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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - Ezekiel 36:33 - 36:33
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The last section, as was noticed before, is merely a gathering up of the general result, with some reference to the impressions it was fitted to produce upon the minds of others.
Eze_36:33. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I shall also make you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins are built. 34. And the land that is desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was desolate in the eyes of all that pass by. 35. And they say, “This land that was waste is become as the garden of Eden, and the cities, ruined and deserted and destroyed, sit fortified.” 36. And the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I Jehovah build the destroyed, plant the deserted; I Jehovah speak and do. 37. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Yet for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; I will multiply them as a flock of men. 38. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the ruined cities be full of flocks of men; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
The general meaning is, that the purpose of God was to accomplish an entire change in the outward as well as the inward condition of his people. They would be as remarkably distinguished for prosperity and blessing as they had been for distress and desolation, so that even the passing stranger could not fail to notice the happy revolution that had taken place in their circumstances; but still not as a matter of fixed and inevitable necessity, nor in any way that might supersede the obligation resting on themselves personally to seek and serve the Lord. Hence the intimation is made at Eze_36:37, that for this the Lord would “yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” On former occasions he had refused to be inquired of by them (Eze_14:3, Eze_20:3), that is, sought after in such a manner as to be found ready to perform what was expected, because the inquirers were not in a condition to receive any token of his favour and blessing. Only, therefore, in so far as they attained to a better condition, and stood morally on right terms with God, were they warranted to look for the happy and flourishing state described in the promise. And the higher always they rose in the one respect, the higher also might they expect God to raise them in the other.
Such promises as those contained in this chapter cannot therefore be taken in an absolute sense; they must be understood to some extent conditionally. They reveal the kind propensions of God towards his people—what he is disposed and ready to do toward them—rather than what he will for certain accomplish at any one stage or period of their history. So far the word contains an absolute element, as God certainly pledges himself to make provision for securing, in a larger measure than formerly, a proper regeneration of heart and conduct in his people, and also for giving palpable proof of this in their more flourishing and prosperous condition generally. The goodness of God was certainly to manifest itself for these ends; but it would do so to the full extent represented, only if they continued in his goodness. In the case of God’s threatenings, even when most particular and express,, it was always possible by a change of mind to the better to escape the evil; according to the word in Jeremiah: “At what instant I speak concerning a kingdom to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them” (Eze_18:7). And there is no reason why we should not expect the same rule to hold in respect to the promises. Here also there would be but a partial realization of what was announced, if the spiritual condition on which it proceeded was not complied with, and those to whom the promise was given set themselves to resist the grace of God, The possibility of their doing this is plainly implied in the accomplishment of the promise being so specially connected with their inquiring of God concerning it; and it was still more distinctly indicated in another passage, where they are commanded to do for themselves what the Lord here promised to do for them,—“make you a new heart and a new spirit” (Eze_18:31),as much as to say, Do not expect the good as an absolute and inalienable heritage of blessing; like all spiritual blessing, it stands inseparably connected with your own earnestness of purpose and diligence in working.
The question, no doubt, may still be asked, Since God himself undertakes to give to Israel as a people the new heart and the right spirit, on which all depends, how could there be any failure of what was promised without unfaithfulness in God? The question, however, touches on the secret things, which belong not to us, but to God himself. For it may as well be asked, Why is there only a partial renewal in the case of any individual Christian, seeing he has the Omnipotent Spirit dwelling in him? or, Why, since the Lord promised the Spirit to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, is the world still so imperfectly convinced? Had the Spirit continued to work universally, as he did on the day of Pentecost, or with sinners individually, as he did in the case of Saul of Tarsus, the world would long ere now have been converted to the truth of Christ. But somehow there are elements at work, and ends higher even than salvation, though closely connected with it, which still limit, though they cannot altogether prevent, the realization of the good unfolded in the promises. Were we to look simply to the good exhibited in these, we might have expected to see in Israel before the coming of Messiah a people all righteous, and a land replenished through all its bounds with fruitfulness and blessing; as after his coming we might equally have expected to find a Church instinct in every part with the Spirit of life and holiness, and ordinances of grace operating with resistless might to the diffusion of light and blessing in the world. But in both respects alike the good promised on the part of God is qualified by the evil that works in the world; and though the good must ultimately triumph because it has Omnipotence on its side, yet till the last issues of Providence are brought in, we may still expect it to be to some extent countervailed by the intermingling evil. So far, then, the matter admits of an explanation, and that of a kind fitted to abase and silence man, as it charges on his own culpable negligence and waywardness whatever shortcoming may appear in the good that is realized, as compared with the larger good that is promised. But when we rise to the higher region of Divine grace, sovereignty, and power, and begin to inquire why these operate no farther, or not otherwise than they do, we soon reach an insurmountable barrier; for with our present imperfect powers of discernment we have no way of explaining how the good that is in God, the good even that is expressed in his promises of blessing, should not prevail more effectually than it does over the evil that is in man. In this respect God gives no account of his matters; and remembering that we now see but in part, it becomes us to be silent, or to say only with our blessed Lord: “Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight.”