Ezekiel 36:11,12

“And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they will increase and be fruitful, and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better than at your beginnings, and you will know that I am Yahweh. Yes I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel, and they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no more henceforth bereave them of children.”

As regularly in prophesy there is a nearer more literal fulfilment and a further fulfilment which is more in terms of idea. We have seen this, for example, with regard to the prophecies to the nations. There was the near literal fulfilment in terms of invasion and the later fulfilment in terms of the idea of final everlasting desolation (e.g. Ezekiel 26:7, which was completed in stages. Nebuchadnezzar humiliated Tyre, but he did not take the island fortress. That was left to Alexander the Great. And it was still later that it became a deserted place for the spreading of nets). The same applies here.

After the return of the exiles the land did gradually blossom and flourish, population and flocks and herds increased, things were even better than they had been before. Israel walked over the land (contrast Ezekiel 35:7) and they possessed it, and accepted it with gratitude as their inheritance. And the people rejoiced and thanked God and lived at peace (1Ma 14:4; 1Ma 14:8-15). But the further idea is of final blessing and rest, not for a thousand years, but forever. ‘You will no more henceforth bereave them of children.'

‘You will no more henceforth bereave them of children.' Some see this as the avoidance of bereavement that results from drought, famine and wild beasts, others see it as referring to death by enemy invasion, and this already then suggests the perfect land, but surely the prophet has gone into even more idealistic mode, and the idea is of an ideal land, a land where people do not die for any cause, (compare Isaiah 65:20 where the lifespan of all is an idealistic one hundred years. Ezekiel goes even further), a land truly of blessing, which we know will never be found in this world. It looks to the world beyond. It is Ezekiel's vision of immortality (compare Daniel 12:2).