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The present chapter is entirely devoted to the consolation of Israel, though its parts are derived from two separate "words" of Jehovah. Eze_36:1-15 belong to the "word" which opened with the first verse of the preceding chapter; Eze_36:16 begins another "word," which only closes at Eze_37:14. The subject of the first part is the comfort offered to Israel in the destruction threatened against the heathen, and in the blessings promised to her land and people.
Eze_36:1
Prophesy unto the mountains of Israel. This prediction must be read in contrast, first, to that delivered against the mountains of Seir in the last chapter (35.), and, secondly, to that uttered against the mountains of Israel at an earlier stage of Ezekiel's activity (Eze_6:1-14.). That "the mountains of Israel" was a familiar expression for the land of Israel, see Eze_6:1; Eze_17:22; Eze_33:28; Eze_34:14; Eze_37:22; Eze_38:8; and comp. Psa_121:1; Isa_52:7.
Eze_36:2
Because the enemy hath said against you. The ground of Jehovah's purposed proceeding against Edom and the surrounding heathen peoples (Eze_36:3, Eze_36:5) is expressly declared to be the jubilation over the downfall of Israel, and the eagerness with which they sought to appropriate to themselves her forsaken land. Aha! Exulting over Israel's misfortune (comp. Eze_25:3; Psa_40:16). The ancient high places, which Israel's enemies fancied had become theirs in possession, were probably "the everlasting hills" of Gen_49:26 and Deu_33:15, the principal mountains of Palestine, which, as Havernick finely observes, were "the honorable witnesses and indestructible monuments of that ancient blessing spoken by Israel's ancestor, and still resting on the people;" and to assail which was, in consequence, not only to sin against Jehovah, but to attempt an enterprise foredoomed to failure and shame. At the same time, Plumptre's suggestion ('Ezekiel: an Ideal Biography,' Expositor, vol. 8.284; and Unpublished Notes) is not without plausibility, that, considering the special significance of the term bamoth in Ezekiel, the phrase should be held as referring to the sanctuaries which stood upon those heights—including, of course, the chief sanctuary, or temple (Schroder); in support of which the dean cites the frequency with which the enemies of Israel, as, for instance, the Assyrians and the Moabites, in their inscriptions, boasted that they had captured these sanctuaries.
Eze_36:3
Therefore. Ewald calls attention to the fivefold repetition of this conjunction, saying, "It repeats itself five times, the reasons [for God's judgments] against these enemies thrusting themselves forward, before the discourse calmly dwells upon the mountains of Israel, of which it is strictly intended to treat." As it were, the prophet's emotion is so strong, and his indignation against Israel's enemies so vehement, that, though he three times in succession begins to prophesy to the mountains of Israel, he on each occasion breaks off before he can get his message told, to expatiate upon the wickedness of Israel's foes. In the prophet's estimation that wickedness was so heinous as to inevitably carry in its bosom appropriate retribution. Because—literally, because and because, or even because, a reduplication for the sake of emphasis, as in Eze_13:10 and Le 26:43—they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side; literally, wasting of and panting after you (are) round about. Fairbairn, Ewald, and Smend, deriving ùÇÑîåÉú from ðÈùÇÑí , "to pant," rather than from ùÈÑîÇí , "to lay waste," translate, "because there is snapping and puffing at you round about," which Plumptre thinks "falls in better with the context," since "the prophet's spirit seems to dwell throughout on the derision rather than the desolation to which his country, the mountains of Israel, had been subject." And ye are taken up; literally, ye are made to come, if åÇúÅÌòÂìåÌ be an imperf; niph. of òÈìÇä , "to go up "(Rosenmüller, Schroder); or, ye are come, if it be imperf; kal of òÈìÇì , "to press, or go in" (Ewald, Havernick); or, ye are gone up, if it be second pers. kal of òÈìÇä (Hitzig, Smend). In the lips of talkers; literally, upon the lip of the tongue—the lip being regarded as the instrument or organ with which the tongue speaks. Havernick unnecessarily takes "the tongue" as equivalent to "people" in the parallel clause—a signification ìÈùÑåÉï has only in Isa_66:18; while Kliefoth views it as synonymous with "slander," as in Psa_140:11, and translates, "upon the lip of slander and of the evil report of the people." Keil sees in "the tongue" a personification for the "tongue-man" or talker of Psa_140:11; and Gesenius considers the two clauses as tautological.
Eze_36:4
The rivers (or, channels, bottoms, dales) were the water-courses, wadies, or ravines through which mountain streams flowed, as in Eze_35:8; and the residue of the heathen were the surrounding nations that had mocked Israel in her degradation, and were then profiting by her fall (comp. Psa_79:4).
Eze_36:5
Surely. àÄíÎìà , the particle of adjuration, as in Eze_5:11; Eze_33:27; Eze_34:8; Eze_38:19. The fire of my jealousy. Zephaniah (Zep_1:18; Zep_3:8) uses the same phrase. Similar expressions occur in Eze_21:31, "the fire of my wrath;" and Eze_38:19, "in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath" (comp. Deu_4:24). Against all Idumea. Edom. As in Eze_35:15, so here, it is the wickedness, more especially of the Edomites, that excites the prophet's indignation. They had not only concluded that Israel's territory should be to them for a possession, but they had done so with the joy of all their heart, and with despiteful minds; or, with contempt of soul (comp. Eze_25:6, Eze_25:15); i.e. with deadly (Ewald) or hearty (Smend) contempt. "The temper of the Edomites," writes Plumptre, "might almost serve as the regulative instance of the form of evil for which Aristotle ('Eth. Nit.,' 2, 7, 15) seems to have coined the word ἐπιχαιρεκακία , the temper which rejoices in the ills that fall on others." The concluding clause, to cast it out for a prey, has been differently rendered.
(1) Regarding îÄâÀøÈùÈÑäÌ as an infinitive after ìÀîÇòÇï , "to spoil it," i.e. the land (Gesenius), "empty out" (Keil) or "drive out" (Ewald, Smend) its inhabitants (so as to get it) for a prey.
(2) Taking îÄâÀøÈùÈÑäÌ as a noun, "for the sake of its possession for a prey" (Kliefoth), that their suburbs should be a prey" (Hengstenberg) "on account of its pasturage for a prey" (Schroder).
(3) Changing ìÈáÇæ into ìÈáÉæ , "in order to plunder its produce" (Hitzig) or "pasturage" (Fairbairn).
Eze_36:6, Eze_36:7
Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen (i.e. the shame cast upon you by the heathen, see Eze_34:29)… surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. Not the shame which should be cast upon them by Israel, which would be retaliation, but their own shame—the shame due to them in virtue of the Divine law of retribution (Eze_16:52), their own curses come home to roost, Ezekiel seeming to distinguish between retaliation and retribution. "The law [of retribution] is demanded by the absolute righteousness of God. The judicial visitations of God cannot possibly be one-sided. Punishment can so much the less strike Israel alone, as precisely in its punishment the deep degradation of heathendom, its apostasy from God and its pride, has set itself forth in the most striking way" (Havernick). The certainty that this law would operate in the case of the heathen no less than in that of Israel, the prophet expresses by representing Jehovah as having lifted up his hand, or sworn that it should be so (comp. Eze_20:5, Eze_20:6, Eze_20:15, Eze_20:23, Eze_20:28; Eze_47:14; Exo_6:8; Num_14:30; Deu_32:40; and Virgil, 'AEneid,' 12.195, "Teaditque ad sidera dextram").
Eze_36:8
For they are at hand to come. Keil and Plumptre make the subject of the verb the material blessings in which Israel's prosperity is depicted as consisting, viz. the foliage and fruit her mountains were soon to bear for the people of Jehovah. The majority of expositors believe the subject to be the people whose return from exile was in this way declared to be approaching. Nor is there any reason why Ezekiel should not have represented the return from exile as an event soon to take place, since of the seventy years of captivity predicted by Jeremiah (Jer_25:11) at least twenty years had passed, if its commencement be dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Eze_33:21); and the fulfillment of Jehovah's promise was to the prophet so much a matter of certainty (Eze_11:17) that his fervent imagination conceived it as at hand.
Eze_36:9
I am for you. He had previously been against (Eze_5:8; Eze_13:8), but was now for Israel and against Seir (Eze_35:3). This change of dispensation implied no mutation in God, but merely that, as God had previously visited Israel with judgment on account of sin, so henceforth would he visit her with grace on condition of repentance. I will turn unto you. Always it is presupposed that Israel turns unto Jehovah.
Eze_36:10, Eze_36:11
I will multiply men upon you. Jehovah's promise contemplated a return of both sections of the Golah, the whole house of Israel, Ephraim as well as Judah (comp. Eze_20:40), to the land from which they had been deported, and a restoration of the united kingdom to a condition of prosperity in which its cities should again be inhabited, its ruined homesteads repaired, its fields cultivated, and its flocks and herds multiplied (see Eze_16:55; Isa_44:26; Isa_54:3; Isa_61:4)—a condition of prosperity so great that it should surpass any measure or degree of good fortune previously enjoyed (comp. Deu_30:5; Job_42:12).
Eze_36:14
Thou shalt devour men no more. From the middle of Eze_36:12 the form of address changes from the plural to the singular, the whole country, mountains, and valleys being regarded as one land, as in Deu_3:25. The charge preferred against the country by her enemies was that she had been a land that devoured men and "bereaved its nations" (or, "nation," Revised Version); literally, an eater-up of men and a bereaver of thy nations; i.e. of Israel and Judah, perhaps also of the Canaanites, their predecessors (Fausset), the image being that of a wild beast which ravages the population and makes them childless, as in Eze_5:17 and Eze_14:15 (Smend), rather than that of an unnatural mother, a Rabenmutter, as in 2Ki_6:29, who devours her offspring (Ewald). This charge, in which, perhaps, the prophet detected an allusion to Num_13:32, had certainly in times past been true; not, however, as Hengstenberg suggests, because the land had been "an apple of discord for the Asiatic and African powers," or, as Ewald explains, because "the tremendous restlessness, the excited push and hurry of such a mentally active city must in any case have used up its inhabitants more rapidly;" but, as Keil, Plumptre, and others interpret, because of the judgments of sword, famine, and pestilence sent upon the land by Jehovah for its sins. These judgments had so destroyed its inhabitants, first the Canaanites, and latterly the two peoples of Israel and Judah, that "those who looked upon it deemed it a fatal land, which brought destruction to all who should occupy it" (Currey). In the golden age to which the prophet looked forward, no such reproach should be possible. Not only should the laud not bereave its nations (according to the Keri, followed by the Authorized and Revised Versions, as well as by Ewald and Smend), but (according to the Chethib, preferred by Keil, Kliefoth, Havernick, Heugstenberg, Schroder, and Plumptre) it should not even cause them (or it) to stumble; i.e. should no more cause its inhabitants to lapse into those sins, amongst which idolatry stood prominent, which entailed on them ruin. Hengstenberg's idea, that "moral stumbling is not to be thought of in this connection," is certainly to be rejected.
Eze_36:15
Neither will I cause men to hear in thee—let thee hear, proclaim against thee (Revised Version); or literally, cause to be heard against thee—the shame of the heathen any more; i.e. the contemptuous speech uttered against thee by the heathen, equivalent to the reproach of the people; or, peoples; i.e. the reproach cast upon thee by the nations (see Eze_16:57; Eze_22:4; and comp. Jos_5:9; Mic_6:16), rather than, as Curtsy suggests, the reproach cast upon thee by thy rightful possessors for want of fertility. This prophecy clearly looked beyond the return from exile under Zerubbabel and Joshua, Ezra and Neherajah, since under these leaders only a portion of the whole house of Israel reestablished themselves in Canaan, while the land was often afterwards subjected to reproach and oppression under heathen powers. At the same time, the homecoming from Babylon and the prosperity that ensued thereupon were partial fulfillments of the blessings here promised.
Eze_36:16
The oracle, commencing with this verse and extending to Eze_37:14, has an ultimate connection with that which precedes. Having predicted a golden age in the future for Israel, when her people should have returned from banishment her cities should again be inhabited and her fields cultivated, the prophet is directed
(1) to explain that the ground of this would not have in any worthiness Jehovah should behold in Israel, who had rather in the past been punished and dispersed (Eze_37:16-20), but only in the regard he, Jehovah, should have for his own holy Name or character (Eze_37:21-24);
(2) to intimate that this glorious period should be accompanied by a moral and spiritual renovation of the people, which, however, could and therefore would be brought about only by God himself giving them a new heart and a new spirit, again for his own Name's sake (Eze_37:25 -32), and which, when attained, should lead to a prosperity so unparalleled as to recall the pristine splendors of earth's paradisiacal condition, and convince the heathen that should then be sharers in Israel's felicity that Jehovah alone was God (verses 33-38); and
(3) to remove all doubt from the people's minds as to the possibility of this happening by the vision of the dry bones (Eze_37:1-14).
Eze_36:16-20
That Israel's restoration should not be brought about on account of Israel's merit, the prophet shows by briefly rehearsing the story of Israel's demerit, as the reason of her exile.
Eze_36:17
Their way was before me. Their ways and doings, i.e. their violent deeds and idolatrous practices (Eze_36:18), were as morally loathsome in Jehovah's sight as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation was materially disgusting. The comparison may have been derived from Isa_64:6, but was as likely to have been original, seeing Ezekiel was a priest-prophet, to whom the details of the Levitical Law must have been familiar (comp. Eze_18:6; Le 15:19).
Eze_36:19
According to their way and according to their doings I judged them. The language hints at a correspondence between the punishment and the crime. As a woman in her separation was not only defiled, but separated from the congregation Le 15:19), so Israel, having defiled both herself and her land, required to be removed from it (Le Eze_18:28). And she was. Jehovah scattered her among the heathen and dispersed her through the countries.
Eze_36:20
They profaned my holy Name; or, the name of my holiness. According to Kliefoth, the subject of the verb is "the heathen," but expositors generally regard it as "the house of Israel" of Eze_36:17. Plumptre thinks that "while grammatically the words may refer to either the heathen or the exiles of Israel, possibly the sentence was purposely left vague, so as to describe the fact in which both were sharers," and cites in support of this view similar constructions in Isa_55:5 and Rom_2:24. What led to the profanation of Jehovah's Name by the heathen was the arrival among them, not of the news of the calamity which had befallen Israel (Kliefoth, Hengstenberg), but of the house of Israel itself; and the actual profanation lay in this, that, having beheld the exiles, they said, These are the people of the Lord, and they are gone forth out of his land. As the heathen recognized only local divinities, they concluded Jehovah had either behaved capriciously towards his people and east them off (comp. Jer_23:40; Jer_29:18; Jer_33:24), or had proved unequal to the task of protecting them so that they had been driven off (comp. Eze_20:5, etc.; Num_14:16; Jer_14:9). In either case, the honor of Jehovah had been lessened in the minds and tarnished by the words of the heathen, and inasmuch as this result had been brought about by Israel's sin, on Israel properly the blame lay.
Eze_36:21
I had pity for mille holy Name. Havernick, after the LXX; wrongly renders, "I spared (them, i.e. Israel) for my holy Name s sake; but the preposition for or "upon" following the verb usually marks the object upon which the action of the verb terminates (see Eze_16:5). Gesenius translates, "I will be sparing of my holy Name;" i.e. I will care for its honor.
Eze_36:22
Not for your sakes … but for mine holy Name's sake. Thus Jehovah repudiates the claim of merit on Israel's part (comp. Eze_36:32); and if Israel had no claim on Jehovah for deliverance from the Babylonish exile any more than she had at first to be put in possession of Canaan (Deu_9:6), much less has fallen man a claim on God for salvation from the condemnation and dominion of sin (Rom_11:6; Eph_2:8-10). As the essential holiness and righteousness of God were the real reason of Israel's exile and dispersion among the nations, so were these qualities in God the ultimate grounds to which Israel's recovery and restoration should be traced.
Eze_36:23
I will sanctify my great Name; i.e. the name of my holiness (Deu_28:58; Psa_8:1; Mal_1:11). As Israel's dispersion had caused that Name to be profaned, so Israel's restoration would secure that it should be magnified among the heathen (Eze_38:23), who should learn from this event that their previous ideas of Jehovah, as a feeble and local divinity, had been wrong. The question whether your eyes, as in the Hebrew text, or "their eyes," as in many ancient versions, should be read is debated. The latter reading appears to be demanded by the usus loquendi of Ezekiel (see Eze_20:41; Eze_28:25; Eze_38:16; Eze_39:27), and is adopted by both English versions as well as by interpreters of eminence; but other expositors of equal name adhere to the former reading on the ground that the sanctifying of Jehovah's Name in the eyes of Israel was an indispensable preliminary to its sanctification in the eyes of the heathen. Havernick regards "their eyes" as "an obvious emendation to relieve a difficulty," to which in no case should criticism accord the preference; while Keil gives it the preference, though admitting that "your eyes" can be justified.
Eze_36:24
I will take you from among the heathen; or, nations. The first step in the sanctification of Jehovah's Name. A promise already given (Eze_11:17; Eze_20:41, Eze_20:42), and afterwards repeated (Eze_37:21). The mention of "all countries" shows the prophet's gaze to have been directed beyond the present or immediate future. The Israel of Ezekiel's time had not been scattered among and could not be gathered from all, countries; yet in the years that have passed since then Ezekiel's language as to Israel's dispersion has been literally fulfilled. Wherefore the inference is reasonable that the reassembling to which Ezekiel refers is an event that has not yet occurred, at least in its fullest measure and degree, but will only then be realized completely and finally when the scattered members of the house of Israel shall have been received into the Christian Church (Rom_11:25, Rom_11:26).
Eze_36:25
Then (literally, and) I will sprinkle clean water upon you. The second step in the sanctification of Jehovah's Name, and one absolutely necessary to render the preceding either permanent or valuable, was the moral renovation of the people; and in this the first stage was the forgiveness of the people's sins. The image under which this is set forth, "sprinkling with clean water," would naturally present itself to a priest-prophet such as Ezekiel. Jarchi, Rosenmüller, Hengstenberg, and others suppose the allusion to be to the water of purification prepared by mixing running water with the ashes of a red heifer (Num_19:17-19), and in the account given of this rite the verb for "sprinkle" is that used by Ezekiel, viz. æÈøÇ÷ . Havernick prefers the rite performed in the consecration of the Levites (Num_8:7, Num_8:21). Smend, who holds the priest-code had no existence in Ezekiel's day, traces the image to Zec_13:1 or Psa_51:2, though he also cites Num_8:19. Hitzig, Kliefoth, and Currey think of the lustrations of the Law in general; and perhaps this best explains the prophet's language, since the element sprinkled is not "blood" or "water mixed with ashes," but "clean water," "the best known means of purification" (Schroder). As to whether legal or moral cleansing were intended by the prophet, possibly Ezekiel drew no sharp distinction between the two, such as the New Testament draws between justification and sanctification; if he did, then the figure in the text must be taken as alluding rather to the former than to the latter—rather to the forgiveness of Israel's sin than to the regeneration of Israel's heart, which is next referred to.
Eze_36:26, Eze_36:27
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. The third step in the progress of sanctifying Jehovah's Name (comp. Eze_11:19, where a similar promise is made, and Eze_18:31, where the new heart is represented as a thing Israel must make for herself). This antinomy frequently occurs in Scripture, which never shrinks from holding man responsible for the production of that, as e.g. faith, for which he is incompetent without the help of Divine grace. Besides the cleansing of her guilt and her restitution in consequence to Jehovah's favor, Israel is promised such an inward renovation of her moral and spiritual disposition as to secure that she shall in future adhere to the worship and service of Jehovah. This change is described in a fourfold way.
(1) Negatively, as a removal of the old, stony, unsusceptible heart, which had remained impervious to all appeals and insertsible to all higher feelings (Zec_7:12).
(2) Positively, as a new heart and a new spirit, called elsewhere "one heart" and "a heart of flesh" (Eze_11:19; Jer_32:39), "a heart to know God" (Jer_24:7).
(3) Causally, its existence being traced to the indwelling of God's Spirit, who writes God's Law upon the new heart, and inclines it to a life of obedience thereto (Jer_31:33).
(4) Practically, by its manifestation, walking in God's statutes and keeping God s judgments (Eze_11:20). The account here furnished of the moral and spiritual change proposed to be inwrought on Israel cot-responds exactly with that given in the New Testament of the regeneration of the individual soul (Joh_3:3-8; Rom_8:2, Rom_8:5, Rom_8:9; Gal_5:22; Tit_3:5, Tit_3:6; 1Pe_1:22).
Eze_36:28-31
describe the results which should follow in Israel's experience when God should have thus gathered, cleansed, and renewed them. They should then have
(1) permanent occupation of the land (Eze_36:28);
(2) covenant relationship with God as his people (Eze_36:28);
(3) protection against future lapsing into idolatry and immorality (verse
9);
(4) abundant supply for every want (Eze_36:29, Eze_36:30); and
(5) a deepening sense of self-humiliation on account of and repentance for past sin (Eze_36:31).
Eze_36:28
Ye shall dwell in the land. As the Jews who returned from Babylon did not permanently dwell in the land, but were again ejected from it, the promise contained in these words must be viewed as having been conditional on the realization of the moral and spiritual purity above described. If, therefore, it be aroused that inasmuch as this promise must be fulfilled (2Co_1:20; Heb_10:23), the Jews must yet be restored to Palestine, the reply is that their return can only take place when they have been converted to Christianity; so that the whole promise must be regarded as receiving its highest fulfillment in the experiences of the Church of Christ. That this view is correct is vouched for by the fact that the words, Ye shall be my people and I will be your God (comp. Eze_11:20 : Jer_7:23; Jer_11:4; Jer_30:22), descriptive of the covenant relationship in which Jehovah stood towards Israel (Exo_19:5; Le Exo_26:12; Deu_26:17, Deu_26:18), have been chosen by New Testament writers to set forth the relationship of God towards the Christian Church, first here on earth (2Co_6:16-18), and afterwards in the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev_21:3).
Eze_36:29
From all your uncleannesses. The same word as in Eze_36:25, though with difference in meaning. From their uncleanness of the past they have already been saved (Eze_36:25); the present promise guarantees preservation against future lapsing into uncleanness, i.e. the filthiness of idol-service. "With this," writes Plumptre, "the necessity for temporal chastisements as a corrective discipline should cease, and there would be nothing to check the full outpouring of all material as well as spiritual blessings." With the phrase, I will call for the corn, compare the similar expressions in 2Ki_8:1; Hos_2:23, etc.; Jer_31:12; Zec_9:17.
Eze_36:31
Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight (comp. Eze_16:61; Eze_42:10). The last result of this enlarged experience of the Divine goodness would be to quicken in the heart of forgiven and renewed Israel a sense of shame and a feeling of repentance (comp. Rom_2:4).
Eze_36:32
repeats and emphasizes the thought of Eze_36:22, that the true ground of God's gracious dealing with Israel should be found, not in their merit, but in his grace. So far as their ways were concerned, there was cause only for judgment on his part and self-humiliation on theirs.
Eze_36:33-36
describe the effect of Israel's restored prosperity on the surrounding nations.
Eze_36:35
This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden. (For the reverse picture, see Joe_2:3.) The thought of the first Paradise (Gen_2:8), in the historicity of which clearly Ezekiel believed, was one on which his mind often dwelt (Eze_28:13; Eze_31:9) as an ideal of earthly beauty and fertility which should recur in the closing age of the world—a hope which appears to have been shared by Isaiah (Isa_51:3), and taken up by John (Rev_2:7; Rev_22:1-3). In the day when that hope should be realized for Israel, the waste, desolate, and ruined cities, on which the passers-by who visited Palestine gazed, should be fenced and inhabited; literally, inhabited as fortresses. The three predicates, "waste," "desolate," and" ruined," have been distinguished as signifying "stripped of its inhabitants," "untilled in its lands," and "broken down in its buildings;" in contrast with which, in the golden era of the future, the towns should be inhabited, the fields tilled, and the ruined fortresses built.
Eze_36:36
The heathen that are left round about you. The language presupposes that at or before the time of Israel's restoration the judgments pronounced against the nations will have overtaken them, so that only a remnant of them will be then in existence. Kliefoth and Currey view this remnant as those who shall have been converted out of heathendom and become attached to the community of Israel, like "the nations of the saved" in Rev_21:24; Keil, with more accuracy, regards their conversion as resulting from their recognition of the hand of God in building again the wastes places of Jerusalem.
Eze_36:37
I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel. On two previous occasions (Eze_14:3; Eze_20:3), Jehovah had declined to be inquired of by the hypocritical and idol-loving elders of Israel, who pretended to consult him through his prophet; now he makes it known that in the future era no barrier of moral and spiritual unfitness on their part will prevent their free approach to his throne, but rather that they will come to him with fervent supplications for the very blessings he has pro-raised. In answer to their prayers, he engages, going back to the language of Eze_34:22, to increase them with men like a flock—incorrectly rendered by Kliefoth to "multiply them so that they shall become the flock of mankind." Thus he meets the despondency of those among the exiles who, fixing their attention on the small number of them who should form the new Israel—those who should return with those, perhaps, who still remained in the land-could not see how Israel's future prosperity was to be secured.
Eze_36:38
The people who should occupy the land of Israel in the coming age should be as the holy flock—literally, as the flock of holy things, or beasts; i.e. of sacrificial lambs—as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; literally, in her appointed times; i.e. her festal seasons (comp. Mic_2:12), referring to the three well-known annual occasions when the male population of the land came to the sanctuary (Deu_16:16), and when in consequence the flocks and herds poured into the metropolis were well-nigh past reckoning (see 2Ch_29:33; 2Ch_35:7; and comp. Josephus, 'Wars,' 6.9. 3). Perhaps in addition to the idea of the multiplication of the people, that of their dedication to the service of Jehovah is suggested by the prophet's language.
I. THERE IS A TRIUMPH OF EVIL.
1. In the fall of man. When Adam fell it seemed as though the greatest work of God had been hopelessly ruined almost as soon as it appeared. No sooner was man made in the image of God than he groveled in the dust, and marred the heavenly likeness with ugly stains of sins.
2. In the history of primitive man. So evil is man that the whole race, with the exception of a single family, is swept off the face of the earth. Once more the world is reduced to a desolate condition, once more evil seems to have conquered.
3. In the troubles of the Hebrews. The people of God become oppressed slaves in Egypt. "Where is the promise delivered to the fathers?'
4. In the failure to enter Palestine. The Israelites reach the borders of the land, and are then driven back defeated, and compelled to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
5. In the miserable days of the judges. When the land was at length possessed, it was not found to be all milk and honey. War and wickedness, sorrow and shame, make the first ages of the possession of Canaan almost the darkest period in Jewish history.
6. The wickedness of later days. The story of Israel is a story of repeated rebellions against God, and repeated Divine chastisements.
7. In the Captivity. When the two nations were driven into captivity, and their territory devastated by the heathen, the triumph of the enemies of the people of God seemed to be complete.
8. In the cruelty of later days. Eastern empires, the Seleucidae, and the Romans successively triumphed over and oppressed the once favored people.
9. In the cross of Christ. Here, indeed, the enemies of righteousness reach their crowning triumph. Satan now exults over the sorrow and death of the Son of man.
10. In the history of Christendom. This has not been a history of continuous growth and victory over evil. First there were the great persecutions. Then followed the great apostasy. The dark ages marked the triumph of ignorance and cruelty. Today the powers of evil are mighty and exultant.
II. THIS TRIUMPH WILL BE REVERSED. It is premature. We have not yet reached the end of the story. The battle is still raging; it is too early for the foe to sing his paeans of victory. All along the dark recital of victories of evil there has been the alternative picture of Divine deliverance. We make a mistake when we dwell only on the gloomy side of history. God has been revealing himself in history. Not only did he save the eight in the ark. He delivered all Israel from Egypt. He gave Canaan, and he gave restoration from the Captivity. He sent his Son to save the world. In the darkest hour when Christ hung dying on the cross while evil seemed to be most triumphant, victory was really being won by that very death of the world's Savior. We have not seen the end yet. Perhaps we are on the fringe of a great contest between the servants of Christ and his foes. But never was the work of Christ more manifest than it is today in Christian activity at home and in the harvest of the mission-field abroad. While the unbeliever exults in what he thinks is the demonstration of the falsehood of Christianity and the sure prospect of its speedy downfall, there are more earnest active Christians at work than ever there were. By the grace of God we may trust that, though the battle is still fierce, we are moving on to victory under the Captain of our salvation.
Eze_36:8, Eze_36:9
II. This RETURN OF PROSPERITY IS CAUSED BY A RETURN OF GOD. "For behold I am with you, and I will turn unto you." God had abandoned the guilty land. Therefore a blight had fallen upon it. If God deserts a man, nothing can really prosper with him. He may still coin gold in his business, but it will be a curse to him. When God smiles upon a man's life he brings, not necessarily wealth, but certainly welfare. It would be well for everybody to ask himself—Is my business such that I dare ask God into it? Can I regard my workshop as a temple, or my work as a sacrifice? For these are the conditions on which true prosperity depends, because they are the conditions of God's gracious help.
III. THE RETURN OF GOD IS ACCOMPANIED BY A REVIVAL OF HUMAN ACTIVITY. "And ye shall be tilled and sown." That work will not be done directly by God, nor will it be accomplished by the unseen hands of angel-husbandmen. Men must till and sow. God's blessing does not dispense with man's labor. Assuredly it is not an excuse for human idleness. On the contrary, it is the inspiration of the highest activity. God blesses by stirring men up to wise and earnest work. St. Paul teaches us that God gives the increase after man's sowing and watering (1Co_3:6). But Ezekiel shows that God's great work does not only follow man's smaller toil; it precedes that toil, and is the spring from which the energy for it proceeds. We are first told that God will turn unto his people, and not till after this is it said, "And ye shall be tilled and sown." This is the happiest way of giving prosperity. If all the glory is God's, still the joy of service is man's. The same is true of spiritual prosperity. If we would reap a harvest in Christian work, we must not only bring it to God and ask his blessing upon it; we must first of all seek his presence m it, that it may be his work from the first. Then he will be the Inspiration of his servants' activity. We shall be able to till and sow just because God is with us. The glorious prosperity will come from God as a fruit of his gracious benediction, and it will come through us as the human instruments who are called by God like laborers to work in his vineyard.
Eze_36:10
1. Overcrowding in cities. The waste places should be built—not the reeking fever-dens crammed with an overflowing population of sickly creatures, who have no energy for work, and whose surroundings do not permit decent living. One of the greatest evils of our day is the depletion of our rural districts and the pressing of the population into the cities. What is needed is not a reduction of the population, but a scattering of it over the face of the land at home and also throughout the colonies. The mistake that led to the building of the tower of Babel is still fatally prevalent.
2. Unworthy living. Too many men are not doing men's work—idle rich men who consume without producing, and idle poor men who are always near the border-land of crime, on the further side of which they would become positive destroyers. We cannot have too many true men, but they must be men indeed—workers, not drones.
II. THE STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH IS IN ITS MEMBERSHIP. The word "Church" stands for a community. The great Catholic Church of all nations and creeds is the whole body of Christians. This obvious fact is too often neglected. Thus the Church is sometimes regarded as an institution apart from the souls of which it consists; it is said to have its rights, its triumphs, while no thought is given to the people in it. This is a pure delusion—the glorification of an empty abstraction. Again, for the Church some would substitute its officers. The Christian ministry is regarded as the Church. This was the case in the Middle Ages, when popes and great ecclesiastical dignitaries contended with emperors and kings for the privileges of the Church. In those contests little account was taken of the interest of the people—the townsfolk and village folk who constituted the body of the Church. But in these democratic days the rights of the people are being better recognized, and now we are coming to see that the Church is just the men, women, and children that constitute it, viewed in their corporate relation as the body of Christ on earth. The Church is honored when men are multiplied in her midst. She cannot be in health if the missionary spirit dies out of her. But while she gathers in the heathen her first duty is to train her own children. She should thus grow her own members. Here, however, we need a caution. Mere numbers will count for nothing apart from character. Statistical Christianity is a poor production. We want true men—living souls united to Christ and working for his glory. Still, the honor of the Church is not in remaining small and select, and keeping her privileges to herself and neglecting the world, but in multiplying men. She should he a great popular institution, true to the spirit of Christ, who called himself "the Son of man."
Eze_36:11
("And I will do better unto you than at your beginnings")
II. THE BETTER FUTURE OF THE CHURCH. The Church, which has the seed of Divine life in her, should be continually growing in grace. While like the mustard tree she enlarges her size, she should also, like the rising temple, become ever more radiant with the beauty of holiness. Perhaps there is no sadder story than that of the history of the Church. No doubt there have been ages of glorious zeal and devotion; no doubt God has been continuously educating his people. But there have been awful times of relapse. We think we can see progress in our own day—a wiser thought, a larger charity, a more practical activity in the service of man. But we are far indeed from realizing Christ's great ideal. That ideal, however, is the picture of the future, and the pattern after which we are to toil with the utmost hopefulness. The New Testament promises a glorious future to the people of God (Eph_2:21).
III. THE BETTER FUTURE OF THE SOUL. In our melancholy moods we yearn after the old sweet days of childhood—their innocence, their simplicity, their joyousness. We forget their limitations, their fears, their infantine distresses. But perhaps we have fallen far from those early days. Then we knew nothing of the world's dreadful sin. Now we must confess that we have not kept ourselves unspotted. And with the soul's fall has come the soul's sorrow, and many disappointments and losses have made the day which dawned in golden sunshine overcast with gloomy clouds. Still, we have not reached the end. After bathing in the Jordan, Naaman's leprous flesh became healthy as that of a little child. The leprous soul may he cleansed, the worn-out life renewed. "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature" (2Co_5:17). Then the future is full of hope. The victorious Christian, with all his scars, and even with his memory of shameful unfaithfulness, stands higher than the unfallen because untried child. God has a blessed future in the heavenly inheritance reserved for the most weary souls. The secret of this happy prospect is in the power and grace of God. It is he who will do better for his people than at the beginning.
Eze_36:21-24
1. God's faithfulness. A person's good name is associated with his keeping his word. If a man has put his name to a document, he must not ignore its stipulations. A just person will swear to his own hurt and not change. Now, God is the type and pattern of all truth and fidelity. His eternal constancy lies at the root of the order of the universe. What he has promised he will do, because he is faithful. But he has promised redemption (e.g. Eze_34:22-31). Therefore he will redeem his people, that he may redeem his word. Though it costs the sacrifice of his Son, nothing shall be wanting to a faithful execution of his promise.
2. God's character. The name is supposed to express the nature. God is named after what he is. Now, God's nature is essentially good and gracious. With the New Testament before us, we know that God's best name is Love (1Jn_4:8). Jesus Christ has taught us to concentrate our thoughts of God on his Fatherhood. God will act according to his Name, i.e. according to his nature. Love must characterize his conduct, and whatever he does he will do it "like as a father." His fatherly character will lead him to redeem and save, irrespective of desert, for sheer love and pity.
3. God's glory. To get a name is to receive glory. When Christ is glorified he is said to receive "a Name which is above every name" (Php_2:9). God's Name is his glory. Now, God is glorified in many ways, but in none so highly as in his saving the lost. The best song of heavenly praise is the hymn of redemption (Rev_5:9). There is glory in creation; and the greatness, the order, the beauty, the life of the universe praise God. There is glory in Divine government; and the manner in which God rules all things and establishes righteousness displays his glory. But we know of no glory like that of God's grace revealed at Calvary. This fact should help us to understand how God can ask for his own glory without being selfish. When men seek their own glory they usually do so at the expense of, or to the neglect of, others. But God's glory shines out of his supreme self-sacrifice. This is the secret of the highest glory.
II. ITS PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES.
1. We can never hope to earn salvation. It is a gift of God, never a work or reward of man.
(1) This is a rebuke for pride.
(2) It also warns us against the folly of seeking to establish some claim with God by penance, works, or sacrifice.
"Nothing in my hands I bring;
Simply to thy cross I cling."
2. We need never despair of salvation. If it were given for our own sakes in any way, we might well torture ourselves with doubts as to whether we should merit it, nay, we had better give up all hope at once, for we could not earn it. But now the ground is shifted from ourselves to God. The question is not as to what is in us, but as to what is in him. The most unworthy, those who have made the worst failures in life, the weakest or the most sinful, may yet dare to hope for full and perfect salvation through the great grace of God, for his Name's sake.
3. We have the highest reasons for joy and adoration. The redemption is offered to the worst sinners—to all men, on their repenting and seeking the grace of God. Here is a glad fact and one to inspire eternal praise. Translating it into Christian language, we see that we are to rejoice and glory in salvation given to us through Christ; for Christ is "the Word" (Joh_1:1), i.e. the Name of God. God saves for the sake of his Name when he saves for Christ's sake.
Eze_36:25
II. THE CLEANSING OF SOULS WILL REMOVE BOTH THE GUILT AND THE POWER OF SIN.
1. The guilt. Sin leaves a stain behind. Blame justly attaches itself to all wrongdoing, and, though the deed of evil may be swiftly accomplished, the blame lingers long. The stain of sin is not merely an ugly fact; it produces dreadful consequences.
(1) It excludes the soul from the presence of God. No stained souls can be permitted to tread the courts of heaven.
(2) It draws down the wrath of God.
(3) It carries with it continuous shame.
2. The power. The evil is more than a stain upon the conscience. It is a poison within the soul. It works harm by its corrupting as well as its defiling influence. We need some antidote to this poison, or some wonderful cleansing that shall completely purge it out of our being—a real internal washing, not merely a clearing of a darkened reputation.
III. GOD HAS PROVIDED CLEANSING WATER. What is needed is clean water. New, this is just what is not to be got in places of defilement. The foul soil stains and poisons the streams that flow through it. No human thing is clean from the contamination of man's great sin. Therefore there can be no human fountain for uncleanness. But God has opened a fountain, and the gospel of Christ introduces us to it. He is pure, and he can give perfect purification. The water that flows from this rock is not defiled with earth's contamination. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1Jn_1:7). Here we have the double cleansing. The guilt is washed out by a Divine pardon given through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, and the impurity is purged away by the Holy Spirit communicated to us by the grace of God in Christ. The cross redeems from all sin. The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world. There is perfect cleansing of character, motive, heart, and soul in Christ.
IV. THIS CLEANSING WATER IS SPRINKLED ON INDIVIDUAL SOULS FOR THEIR CLEANSING. It is not enough that the water exists, nor that we behold it, nor that it flows in a full, free torrent.
1. It must be applied to each individual soul—sprinkled. This great fact is suggested by the rite of baptism. The future tense is here used. The prophecy was written before the advent of Christ. But even now the future tense must be used for all who are still in sin and earnestly desire cleansing. Christ's atonement is finished; but his cleansing must be continually given afresh to separate souls.
2. This cleansing is divinely given. "I will sprinkle," etc. God himself cleanses souls. We have to repent and seek his mercy. Then he will work directly in his pardoning and purifying grace.
Eze_36:26
I. THE ESSENCE OF SALVATION IS THE RENEWAL OF THE HEART. The commonest mistake is to ignore this most significant fact. People regard salvation too much as a change in the soul's estate rather than a change in its very nature. But while there is a change of condition, and while the greatest possible external consequences flow from the redemption of souls, that redemption does not consist in these things; they are but of secondary importance. The primary fact is internal. To be saved from the visible fires of a material hell, and to be carried aloft to the tunable pleasures of a celestial Paradise, may satisfy the Mohammedan-minded Christian, but it will not fulfill the great thought of Christ. Hearts are wrong, foul, diseased. Men have false ideas, corrupt desires and affections, evil imaginations, or perhaps a blank deadness of soul. Here is the seat of the disease; here, then, the cure must begin. Sin is heart-disease; salvation is heart-renewal.
II. THE OLD EVIL HEART IS OF STONE. A terrible and most significant description.
1. It is hard. It does not respond to the call of God; it neither perceives spiritual truth, nor feels Divine influences, nor responds to heavenly voices. It has no sympathy with God. It is inflexible and immobile.
2. It is cold. Not only does it not respond to the influences of God; in itself and in its new condition it is unfeeling. There is no glow of generous affection in the sinful heart.
3. It is dead. The heart is the most vital organ. For this part of the body to be petrified involves a fearful condition of utter death. The hands might be turned to stone, and yet the man might live. But if he bad a heart of stone he must be dead. Souls are "dead in trespasses and sin" (Eph_2:1). Men fear a future death, but the Bible teaches that there is a present death of godless souls.
4. It is unnatural. A heart of stone—what can be more monstrous? Sin is all unnatural. It is contrary to nature not to have feelings of love for our heavenly Father.
III. GOD GIVES A NEW HEART OF FLESH.
1. It is a new heart. There is no curing the old one. "Ye must be born again" (Joh_3:3). To be in Christ is to be "a new creature." Thus Christ gives complete renewal. Now, the hope of the world lies in this great fact. We try to patch up the face of society, but it is mortifying at the core; and Christ goes at once to the root of the matter. With creative power he makes the heart afresh, i.e. he gives quite new thoughts, feelings, and desires. The most abandoned wrecks of society may take courage and believe that even they can be saved if this is the glorious work of Christ in souls.
2. It is a heart of flesh.
(1) Tender. The old coldness and hardness pass away. Pride, stubbornness, obstinacy, are broken down, the penitent soul is melted. The softening of the hardened spirit is an essential part of conversion.
(2) Sympathetic. The renewed heart readily answers to the call of God and to the joys and sorrows of men.
(3) Living. This new heart beats, It drives life-blood through the whole being. The fainting soul is invigorated. Energy springs from the new heart. It pulsates with the vigor of a glad, strong life.
(4) Natural. The heart is of flesh, not of some foreign angelic substance. Sin is monstrous, goodness natural. The true Christian is natural; he is intensely human. God's work in the soul brings a man into close sympathy with his fellows. It restores true human nature.
Eze_36:27
I. THE PRESENCE OF GOD'S SPIRIT DEPENDS ON THE CONDITION OF MEN'S HEARTS AND LIVES. The third stage of redemption is closely connected with those that precede. It cannot be attained without them, any more than the top of the staircase can be reached without passing over the lower steps. We cannot reverse the order. Cleansing and renewal must precede inspiration. God does not dwell equally with all men. There are God-haunted souls and there are God-deserted souls. The Spirit of God entered into Samson (Jdg_14:6), but Satan entered into Judas (Luk_22:3). Here is one great motive for our seeking to attain to the two earlier stages. They are the conditions on which we may enter into the highest privileges of all religion.
II. GOD PUTS HIS SPIRIT IN THE HEARTS