father hath chosen. Now come ye to the Cross of Christ; bring this doctrine with you, and remember that the only reason why Christ gave up His life to be a ransom for His sheep was because He loved His people, but there was nothing in His people that made Him die for them. After Christ’s death, there comes, in the next place, the work of the Holy Spirit. Those whom the Father hath chosen, and whom the Son in us. To go a little further: this truth, which holds good so far, holds good all the way. God’s people, after they are called by grace, are preserved in Christ Jesus; they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation”; they are not suffered to sin away their eternal inheritance, but as temptations arise they have strength given with which to encounter them, and as sin blackens them they are washed afresh, and again cleansed. But mark, the reason why God keeps His people is the same as that which made them His people—His own free sovereign grace. And to conclude my exposition of this text. This shall hold good in heaven itself. The day is coming when every blood-bought, blood-washed child of God shall walk the golden streets arrayed in white. Our hands shall soon bear the palm; our ears shall be delighted with celestial melodies, and our eyes filled with the transporting visions of God’s glory. But mark, the only reason why God shall bring us to heaven shall be His own love, and not because we deserved it. We must fight the fight, but we do not win the victory because we fight it; we must labour, but the wage at the day’s end shall be a wage of grace, and not a debt.II. I have to illustrate and enforce this text, Suppose that some great criminal is at last overtaken in his sin, and shut up in Newgate, He has committed high treason, murder, rebellion, and every possible iniquity. He has broken all the laws of the realm—every one of them. The public cry is everywhere—“This man must die; the laws cannot be maintained unless he shall be made an example of their rigour. He who beareth not the sword in vain must this time let the sword taste blood. The man must die; he richly deserves it.” You look through his character: you cannot see one solitary redeeming trait. He is an old offender, he has so long persevered in his iniquity that you are compelled to say, “The case is hopeless with this man; his crimes have such aggravation we cannot make an apology for him, even should we try. Not jesuitical cunning itself could devise

141

any pretence of excuse, or any hope of a plea for thin abandoned wretch; let him die!” Now, if the Queen, having in her hands the sovereign power of life and death, chooses that this man shall not die, but that he shall be spared, do you not see as plain as daylight, that the only reason that can move her to spare that man, must be her own love, her own compassion? For, as I have supposed already that there is nothing in that man’s character that can be a plea for mercy, but that, contrariwise, his whole character cries aloud for vengeance against his sin. Whether we like it or not, this is just the truth concerning ourselves. This is just our character and position before God.III. I come to a very solemn practical application.

1. First, since this doctrine is true, how humble a Christian man ought to be. I remember visiting a house of refuge. There was a poor girl there who had fallen into sin long, and when she found herself kindly addressed and recognised by society, and saw a Christian minister longing after her soul’s good, it broke her heart. What should a man of God care about her? she was so vile. How could it be that a Christian should speak to her? Ah! but how much more should that feeling rise in our hearts? My God! I have rebelled against Thee, and yet Thou hast loved me, unworthy me! How can it be?2. This doctrine is true, and therefore it should be a subject of the greatest gratitude. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The true redemption of manI. Has its origin in God and God only. “I do this for My Holy Name’s sake.” All that God does is self-originated. He alone is spontaneous in action. This fact—

1. Takes away all ground for human pride.2. Should inspire us with adoring gratitude.

II. Serves to reveal the glory of God’s character to the world. The moral redemption of man, which involves the marvellous history and work of Christ, reveals more of the glory of God than all the material universe in its vastness and variety.III. Involves separation from all unholy associations.

1. “Come out,” as a protest against iniquity.2. “Come out” as an example to others.3. “Come out” to qualify yourself for usefulness. Every man must morally be like Christ, “separate from sinners,” to be able to save them.

IV. Comprises a thorough renovation of human life.1. The nature of this renovation.

(1) Cleansing.(2) Exchange of hearts.

2. The consequences of this renovation.(1) A new mode of life. Turn the rudder, and you turn the ship.

142

(2) A new relationship, The real meaning of this promise is, You shall be Mine—My loyal subjects, My willing servants, My loving children. And I will be yours. You shall have Me for your King, Father, Everlasting Portion.(3) New circumstances. He that seeks first the kingdom of God, will have all necessary things added to him, This is fulfilled in the temperance, industry, and economy of truly redeemed lives.(4) A new view of past life. It rises up as a huge and a hideous enormity, before which they quail and tremble; and ever after are humble in themselves, lowly before God, charitable towards men. (Urijah R. Thomas.)

26 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.

CLARKE, "A new heart also will I give you - I will change the whole of your infected nature; and give you new appetites, new passions; or, at least, the old ones purified and refined. The heart is generally understood to mean all the affections and passions.

And a new spirit will I put within you - I will renew your minds, also enlighten your understanding, correct your judgment, and refine your will, so that you shall have a new spirit to actuate your new heart.I will take away the stony heart - That heart that is hard, impenetrable, and cold; the affections and passions that are unyielding, frozen to good, unaffected by heavenly things; that are slow to credit the words of God. I will entirely remove this heart: it is the opposite to that which I have promised you; and you cannot have the new heart and the old heart at the same time.And I will give you a heart of flesh - One that can feel, and that can enjoy; that can feel love to God and to all men, and be a proper habitation for the living God.

GILL, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,.... A "new heart" and a "new spirit" are one and the same; that is, a renewed one;

143

renewed by the Spirit and grace of God; in which a new principle of life is put; new light is infused; a new will, filled with new purposes and resolutions; where new affections are placed, and new desires are formed; and where there are new delights and joys, as well as new sorrows and troubles; the same which in the New Testament is called the "new man", and the new creature, Eph_4:24. The Targum paraphrases it, "a heart fearing, and a spirit fearing;'' where the true fear of God is, a truly gracious heart; and which is purely the gift of God, and is the fruit of his rich grace, abundant mercy, and great love: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh; the Targum is, "and I will break the heart of the wicked, which is hard as a stone;'' this is a heart hardened by sin, and confirmed in it; destitute of spiritual life and motion; senseless and stupid, stubborn and inflexible; on which no impressions are made; and which remains hard and impenitent: now this is in "the flesh", in corrupt nature; and this hardness of heart is natural to men; and all who have it are after the flesh, or are carnal; and it requires omnipotence to remove it; it cannot be taken out by men of themselves: nor by ministers of the word; nor by the bare mercies and judgments of God; but by the powerful and efficacious grace of God; giving repentance unto life; working faith in the soul, to look to a crucified Christ; and shedding abroad the love of God in the heart, which softens and melts it; all which is done by the Spirit, and frequently by means of the word. This is interpreted, in the Talmud (n), of the evil imagination, or corruption of nature; and is one of the names of it, a stone; and it refers, it is said (o), to the time or world to come, the days of the Messiah: and I will give you an heart of flesh; a heart sensible of sin and danger; a penitent one, soft and tender, through the love and fear of God; a spiritual and sanctified heart; submissive to the will of God; flexible and obsequious to the commands of Christ; on which impressions are made by the grace of God; where the laws of God are written, the Gospel of Christ is put; where Christ himself is formed; where are the fear of God, faith, hope, and love, and every other grace.

JAMISON, "new heart — mind and will.spirit — motive and principle of action.stony heart — unimpressible in serious things; like the “stony ground” (Mat_13:5, Mat_13:20), unfit for receiving the good seed so as to bring forth fruit.heart of flesh — not “carnal” in opposition to “spiritual”; but impressible and docile, fit for receiving the good seed. In Eze_18:31 they are commanded, “Make you a new heart, and a new spirit.” Here God says, “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Thus the responsibility of man, and the sovereign grace of God, are shown to be coexistent. Man cannot make himself a new heart unless God gives it (Phi_2:12, Phi_2:13).

144

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Ver. 26. A new heart also will I give you.] For the old heart will never hold out the hardship of holiness; the old fabric must be taken down, and a new set up. See Ezekiel 11:19. A "new man" both in constitution and conversation one must be, or else he is no man in Christ. [2 Corinthians 5:17]

And I will taks away the stony heart.] The natural heart, which is hard and refractory, "to every good work reprobate." Hard is that which resisteth the touch. The old heart is inflexible to God’s Spirit, insensible of his word and judgments, and impenetrable to his grace. Where, then, is man’s freewill? Garriant illi, nos credamus; { a} there is no such thing, believe it. Nature is wholly stony: it is God alone that "of these stones raiseth up children to Abraham."

And I will give you an heart of flesh,] i.e., Tractable, and capable of divine impressions, ready to every good work. [Titus 3:1]

POOLE, " A new heart; a renewed frame of soul, a disposition and mind changed from sinful to holy, from evil to good, from carnal to spiritual. See Ezekiel 11:19. A heart in which the law of God is written, as Jeremiah 31:33. It is a sanctified heart, in which the almighty grace of God is victorious, and turns it from sin to God.

Will I give you; God takes it to himself, as indeed it is his only work, see Ezekiel 11:19.

A new spirit: this is exegetical, and tells us what the new heart is; it is a new holy frame in the spirit of man, which is put in him, not found in him; given to him, not wrought by his own power.

145

The stony heart; stubborn, senseless, untractable heart, that receives no kindly impressions from the word, providences, or Spirit of God in its ordinary operations and influences, that hardens itself in a day of provocation, that is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin; this evil heart shall be taken away, and this God will do, who only can do it.

Out of your flesh, put for the man. An heart of flesh; that is, a heart different from the stony, hard heart, quite of another temper and frame, hearkening to God’s law, trembling at his threats, by gentlest providences mounded to a compliance with his will; to forbear, do, be, or suffer what God will, receiving the impress of God, as softened wax receiveth the impress of the seal.

NISBET, "

A NEW HEART

‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.’

Ezekiel 36:26

I. If your soul is open and recepitve, it is marvellous how full the world becomes to you of Divine voices.—They come upon you unexpected, unsought, sending through your heart some illuminating flash of surprise, so that you wonder at your previous dullness; they strike you with the sudden shock of some new knowledge or insight, and make you feel, as never before, the true nature of your daily conduct or your duty and your relation to other men; or they come as the unresting presence of some new thought, which, once roused, haunts and troubles you with questions which you cannot answer, or feelings which you cannot get rid of.

Sometimes these Divine voices in our ears bring it home to us how much we are losing out of our life’s higher possibilities, if from sinful or selfish habit, from

146

dullness of spirit, or lack of sympathy, we cut ourselves off in thought and feeling and interest from the great needs, the great sorrows, the great pulsations of the larger world.

These calls that come to you, whether invited or not, and that stir your heart, speaking to you out of the multitudinous life of the time you live in, are like the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, which never hold their peace day nor night.

If you hear no such voices, if the phenomena of life make no such impression upon you, if you are deaf to all these calls, and care for none of these things, then it is clear that your soul is not yet awake in you; you are living with a dull or darkened heart. It is a sort of cave life, or subterranean life, you lead in such a case, a life of lower rank and lesser hopes.

Yet these voices from above, that come as the witness of the Divine Spirit with our spirit that we are the children of God, never fail us. They do not belong only to times far off. We are not to think of them merely as enshrined in the Bible and peculiar to it; but as living voices that are speaking to us to-day out of the depths of the Divine life, in which our life is sustained.

II. But we have always to bear this in mind, that the Divine voices speak to men with most stirring effect in every generation when they speak to them through the pressing needs of their own day.—To the Jews the voice of God came in the inspired language of their deliverers and prophets—in their unceasing warnings, and their impassioned appeals, and their revelations of new truth. To the first generation of Christians these same voices came in the shape of strong Advent hopes.

Christ was very near to the Apostolic Christians. As the eastern sky brightened every morning they felt that it might be the light of His coming; and so it came to pass that this expectation made those first believers, those humble followers of Christ, those Galilæan fishermen, those obscure provincials, instinct with that great life which lifts men above the world, and constitutes them a new power in it.

147

Our lives are largely influenced by the thought of slow development; but we miss a great deal of the secret of all higher life if we forget this wonderful exaltation of the poor and ignorant and obscure by this gift of the Spirit and the inspiration of Divine hope. It was not by any method which we could have forecast that those men found out this charm which takes the heart captive and regenerates the life. In their presence we feel the force of the prophet’s words, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.’

III. But then there rises the question, How are these Divine influences to become powerful in us also?—There are two things which we should keep clear in our minds concerning them. One, that they must be based upon our feeling of the living influence of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit; and the other is that the voices of the Spirit must come to us out of the needs of our own life and of the time we live in if they are to lead us to practical issues. When we look out upon the world and its life we feel that Advent hopes must take some new form if they are to preserve reality and to be fulfilled.

We have these hopeful signs for the future rising around us, even where things look darkest, that the great problems of humanity are felt in our day to be above all things its social and religious problems. And seeing that the aspirations of the time—the feelings, the purposes, the aims, and hopes that lift men—grow out of the needs of the time and the problems of its life, we look forward—we have good ground for looking forward—to a generation of men who shall be distinguished by religious earnestness and by social enthusiasm.

But if this be so, what will your share be in this coming life?

Bishop Percival.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:26, Ezekiel 36:27

148

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. The third step in the progress of sanctifying Jehovah's Name (comp. Ezekiel 11:19, where a similar promise is made, and Ezekiel 18:31, where the new heart is represented as a thing Israel must make for herself). This antinomy frequently occurs in Scripture, which never shrinks from holding man responsible for the production of that, as e.g. faith, for which he is incompetent without the help of Divine grace. Besides the cleansing of her guilt and her restitution in consequence to Jehovah's favor, Israel is promised such an inward renovation of her moral and spiritual disposition as to secure that she shall in future adhere to the worship and service of Jehovah. This change is described in a fourfold way.

27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

CLARKE, "And I will put my Spirit within you - To keep the heart of flesh alive, the feeling heart still sensible, the loving heart still happy. I will put my Spirit, the great principle of light, life, and love, within you, to actuate the new spirit, and to influence the new affections and passions; that the animal spirit may not become brutish, that the mental powers become not foolish. I will put my Spirit within you, so that as the new spirit may influence the new heart, so will My Spirit influence Your new spirit, that each may have a proper mover; and then all will be pure, regular, and harmonious, when passion is influenced by reason, and reason by the Holy Ghost.

And the cause shall be evidenced by the effects; for I will cause you to walk in my statutes - not only to believe and reverence my appointments relative to what I command you to perform; but ye shall walk in them, your conduct shall be regulated by them. “And ye shall keep my judgments;” whatsoever I enjoin you to avoid. And ye shall do them - ye shall not only avoid every appearance of evil, but keep all my ordinances and commandments unblamably.Here is the salvation that God promises to give to restored Israel; and here is the salvation that is the birthright of every Christian believer: the complete destruction of all

149

sin in the soul, and the complete renewal of the heart; no sin having any place within, and no unrighteousness having any place without.“But where are they that are thus saved?”Ans. Wherever true Christians are to be found.“But I know many true Christians that have not this salvation, but daily mourn over their evil hearts?”Ans. They may be sincere, but they are not true Christians; i.e., such as are saved from their sins; the true Christians are those who are filled with the nature and Spirit of Christ. But I will ask a question in my turn:“Do those you mention think it a virtue to be always mourning over their impurities?” Most certainly. Then it is a pity they were not better instructed. It is right they should mourn while they feel an impure heart; but why do they not apply to that blood which cleanses from all unrighteousness, and to that Spirit which cleanses the very thoughts of the heart by his inspiration? Many employ that time in brooding and mourning over their impure hearts, which should be spent in prayer and faith before God, that their impurities might be washed away. In what a state of nonage are many members of the Christian Church!

GILL, "And I will put my Spirit within you,.... My Holy Spirit, as the Targum; the Spirit of holiness; the author of internal sanctification, of the new heart and spirit, and of the fleshy one before mentioned; and through whose grace and strength the saints do what is after said they shall do: and cause you to walk in my statutes: men are first made alive by the Spirit of God, and have spiritual strength put into them, who of themselves can do nothing; by means of which they are enabled to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, and to continue in the observation of them; which walking in them supposes: and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them; being constrained by the love of God; influenced by the grace of Christ; and strengthened by the blessed Spirit: and such persons observe and do them willingly and cheerfully; from a principle of love; in faith, and to the glory of God; without any mercenary and selfish views; without trusting to, and depending upon, what is done for salvation.

JAMISON, "my spirit — (Eze_11:19; Jer_32:39). The partial reformation at the return from Babylon (Ezr_10:6, etc.; Nehemiah 8:1-9:38) was an earnest of the full renewal hereafter under Messiah.

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:27. And cause you to walk in my statutes— "By preventing you with my grace, and inspiring you with a love for that which is good, which shall enable you to surmount your propensity to that which is evil. I will aid you with the

150

succour of my grace, that you may thereby keep my judgments and do them."

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].

Ver. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you.] Qui mulcendo et molliendo. Who, by melting and mollifying your hard hearts, shall bring you to a better obedience.

And cause you to walk in my statutes.] Lex iubet, gratia iuvat. God undertaketh for himself and his people too, viz., to work in them what he requireth of them. Therefore it is an "everlasting covenant, ordered in all things"; and the fruits of it are "sure mercies," "compassions that fail not," &c. See on Ezekiel 11:20.

POOLE, " Put, elsewhere pour out; God will give freely and abundantly.

My spirit; the Holy Spirit of God, which is the immediate principal cause of that change of an old heart into new, and of hard into soft. By the efficient cause we may know the effect; and understand what a new heart is, and what the new spirit is, when we know they are wrought in us by the Spirit of God, which is given to and dwelleth in the saints, which makes them saints, and then abideth with them.

Cause you; sweetly, powerfully, successfully, yet without compulsion; for our spirit, framed by God’s Spirit to a disposition suitable to his holiness, readily concurreth and co-worketh.

Keep my judgments; be willing and ready, able, and in your degree sufficient, to keep the judgments and to walk in the statutes of God, which is to live holiness.

PETT, "Verse 27-28

151

“And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them, and you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you will be my people and I will be your God.”

Now quite unequivocally we have mention of the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit. It was to be through God’s Spirit that this great work would come about. It is He Who would cause them to walk in His statutes and keep in their hearts and in their lives His judgments. God’s Spirit has been at work through all ages. He was at work in the time of Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4:6). When John spoke of ‘the Spirit’ as being ‘not yet’ (John 7:39) he was referring to the mighty experience in the upper Room and at Pentecost, but he was not denying that the Spirit was at work before that. For Jesus Himself had made clear that the Holy Spirit had already been available through His ministry (John 3:1-6; John 4:10-14; John 4:24; John 6:63; John 7:37-38; John 20:22).

Strictly speaking these words of Ezekiel are not parallel to such promises as Isaiah 44:2-5; Joel 2:28 where a great outpouring of the Spirit in the future is mentioned, although containing similar elements (but see Ezekiel 39:29). This is not so much a promise of such an outpouring, but of a steady work of the Spirit in men’s hearts as men are cleansed by God. We must not, however, be too pedantic when dealing with such prophecies. The same Spirit works in all.

Mention is often made of the connection between the outpouring of the Spirit and the coming of the Messiah in the Messianic age. And that is true. But we must not limit the work of the Spirit to one event. In a sense Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4:6-14) was probably himself seen as a minor Messiah (before the Messianic idea had taken full root), and the Spirit was certainly seen to be at work through him, although of course the great fulfilment of the promises was at the coming of the Messiah, which resulted in Pentecost and after, when as the ‘drencher (baptiser) in the Holy Spirit’ He ‘drenched in the Holy Spirit’ those who were His. And it may well be that there will be a further pouring out of the Spirit in the final days of the age. But we must beware of being dogmatic about the latter. Things may not occur in the way that we expect.

152

“And you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you will be my people and I will be your God.” This confirms that this work of the Spirit was to begin when the exiles returned in faith to the land of their inheritance. The words were spoken to the true Israel, the Israel within Israel, as Paul explains (Romans 9-11). Those whose hearts were true would be truly His and He would be their God.

It also has application to all Christians in that they have become citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20), residents in a better land, God’s greater land, being His people and knowing Him as their God, something beyond the conception of Ezekiel and therefore having to be prophesied pictorially in the form of an idea (see on Ezekiel 37:26-28). He could not know then that the land of God’s inheritance would become a heavenly land. That would be revealed in the future, and the final words are specifically applied in Revelation 21:3 to the new Heaven and the new earth

28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

BARNES, "Ye shall be my people - (Compare 2Co_6:16-18; Heb_8:10. The writers of the New Testament appropriated these and similar phrases of the Old Testament to the Church of Christ. Between the restoration of the Jews (the first step) there are many steps toward the end - the spread of Christ’s Church throughout the world, the conversion of the Gentiles, and the acknowledgment of the true God - which justify men in looking forward to a time when the Gospel shall be preached in all the world, and the earth become the kingdom of God in a fuller sense than it has ever yet been. But all these are “steps.” Our prophecies look beyond all this to a new heaven to a new earth, and to a new Jerusalem Rev_21:3.

153

CLARKE, "Ye shall be my people - Wholly given up to me in body, soul, and spirit.

And I will be your God - To fill you with love, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, longsuffering, fidelity and goodness, to occupy your whole soul, and gratify your every desire.

GILL, "And ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers,.... Not only shall be brought into it, but shall inhabit it, and continue there, and that in great safety and plenty; and which will be the more valued and esteemed, and reckoned a great blessing to enjoy; because this land is the gift of God, and what he gave to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by promise so long ago, and to their seed; of which promise it appears he is not unmindful: and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God; which is the sum and substance of the covenant of grace; which will now be renewed, and the blessings of it applied. The Jews will appear to be the people of God by their effectual calling and conversion; and God will show himself to be their God, by his presence with them, his protection of them, and that communion with himself he will admit them to: see Jer_31:1, "the loammi" will be taken off, and they will be again declared to be the covenant people of God, Hos_1:9.

HENRY 28-29, "The people of God might be discouraged in their hopes of a restoration by the sense not only of their unworthiness of such a favour (which was answered, in the foregoing verses, with this, that God, in doing it, would have an eye to his own glory, not to their worthiness), but of their unfitness for such a favour, being still corrupt and sinful; and that is answered in these verses, with a promise that God would by his grace prepare and qualify them for the mercy and then bestow it on them. And this was in part fulfilled in that wonderful effect which the captivity in Babylon had upon the Jews there, that it effectually cured them of their inclination to idolatry. But it is further intended as a draught of the covenant of grace, and a specimen of those spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in heavenly things by that covenant. As (ch. 34) after a promise of their return the prophecy insensibly slid into a promise of the coming of Christ, the great Shepherd, so here it insensibly slides into a promise of the Spirit, and his gracious influences and operations, which we have as much need of for our sanctification as we have of Christ's merit for our justification.

I. God here promises that he will work a good work in them, to qualify them for the good work he intended to bring about for them, Eze_36:25-27. We had promises to the same purport, Eze_11:18-20. 1. That God would cleanse them from the pollutions of sin (Eze_36:25): I will sprinkle clean water upon you, which signifies both the book of Christ sprinkled upon the conscience to purify that and to take away the sense of guilt (as those that were sprinkled with the water of purification were thereby discharged from their ceremonial uncleanness) and the grace of the Spirit sprinkled on the whole soul to purify it from all corrupt inclinations and dispositions, as Naaman was cleansed from his leprosy by dipping in Jordan. Christ was himself clean, else his blood could not 154

have been cleansing to us; and it is a Holy Spirit that makes us holy: From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. And (Eze_36:29) I will save you from all your uncleannesses. Sin is defiling, idolatry particularly is so; it renders sinners odious to God and burdensome to themselves. When guilt is pardoned, and the corrupt nature sanctified, then we are cleansed from our filthiness, and there is no other way of being saved from it. This God promises his people here, in order to his being sanctified in them, Eze_36:23. We cannot sanctify God's name unless he sanctify our hearts, nor live to his glory, but by his grace. 2. That God would give them a new heart, a disposition of mind excellent in itself and vastly different from what it was before. God will work an inward change in order to a universal change. Note, All that have an interest in the new covenant, and a title to the new Jerusalem, have a new heart and a new spirit, and these are necessary in order to their walking in newness of life. This is that divine naturewhich believers are by the promises made partakers of. 3. That, instead of a heart of stone, insensible and inflexible, unapt to receive any divine impressions and to return any devout affections, God would give a heart of flesh, a soft and tender heart, that has spiritual senses exercised, conscious to itself of spiritual pains and pleasures, and complying in every thing with the will of God. Note, Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul as the turning of a dead stone into living flesh. 4. That since, besides our inclination to sin, we complain of an inability to do our duty, God will cause them to walk in his statutes, will not only show them the way of his statutes before them, but incline them to walk in it, and thoroughly furnish them with wisdom and will, and active powers, for every good work. In order to this he will put his Spirit within them, as a teacher, guide, and sanctifier. Note, God does not force men to walk in his statutes by external violence, but causes them to walk in his statutes by an internal principle. And observe what use we ought to make of this gracious power and principle promised us, and put within us: You shall keep my judgments. If God will do his part according to the promise, we must do ours according to the precept. Note, The promise of God's grace to enable us for our duty should engage and quicken our constant care and endeavour to do our duty. God's promises must drive us to his precepts as our rule, and then his precepts must send us back to his promises for strength, for without his grace we can do nothing.HENRY 28-38, "III. He promises that he will bring about all that good for them which the exigence of their case calls for. When they are thus prepared for mercy, 1. Then they shall return to their possessions and be settled again in them (Eze_36:28): You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. God will, in bringing them back to it, have an eye not to any merit of theirs, but to the promise made to the fathers; for therefore he gave it to them at first, Deu_7:7, Deu_7:8. Therefore he is gracious, because he has said that he will be so. This shall follow upon the blessed reformation God would work among them (Eze_36:33): “In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, and so shall have made you meet for the inheritance, I will cause you to dwell in the cities, and so put you in possession of the inheritance.” This is God's method of mercy indeed, first to part men from their sins, and then to restore them to their comforts. 2. Then they shall enjoy a plenty of all good things. When they are saved from their uncleanness, from their sins which kept good things from them, then I will call for the corn and will increase it, Eze_36:29. Plenty comes at God's call, and the plenty he calls for shall be still growing; and when he speaks the word the fruit both of the tree and of the field shall multiply. As the inhabitants multiply the productions shall multiply for their maintenance; for he that sends mouths will send meat. Famine was one of the judgments which they had laboured

155

under, and it had been as much as any a reproach to them, that they should be starved in a land so famed for fruitfulness. But now I will lay no famine upon you; and none are under that rod without having it laid on by him. Then they shall receive no more reproach of famine, shall never be again upbraided with that, nor shall it ever be said that God is a Master that keeps his servants to short allowance. Nay, they shall not only be cleared from the reproach of famine, but they shall have the credit of abundance. The land that had long lain desolate in the sight of all that passed by, that looked upon it, some with contempt and some with compassion, shall again be tilled (Eze_36:34), and, having long lain fallow, it will now be the more fruitful. Observe, God will call for the corn and yet they must till the ground for it. Note, Even promised mercies must be laboured for; for the promise is not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage our industry and endeavour. And such a blessing will God command on the hand of the diligent that all who pass by shall take notice of it, with wonder, Eze_36:35. They shall say, “See what a blessed change here is, how this land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, the desert turned again into a paradise,” Note, God has honours in reserve for his people to be crowned with sufficient to counterbalance the contempt they are now loaded with, and in them he will be honoured. This wonderful increase both of the people of the land and of its products is compared (Eze_36:38) to the large flocks of cattle that are brought to Jerusalem, to be sacrificed at one of the solemn feasts. Even the cities that now lie waste shall be filled with flocks of men, not like the flocks with which the pastures are covered over (Psa_65:13), but like the holy flock which is brought to the courts of the Lord's house. Note, Then the increase of the numbers of a people is honourable and comfortable indeed when they are all dedicated to God as a holy flock, to be presented to him for living sacrifices. Crowds are a lovely sight in God's temple.

JAMISON, "ye ... my people, ... I ... your God — (Eze_11:20; Jer_30:22).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Ver. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land,] i.e., In Judea, or rather in the Church, (a) which began in Judea, saith the Jesuit well The Church of Rome, then, is not the mother Church; no, though we take it in its primitive purity.

POOLE, " Spiritual blessings, promised in Ezekiel 36:25-27, are now followed with temporal blessings; so earth doth follow heaven.

156

Ye shall dwell: God adds this to his taking, gathering, and bringing into the land, Ezekiel 36:24; when they are there, they shall settle and continue proprietors, possessing their own houses and lands.

Which I gave; they were greatly pleased to think Canaan their land was by God given to their fathers; in this land under this character you shall dwell, the land that was your right by promise to Abraham, 1346 years or near it.

My people, as your fathers were, who reverenced, loved, worshipped, obeyed, and believed in me.

Your God, as I was their God, to protect, guide, comfort, and enrich, &c.; see Ezekiel 11:20; to perform my promise to their faith and patience; and so you shall inherit the blessing.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:28

Ye shall dwell in the land. As the Jews who returned from Babylon did not permanently dwell in the land, but were again ejected from it, the promise contained in these words must be viewed as having been conditional on the realization of the moral and spiritual purity above described. If, therefore, it be aroused that inasmuch as this promise must be fulfilled (2 Corinthians 1:20; Hebrews 10:23), the Jews must yet be restored to Palestine, the reply is that their return can only take place when they have been converted to Christianity; so that the whole promise must be regarded as receiving its highest fulfillment in the experiences of the Church of Christ. That this view is correct is vouched for by the fact that the words, Ye shall be my people and I will be your God (comp. Ezekiel 11:20 : Jeremiah 7:23; Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 30:22), descriptive of the covenant relationship in which Jehovah stood towards Israel (Exodus 19:5; Le Exodus 26:12; Deuteronomy 26:17, Deuteronomy 26:18), have been chosen by New Testament writers to set forth the relationship of God towards the Christian Church, first here on earth (2 Corinthians 6:16-18), and afterwards in the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:3).

157

29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.

CLARKE, "I will also save you from all your uncleannesses - I repeat it; “I Will save you from all your sins.”

GILL, "And I will also save you from all your uncleannesses,.... From all their filthy lusts of pride, envy, malice, covetousness, whoredom, blasphemy, and infidelity, to which the Jews are now addicted; but at this time shall be saved from the power and dominion of them by the sanctifying grace of the Spirit; and from the guilt and pollution of them by the blood of Christ sprinkled on them; and this, not from one, or some of them only, but from all of them; all Israel will be saved, and they will be saved from all their sins, Rom_11:25, and I will call for the corn, and will increase it; which shall answer to the call of God, as a servant to his master; and shall spring up out of the earth in great abundance; and which shall grow, and increase, and bring forth much fruit; and yield bread to the eater, and seed to the sower: and which is to be understood, not of corn in a literal sense only, but of corn in a spiritual sense; of all spiritual provisions, the word and ordinances, and especially the corn of wheat, Christ Jesus; who is the sum and substance of the Gospel and his ordinances, and is in them food for the faith of his people; see Zec_9:17, and lay no famine upon you; neither a famine of bread, or of water; nor of hearing the word of the Lord; but shall have plenty of provisions, both for soul and body; see Amo_8:11.

JAMISON, "save ... from all ... uncleannesses — the province of Jesus, according to the signification of His name (Mat_1:21). To be specially exercised in behalf of the Jews in the latter days (Rom_11:26).

call for ... corn — as a master “calls for” a servant; all the powers and productions of 158

nature are the servants of Jehovah (Psa_105:16; Mat_8:8, Mat_8:9). Compare as to the subordination of all the intermediate agents to the Great First Cause, who will give “corn” and all good things to His people, Hos_2:21, Hos_2:22; Zec_8:12.

K&D 29-38, "Eze_36:29-38The Lord will richly bless, multiply, and glorify His people, when thus renewed and sanctified. - Eze_36:29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and will call the corn, and multiply it, and no more bring famine upon you; Eze_36:30. But I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that ye will no more bear the reproach of famine among the nations. Eze_36:31. But ye will remember your evil ways, and your deeds which were not good, and will loathe yourselves on account of your iniquities and your abominations. Eze_36:32. Not for your sake do I this, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, be this known to you; be ye ashamed and blush for your ways, O house of Israel! Eze_36:33. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the day when I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will make the cities inhabited, and the ruins shall be built, Eze_36:34. And the devastated land shall be tilled instead of being a desert before the eyes of every one who passed by. Eze_36:35. And men will say, This land, which was laid waste, has become like the garden of Eden, and the desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Eze_36:36. And the nations, which have been left round about you, shall know that I Jehovah build up that which is destroyed, and plant that which is laid waste. I, Jehovah, have said it, and do it. Eze_36:37. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will still let myself be sought by the house of Israel in this, to do it for them; I will multiply them, like a flock, in men; Eze_36:38. Like a flock of holy sacrifices, like the flock of Jerusalem on its feast-days, so shall the desolate cities be full

of flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. - The words 'שעתי ה , I help or save you from all your uncleannesses, cannot be understood as relating to their purification from the former uncleannesses; for they have already been cleansed from these, according to Eze_36:25. The ת טמא can only be such defilements as are still possible even after the renewing of the people; and שע to help, means to guard them ,הagainst any further recurrence of such defilements (cf. Eze_37:23), and not to deliver them from the consequences of their former pollutions. But if God preserves His people from these, there is no longer any occasion for a fresh suspension of judgments over them, and God can bestow His blessing upon the sanctified nation without reserve. It is in this way that the further promises are appended; and, first of all, in Eze_36:29 and Eze_36:30, a promise that He will bless them with an abundant crop of fruits, both of the orchard and the field. “I call to the corn,” i.e., I cause it to come or grow, so that famine will occur no more (for the fact, compare Eze_34:29).

In consequence of this blessing, Israel will blush with shame at the thought of its former sins, and will loathe itself for those abominations (Eze_36:31); compare Eze_20:43, where the same thought has already occurred. To this, after repeating what has been said before in Eze_36:22, namely, that God is not doing all this for the sake of the Israelites themselves, the prophet appends the admonition to be ashamed of their conduct, i.e., to repent, which is so far inserted appropriately in the promise, that the promise itself is meant to entice Israel to repent and return to God. Then, secondly, in two strophes introduced with 'כה אמר _the promise is still further expanded. In Eze ,יי36:33-36, the prophet shows how the devastated land is to be restored and rebuilt, and

159

to become a paradise; and in Eze_36:37 and Eze_36:38, how the people are to be blessed through a large increase in their numbers. Both of these strophes are simply a further elaboration of the promise contained in Eze_36:9-12. שיב to ,ישב causative of ,הcause to be inhabited, to populate, as in Isa_54:3. לעיני בר as in Eze_5:14. The ,כל־עsubject to ואמרו in Eze_36:35 is, “those who pass by.” For the comparison to the garden of Eden, see Eze_31:9. ת בצור is a circumstantial word belonging to ישבו: they shall be inhabited as fortified cities, that is to say, shall afford to their inhabitants the security of fortresses, from which there is no fear of their being expelled. In Eze_36:36 the expression, “the heathen nations which shall be left round about you,” presupposes that at the time of Israel's redemption the judgment will have fallen upon the heathen (compare Eze_30:3 with Eze_29:21), so that only a remnant of them will be still in existence; and this remnant will recognise the work of Jehovah in the restoration of Israel. This recognition, however, does not involve the conversion of the heathen to Jehovah, but is simply preparatory to it. For the fact itself, compare Eze_17:24. הדרש, to let oneself be asked or entreated, as in Eze_14:3. זאת, with regard to this, is explained by ת לעש . What God will do follows in 'ארבה God will multiply His people to such .ותוan extent, that they will resemble the flock of lambs, sheep, and goats brought to Jerusalem to sacrifice upon the feast days. Compare 2Ch_35:7, where Josiah is said to have given to the people thirty thousand lambs and goats for the feast of the passover. כצאן אדם does not mean, like a flock of men. אדם cannot be a genitive dependent upon either as a supplementary ,ארבה but belongs to ,כצאן on account of the article in ,צאןapposition to תם ארבה or as a second object, so that ,א would be construed with a double accusative, after the analogy of verbs of plenty, to multiply them in men. Kliefoth's rendering,, “I will multiply them, so that they shall be the flock of men” (of mankind), is grammatically untenable. צאן a flock of holy beasts, i.e., of ,קדשיםsacrificial lambs. The flock of Jerusalem is the flock brought to Jerusalem at the yearly feasts, when the male population of the land came to the sanctuary (Deu_16:16): So shall the desolate cities be filled again with flocks of men (compare Mic_2:12).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

Ver. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.] This is often promised, because not easily believed. No article of our creed is so much opposed by Satan, as that of the forgiveness of sin by Christ’s merits, which is the very life and soul of a Church. All the former articles of the creed are perfected in this, and all the following articles are effects thereof: hold it fast, therefore.

160

And I will call for the corn.] I have it at my call, and a mandamus from me will do it at any time. See Hosea 2:21-22. {See Trapp on "Hosea 2:21"} {See Trapp on "Hosea 2:22"}

And lay no famine.] Which comes also at God Almighty’s call. [Psalms 105:16]

POOLE, " Perhaps the former part of this verse would have been better joined with the former verse, as a glorious fruit of God’s taking them to be his people, and his condescending to be their God. Salvation from all uncleannesses includeth justification, in our pardon, sanctification, the renewing our minds, somewhat of adoption in peace and hope, and a consummate glorification in heaven, that state of absolute purity. All this God gives when he is our God. Corn; all necessaries for aliment comprised in one, and these brought to them at God’s call, which they will hear, Psalms 105:16,40 Ho 2:21,22.

Famine is God’s arrow, he shoots it; where it is, he layeth it; but his people shall neither have it their misery nor their reproach any more; as in the next verse.

PETT, "Verse 29-30

“And I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will call for the corn and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, that you receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.”

The application is twofold, as ever the near and the far. The near refers to the fruitfulness of the land once the return from exile was complete, a fruitfulness which would bring joy and blessing. But its deeper significance is again the idea of the perfect world to come, when all needs would be met, all that a man could want would be available, and there would be no lack for anyone to draw attention to, so that no one could criticise God’s provision for His own. God was offering His people

161

perfection.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 36:29

From all your uncleannesses. The same word as in Ezekiel 36:25, though with difference in meaning. From their uncleanness of the past they have already been saved (Ezekiel 36:25); the present promise guarantees preservation against future lapsing into uncleanness, i.e. the filthiness of idol-service. "With this," writes Plumptre, "the necessity for temporal chastisements as a corrective discipline should cease, and there would be nothing to check the full outpouring of all material as well as spiritual blessings." With the phrase, I will call for the corn, compare the similar expressions in 2 Kings 8:1; Hosea 2:23, etc.; Jeremiah 31:12; Zechariah 9:17.

30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine.

CLARKE, "Ye shall receive no more reproach of famine - Ye shall be daily and hourly fed with the bread that endures unto eternal life. “But will not those get proud, who are thus saved, if there be any such? and will they not undervalue the blood of the covenant, for then they shall not need it?” Ans. Hear what the Lord saith: -

GILL, "And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field,.... The fruit of trees that grow in gardens, and orchards, and vineyards, as pomegranates, apples, olives, grapes, &c. and the corn and grass of the field; so that there shall be great plenty of each of these, and no want of anything for man or beast:

162

and by these are mystically designed spiritual blessings; the fruits of righteousness, with which the saints, who are trees of righteousness, shall be laden; and an increase of gifts and grace in the churches of Christ, and the members of them: that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the Heathen; who upbraided them with it, that they were forced to go to other nations for food, as in the times of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and that their land wanted rain, and waited for it; which, if it had not, became barren; whereas the Egyptians particularly needed it not, their land being watered yearly with the overflowings of the Nile: or the sense is, they should not be reproached with their penury and want of the things of life; and spiritually, that they should not be upbraided by the Gentiles with their want of the Gospel, and their contempt of it, their blasphemy and their unbelief; since they should now have it, receive, embrace, and love it, and feed upon it.

JAMISON, "no more reproach of famine among the heathen — to which their taunt (Eze_36:13), “Thou land devourest up men,” in part referred.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

Ver. 30. That ye shall receive no more reproach.] The heathen were often twitting God’s people with their outward wants and crosses, as if caused by their religion. So the persecutors did by the primitive Christians, and so the Papists still deal with the New Gospellers, as they scornfully call the Reformed Churches.

31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices.

CLARKE, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways - Ye shall never forget 163

that ye were once slaves of sin, and sold under sin; children of the wicked one; heirs to all God’s curses, with no hope beyond hell. Such cleansed people never forget the horrible pit and the miry clay out of which they have been brought. And can they then be proud? No; they loathe themselves in their own sight. They never forgive themselves for having sinned against so good a God, and so loving a Savior. And can they undervalue Him by whose blood they were bought, and by whose blood they were cleansed? No! That is impossible: they now see Jesus as they ought to see him; they see him in his splendor, because they feel him in his victory and triumph over sin. To them that thus believe he is precious, and he was never so precious as now. As to their not needing him when thus saved from their sins, we may as well say, as soon may the creation not need the sustaining hand of God, because the works are finished! Learn this, that as it requires the same power to sustain creation as to produce it, so it requires the same Jesus who cleansed to keep clean. They feel that it is only through his continued indwelling, that they are kept holy, and happy, and useful. Were he to leave them the original darkness and kingdom of death would soon be restored.

GILL, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways,.... That were of their own choosing; in which they walked, and delighted to walk: and very evil ones they were; opposite to the ways of God; such as open violation of the law of God; neglect of his worship; idolatry, and many other sins, before the captivity; adhering to the traditions of their elders; and setting up their own righteousness as a justifying one afterwards; also their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah; their blasphemy against him, and persecution of his interest and people: now these will all be remembered with shame and confusion when the Lord shall bestow upon them the above blessings, spiritual and temporal; especially when a new heart and spirit shall be given them; the goodness of God will have such an influence upon them as to refresh their memories with former sins, and bring them to repentance for them; as well as to affect their minds, and make them thankful for present mercies: sins, which were before forgotten, or were not thought to be sins, shall now come fresh in their minds, with all their aggravated guilt: and your doings that were not good: far from being so, they were very evil, contrary to the law of God and Gospel of Christ; as they will at this time appear to themselves to be: and shall loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations; their sins will be abominable to them, as they are in themselves, and to the Lord; and they will not only loath them, but themselves for them, when they shall come to have a true sight of them in their own colours, and a true sense of the evil nature of them; and this shall not be expressed only in the sight of men, and so as to be observed by them; but in their own sight, secretly and within themselves, under a clear and full conviction of their sins. The Syriac version is, "your faces shall be wrinkled"; as men's are when they are displeased with themselves for what they have done. The Targum is, "and ye shall groan when ye shall see, because of your sins, and because of your abominations;''

164

which is the case of sensible sinners, 2Co_5:4.

HENRY 31-38, "He shows what shall be the happy effects of this blessed change. 1. It shall have a happy effect upon the people of God themselves, for it shall bring them to an ingenuous repentance for their sins (Eze_36:31): Then shall you remember your own evil ways and shall loathe yourselves. See here what sin is; it is an abomination, a loathsome thing, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. See what is the first step towards repentance; it is remembering our own evil ways, reflecting seriously upon the sins we have committed and being particular in recapitulating them. We must remember against ourselves not only our gross enormities, our own evil ways, but our defects and infirmities, our doings that were not good, not so good as they should have been; not only our direct violations of the law, but our coming short of it. See what is evermore a companion of true repentance, and that is self-loathing, a holy shame and confusion of face: “You shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, seeing how loathsome you have made yourselves in the sight of God.” Self-love is at the bottom of sin, which we cannot but blush to see the absurdity of; but our quarrelling with ourselves is in order to our being, upon good grounds, reconciled to ourselves. And, lastly, see what is the most powerful inducement to an evangelical repentance, and that is a sense of the mercy of God; when God settles them in the midst of plenty, then they shall loathe themselves for their iniquities. Note, The goodness of God should overcome our badness and lead us to repentance. The more we see of God's readiness to receive us into favour upon our repentance the more reason we shall see to be ashamed of ourselves that we could ever sin against so much love. That heart is hard indeed that will not be thus melted. 2. It shall have a happy effect upon their neighbours, for it shall bring them to a more clear knowledge of God (Eze_36:36): “Then the heathen that are left round about you, that spoke ignorantly of God (for so all those do that speak ill of him) when they saw the land of Israel desolate, shall begin to know better, and to speak more intelligently of God, being convinced that he is able to rebuild the most desolate cities and to replant the most desolate countries, and that, though the course of his favours to his people may be obstructed for a time, they shall not be cut off for ever.” They shall be made to know the truth of divine revelation by the exact agreement which they shall discern between God's word which he has spoken to Israel and his works which he has done for them: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. With us saying and doing are two things, but they are not so with God.

V. He proposes these things to them, not as the recompence of their merits, but as the return of their prayers.1. Let them not think that they have deserved it: Not for your sakes do I this, be it known to you (Eze_36:22, Eze_36:32); no, be you ashamed and confounded for your own ways. God is doing this, all this which he has promised; it is as sure to be done as if it were done already, and present events have a tendency towards it. But then, (1.) They must renounce the merit of their own good works, and be brought to acknowledge that it is not for their sakes that it is done; so, when God brought Israel into Canaan the first time, an express caveat was entered against this thought. Deu_9:4-6, It is not for thy righteousness. It is not for the sake of any of their good qualities or good deeds, not because God had any need of them, or expected any benefit by them. No, in showing mercy he acts by prerogative, not for our deserts, but for his own honour. See how emphatically this is expressed: Be it known to you, it is not for your sakes, which intimates that we are apt to entertain a high conceit of our own merits and are with

165

difficulty persuaded to disclaim a confidence in them. But, one way or other, God will make all his favourites to know and own that it is his grace, and not their goodness, his mercy, and not their merit, that made them so; and that therefore not unto them, not unto them, but unto him, is all the glory due. (2.) They must repent of the sin of their own evil ways. They must own that the mercies they receive from God are not only not merited, but that they are a thousand times forfeited; and therefore they must be so far from boasting of their good works that they must be ashamed and confounded for their evil ways, and then they are best prepared for mercy.2. Yet let them know that they must desire and expect it (Eze_36:37): I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel. God has spoken, and he will do it, and he will be sought unto for it. He requires that his people should seek unto him, and he will incline their hearts to do it, when he is coming towards them in ways of mercy. (1.) They must pray for it, for by prayer God is sought unto, and enquired after. What is the matter of God's promises must be the matter of our prayers. By asking for the mercy promised we must give glory to the donor, express a value for the gift, own our dependence, and put honour upon prayer which God has put honour upon. Christ himself must ask, and then God will give him the heathen for his inheritance, must pray the Father, and then he will send the Comforter; much more must we ask that we may receive. (2.) They must consult the oracles of God, and thus also God is sought unto and enquired after. The mercy must be, not an act of providence only, but a child of promise; and therefore the promise must be looked at, and prayer made for it with an eye of faith fastened upon the promise, which must be both the guide and the ground of our expectations. Both these ways we find God enquired of by Daniel, in the name of the house of Israel, when he was about to do those great things for them; he consulted the oracles of God, for he understood by books, the book of the prophet Jeremiah, both what was to be expected and when; and then he set his face to seek God by prayer, Dan_9:2, Dan_9:3. Note, Our communion with God must be kept up by the word and prayer in all the operations of his providence concerning us and in both he must be enquired of.

JAMISON, "remember your ... evil ways — with shame and loathing. The unexpected grace and love of God, manifested in Christ to Israel, shall melt the people into true repentance, which mere legal fear could not (Eze_16:61, Eze_16:63; Psa_130:4; Zec_12:10; compare Jer_33:8, Jer_33:9).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that [were] not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Ver. 31. Then shall ye remember.] The goodness of God shall lead you to repentance; so many mercies heaped upon so undeserving, nay, so illdeserving creatures, shall bring you to a deep detestation of your iniquities.

166

Your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good.] There are some things, saith one, that we can hardly forget, viz., our sorrows and our pleasures, as Esau; some things we can hardly remember, as our faults and our friends, as Joseph’s butler. Augustine was famous, saith another for two of his works: his Retractions, which are the confessions of his errors; and his Confessions, which are the retractions of his life. See Ezekiel 20:43.

And shall loathe yourselves.] Or, Ye shall look upon yourselves as worthy to be destroyed. Or, Ye shall scold within yourselves against your iniquities. Litigabitis intra vos contra flagitia vestra.

POOLE, " Then, when I have given you my Spirit, renewed your hearts, brought you by miraculous mercy out of captivity in a strange land unto liberty in your own, ye shall call to mind, review, and examine all your past life, your ways opposite to God’s; therefore both their own by choice, and also evil in their very nature, the ways the prophets condemned and threatened, as Eze 22 Jer 3:5, &c.

Not good; it is a meiosis; not good, i.e. exceeding evil, like, yea worse than, other nations, Ezekiel 5:6, than Sodom, Ezekiel 16:46.

Loathe yourselves: see Ezekiel 6:9. Your mind shall abhor what you loved, and deeply grieve at what you rejoiced in; when swine, ye wallowed in mire; when made sheep, you shall as much fear and flee from it.

In your own right; not in sight of others, but repentance in the chief parts lieth more retired and inward, and loathes sins that are in the heart, though none ever knew them beside God and his own soul. This fruit is the first and most sure sign of true repentance.

PETT, "Verse 31-32167

“Then you will remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sakes do I do this,” says the Lord Yahweh, “be it known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.”

That there were such periods of repentance after the exile we need not doubt (e.g. Ezra 10:1; Nehemiah 9). By the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile a deep lesson was learned by Israel, especially the true Israel. So His true people mourned over their past sins, and loathed themselves for what they had been. They really were ashamed and confounded to think of what had been. The same should be true for true Christians today. They rejoice in their forgiveness, but they loathe what they were and wonder how they could ever have been like it.

PULPIT, "Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight (comp. Ezekiel 16:61; Ezekiel 42:10). The last result of this enlarged experience of the Divine goodness would be to quicken in the heart of forgiven and renewed Israel a sense of shame and a feeling of repentance (comp. Romans 2:4).

32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!

GILL, "Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord,.... Not for any worth or worthiness in them; for any merit or desert of theirs; for any goodness in them, or works

168

of righteousness done by them; no, it purely flowed from his own unmerited grace and goodness; for his own sake, and for his own glory, will he do it; see Deu_9:4, be it known unto you; this the Lord would have this people take notice of, who were very fond of their own righteousness and merits, and to trust therein, and ascribe much thereunto, as most men are too apt to do; and therefore, to take down their pride, and take them off of their boastings and vain opinions of themselves, he would have them know and acknowledge this; and be so far from placing any of the favours bestowed on them to the account of the merit of their good works, that they ought to take shame for their evil ones, as follows: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel; as men are when they are brought to a true sight and sense of them, and reflect upon the evil of them, and are brought to true repentance for them; see Eze_16:61.

COFFMAN, ""Not for your sake do I this, saith the Lord Jehovah, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day that I cleanse you from your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that I, Jehovah, have builded the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate: I, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock. As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of. Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with the flocks of men: and they shall know that I am Jehovah."

THE GREAT OBJECTIVE IS GOD'S GLORY (Ezekiel 36:32-28)

"In the day that I cleanse you from your iniquities ..." (Ezekiel 36:33). This means that all of the great temporal blessings promised for Israel will come after the New Covenant has been established, and after Israel has accepted it, that at that time God will pour out all of these rich blessings upon Israel. Of course, that is not the way it turned out; but it is the way that it would have turned out if Israel had only accepted the Lord when he came.

169

What really happened was that Israel not only rejected the Saviour, they contrived his crucifixion by a cunning combination of suborned testimony, political pressure, and mob violence. They manufactured lies about his resurrection, they opposed with the bitterest hatred the work of the holy apostles and successfully enlisted the power of Rome itself against the Church. In that last sin, they also accomplished their own destruction. For Rome learned that the Church of Christ was a legitimate offspring of Judaism; and having been set against the Church through Judaistic efforts, Rome decided to destroy Judaism also. This resulted in the war against Jerusalem itself, the destruction of the Temple and the City, the murder of 1,100,000 of the Jewish people, the sending of 30,000 of them back into Egypt as captives, and a bitter campaign against Jews throughout the ancient Roman empire.

The contrast between this tragic record of what really happened and what God had intended emphasizes the awful consequences of Israel's refusal to accept Christ, not merely for Israel, but for the Church and for all mankind.

Despite this dismal tragedy which is verified not only by the New Testament but by the full history of the first century of this era, there are still people on earth who suppose that all of the wonderful things God promised to Israel in this chapter with reference to the vast population, the great cities, and the abundant prosperity are still going to happen. Feinberg caught the spirit of this expectation in these words: "The words of this chapter should fill us with joy. Is there not something the Lord wants you to do to work toward the day of Israel's deliverance and glory."[15]

Our Saviour wept aloud over the failure of Israel to receive the glory God intended, saying:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, but ye would not (Matthew 24:37). If thou hadst known in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast a bank about thee, and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side, and they shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children

170

within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation (Luke 19:42-44)."

This is exactly what happened to the old Israel and it affords a dramatic contrast with what Ezekiel prophesied and what could have happened except for Israel's apostasy and judicial hardening.

Now should we pray for the day to come when the old racial Israel is going to be restored to glory? No! All of the glorious promises that once belonged to racial Israel now pertain exclusively to the New Israel. There is no revealed formula by which ancient peoples who missed their opportunities shall be able to find them again. The Saviour wept over their loss, but he could do nothing about it, and neither can we.

TRAPP, "Verse 32

Ezekiel 36:32 Not for your sakes do I [this], saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

Ver. 32. Not for your sakes.] See on Ezekiel 36:22.

Be ashamed.] Abashed and abased, as was Ezra, [Ezra 9:6] Ephraim, [Jeremiah 31:19] the publican. [Luke 18:13]

POOLE, " Not for your sakes: to a self-exalting people, who have too high thoughts of themselves, this is a necessary monition; we are all like the Jews, proud of somewhat we have not; see veri. 22; an old disease, and we are long since warned of it, as well as they, Deuteronomy 9:5,6.

171

Be ashamed and confounded: shame and confusion, self-abhorrence and deepest humiliation, will become you, for you have walked stubbornly in your own ways, though I would have reclaimed you, and did call you back from them by my prophets.

pulpit, "repeats and emphasizes the thought of Ezekiel 36:22, that the true ground of God's gracious dealing with Israel should be found, not in their merit, but in his grace. So far as their ways were concerned, there was cause only for judgment on his part and self-humiliation on theirs.

33 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities,.... By the free and full pardon of them; by sprinkling clean water on them, the blood of Christ on their consciences; and by applying the righteousness of Christ to them for their justification; as well as by creating clean hearts in them, for their sanctification; and enabling them by grace to escape and abstain from the pollutions of the world: I will also cause you to dwell in the cities; that is, of Judea, which, as well as Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt and inhabited, as follows: and the wastes shall be builded: such cities and towns as lay in ruins: temporal prosperity shall go along with or follow spiritual blessings to the people of the Jews at their conversion; or they shall dwell in the churches of Christ, which are as cities compact together, well regulated, and where Jews and Gentiles at this time will be fellow citizens.

172

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:33 Thus saith the Lord GOD In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause [you] to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

Ver. 33. I shall have cleansed you.] See on Ezekiel 36:29.

I will also cause you to dwell.] See Ezekiel 36:28.

POOLE, "Committed sin, that deserveth, and imputed sin, that doth bring down, judgments on the sinner, so did the Jews’ sins, and continued the punishment in those judgments, until a pardon take away guilt, and then judgments will be removed; so here, pardoned captives return to and dwell in their own cities. Sin unpardoned wasted the country, but sinners repenting and pardoned shall build the wastes. Sin unpardoned leaves the land untilled and barren, but pardoned ones shall plough, sow, reap, and eat.

PETT, "Verses 33-36

“Thus says the Lord Yahweh, In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited and the waste places will be built. And the land that was desolate will be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, ‘The land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fenced and inhabited.’ Then the nations that are left about you will know that I Yahweh have built the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate. I Yahweh have spoken it and I will do it.”

One significance of this passage is that the nations who had observed the fall of Israel would also observe her rise. This again confirms that there is here a near fulfilment of the prophecy. Note that the cleansing is connected with the restoration. There can be no restoration without cleansing. Then the land and its cities would be restored, and the land be fruitful ‘like the Garden of Eden’. It is an idealistic

173

picture.

But mention of the restoration of the Garden of Eden may also be seen as taking us on to the end of time and the heavenly land. It is there that there will be the tree of life (Revelation 22:2) and no more curse (Revelation 22:3). It is there that the true and better Garden of Eden will flourish.

Note.

There are those who argue that this whole passage refers solely to the end times, and to the Jews as ‘Israel’. They seek a literal fulfilment in the last days. They claim that what is described here was never literally fulfilled as described because they look for fulfilment to the letter. But that claim is two-edged. There is the problem for those who would apply it to the ‘end days’ that this, a return and a building of cities and restoration of desolation following exile, is promised to take place AFTER Israel’s cleansing, while in the present day the return of the Jews to Palestine and the buidling of their cities has already taken place before Israel is cleansed. Thus we could argue equally that the current return to Israel cannot be in mind here. Nor are cities now fenced. Or are they suggesting that Israel will need to exiled yet again awaiting a further restoration?

These are not problems for a combined interpretation, for it reasonable to accept that there was a purifying of the remnant of Israel before they returned to the land. That was indeed why they were so desirous of returning. But they are a problem for a literal one applied to one situation. Furthermore it is inconceivable that God would speak through Ezekiel to these people in exile and have nothing to say about their own future. We may happily take great chunks of the Old Testament and apply it to what we see from our perspective as the end days, ignoring the past, but to these people Ezekiel was declaring a message of hope for their future and we do him an injustice if we transfer most of what he said to ‘the end days’ ignoring all that has gone between.

174

34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it.

GILL, "And the desolate land shall be tilled,.... The land of Judea, which lay desolate during the captivity, and which now is under the dominion of the Turks, and in a ruinous state, shall be manured and cultivated, and become fruitful, as it formerly was: or the people of the Jews, who, in a spiritual sense, are like barren and uncultivated ground; these shall have the fallow ground of their hearts ploughed up, and the seeds of grace, truth, and righteousness, shall be sown in them, and they shall bring forth the fruit of good works: whereas it lay desolate in the eyes of all that passed by: as the land of Canaan now does to every traveller in it, that observes it, and compares it with what it once was; and as the present state of the Jews is, in the eyes of every Christian pilgrim and traveller, that takes notice of their blindness and ignorance, their unbelief and hardness of heart.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

Ver. 34. And the desolate land shall be tilled.] As now, blessed be God, it is in the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, though now is no small danger of a new war, quod Dominus avertat. because she turned away from God.

175

35 They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.”

CLARKE, "This land that was desolate by sin, is become like the garden of Eden by righteousness - Satan’s blast is removed; God’s blessing has taken place.

GILL, "And they shall say,.... Either the neighbouring nations that lived round about the land of Israel, Eze_36:36, or rather the travellers, as before, who having as they passed by observed what it had been, and now see what it is; these shall say to one another: this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; for delight and fruitfulness: this may well be applied to the flourishing and fruitful state of the church of God, consisting of converted Jews, in the latter day: and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited; which, as it will be true of cities in a literal sense, so of the churches of Christ in Judea in a spiritual sense; which will be rebuilt by the grace of God, fenced and fortified by his almighty power, and inhabited by true believers.

JAMISON, "they shall say — The heathen, who once made Israel’s desolation a ground of reproach against the name of Jehovah Himself (Eze_36:20, Eze_36:21); but now He so vindicates its sanctity (Eze_36:22, Eze_36:23) that these same heathen are constrained to acknowledge Israel’s more than renewed blessedness to be God’s own work, and a ground for glorifying His name (Eze_36:36).

Eden — as Tyre (the type of the world powers in general: so Assyria, a cedar “in the garden of God, Eden,” Eze_31:8, Eze_31:9), in original advantages, had been compared to “Eden, the garden of God” (Eze_28:13), from which she had fallen irrecoverably; so Israel, once desolate, is to be as “the garden of Eden” (Isa_51:3), and is to be so unchangeably.

176

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities [are become] fenced, [and] are inhabited.

Ver. 35. This land.] Such a change can God soon make for worse or better. Fear him therefore; fear the Lord and his goodness. [Hosea 3:5]

POOLE, " They shall say; strangers or foreigners, who had heard or seen the sad wastes, and now either hear or see the replanting of it, and how it succeedeth.

Like the garden of Eden; see the phrase Ezekiel 28:13; most fruitful, pleasant, and desirable. This is true of the church of Christ without an hyperbole, but here it is to be accommodated by a comparative, thus; that good state the Jews are now in, compared with what they were in, is as an Eden to a wilderness. Fenced; not only built for habitation, but fortified for defence.

PULPIT, "This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden. (For the reverse picture, see Joel 2:3.) The thought of the first Paradise (Genesis 2:8), in the historicity of which clearly Ezekiel believed, was one on which his mind often dwelt (Ezekiel 28:13; Ezekiel 31:9) as an ideal of earthly beauty and fertility which should recur in the closing age of the world—a hope which appears to have been shared by Isaiah (Isaiah 51:3), and taken up by John (Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:1-3). In the day when that hope should be realized for Israel, the waste, desolate, and ruined cities, on which the passers-by who visited Palestine gazed, should be fenced and inhabited; literally, inhabited as fortresses. The three predicates, "waste," "desolate," and" ruined," have been distinguished as signifying "stripped of its inhabitants," "untilled in its lands," and "broken down in its buildings;" in contrast with which, in the golden era of the future, the towns should be inhabited, the fields tilled, and the ruined fortresses built.

177

36 Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’

BARNES, "The pagan that are left - Gathered out of pagandom into the community of God - accepted and redeemed.

CLARKE, "Then the heathen - They shall see how powerful Jehovah is, and how fully he saves those who come unto and worship him.

GILL, "Then the Heathen that are left round about you,.... Not cut off by the judgments which came upon them, according to the prophecies in chapter twenty five and twenty six, the residue of the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Tyrians; and, in the mystical sense, this may design the residue of the antichristian states not destroyed by the vials of God's wrath; see Rev_11:13, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate; this work of rebuilding Jerusalem, and other cities of Judea, and planting desolate places with trees, and all manner of corn and herbage for man and beast, as well as of building up and planting churches, will appear so manifestly the work of God, and not of men; which is brought about by his wonderful providence, or more surprising grace; that even the Heathen round about will take notice of it, and own and acknowledge it to be the Lord's work: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it; he has spoken of it by his prophets; he has promised it in his word, and he will surely do it; for he is true and faithful to his promises, and able to perform.

178

JAMISON, "Lord ... spoken ... do it — (Num_23:19).

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined [places, and] plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken [it], and I will do [it].

Ver. 36. Then the heathen.] Haec iam ex parte fata sunt, saith Oecolampadius. This day is this scripture fulfilled in our eyes: the ruined churches are rebuilt, and the matter well amended by this blessed Reformation, and Rome knows it.

POOLE, "That are left; that were not carried away and dispersed, whether they were Tyrians, Zidonians, on the north, or Ammon, and Moab, and the Philistines, and Edomites, eastward and southward, these remnants of the heathen shall see and confess a peculiar providence of God toward the Jews, in their flourishing so greatly upon their return.

pulpit, "The heathen that are left round about you. The language presupposes that at or before the time of Israel's restoration the judgments pronounced against the nations will have overtaken them, so that only a remnant of them will be then in existence. Kliefoth and Currey view this remnant as those who shall have been converted out of heathendom and become attached to the community of Israel, like "the nations of the saved" in Revelation 21:24; Keil, with more accuracy, regards their conversion as resulting from their recognition of the hand of God in building again the wastes places of Jerusalem.

37 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Once again I will yield to Israel’s plea and do this for

179

them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep,

BARNES, "Their sin had prevented God’s hearing them. Now their purification opens God’s ears to their words.

CLARKE, "Thus saith the Lord God - In answer to the question, “Who shall have such blessings?” we say, they that pray, that seek earnestly, that strive to enter in at the strait gate. “Thus saith the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel.” Neither Jew nor Gentile shall be thus saved who do not earnestly pray to God; and for this thing; for this complete salvation; this setting up of the kingdom of Christ upon earth, and particularly in their own souls.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel,.... Besought and prayed unto for the accomplishment of the above promises, as well as what follows: for though God has promised and will perform, yet he expects that his people will apply to him for it; it is our duty to put the Lord in mind of his promises, to plead them with him, and pray unto him for the fulfilment of them. The Syriac version is, "even for this I seek Israel"; and so the Arabic version; as if the sense was, that the Lord will seek the people of Israel wherever they are, and find them out, and call them by his grace, and gather them out of all countries, and bring them into their own land: "to do it for them"; everything before promised, and what next follows: I will increase them with men like a flock; as a flock of sheep is increased, which is a very increasing creature: or, "as a flock of men" (p); it signifies that the people of the Jews will be very numerous at their conversion; see Hos_1:10.

JAMISON, "I will yet for this be inquired of — so as to grant it. On former occasions He had refused to be inquired of by Israel because the inquirers were not in a fit condition of mind to receive a blessing (Eze_14:3; Eze_20:3). But hereafter, as in the restoration from Babylon (Nehemiah 8:1-9:38; Dan_9:3-20, Dan_9:21, Dan_9:23), God will prepare His people’s hearts (Eze_36:26) to pray aright for the blessings which He is about to give (Psa_102:13-17, Psa_102:20; Zec_12:10-14; Zec_13:1).

like a flock — resuming the image (Eze_34:23, Eze_34:31).

180

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:37 Thus saith the Lord GOD I will yet [for] this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do [it] for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.Ver. 37. I will yet for this be inquired of,] i.e., Though I have promised my people all these boons, yet I look they should put my promises in suite, by praying them over. Prayer is an indispensable duty, and must not on any pretence whatsoever be neglected.

I will increase them with men like a flock.] Plenty of men and store of children is a great blessing of God. Yet some are ready to say of them, as that rustic did of his afflictions, when he was told they were God’s love tokens, Ah quam velim alios amare, non me. Oh how I wish to love others, not myself. (a)

PETT, "Verse 37-38

‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “For this moreover will I be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. I will increase them with men like a flock. As the flock of holy things, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so will the waste cities be filled with flocks of men, and they will know that I am Yahweh.”

This final touch emphasises the closeness of the connection between the promises just given and the people to whom Ezekiel ministered. God was open to their enquiry on these matters so as to do it for them. And His promise was that just like sacrificial sheep and goats (‘the flock of holy things’) were brought in large numbers into Jerusalem ready for various sacrificial rituals at the feasts (compare 2 Chronicles 35:7), so would men be gathered together in large flocks in what had been the waste cities of Jerusalem. There is possibly a hint here that His people are to be seen in the restoration as entering in as offerings to Yahweh, a holy people for His own possession.

So Ezekiel’s vision of the future can be summarised as follows. (1) The preeminent motive in Israel’s redemption is the honour of God’s name (Ezekiel 36:22; Ezekiel

181

36:32). (2) Israel will know ultimately that He is truly Yahweh, the God Who acts (Ezekiel 36:38). (3) There will be an abhorrence of their previous sins (Ezekiel 36:31-32). (4) They will receive full cleansing from their sins through the divine ‘water of separation’, which is connected with a sacrificial offering (Ezekiel 36:25). (5) They will be totally transformed spiritually (Ezekiel 36:26-27; compare Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 18:31). (6) The gift of the Holy Spirit will be granted to them (Ezekiel 36:27; compare Ezekiel 37:14). (7) This will result in obedience to God's laws (Ezekiel 36:27; compare Ezekiel 11:20). (8) They will finally enjoy a place of great blessing and fruitfulness.

This sequence could be applied equally to every true conversion, both of post-exilic Israelites becoming true Israelites by response to God, and of Christians today. That it occurred in many exiles at the restoration is surely certain. They returned to great hardship because of their love for Yahweh. That it occurred during the ministry of Jesus and of the Apostles is manifest in the Gospels, Acts and epistles. It continues to happen today. And it may well be that it will also happen during a great turning to Christ among unbelieving Jews in the future (although we must be careful not to enforce our ideas on God). But all are part of the one great fulfilment.

pulpit, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel. On two previous occasions (Ezekiel 14:3; Ezekiel 20:3), Jehovah had declined to be inquired of by the hypocritical and idol-loving elders of Israel, who pretended to consult him through his prophet; now he makes it known that in the future era no barrier of moral and spiritual unfitness on their part will prevent their free approach to his throne, but rather that they will come to him with fervent supplications for the very blessings he has pro-raised. In answer to their prayers, he engages, going back to the language of Ezekiel 34:22, to increase them with men like a flock—incorrectly rendered by Kliefoth to "multiply them so that they shall become the flock of mankind." Thus he meets the despondency of those among the exiles who, fixing their attention on the small number of them who should form the new Israel—those who should return with those, perhaps, who still remained in the land-could not see how Israel's future prosperity was to be secured.

182

38 as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed festivals. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

BARNES, "As the holy flock - A reference to the flocks and herds brought up to Jerusalem to be consecrated and offered unto the Lord 2Ch_35:7. Thus, the idea is brought out:

(1) of the multiplication of the people,(2) of their dedication to the service of God.

CLARKE, "As the holy flock - The Church of Christ, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

The flock of Jerusalem - The Jerusalem that is from above, the city of the living God, the place where his Majesty dwells. As they came in ancient times to the solemn national feasts so shall they come when they have fully returned unto the Lord, and received his salvation by Christ Jesus.I do not ask my reader’s pardon for having considered this most beautiful chapter as relating, not to the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, but to the redemption under the new covenant by Jesus Christ. There is no period of the Jewish history from that time until now, to which it can be applied. It must belong to the Gospel dispensation, and if the Jews will still refuse, contradict, and blaspheme, let no Christian have any fellowship with them in their opposition to this Almighty Savior. Let none be indifferent to his salvation; let all plead his promises; and let the messengers of the Churches proclaim to the Christian world a Free, a Full, and a Present Salvation! And may great grace rest upon themselves, and upon all their flocks!

GILL, "As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts,.... Like flocks of sheep, which were consecrated and set apart for holy uses, for sacrifices; even like the flocks of sheep, which were brought to Jerusalem to be offered in sacrifice at the three solemn festivals in the year; especially at the passover, when the Jews came from all parts of the country to slay and eat their passover; and every family had a lamb, which in all must be a great number: we read of thirty thousand lambs and three

183

thousand bullocks given at one time for this service by King Josiah, besides what was given by the princes, 2Ch_35:7. The Targum is, "as the holy people, as a people that is cleansed, and comes to Jerusalem at the feasts of the passover:'' or, "as the flock of the Holy Ones" (q); either of the holy God, Father, Son, and Spirit; or of holy men, who are made holy or sanctified by the Spirit of God: so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; or with men that are like sheep for meekness, harmlessness, patience, cleanness, society, and usefulness; and not with such as are comparable to unclean beasts, or beasts of prey; so it denotes both the quantity of persons that shall inhabit Judea, and dwelt both in the cities and churches there, and the quality of them.

JAMISON, "As the holy flock — the great flock of choice animals for sacrifice, brought up to Jerusalem at the three great yearly festivals, the passover, pentecost, and feast of the tabernacles.

COKE, "Ezekiel 36:38. As the holy flock— The sheep and the lambs designed for the sacrifice at the three solemn festivals was very numerous, and at the same time the best of their kind. This also refers to Gospel-grace and blessings: and this whole prophesy will be fully accomplished at the general conversion and final restoration of the Jews.

REFLECTIONS.—1st, The land of Israel was now desolate and depopulated; but God still thought upon the dust thereof. We have,

1. His compassionate regard towards this miserable country. It was become a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen. Their neighbours insulted them, and every tongue was ready to spread their infamy, to upbraid them with their sins, and mock at their suffering; while the nations around them, the residue, who had survived the judgments threatened, chap. Ezekiel 25-26; each seized that part of Judaea which bordered upon their own country, as their prey.

2. His jealousy for his believing people. Because with spiteful joy their enemies exulted in their miseries, and with daring intrusion entered the inheritance of the

184

Lord, he hath spoken in the fire of his jealousy, and in his fury, that he will severely avenge their wrongs, and cover with shame and confusion these inveterate and malicious foes. Note; They who make God's people the subject of derision, will shortly be themselves exposed to everlasting shame and contempt.

3. God gives his believing people assurance of a happy restoration, and plenty of all good things in their own land; and the time is at hand. The mountains shall yield abundant fruit; though now uncultivated, they shall be tilled and sown; the cities that lie in ruins shall be replenished with inhabitants, and all the house of Israel, even all of it, not the two tribes only, but the ten tribes who went before into captivity, shall settle on their old estates, and see their flocks and herds multiplying under the divine blessing; and God will do better for them than at their beginnings; particularly with regard to the spiritual blessings bestowed in the days of the Messiah. Then should the mountains again become the abode of men, instead of wild beasts which had dwelt therein; the idolatries committed in them should cease, nor provoke God any more to bereave them of inhabitants; and the reproach which had been laid on the mountains of Israel by the heathen, as if they had devoured all who dwelt in them, shall for ever be at an end. Probably this prophesy looks to future times; and whatever fulfilment it received in the return of the Jews from Babylon, the perfect accomplishment of it is yet to come.

2nd, The chief end that God proposes is, the advancement of his own glory.

1. They had, indeed, forfeited all title to favour. By their sins they had dishonoured God, and defiled the land: so totally corrupted were they, that every thing they touched became in some sense unclean. Murder and idolatry marked their way, and provoked God to pour out his fury upon them, and to scatter them for their abominations into heathen lands. Yet even there all their sufferings were still ineffectual; they sinned yet more, and gave the adversaries of the Lord occasion to blaspheme. Their wicked lives brought a scandal on that name which they professed to reverence and serve, and the very heathen treated them with scorn. These are the people of the Lord: they mocked at their pretended relation to him; their conduct gave the lie to their professions; or it implied an insult on their God, as if, notwithstanding all the Jewish boasts, he were unable to save them from the hand of their enemies. Note; The sins of professors are the greatest scandal to religion, and give just occasion to the adversaries of the Lord to blaspheme: but woe unto him by

185

whom the offence cometh!

2. God will glorify his great name and the riches of his grace in their deliverance. They had no reason to expect any thing from him but wrath to the uttermost, their provocations were so aggravated; but then the heathen would blaspheme the more: therefore, not for their sake, but for his own glory, he will interpose, and gather them from among the nations, and bring them to their own land.

3rdly, Whatever accomplishment this prophesy had in the return of the Jewish people from captivity when they were for ever cured of all inclination to idolatry, it seems to have a more especial regard to Gospel times. We have,

1. Many great and precious promises given to God's faithful people. [1.] God will cleanse them from all their sins, by the blood of sprinkling removing their guilt, and by the efficacy of his grace delivering them from the power of their iniquities. [2.] He will give them a new heart, a heart changed by his divine energy from its former state of corruption, hardness, and unbelief; another spirit shall influence and guide them; the stony heart, insensible and obdurate, shall be taken away, and in its stead a heart of flesh shall be given them, tender and susceptible of every gracious impression. [3.] Having made new their hearts, he will make straight paths for their feet, and enable them to walk therein. [4.] He will take them into covenant with himself: Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. [5.] He will give them plenty of all such good things as they need; particularly, what the Jews counted the greatest earthly blessing, they shall return to their own land; have abundance of corn and fruit; shall know no more famine as before; nor be reproached by the heathen, as forced to seek their bread from other countries; when, to the wonder and surprise of the surrounding nations, the land of Judaea, lately so desolate, shall be tilled, and become like the garden of Eden for fruitfulness; and the cities in ruins shall be fortified, and replenished with inhabitants. So soon can God's blessing make a barren land fruitful, as his curse makes the most fruitful land barren.

Many interpreters suppose, that all these promises are yet to receive their accomplishment in the latter day, in the recovery of the Jews from their present state of dispersion.

186

2. The effect of God's rich grace extended to them would be the unfeigned repentance of multitudes. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Nothing brings the soul so soon to true humiliation, and to such a sense of the baseness and ingratitude of sin, as a view of God's pardoning love: then we begin indeed to loath ourselves; sin appears the abominable thing that God hates, and therefore we hate it too: every remembrance of the past covers us with genuine shame; and, though God hath forgiven us, we can never forgive ourselves for having ever offended a God so gracious.

3. God intends his own glory in what he does for them, they being utterly unworthy of the least regard; yet, though it is a matter of pure grace, he expects that they shall seek it in the way of prayer, and be confounded for their former evil ways; and he will give the answer of mercy, increasing them as a flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, immense numbers of sheep being driven on these occasions to Jerusalem for sacrifice, and vast multitudes of worshippers assembled in the courts of the Lord's house; so numerous and populous should their desolate land and cities become; since he hath spoken it, the accomplishment is sure. Note; (1.) Salvation is of grace; our righteousness and deserts are utterly excluded in regard to merit: God alone must be exalted in mercy. (2.) God's promises do not supersede, but encourage our prayers. They who restrain prayer before God, sin against their own mercies.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 36:38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 38. As the holy flock.] The sheep that come up for sacrifice, at the passover especially; so will I multiply the sheep of Christ, the true shepherd.

POOLE, " The holy flock; flocks designed to holy uses, as sacrifices, and therefore further described by the place where they are, Jerusalem.

187

Her solemn feasts; the occasion and time, solemn feasts, either the three annual great feasts, or you may hake in the daily sacrifices. These flocks were for quality the best of all, and for numbers very great, on the solemn feasts; thirty thousand at once of lambs and kids in Josiah’s time, and many more at the passover in aftertimes. Thus should men multiply, and fill the cities of replanted Judea.

pulpit, "The people who should occupy the land of Israel in the coming age should be as the holy flock—literally, as the flock of holy things, or beasts; i.e. of sacrificial lambs—as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; literally, in her appointed times; i.e. her festal seasons (comp. Micah 2:12), referring to the three well-known annual occasions when the male population of the land came to the sanctuary (Deuteronomy 16:16), and when in consequence the flocks and herds poured into the metropolis were well-nigh past reckoning (see 2 Chronicles 29:33; 2 Chronicles 35:7; and comp. Josephus, 'Wars,' 6.9. 3). Perhaps in addition to the idea of the multiplication of the people, that of their dedication to the service of Jehovah is suggested by the prophet's language.

188