Ezekiel 28:25,26

V. THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL 28:25-26

TRANSLATION

(25) Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and I manifest My holiness in them in the eyes of the nations, then they shall dwell upon their land which I gave to My servant Jacob. (26) And they shall dwell safely upon it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell safely when I have executed judgments on all those who treated them with contempt round about them. Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

COMMENTS

In contrast to the bloody future of Sidon is the glorious future of God's people Israel. God will gather His people from the foreign lands to which they have been scattered. God's servant Jacob (a name for the nation Israel) would again dwell on the land God had given him (Ezekiel 28:25). With hostile neighbors removed, Israel would dwell in safety and give herself over to peaceful pursuits (Ezekiel 28:26). All that God does for Israel is done with one grand purpose in view, viz, that all the world might acknowledge Him as the one true and living God that He might be sanctified (reverenced, revered) in the eyes of the nations (Ezekiel 28:25-26). The wonderful thoughts embraced in the last verses of chapter 28 are developed at length in Chapter s 33-48.

As a footnote to the Tyre and Sidon oracles it may be pointed out that Jesus once passed through the region (Matthew 15:21), and probably, according to the best text of Mark 7:24, actually trod the streets of Sidon. Some of the great multitude which heard Him teach in Mark 3:8 came from these two Phoenician cities. Jesus remarked that it would be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for the faithless cities of Galilee (Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13). In this statement Jesus seems to be affirming that the day of judgment had not yet fully come to the two cities even though they had suffered much before His time. Jesus may be referring to the Roman campaigns in the region of Palestine in the latter part of the seventh decade A. D. Jerusalem was destroyed in that judgment; Tyre and Sidon survived.