Ezekiel 36:12, commentary and pictures

God Himself will cause His people Israel to walk upon their mountains and land and possess it as their inheritance, so that it will no more bereave them of men but be built and planted and dwell in safety. The offer was conditional on Israel returning to God wholeheartedly in faith and obedience and putting away iniquity, to be withdrawn if they did evil and obeyed not His voice. What was offered would have been fulfilled in the return from Babylon in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in far greater measure with prosperity and power, new hearts, rebuilt cities, and the sanctuary of Ezekiel 40-48, if the people had fully obeyed. Because the return was half-hearted and unrepentant, only about forty thousand came back and only a feeble shadow of the temple and kingdom appeared, never to be fulfilled exactly as written in its original local form. The greater fulfillment therefore belongs not to natural descendants alone but to Israel by faith under the new covenant, to be realized in glorious measure at Christ's second coming as the immortal inheritance in the renewed earth of Revelation 20-21 promised to Abraham and his faithful descendants.

Context and Plain Sense

Ezekiel 36:12 stands among the prophecies of restoration that follow the book's earlier warnings and correction with consolation and hope. It belongs to a prophecy concerning Israel's mountains, land, and people, promising God's blessings in Israel's salvation and in the glory of the land, the city, and the sanctuary. The prophecy was given during Judah's captivity, dated to 587 B.C., one year after Jerusalem's destruction. It concerns restoration from the distress of captivity, looking ahead to Jerusalem's full restoration under the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C., 130 years later.

The verse is part of a larger prophecy extending from Ezekiel 36 onward to the close of the book. That larger prophecy certainly includes Ezekiel 38-39 and Ezekiel 40-48.

Its plain sense is that God Himself will cause men to walk upon the land, even His people Israel, and they shall possess it as their inheritance so that it shall no more bereave them of men. Israel does not gather itself and rebuild Jerusalem by its own doing. Rather, God gathers the house of Israel from among the scattered, saves them from afar and from captivity, brings them again to His habitation and to the land given to Jacob, pardons those He reserves so that iniquity is found no more, and causes them to dwell safely and with confidence, building houses and planting vineyards, when He has executed judgments upon all despisers round about.

Thus the verse promises that Israel will possess the land and no longer lose its people through desolation. It is a promise to build and plant Israel there as God's inheritance. The land will no longer bereave its people, devour them, or destroy its inhabitants. That inheritance is the inheritance promised to Abraham and his faithful descendants.

Conditional Offer Forfeited

The promise to cause Israel to walk upon the mountains, possess them as inheritance, and never again be bereaved of men was conditional on Israel returning to God wholeheartedly and giving themselves wholly to Him in faith and obedience. It was good God would do if they returned to Him, and would be withdrawn if they did evil and obeyed not His voice. The condition required being ashamed of iniquities and putting away wickedness. Those who held the promise to be a faint type added that it foreshadows God's general promises to His people at the second coming and is not to be fulfilled in every detail as originally described.

What God offered would have been fulfilled in the return from Babylon in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in greater measure if the people had met the conditions. If they had fully obeyed He would have restored them to prosperity and power far beyond anything they had dreamed. He would have forgiven sins, given new hearts, rebuilt waste cities, and made them a holy flock like the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so they would know He is Jehovah.

That conditional restoration included gathering from the nations and possession and inheritance with a new division of the land on a new plan. It included revival of the captive nation as from the dead in the resurrection figure of chapter 37, and the joining of Israel and Judah into one nation under the seed of David. It included building of the new glorious temple and sanctuary with God's presence among His people and its worship of Ezekiel 40-48, with glory resting on the city called Jehovah-shammah, meaning Jehovah is there. It included conquest and destruction before them of all northern foes, the Scythian nations of Gog and Magog, and the subduing of enemies in chapters 38-39.

Because the return in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah was half-hearted, mingling with other nations and doing their deeds, God could not fulfill the blessing as described. The people refused to heed the prophet, failed to truly repent, to be ashamed of sins, and to yield to God's terms and accept His call to return. They did not turn to Him and put away wickedness, and did not meet His requirements. For that reason the victory and restoration were only partial, and the promised restoration and glorious temple were not realized as described.

The result was only the feeblest and partial fulfillment that will never be fulfilled exactly as written in its original form or local conditions. Only about forty thousand, fewer than fifty thousand, gathered back. Only a lesser shadow of the promised temple was built, far inferior to Solomon's. Northern foes persecuted them, preeminently under Antiochus IV, with final subjection to the Romans until the nation was destroyed. Because Israel failed to meet the conditions, the restoration was only partly fulfilled after the return from Babylon.

Future Fulfillment for Israel

The restoration and inheritance belong to Israel in the spiritual sense, to those who are Israel by faith under the new covenant, the true Israel, and not to the natural descendants of Jacob alone as a separate future people. Its application must follow the distinction between first-covenant Israel and the Israel of faith, while allowing both the natural descendants and Israel in the highest faith-based sense. Because Israel did not truly repent, the promises concerning true Israel will be fulfilled in the future, but not in every detail as originally described, and the faithful will receive the future glory and fullness of the immortal inheritance.

The promises in Ezekiel 36 are fulfilled to living Israel at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just. The promise that Israel will possess the land and no longer lose its people through its desolation reaches its final freedom from bereaving, devouring, or destroying its inhabitants at the day's end, after the resurrection and destruction of the unjust, when there is no more utter destruction.

Because Israel failed to meet the conditions, the greater fulfillment belongs not to a return to local conditions but to events surrounding Christ's second coming. The promise of what God was prepared to do after the return from Babylon, to restore them to their land where they would possess it and no longer lose their people, was conditional on Israel being ashamed of iniquities and returning wholeheartedly, and because they were not it was not fulfilled as described. It remains as a faint type of God's general promises to His people at the second coming, not a prediction to be fulfilled in every detail, but to be fulfilled in the future for the faithful.

The promised restoration of God's people will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure in the reality described in Revelation 20-21. God's purposes toward His people will instead be fulfilled in a more glorious inheritance, the earth made new, the new heavens and new earth, to which the promises point faintly. The promise concerns the inheritance God made to Abraham and his faithful descendants, which Abraham and the righteous did not receive in their lifetimes but will receive with the just at the resurrection in the renewed earth.

The verse shows Israel saved by the Lord transplanted into the promised land, the mountains of Israel, in the new and beautiful world to come. There as a majestic widespread olive tree with its natural branches and noble graft it will spread and fill that world with immortal fruit, with Jehovah as the dew causing growth as the lily, rooting as Lebanon, and beauty and fragrance as the olive tree and Lebanon.

The chapter, together with other prophecies, indicates that Jerusalem and the surrounding country will face the nations' final attack just before Christ comes, identified as being against the Turk in Palestine.