Ezekiel 39:28, commentary and pictures

God who drove Israel into captivity among the heathen for rebellion and iniquity will gather them unto their own land and leave none of them there any more, and then they shall know that he is the LORD their God. It was a conditional promise of what God was prepared to do for Israel after Babylon if they yielded wholly to him, repented and returned with all the heart, and met his requirements of faith and obedience. Because they did not comply, the glorious gathering never took place, only about forty thousand returning to build an inferior sanctuary, and taken literally as written in Ezekiel 36 to 48 it was never fulfilled and will not be, since to renew its thousands of animal offerings would make Christ's once-for-all offering of no effect. In general outline the chapter foretells national judgments on the invaders on the mountains of Israel before Christ comes and the final doom of Gog and Magog after the thousand years, when Satan gathers the wicked against the camp of the saints, and is stated in clearer unconditional terms in Revelation 16-19. The promise will still be fulfilled much more gloriously to the true Israel of God by faith in the new heavens and new earth, not by a special work among the Jews or a literal return to Palestine with Ezekiel's temple and ancient warfare.

Gathering and Knowing God

After scattering among other nations and causing to be taken captive, God gathers back to their own land, leaving none in exile, and then they know that he is the LORD their God. The gathering after captivity among the nations makes them know that he is the LORD their God, because he had caused their captivity and brought them home. What God would do if his people yielded to him is to gather the people he sent into captivity among other nations back to their own land, leaving none in captivity, and they would know that he was the Lord their God.

Israel was driven into captivity among other nations because rebellion and iniquity led them there, but God would gather from those lands and bring back to their own land, leaving none scattered there. Their restoration and return would lead them and the nations to know that the Lord was their God and would make the Lord known among the nations as their God. This promise belonged to the first dispensation and could be fulfilled to literal Israel if they repented and put away iniquities, and it was not an unconditional promise for the Age to Come. The purpose was that Israel should have occupied Palestine as a separate people apart from the nations, and had they remained faithful the evil confederacy would have invaded their territory and opposed God's people there.

The verse falls within the book's chapters on restoration, which deal chiefly with consolation and promise. It belongs to the judgments of chapters 38 and 39 against the wicked nations which, controlled by Satan, seek to destroy God's people, and to God's direct and explicit promise of great blessings in the salvation of Israel his people and in the glory with which he will invest the land, the city and the sanctuary. God purposed a glorious state of prosperity and favor for Israel when they should return from Babylon to their own land in Palestine, and the verse introduces the vision of the city and temple in Ezekiel 40-48 as what lay in prospect for them there.

The gathering is God's own act and not Israel's, for God himself gathers his people from captivity among the nations and brings them back to their land, leaving none scattered there. It is the gathering of the true Israel of God from all nations of the earth. Israel here is understood as God's people joined in Christ, not as a prediction that the Jews will rebuild Jerusalem.

Conditional Promise Unfulfilled

Ezekiel 39:28 belongs to conditional prophecy of what God was prepared to do for Israel after Babylon if they accepted His terms, complied with the conditions, yielded wholly to Him, exercised faith and obedience, repented and returned with all the heart, put away wickedness and iniquity, were ashamed of their iniquities, and represented the truth. The promise belongs to the conditional prophecies of Ezekiel 36-48 and would have brought the captive Jews back from the nations to their own land upon the mountains of Israel and left none of them among the heathen if they had been faithful under the old covenant. The return and victory of Ezekiel 38 and 39 belonged first to the Jews' restoration and would have included deliverance from all enemies and defeat of the northern nations, and because Israel failed to meet God's requirements that victory was only partial.

What God would have done was to gather all Israel from the nations to their own land leaving none among the heathen, cut off all enemies and bring them far and near into subjection with victory and plagues over the northern horde sweeping down from the north, cleanse from sins, resurrect those gone down in death as pictured in Ezekiel 37, and restore greatness beyond beginnings. He would have conquered their enemies, wrought marvelous things in the Holy Land, made Jerusalem a praise in the earth and Israel the joy of the whole earth and a light indeed to the world, and built the wonderful sanctuary and far greater and grander glorious temple with its water of life where the presence of God would dwell in overpowering glory. If God's people had heeded the prophet and been ashamed, all this would have followed; but they refused to be ashamed and did not put away iniquities.

Because Israel did not yield to God's plan, truly repent, forsake sin, or comply in that day, the gathering in its full glorious form did not take place and the restoration was fulfilled only in very small part as a mere shadow with only a faint shadow in the prosperity after the restoration from Babylon. The meager restoration from Babylonian captivity when about forty thousand or fewer than fifty thousand returned and built an inferior sanctuary did not exhaust the gathering to their own land with none left among the heathen, and only a mere shadow of the temple was built instead of the wonderful structure shown to Ezekiel. The promised gathering and restoration did not occur in all the details described, and the chapter is fulfilled only in general as a type of God's final punishment of those who destroy His people.

Taken literally as part of Ezekiel 36 to 48, with its judgments against wicked nations controlled by Satan seeking to destroy God's people and its direct promise of great blessings in the salvation of Israel and in glory for the land, city, and sanctuary, the verse has not been fulfilled and never was fulfilled because the conditions were never met, since no such city or sanctuary stands today. It will not be fulfilled literally as written, since to renew the thousands of sheep and oxen offerings of that sanctuary would make the offering of Christ once for all of no effect, building again what was destroyed and returning from sunlight to shadow, for those offerings were for the time then present shadowing forth the only effectual offering of Jesus Christ. What remains to be fulfilled must be fulfilled in harmony with conditions existing upon the earth, part in greater glory at the second coming of Jesus Christ and events connected therewith but without the local conditions of the prophet's day, with no burning of wooden weapons of war 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.

A literal fulfillment in the last days in a Palestinian setting is impossible, and the gathering of God's own people out from all nations to the mountains of Israel will be fulfilled toward the true Israel of God but not there. Palestine is not inhabited by a people God calls His own, its present Jewish inhabitants are few and under foreign control, its people do not all dwell safely together in unwalled villages, and it is the poorest of lands without the cattle, goods, property, plenty and wealth described to stir the cupidity of the northern powers to think an evil thought and sweep down for great spoil. Modern armies do not carry the wooden shields, bucklers, handstaves and spears that were to serve Israel for fuel, nor will the land be cleansed by human hands.

Final Conflict and Renewal

In general outline the chapter is applied to the gathering for Armageddon, with peoples lining up for the final conflict. It predicts a last great northern apostasy sweeping into the Holy Land with great power and destruction. That northern power is identified with Russia and her international policy and ultimate destiny, through Gog as the ruler or czar of Russia and through Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Japan is one means used to turn Russia back. The prophecy is history foretold as warning to be studied and applied before fulfillment, in part fulfilled with much still to come in the immediate future amid the Far East crisis and the distress of nations with perplexity, because coming events mean eternal salvation to some and everlasting destruction to others.

Israel should have occupied Palestine as a separate people apart from the nations. God's people had been driven into captivity among other nations because of rebellion, but their gathering back to their own land with none left scattered would make them know that the Lord is their God. Had they remained faithful, the evil confederacy would have invaded their territory and opposed God's people there.

What was conditional and failed in its original form because Israel did not meet God's requirements was not exhausted by the meager restoration from Babylon when about forty thousand returned and built an inferior sanctuary. What remains must be fulfilled in harmony with conditions existing upon the earth, with some events before the second coming of Christ and some in the last great battle on the other side of the thousand years, while details belonging to ancient warfare are not fulfilled in modern form. The gathering to Palestine where they are called My people Israel, upon whom sweeps a great horde and confederacy from the north led by Magog, means national judgments with plagues falling on the invaders on the mountains of Israel before Christ comes, not the battle at the end of the thousand years when all the dead of all ages come up and national boundaries and distinctions and aggregations of nations are completely eliminated. The judgments of Ezekiel 38-39 are related to the judgments in Revelation 16-19 and are stated in the clearer unconditional terms of Revelation in light of the fuller revelation that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ through the gospel, so attempting to apply all details literally goes far astray.

The final doom of Gog and Magog, who in past days oppressed God's people, is carried out after the thousand years are expired. Then Satan is loosed from his prison and gathers the resurrected wicked from the four quarters of the earth to battle against the camp of the saints and the city of God.

The chapter is fulfilled only in general, as a type of God's final punishment of those who destroy His people. Because Israel did not repent and put away wickedness and iniquity, the promised gathering to their own land with none left among the heathen did not occur in all its details as described. The promise of a glorious future will still be fulfilled for God's own people, understood as the true Israel of God by faith including the remnant wherever found, under the new covenant and not as building Ezekiel's sanctuary, in the new heavens and new earth with the full immortal inheritance, much more broadly and strongly and gloriously and without ancient warfare details, though times and circumstances differ. God will fulfill His promises to His people in Christ in the new earth.

The verse does not teach that God has a special work among the Jews in the Christian dispensation, nor does it support theories of the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ, and earthly inheritance as drawn from the last nineteen chapters of Ezekiel. The taking of the saints to heaven at the second coming of Christ, when the earth is desolated, overthrows that use. The gathering of nations toward Armageddon makes this a time to carry the gospel among them, including Persia and nearby regions, since God gathers His people from among the nations to bring them back so that they know He is the Lord their God.