Restoration Of Israel

by NEELY, E. | Category: Getting To Know God Through Ezekiel | Oct 2007

Seventy years after the fall of Jerusalem the citizens of Israel would be released from captivity and in major movements under Zerubbabel, and later under Ezra, a small remnant return to their land. They would build walls, gates, temple, a priesthood, a nation. Lethargy and apostasy would dog their ambition to godliness (Mal.1:6-2:17). However, the nation would continue limping along in some sort of fashion until the Lord Jesus was born, lived, was rejected and crucified, taught the truths of the Kingdom for forty days and ascended back to His Father�s side. Rome had a firm grip on the nation by this time, and by A.D. 70 Titus had destroyed what was left of any meaningful temple worship and buildings, though Christ had previously condemned Israel to a Godless temple (Luke 13:35). But God is not finished with Israel by any means, and in spite of all her apostasy and disinterest, in a future day her Messiah will return to earth to take His rightful place over the nation (Zech.14:4). While other prophets such as Haggai encouraged them in building after the exile, Ezekiel joined with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah in looking still further forward to Israel's millennial glory. Ezekiel does this with very specific visions about temple, the priesthood, and the layout of the land. First, so that a remnant might fully grasp the grace and goodness of God, he iterates the past Israeli history that resulted in her exilic experience (36:16-21). Israel must be brought to realize that she alone was responsible for her sins and their punishment. Restoration is then described (36:24ff) and this leads into the vision of the valley of dry bones, replete with the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon the nation and all the magnificence of divine restoration and cleansing. Bloodshed and idolatry were the reasons given for Israel's impurity (36:17,18), and the extreme seriousness of Israel's sin was that her presence outside of the land that God had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, provided pollution to the name of the Lord. It looked as though God had been unable to protect them against the might of Babylon, and a common opinion amongst the nations, if not among the people of Israel themselves, was that God was weak and incapable. In this way, Israel profaned the name to which and by which they had been called (v.20).

How intensely solemn that even in our present day my personal actions and our collective activities either magnify or detract from the appreciated glory of the Almighty! Our lives are seen not only by our neighbours on earth, but by angelic and demonic powers in the heavens! Israel's restoration was to be completed, not by anything that she would be able to accomplish, but according to divine mercy. God had compassion for His holy name which Israel had profaned (vv.21-23,32). Just as Ezekiel had seen the glory of the Lord departing from the house and the land (Ez.11:14-21), that same glory would return (ch.43); Israel would once again be the head and not the tail and God would be glorified in her. His name would no longer be polluted among the nations (36:22,23). In that day Israel will be restored from all the nations. He will cleanse her from her past bloodshed and idolatry (Jer.33:6-26). Ezekiel 36:26,27 show that the Lord will remove the old heart of stone and give, instead, a heart of flesh, and a new spirit within them (Joel 2:28,29; Ez.37:14). To them God will give the land promised to Abraham (37:28; Gen.12:7). The New Covenant will not remove the Old, but will subsume it. The law will be written on their hearts (Jer.31:33). The land will produce to such an extent that she will know nothing of famine (Ez.34:29; Isa.35:1,2). Not only will Israel recognize the Lord's goodness to her, but all other nations will also (Ez.37:28). The vision of the valley of dry bones is not a separate vision, but all part of the same. The words, �And the word of the LORD came to me�, are not given here to introduce another thought as they so often are in Ezekiel. The order of God's dealing with them is the same as the order given in 36:22-27: position, then cleansing. Israel, united as seen in the vision of the united sticks, will remain in the land of Israel forever (Gen.17:8). Never again will Israel defile itself with idols (37:23); David, or David�s greater Son rather, will be their king (37:24); God's covenant of peace is guaranteed to them, and his sanctuary will be in their midst forever; God will be their God and they will be His people (37:27). Not only Israel, but all the nations will know that the Lord is the One who sanctifies Israel when His sanctuary is in their midst forever (37:28).

The interjection at this point of the invasion by, and victory over, Gog in chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel presents one of the great difficulties of the book that was mentioned earlier in this series. However, it should not detract from the lessons we can be sure of and can clearly apply. This matter will not be solved by papers in this series, if, in fact, the matter can be resolved before its eventual fulfilment. However, we can expose some of the difficulties that appear and suggest a possible answer. Whatever the result, God's people will be seriously attacked, perhaps more than once, for double fulfilment of Biblical prophecies is not at all unusual. The attack(s) will be repulsed by the Lord in ways obviously supernatural. All the world will know that God is judging; Israel will understand that the Lord is Israel's God (Ez.39:21,22).

The difficulties centre on the time of the attack and the times involved in burying the dead and burning the army's equipment, the trying to align the details with what is recorded in Rev.20:7ff, and the meaning of such expressions as Israel dwelling in security (38:8). There seems little point taking months and years to bury and burn if there is to be an immediate resurrection of all the dead for the Great White Throne judgement which is immediately to ensue, followed by the burning up of 2 Peter 3. Ezekiel 39:7, 22 declare that the Lord's name will not again be polluted after Gog is defeated.

This rules out pre-Tribulation timing or yet an attack that belongs to the middle or end of Daniel's 70th week, for there will be pollution then even in the temple of God (2 Thes.2:4). Some have postulated a transition period between the Tribulation and the beginning of the Millennium, a time that would allow for the years of burying the dead and burning the armaments (39:9,12) and this seems logical. However, this argument precludes the Revelation account and the Ezekiel account being one and the same. Rev.20 definitely occurs at the end of the millennium when Satan has been released from his thousand-year imprisonment. He then will call for the enemies of God to rise up from the ends of the earth and fight against Israel. If the names of Gog and Magog are simply symbolic for the enemies of God there seems little to suggest Ezekiel and John were prophesying concerning the same time period. Predatory animals and birds feasting on the slain (Ez.39:17; Rev.19:17): might well happen more than once. In any case, there seems no reason to confuse Armaggedon's battle with anything to do with Gog and Magog. Whatever the answer to these problems, and the Bible doesn't guarantee to answer problems that we imagine, God will defeat all enemies to Himself and His people. As long as Satan is free he will foment the type of trouble described in both cases. When Satan is eventually assigned to the Lake of Fire, eternal peace for God's own, will be fully realized. The present-day people of God are not involved in any of this turmoil, except possibly as onlookers at the judgement of Satan. We shall have long been glorified with the Lord Jesus.

What follows in Ezekiel 40 to 48 is the revelation of actual physical changes that are to be brought about in Israel during millennial days. Some competent commentators have assigned the last eight chapters of the book to the eternal state and have tried to relate similarities accordingly. Though there are similarities, for instance, each describe a river, the descriptions differ. The two cities are different sizes, the sea is a boundary in Ezekiel; while Revelation declares that there is no more sea, and so on. Rightly dividing the word of truth is as necessary in examining prophecy as it is discerning God's will in our present day. The Millennium is in a sense the preparation for the eternal state for Israel. It is not surprising, therefore, if there should be similarities between the two.

NEELY, E. | Oct 2007
Getting To Know God Through Ezekiel