Ezekiel 36:10, commentary and pictures

God himself promises to multiply people over all the house of Israel and to cause the cities to be lived in again and the ruined places to be rebuilt. The good offered was conditional on Israel returning to Him with the whole heart, obeying His voice, forsaking wrongdoing and being ashamed of iniquity, for when He speaks of building and planting a nation He will turn from that good if it does evil and does not obey. It would have been fulfilled in the return from Babylon with multiplied people, inhabited cities, rebuilt wastes and subdued enemies if Israel had complied fully, but they came back half-heartedly and in small numbers, so God could not fulfill it to them in that form. The prophecy in Ezekiel 36 to 48 has not been fulfilled and will never be fulfilled exactly as written in all its local details, since to renew its thousands of animal sacrifices would make Christ's once-for-all offering of none effect. It belongs not to the natural descendants of Jacob alone but to Israel in the gospel sense, the people of faith under the new covenant, and all God promised concerning the restoration will yet be more than made good in the new heaven and new earth whose capital is the New Jerusalem at Christ's second coming.

Promise and Its Conditions

The promise is that God will increase the population upon Israel, upon all the house of Israel, even all of it, so that the cities shall again be inhabited and the wastes or ruined places shall be rebuilt. It is spoken by God Himself directly concerning the mountains, the land, and the people of Israel, addressed to Israel in its divided and scattered state at the time of Ezekiel, soon to be gathered home to their own land, including the scattered who would return. The prophecy belongs to the period of Judah's captivity, dated to 587 B.C., and looks toward the restoration completed under Artaxerxes' decree in 457 B.C.

The promise is conditional, depending on obedience, and would have brought forgiveness of sins, new hearts, prosperity and power far exceeding anything dreamed, inhabited cities, rebuilt wastes, holy standing as a holy flock as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, and knowledge that He is Jehovah. This would have been given only if Israel returned to God with all their hearts, yielded wholly to Him, obeyed His voice and call to return, forsook wrongdoing and mingling with the deeds of other nations, and was ashamed of iniquity with sins put away. On the principle that when God speaks of building and planting a nation, if it does evil and does not obey He will turn from the good He said He would do, God would have fulfilled it then if Israel had yielded and truly repented.

God Himself will do the gathering and multiplying, for Israel will not gather themselves and rebuild Jerusalem, but He will save them from afar and bring Israel again to His habitation. He will pardon the iniquity and sins of those He reserves, gather the house of Israel from among the scattered, be sanctified in them before the heathen, give them the land given to Jacob, execute judgments on those who despised them, and cause them to dwell safely and confidently there, building houses and planting vineyards. In full detail this included calling back the scattered from the nations to their own land, raising the sleeping dead, dividing the land on a different plan, building the new glorious temple and dwelling among His people, and conquering all the northern foes in Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Fulfillment and Future Hope

What was held out would have been fulfilled in the Babylonian restoration, with people multiplied, cities inhabited and wastes rebuilt, and enemies subdued as in Ezekiel 38-39, if Israel had complied fully and come to God wholeheartedly. That fuller restoration was what God stood ready to bring about after the return from Babylon, but Israel's refusal to be ashamed of sins and to forsake them meant it was not fulfilled as described. Israel returned only half-heartedly, mingling with other nations and doing their deeds, failing to meet the conditions, refusing to be ashamed and to put iniquities away, so the promise could not be fulfilled to them in that form. Only about forty thousand to fewer than fifty thousand gathered back, with a small restoration temple inferior to Solomon's and only a shadow of the glorious restoration, followed by persecution by northern foes instead of their destruction, subjection to Rome, and destruction of the nation. The later rebuilding fell far short of the glorious city, restored land and rebuilt temple shown from Ezekiel 40 onward, leaving only a faint shadow of the promised glory.

The prophecy in Ezekiel 36 to 48 has not been fulfilled and will never be fulfilled exactly as written or literally in all its local details. The promised city and sanctuary are not standing today, and to renew the thousands of sheep and oxen sacrifices would make Christ's once-for-all offering of none effect, building again what was destroyed and returning from sunlight to shadow, since the former offerings were for the time then present shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. Whether the promise was fulfilled in Israel's past, applies to Israel in the spiritual sense, or awaits fulfillment for the natural descendants of Jacob has been disputed. Rightly it belongs not to the natural descendants of Jacob alone but to Israel in the gospel sense, the people of faith under the new covenant and true Israel in Christ Jesus, since reading it as for first-covenant natural Israel while applying David's rule to Christ joins the new-covenant ruler to the first-covenant people.

All God promised concerning the restoration will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure, more than made good, in the new heaven and new earth whose capital is the New Jerusalem, the earth made new. There Israel saved by the Lord and transplanted to the mountains of Israel flourishes like a fruitful olive tree, in the time described in Revelation 20-21 and connected with Christ's second coming, though not in every detail or under the local conditions of Ezekiel's time. God's purposes for the true Israel remain redemption and a more glorious inheritance, made known by later revelations and not necessarily in the details given in Ezekiel. The gathering and renewal are placed in the day of the Lord and fulfilled for living Israel at the day's beginning before the resurrection of the just, while the multiplying of men with the land no longer suffering destruction belongs also to the day's final end after the resurrection and destruction of the unjust. The prophecy identifies Jerusalem and the surrounding country as bearing the brunt of the nations' final attack just before Christ comes.