Certain prophecies of Ezekiel are sometimes cited as lending support to the idea of the future re-constitution and earthly dominion of the Jewish nation. But on the contrary, they contain many clear warnings of judgments to come upon the house of Israel and the city of Jerusalem; and they also contain predictions--not so clear perhaps as threatened judgments, because they are capable, like other O. T. prophecies, of being interpreted according to the desires of the carnal Jewish mind--concerning the recovery that was to be accomplished through the work of the coming Redeemer.

      It must be borne in mind, while studying O. T. prophecies which relate to the future of the Jewish people, that we have a sure guide as to their interpretation in the way such prophecies are applied in the N. T., especially by Paul. And specifically, we have these guiding facts: first, that all the prophecies of mercy to that people that are cited in the N. T. are declared to have their fulfilment in this present era of the Holy Spirit. For "all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after--have likewise [i. e. like Moses, who had been mentioned previously] foretold of these days" (Ac. 3:24), there being never an instance where the fulfilment is assigned to a future [103] dispensation; and second, that in the N. T. all promises of future blessing for the Jews are applied to the true Israel, it being declared that "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; . . . but he is a Jew who is one inwardly" (Rom. 2:28, 29), and that "we [Christians] are the circumcision" (Phil. 3:3).

      It is very easy indeed, for it requires no searching of the Scriptures, or effort of the mind, or spiritual discernment, to say of every prophecy, concerning the Jews that it must be taken "literally," that it has not yet been fulfilled, and that it will be fulfilled to "Israel after the flesh" in a coming dispensation. Those who habitually deal with O. T. prophecies after this fashion, find the millennium a convenient, and indeed an indispensable, receptacle for all passages whose meaning does not lie on the surface. On the other hand, it generally requires both patient effort, and also real spiritual understanding, to explain a prophecy according to the intent thereof, and according to the true spiritual significance of the symbols and figures employed therein.

      Keeping these facts in mind, let us now take a rapid survey of those prophecies of Ezekiel that have a bearing upon the subject of our present inquiry.

      In chapter XIV God declares through the prophet the four sore judgments (the sword, the famine, the noisome beast and the pestilence) He purposed to bring upon Jerusalem, "to cut off from it man and beast" (v. 21). But some of its inhabitants were to be saved. For He goes on to say: "Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters" (v. 22).

      Inasmuch as Isaiah had previously foretold the salvation of "a remnant" at the time when God's [104] judgments should fall upon Israel and Jerusalem, and as Paul had explained that Isaiah's prophecy referred to those who were to be saved through the gospel, this part of Ezekiel's prophecy is quite clear.

      In chap. XV, God foreshows the complete rejection of Jerusalem, under the figure of the branches of a vine, which, when broken off, are fit only for the fire (cf. John 15:6). There is no hint of mercy or of recovery in this chapter.

      In chap. XVI, the sins of Jerusalem are denounced as worse that those of Sodom and Samaria; for God addresses Jerusalem, saying, "As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister   *     *   hath not done as thou hast done.   *     *   Neither hath Samaria committed half thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they all" (vv. 48-51). And then He pronounces the irremediable doom of Jerusalem, saying: "When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then I will bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them" (v. 53). And, "When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate."

      Manifestly this is just a strong way of saying that the overthrow of Jerusalem was to be forever; since the cities of the plain, and the northern kingdom, of which Samaria was the capital city, had been completely obliterated. God had already said to the people of Israel through Moses that their overthrow would be "like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah . . . which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath" (Deut. 29:23). In fact, Sodom and Gomorrah are [105] in Scripture the very type of complete and irrecoverable overthrow (See Isa. 1:8, 9; Jer. 49:18; 50:40; Matt. 11:23). And God had said through Hosea, concerning the northern kingdom (Samaria), that He would "cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel," and would "no more have mercy on the house of Israel" (Hos. 1:4, 6).

      And now God concludes His threat of judgment upon Jerusalem by saying: "For thus saith the Lord God; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant" (v. 59).

      So there was to be a complete breach of the covenant, that had subsisted between God and the earthly Jerusalem. And will God ever mend or renew that broken covenant, and rehabilitate that doomed city and nation? Some of our modern Bible teachers say He will; and, strangely enough, they cite this very prophecy in support of that idea. But the prophecy itself goes on to declare, as Jeremiah had already foretold, that God would work out His purposes under a new and "an everlasting covenant"; and that He would give to the Jerusalem of that coming day those who should be saved out of Sodom and Samaria (so to speak) "but not by thy covenant" (vv. 60, 61).

      It is easily to be seen, in the light of the New Testament Scriptures, and of the way O. T. prophecies are interpreted by Christ and Peter and Paul, that this latter part of Chap. XVI is a foretelling of the work of the gospel, which was to be proclaimed "to the Jew first," and which would have the effect of separating the true "Israel" (Rom. 9:6) from the mass of the apostate nation. The words are: "Nevertheless, I will [106] remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant" (v. 60). And agreeably to this Paul declares that "as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake" (Rom. 11:28). Thus does God remember His covenant with that nation in the days of its youth, by preaching to them first, of all the peoples of the earth, the unspeakable blessings of the new covenant."

      Chapter XVII foretells, in the form of a parable, God's coming judgments upon "the rebellious house" (v. 12); and it closes with a promise of Christ's coming as a "Branch," to be planted "in the mountain of the height of Israel." As this is clearly a promise concerning this gospel era (cf. Isa. 11:1; 2:2, Zech. 3:8, 9; and like passages), it supplies us with a further indication that the prophets were always looking to "these days" (Acts 3:24) when they foresaw mercies in the future for the people of Israel.

      Chapter XX contains a withering indictment of the nation of Israel for its persistent sins and rebellions, first in Egypt (5-9), secondly in the wilderness (10-27), and thirdly in the land of Canaan (28-32). Therefore God says, "I will purge you out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me" (v. 38). This chapter also closes with a view of the true Israel on God's "holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel" (v. 40); which corresponds with "the heavenly places" mentioned in the Epistle to the Ephesians.

      Chapters XXI, XXII, XXIII foretell further judgments that were to fall upon Jerusalem, and give details of the general corruption of priests, prophets and people; and chapter XXIV again foretells the approaching "woe to the bloody city." [107]

      Chapters XXV-XXXIII are occupied with prophecies of judgments that were to come upon various nations, Tyre, Egypt, Babylon, etc.

      Chapter 28, verse 25 contains the following promise:

      "Thus saith the LORD GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen in their land; and they shall dwell safely therein"--etc.

      This promise might have been fulfilled to them in a material sense after their return from the Babylonian captivity; but inasmuch as they did not meet the stipulated condition--for God was not "sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen in their land"--the promise was forfeited.

      Chapter XXXIV contains one of the clearest of the O. T. prophecies of the coming of the Saviour. The chapter begins with Jehovah's reproof of the shepherds of Israel, because they had shamefully neglected His sheep--not healing the sick, or bringing again that which was driven away, or binding up that which was broken, or seeking that which was lost. "My flock," says He, "was scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search or seek after them" (v. 6). What then is the promise of God in view of that state of things? Will God re-establish the nation in the land of Palestine in prosperity exceeding the palmiest days of David and Solomon? So say the teachers of modern dispensationalism; whose leading authority puts it thus: "When Christ appeared to the Jewish people, the next thing in the order of revelation as it then stood should have been the setting up of the Davidic kingdom." [108]

      But what says the Lord God through His servant, Ezekiel? Hearken to this: "For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep and will deliver them . . . and I will feed them in a good pasture . . I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away; and will bind up that which was broken, and strengthen that which was sick" (vv. 11-16).

      Our Lord Himself has declared the fulfilment of this prophecy in one of the best known chapters in the Bible, John X. For our present purpose we need only recall these familiar words: "I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." "I am the door; by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."

      Beyond dispute, therefore, Ezekiel XXXIV is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ to seek His own sheep, to lead them out from the mass of the apostate Jewish nation, to die for them, and in resurrection to be their "Prince," their "David," who is here, as elsewhere, a type of "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords" (I Tim. 6:15). Peter declared the fulfilment of this part of Ezekiel's prophecy when he confronted the sanhedrim at Jerusalem with the statement that God had exalted Jesus, whom they had slain, to be "a Prince and a saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).

      This chapter (Ezek. XXXIV) has always been regarded, I believe, until very recent times, as a prophecy of Christ and His spiritual kingdom. [109]

      Likewise the prophecy of chapter 36:21-38 is a foretelling of the present era; for the blessings of the New Covenant are distinctly foretold. The first step in the fulfilment of this prophecy was the return from Babylon (v. 24); then the preaching of Christ (v. 25, cf. John 15:3 and Heb. 10:22); then the gift of the Holy Spirit (vv. 26, 27, cf. John 20:22). We have seen that His disciples are the true "Israel" and their land ("the heavenly places") is the true "Zion."

      In chapter XXXVI God promises that He will gather His people out of all countries, will bring them into their own land, will sprinkle clean water upon them; will cleanse them from all their filthiness; will put a new heart and a new spirit within them, and will put His Spirit in them (vv. 24-27). Manifestly these are promises of gospel-blessings, with which God has now blessed His people in heavenly places--the true Zion, "their own land." For He gives them a new heart and a new spirit; with the blood of Christ He cleanses them from all sin; and He puts His own Holy Spirit in them. We have seen that the land God gave their fathers, and which they were looking for, was "a better country, even an heavenly" (Heb. 11:16; 12:22).

      Here the same prophecy of salvation to the true Israel, the sheep who knows their Shepherd's voice, is given in the form of an allegorical vision. The Spirit of Jehovah transports the prophet from Jerusalem and sets him down in a low lying place, a "valley" which was full of bones. "And" says the prophet, "He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?" (v. 3).

      This question gives the clue to the significance of the vision. God is bringing to mind that He is the God [110] of Abraham, who quickens the dead (Rom. 4:17). That valley represents the dominion of sin and death (Rom. VI), and the dry bones represent the state by nature of all the Israel of God; for we were all "dead in trespasses and sin" ere He "quickened us together with Christ" (Eph. 2:1, 5). This was the condition of the whole "commonwealth of Israel" (Eph. 2:12).

      By this prophecy God makes known that He would employ, in the mighty work of regeneration and recreation, the same agencies He used in the old creation--the Word ("prophecy to these bones") and the Spirit ("Breath"); for the salvation of all those who compose "the Israel of God," that "holy nation," is effected by the word of the gospel, preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven (I Peter 1:12).

      The chapter foretells the gospel era beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist (who prophesied unto the dry bones of Israel). In verse 4 mention is made of the Word and in verse 9 of the Spirit. In verse 11 is foreseen "the whole house of Israel" (the true Israel), a people quickened together with Christ, baptized into His death, and made partakers of His resurrection (See John 5:25; Eph. 1:1-4; 2:5-6).

      Historically, in the fulfilment of this wonderful prophecy, "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son"--not to set up the Davidic kingdom, for which the Jews were looking, but--"to redeem them that were under the law"--Jews (Gal. 4:4); and He spake unto them the word of life (prophesied unto the bones), the result being that there was a great stir among the Jews, "a shaking" of the bones; and that a company was formed; the bones coming together "bone to his bone." But there was as yet no live body (v. 7). But at Pentecost there came the [111] mighty Breath of God. God began then to breathe upon those who had been dead in their sins; and they lived, and "stood upon their feet." And the work begun that day has been going on ever since, until the company of the regenerated ones has become "an exceeding great army," an innumerable multitude (Rev. 7:9).

      It is not to be wondered at that the Jewish rabbis should have interpreted this vision as a prophecy of the revival of their nation; for they were grossly carnal in their thoughts (God's thoughts were not their thoughts, Isa. 55:8), and they were, moreover, narrowly selfish and exclusive as regards their expectations of Divine blessing. And furthermore, they were ignorant of the "mystery" of the true "Israel" (Eph. 2:12, 13; 3:1-6), namely, "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ, by (means of) the gospel."

      But it is a cause of wonderment that any of those to whom that "mystery" has been revealed, and who have learned moreover, how the O. T. prophecies are fulfilled in these days of the Holy Spirit's presence on earth, should discard what has been the accepted Christian interpretation of the prophecies for nineteen centuries, in favor of that held by those "blind leaders of the blind," whose leadership brought about the ruin of the Jewish nation. [112]

[THOI 103-112]