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: Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
The verse records the taunting boast of the enemy over fallen Israel, exulting that its long-honored heights had passed into his own possession. It belongs to a promise of restoration to the land and people of Israel that was conditional on their forsaking sin and returning to the Lord with all the heart in faith and obedience. Had they met the condition, God would have brought the scattered tribes home to their mountains, subdued the boasting foe before them, dwelt among them in glory, and raised a far grander sanctuary and land. Because they returned half-heartedly and would not obey His voice, the blessing could be fulfilled only in very small part, with few returnees and a lesser temple under persecution. The full restoration will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure, applying in broad outline to God's future deliverance of His people at the second coming of Christ as described in Revelation 20 and 21.
Enemy's Boast and Setting
Ezekiel 36:2 preserves the jeering cry of Israel's foe, Aha, in claiming that the ancient high places had passed into its own possession. That boast belongs to a prophecy of restoration that was never literally fulfilled, whose promised restoration would have included the defeat of Israel's enemies. The prophecy was uttered during Judah's captivity, one year after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.
It follows the word against Seir, that is Edom, in chapter 35, and stands before the predictions of chapters 37, 38, and 39. It opens a section reaching from chapter 36 onward to the close of the book, embracing chapters 38 and 39 and certainly chapters 40-48. That whole prophecy concerns the mountains, the land, and the people of Israel, in which God directly and explicitly pledges the great blessings He Himself will bestow in saving Israel His people and in glorifying the land, the city, and the sanctuary.
It is addressed to Israel as a call to return to God and to give themselves wholly to Him, that they might receive the good things promised through the prophets.
Conditional Promise of Restoration
The promise stretching from Ezekiel 36 through 48 was conditional, offered to Israel on the terms stated in Jeremiah 18:7-10 that God would build and plant them if in faith and obedience they forsook their sins and returned to the Lord with all their hearts in the restoration from Babylon, but would withhold the promised good if they did evil and disobeyed His voice. It called them to give themselves wholly to God so they could receive the good things held out to them, and its blessings for the return from Babylon would have been given then if they had yielded to Him. Had they come wholeheartedly, He would have restored scattered and divided Israel to their land and to the mountains of Israel and brought back those of the scattered tribes who would come.
What God stood ready to do was to defeat the nations that threatened them and to subdue before them the taunting enemy that claimed the ancient high places, with the overthrow of the northern enemies described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. He would have dwelt among them in glory and established a far greater and grander sanctuary and temple, making Israel the joy of the whole earth while marvelous things were wrought in the Holy Land. But Israel did not repent, or did not truly repent, returning half-heartedly and mingling with other nations and doing their deeds as shown in Ezra and Nehemiah, turning from God and refusing to obey His voice, so He could not fulfill the blessings pronounced and the details went unfulfilled at that time.
Because the people failed to meet God's requirements of faith and obedience, the promised victory and restoration came only in partial and very small part, a faint shadow of the promised glory and prosperity after Babylon, with a smaller temple, and the prophecy will never be fulfilled as there given in its original historical setting and detail. In that weak fulfillment fewer than fifty thousand returned, the rebuilt house lacked Solomon's glory, and their foes persecuted them until the nation fell under Roman power. Those who place the number at about forty thousand teach the same lesson, that only that many came back from Babylon though the promises of gathering to the mountains of Israel, defeating enemies, dwelling among them in glory, and establishing a greater sanctuary would have been fulfilled far more fully if the people had met the conditions.
Fulfillment Past and Future
Whether the promise has already been met in Israel's past, is now being met to Israel in a spiritual sense through faith, or still awaits meeting to Jacob's natural descendants is a disputed question. The contention that it must belong to natural descendants is to be rejected, because Israel in the spiritual sense belongs to the new covenant, whereas literal Israel and its promises belong to the first covenant. The chapter holds the Lord's promises to Israel and to the land of Israel to be met to living Israel at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just. Its promise that the land will no longer devour its people belongs at the day's end, after the resurrection and the destruction of the unjust.
The full restoration of God's people there promised will yet be met in glorious measure as described in Revelation 20 and 21. It applies only in broad outline to God's future deliverance of His people at the second coming of Jesus Christ and to events connected with it. That full meeting will come in greater glory without the local conditions of the prophet's day. There will be no literal burning of wooden bows and shields and no cleansing of the land by human hands, because the fires of the last day will consume sin out of the world and melt the earth with fervent heat.
Jerusalem and the nearby country will bear the brunt of the nations' final attack just before Christ comes. God's promise to gather Israel means that God Himself will gather them from among the peoples where they are scattered, not that Israel will gather themselves and rebuild Jerusalem by their own action.