3248.—A Conditional Prophecy
By Editor
Will you please tell me if Ezekiel 47 and 48 have reference to the new Jerusalem and the twelve tribes of Israel? It says the fruit of the trees are for meat, and the leaves for medicine. Eze. 47:12. Does it refer to the Tree of Life? Or will such trees be in the new earth, and do we need medicine there? The whole of the last part of Ezekiel was a conditional prophecy. From the 36th chapter onward God warned Israel and pleaded with them by every means in His power, to induce them to turn to Him. He told them that their righteous dead would be raised again, and that all the kings of the North and their enemies far and near would be brought in subjection; that a new temple would be built, and that a new division of the land would take place; that the life and healing power of God would come down upon Palestine and the earth as never before; and He also laid down the conditions on which this would be done, in Eze. 43:9-11. That is, they must put away their wickedness, be ashamed of their iniquities. The sad fact is that they were not ashamed. They did not put away their iniquities, and the glorious temple presented by Ezekiel was not built; only one with a shadow of the greatness of that temple was erected by Zerubbabel. The conditions of God's working are found in Jer. 18:7-10. God may speak good concerning a nation; but if that nation fails to do its part, the Lord will repent of the good that He thought to do. He may speak evil concerning the course of a nation; but if that nation turns from its evil way, the Lord will repent of the evil that He threatened. That temple never will be built. It provided that sacrifices should be offered, but when Jesus Christ died upon the cross He fulfilled all sacrifices. All those promises, however, are faintly typical of what will take place in that new heavens and new earth when God shall restore them by His mighty power.