Ezekiel 36:4
Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;
The verse speaks to the mountains, hills, rivers, valleys, ruined wastes and abandoned cities of Israel as laid waste and forsaken, made plunder and a scornful mockery to the surrounding nations. The restoration it introduces was conditional on Israel's wholehearted faith, obedience and repentance upon return from Babylon, as Jeremiah 18:7-10 lays down for promises to a nation. Israel did not meet those conditions but returned half-heartedly without true repentance, so only about forty thousand came back and the glorious restoration was fulfilled only in small part, never literally in every detail as written. It cannot be fulfilled literally in the future, since renewing its thousands of animal sacrifices would set aside Christ's once-for-all offering and return from sunlight to shadow. What God promised will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure for the true Israel of faith, gathered by God Himself, with immortal inheritance in the earth made new as recorded in Revelation 20 and 21 at Christ's second coming.
Desolate Land Addressed
The address is spoken to the mountains of Israel, and through them to the hills, to the rivers and waterways, to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and ruined lands, and to the forsaken and abandoned cities. They are summoned as places laid waste, ruined, devastated and forsaken, called to hear the word as witnesses to what is declared over the land. They had become a prey and plunder, and a derision, scorn and mockery, to the residue of the heathen and the surrounding nations round about.
It was spoken during Judah's captivity concerning restoration from the Babylonian captivity after seventy years, while the people were divided and scattered. It was given in 587 B.C., one year after the destruction of Jerusalem. That was 130 years before the city was fully restored under the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C.
Conditional Promise Unfulfilled
The restoration promised from Ezekiel 36 onward was conditional, depending on ancient Israel's faith, obedience and repentance and on their yielding and returning to God wholeheartedly with all their hearts to receive what God was prepared to do for them after their return from Babylon. That restoration belonged to the setting of the return from Babylonian captivity after seventy years, and God would have fulfilled it then if Israel had yielded to Him and forsaken sins and returned wholeheartedly. It was a conditional prophecy urging Israel to return wholly to God, and its fulfillment depended on Israel's faithfulness. The condition follows the rule for prophecies concerning a nation or kingdom plainly stated in Jeremiah 18:7-10. The word to build and plant Israel would be fulfilled if they obeyed God's voice, and the promised good would be withheld if they did evil and disobeyed.
If the people had met the conditions, God Himself would have bestowed the blessings and fulfilled all that Ezekiel spoke to them at that time in the Babylonian restoration. He would have gathered His scattered people and the willing scattered tribes and faithful people from the nations where they had been scattered, and restored them to their land and to the mountains of Israel. He would have dwelt among them in great glory with a greater sanctuary, rebuilt their ruined cities and restored them and their land far more fully than they experienced. He would have made them victorious with their enemies subdued and cut off before them as described in Ezekiel 38-39, and even raised the dead.
Israel did not meet the conditions, but came back half-heartedly as shown in Ezra and Nehemiah, mingling with other nations and doing their deeds and refusing to obey His voice, without truly repenting of sins and forsaking them. Because the Jews did not meet those conditions only about forty thousand returned from Babylon, the promises were not fulfilled in their fullness but only in small part, and Israel was rejected. So the glorious restoration described in Ezekiel was never literally fulfilled and will not be fulfilled literally in the future in its original form, in every detail as written, or under the local conditions of Ezekiel's time. The promises concerning the true Israel will therefore be fulfilled in the future, though not in every detail as described in Ezekiel.
It cannot be fulfilled literally in the future because renewing its 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. The former offerings were only for the time then present shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ, in which God directly and explicitly promises great blessings He Himself will bestow in the salvation of Israel His people and in the glory with which He will invest the land, the city and the sanctuary.
Future Fulfillment for True Israel
Whether the promises of this chapter belong to Israel's past history, to Israel in the gospel sense as people of faith, or remain for the literal natural descendants of Jacob was disputed, and they cannot be assigned exclusively to the natural descendants of Jacob. If "David" in Ezekiel 37 can refer to Christ, "Israel" in the same prophetic setting can refer to the people of faith under the new covenant rather than being confined to national Israel under the old covenant. What God promised concerning the restoration of His people will yet be fulfilled in glorious measure for the true Israel, the faithful, as recorded in Revelation 20 and 21. The faithful will receive the promised future glory and immortal inheritance, through redemption and a more glorious inheritance in the earth made new.
The chapter is also a general and imperfect type of what God will do for His people at the second coming. Its greater fulfillment is associated with Christ's second coming and related events, not with a restored land under the local conditions of Ezekiel's time. The promises in the chapter concerning Israel and its land are to be fulfilled for living Israel at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just. Jerusalem and the surrounding country will bear the brunt of the nations' final attack just before Christ comes.
God, not Israel, will gather His scattered people and restore them to the mountains of Israel and their land and bring the gathering about. The restoration includes the return of faithful people and willing scattered tribes from the nations where they had been scattered, if they obeyed and accepted His call to return and returned to God wholeheartedly. God's plan to gather His people will nevertheless be fulfilled among all who prevail by faith, including Gentiles.