Ezekiel 36:16-38

Not for Israel's sake but for his own name's sake does Jehovah do all this in behalf of his people

The passage is remarkable and deserves to be studied almost more than any other part of Ezek. when one is seeking to understand his general conceptions. It exhibits his philosophy of history (cf. ch. 20), and also describes with great beauty the principles of Jehovah's redemption of his people, and how step by step this shall be accomplished. The prophet reviews the history of the people from the beginning, running it out till it is lost in its eternal issues, and shewing how it will read to all the nations of the earth the true lesson of that which Jehovah, the God of Israel, is, and leave ineffaceable impressions on the mind of his own people.

First, Ezekiel 36:16. The history with its significance up to Israel's final restoration. The people defiled the land with their idolatries and bloodshed (Ezekiel 36:17), therefore the fury of Jehovah was kindled and he poured it out upon them, scattering them among the nations (Ezekiel 36:18). By these disasters which the people brought upon themselves they "profaned" Jehovah's name among the heathen. The nations, ignorant of the nature of Jehovah, and incapable of divining the moral principles of his rule of the world and of his people, attributed the calamities of Israel to the feebleness of their God, who was unable to defend them, saying, these are the people of Jehovah, and they are gone forth out of his land. Thus the greatness and power of Jehovah, who is God alone, was detracted from, and the knowledge of him by the nations which he wills in all that he does to convey to them was delayed or frustrated (Ezekiel 36:20). Therefore for the sake of his holy name he will interpose and turn the fortunes of his people, that he may be sanctified in the eyes of the nations and known by them to be God omnipotent (Ezekiel 36:21, cf. Ezekiel 36:35).

Secondly, Ezekiel 36:24. The history of Jehovah's restoration of his people and their full redemption in its successive steps, with the eternal impressions which this history will engrave upon the people's minds. In the prophet's view Jehovah must vindicate himself in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of Israel, not because he is a mere tribal god who will do something for his people, but because he is God alone, and his manifestation of himself to the nations of the world is the goal towards which all history runs.

Jehovah "sanctifies" himself in the sight of the nations not only by convincing them of his power, but even more if possible by displaying his moral rule of his people (cf. Ezekiel 39:23-24), and by the spiritual regeneration which he works among them (Ezekiel 36:25 seq.). But though this great thought of Jehovah's revelation of himself in the sight of the nations be attractive to the prophet, having touched upon the redemption of Israel he becomes absorbed in these internal operations of Jehovah among his own people, which he pursues in all their details, and the wider thought of their influence on the heathen is not reverted to till Ezekiel 36:35. (1) Jehovah will take his people from the nations and bring them again to their own land (Ezekiel 36:24). (2) Then he will sprinkle clean water upon them and wash them from all their past impurities (Ezekiel 36:25). (3) He will also regenerate them, giving them a new heart and a new spirit, putting indeed his own spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:26). (4) In this spirit they shall walk in his statutes and judgments, and thus shall inherit the land for ever, which the Lord will greatly bless (Ezekiel 36:27). (5) Surrounded thus on all sides by the tokens of Jehovah's goodness, and looking at themselves and at their past doings with the new mind which the Lord will give them (Ezekiel 36:26), they shall loathe themselves because of all their former impurity and evil, for it is not for what they have been that Jehovah does this to them (Ezekiel 36:31). (6) Thus when Israel's captivity is brought back the nations shall learn the true meaning of their dispersion, and the nature of Jehovah their God, who disperses and restores (Ezekiel 36:33).