Ezekiel 36:3, commentary and pictures

The verse describes the land of Israel as laid waste and seized on every side by the surrounding nations to possess it, while made a byword of gossip, mockery and disgrace. It stands at the opening of the promise of restoration after warning and judgment, in which God Himself undertakes to save His people and glorify their land, city and sanctuary, set against His word against Seir or Edom. That promise from Ezekiel 36 onward was conditional, offering to build and plant Israel and give every good thing if they forsook sin and obeyed His voice with the whole heart, and withholding the good if they did evil in His sight. Because they returned from Babylon only in part and half-heartedly, there was only a feeble and partial fulfillment, with fewer than fifty thousand returning to an inferior temple under persecution and final national ruin. It was never fulfilled literally in every local detail and never will be, since to renew thousands of animal offerings would return from sunlight to shadow and make Christ's once-for-all offering of no effect. What was promised will yet be fulfilled in far greater measure at Christ's second coming, not to natural descendants as such but to the true Israel by faith.

Words and Historical Setting

The land of Israel had been made desolate and swallowed up on every side by the surrounding nations. It had become a possession for the residue of the heathen who remained around it. Scattered and laid waste, it was taken up in the lips of talkers and made an object of public talk, ridicule, disgrace, reproach and infamy among the peoples.

The word stands within Ezekiel's prophecies of restoration, which follow the book's earlier warnings and denunciations. It is addressed to the mountains, to the land, and to the people of Israel. In it God Himself promises to save His people Israel and to give glory by His own direct hand to the land, the city, and the sanctuary. It is paired with the prophecy against Seir, that is Edom, in the preceding chapter.

The prophecy was spoken during Judah's captivity in 587 B.C., one year after Jerusalem was destroyed. At that time the people were divided and scattered. It looks toward restoration of God's people from the distress of captivity, with Jerusalem fully restored under the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C.

Conditional Promise and Fulfillment

The whole prophecy from Ezekiel 36 onward to the close of the book, certainly including Ezekiel 38 and 39 and Ezekiel 40-48, was conditional upon Israel forsaking sin and returning to God with all the heart in full and wholehearted yielding. God warned them and called them to heed His voice and comply fully, promising to build and plant them and to give all the good things promised if they obeyed, and to withhold the promised good if they did evil in His sight according to the stated rule of Jeremiah 18:7-10. Had they heeded His words and repented, their enemies would have been cut off before them.

If Israel had fully complied at the return from Babylon, God would have restored them far beyond any prosperity they had dreamed. He would have forgiven their sins, given them new hearts, rebuilt all their waste cities, made them a holy flock as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, and caused them to know that He is Jehovah. That restoration would have included sleeping Israel by resurrection figured in dry bones clothed with flesh, the joining of Israel and Judah in one nation under the seed of David, the destruction before them of their enemies and of the northern Scythian nations of Gog and Magog described in Ezekiel 38-39, and the wonderful sanctuary and city where His glory would rest under the name Jehovah-shammah.

Because they returned only half-heartedly and in part, mingling with other nations and doing their deeds as shown in Ezra and Nehemiah, and did not repent and meet the conditions, God could not fulfill the promises to them then. There was only a partial and feeblest fulfillment, with less than fifty thousand, about forty thousand, gathering back. The temple built was far inferior to Solomon's, and instead of the destruction of northern foes there was persecution by them preeminently under Antiochus IV, followed by subjection to the Romans and destruction of the nation.

The prophecy was therefore never literally fulfilled, and it will never be fulfilled exactly as written in every local detail. The city and sanctuary of the prophecy do not stand today. It will not be fulfilled literally with renewed offerings of thousands of sheep and oxen, for that would build again what was destroyed and return from sunlight to shadow, making Christ's once-for-all offering of no effect, since the former offerings were only for the time then present to foreshadow His one effectual offering. Nor will its greater fulfillment come through local conditions such as cleansing the land by human hands and burning weapons.

What God promised concerning restoration will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure in a greater fulfillment connected with Christ's second coming and described in later revelations as in Revelation 20-21. It serves as a general type of God's future work for His people. That final fulfillment concerns the true Israel, but not in every detail originally offered.

The promise in Ezekiel 36 is not reserved for the natural descendants of Jacob in past history nor awaiting fulfillment for literal descendants in the future, but belongs to Israel in the gospel sense, those who are Israel by faith, and applying it to the Israel of faith is admissible. The promises concerning Israel and the land in this chapter are fulfilled to living Israel at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just.

Gathering and Present Application

God himself, rather than Israel by its own action, will gather his scattered people out from the nations where they have been scattered. He will restore them to the land given to Jacob as their own possession. In that restoration he will sanctify himself in their sight before the nations. He will judge the nations that have despised them, and his gathered people will dwell there in safety.

The desolation and swallowing up on every side points to the place of the great final war just before Christ comes. That war will be moved against the Turkish power in Palestine. Jerusalem and the country immediately contiguous to it will bear the brunt of the final attack of the nations.

Followers of Christ will likewise be taken up in talk and made an infamy among the people. They will be gossiped about and slandered, made a mocking song and a derision to those around them, and counted as filth and refuse. They are not better than their Master, who was himself called Beelzebub, and therefore they must expect the same treatment. Such reproach is to be borne with grace. When evil is spoken falsely against them for Christ's sake, it is cause for rejoicing.