Ezekiel 36:1, commentary and pictures

Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel addresses the land itself, commanding it to hear the word of the Lord, and opens the promise of restoration and consolation for the land and people of Israel. The offer was conditional upon Israel forsaking sin and returning to God with the whole heart in faith and obedience, and the gathering home to their own land was to be God's own act and not their own work. Because Israel returned from Babylon only half-heartedly and in small number, the restoration after the exile was only partial and feeble, with an inferior temple and continued subjection until the nation was destroyed. The promise belongs in the highest sense to the second Israel, those who are Israelites by faith under the new covenant with Christ as the second David, and not to the natural descendants of Jacob alone. It will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure in the time described in Revelation 20 and 21, when the faithful receive redemption and the fullness of the immortal inheritance in the earth made new.

Setting and Conditional Offer

The address to the mountains of Israel to hear the word of the Lord opens the section of restoration prophecies that chiefly offers consolation and promise concerning the mountains, the land, and the people of Israel. It is a prophecy concerning the mountains, land, and people, declaring that the Lord's promised blessings and glory for them come from God. It belongs to the prophecies about Israel's restoration and is linked with Ezekiel 38 to a final attack by the nations on Jerusalem and the surrounding country just before Christ comes.

The prophecy was given for Israel in its divided and scattered condition during the captivity in Judah and Jerusalem, when she was about to be gathered home to her own land. It was given in 587 B.C., one year after Jerusalem was destroyed and 130 years before Jerusalem was fully restored under Artaxerxes' decree in 457 B.C. Its purpose was to lift Israel from the low estate of Babylonian captivity brought by her sins.

From this chapter onward the prophecy is conditional, set forth as warning and appeal for Israel to forsake sin, return to God with all the heart, and give themselves wholly to Him in faith and obedience. From this chapter onward God set out what He would do for Israel if they met His conditions, and the blessings depended on ancient Israel's faith and obedience. God would build and plant Israel and do what He promised if they obeyed His voice, and would withhold the promised good if they did evil in His sight. The promises were governed by conditional prophecy, to be fulfilled to Israel in the Babylonian restoration if they came to God with all their hearts.

The gathering promised is God's own act, not Israel gathering themselves and rebuilding Jerusalem. God Himself would gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, bring back the scattered to their land, and bring them to dwell safely and with confidence in the land given to Jacob. If they had met the condition of returning to God with all their heart, God would have restored them to their land and gathered the scattered who would return.

If Israel had fully complied, God would have caused His people to triumph, forgiven their sins, cleansed them from sin, given them new hearts, blessed the land, rebuilt all their waste cities, made them a holy flock like the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, and caused them to know that He is Jehovah, with prosperity and power far exceeding anything they had dreamed. God would have gathered His scattered people, restored them to the land, dwelt among them in glory, and given them victory.

The fuller promise was restoration not only to former glory but to greater glory if she lets Him. It was to release the true Israelites sleeping in the dust from the prison-house of Satan under the rule of David and His Seed, to utterly defeat the strong numerous foes from the north, and to offer the Jews restoration to their land with renewed life for the nation, victory over its northern enemies, and God's presence among His people if they returned to God and obeyed Him. It was to raise the temple burned by Babylon in greater glory with His visible shechinah, to send life-giving healing waters from His presence over the land poisoned by sin, and to divide the land among the tribes and dwell among them with sacrifices still offered because the Redeemer had not yet given Himself. All was conditioned on putting away whoredoms and the carcasses of kings and being ashamed of iniquities.

Fulfillment Past and Future

God stood ready to fulfill the promises beginning here in the Babylonian restoration and in the restoration after the exile if Israel had yielded, repented, and returned to Him wholeheartedly with all the heart, forsaking sin, but because they returned only half-heartedly, mingling with other nations and doing their deeds and failing to truly repent, the fulfillment after the return was only partial and feeble and not in all its stated details. The failure is measured by the return of only about forty thousand and of less than fifty thousand from Babylon, by the building of a temple inferior in glory to Solomon's, by persecution by northern foes instead of their destruction, and by final subjection to Rome until the nation was destroyed, so the promises were not fulfilled in their fullness. The closing restoration prophecy was never literally fulfilled and will never be literally fulfilled as originally offered, neither its detailed events described later in Ezekiel 39 nor the proposed temple with its sacrifices, and even its future reference does not fulfill every detail as written.

The promise belongs to Israel in the highest sense, those who are Israelites after the law of faith under the new covenant, not a future fulfillment to the natural descendants of Jacob, for its Israel is the second Israel and its David is the second David, Christ, as in the parallel promise where David shall be king and shepherd over them, since the first Israel and the first David belonged entirely to the first covenant while the second Israel and Christ belong to the new, and the reign of Christ cannot be joined to literal Israel. The promises concerning Israel may also be understood in relation to Israel's past history, to Israel in the spiritual sense as the people of faith, or to the natural descendants of Jacob in the future, and are not restricted to the natural descendants. The restoration of God's people promised there will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure in the time described in Revelation 20 and 21, when the promises concerning the true Israel will be fulfilled in the future and the faithful will receive future glory and the fullness of the immortal inheritance, which is redemption and a more glorious inheritance in the earth made new.

The chapter concerns the Lord's promises to Israel and the land of Israel to be fulfilled to living Israel at the commencement of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just, and together with Ezekiel 38 it is linked to a final attack by the nations on Jerusalem and the surrounding country just before Christ comes. If God's people had heeded the prophecy, their enemies would have been cut off, the dead would have been resurrected, and the glorious temple would have been rebuilt, including the subduing of their enemies in Ezekiel 38 and 39; in a general, symbolic way the prophecy also points to what God will do for His people at the second coming.