Ezekiel 39:25-29

IV. THE RESULTS OF COG'S DESTRUCTION

39:21-24

TRANSLATION

(21) And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see MY judgment that I have executed, and MY hand that I have set against them. (22) So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day and forward. (23) And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity because of their iniquity, because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them, and I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. (24) According to their uncleanness and their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid MY face from them.

COMMENTS

The overthrow of God would be regarded as a divine act revealing God's glory, judgment, hand (Ezekiel 39:21). Israel's faith would thereby be confirmed (Ezekiel 39:22). The nations at last would be convinced that Israel's captivity experience was not due to any lack of power on God's part. Rather the Lord had allowed them to suffer because they broke faith with Me. God hid His face from them, refusing to aid them against their enemies. As a result all of them,[476] i.e., a great number of them, fell by the sword (Ezekiel 39:23). Perversity on the part of the people, not powerlessness on the part of God was responsible for their abandonment by the Lord (Ezekiel 39:24).

[476] An example of Biblical hyperbole. Ezekiel has already made clear that the house of Israel went into captivity. He was himself one who had survived the slaughter of the sword.

V. CONSOLATION FOR THE EXILES 39:25-29

TRANSLATION

(25) Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will reverse the captivity of Jacob, and have compassion on all the house of Israel; and I will be zealous for My holy name. (26) And they shall bear all of their shame, and all their treachery which they have committed against Me, when they dwell upon their land safely, and none shall terrify them; (27) when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of the lands of their enemies, and I have been sanctified in them in the eyes of many nations. (28) And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, when I have caused them to go captive unto the nations, and then have gathered them unto their own land; and I will not leave any of them any more there; (29) nor will I hide any more My face from them; for I have poured out My spirit upon the house of Israel (oracle of the Lord GOD).

COMMENTS

The captivity was a time when God was hiding His face from His people. Using Ezekiel 39:23-24 as a transition, Ezekiel brings the focus back to his own time for the final movement of thought in this section. It was needful that the exiles in their distress see at the close of this far-reaching prophecy the first step in the long course of events leading to its fulfillment, because that step was one of special interest and comfort to them; but even this promise is mingled with predictions which still look on to the then distant future.

Previously Ezekiel had spoken of the promised restoration and the glory of Yahweh abiding with His people in their own land. In Chapter s 38-39 he has indicated that these promises would not go unnoticed nor unchallenged by other nations. Yahweh's presence would not preclude aggression against the Canaan of God. The difference Yahweh would now be with them rather than withdrawing from them as He had done in 587 B.C.

God's new positive relationship to His people would begin shortly. God would bring back the captivity of Jacob, i.e., reverse the fortunes of His people. The whole house of Israel, i.e., all the tribes, would experience the compassion of the Lord. God would be jealous or zealous for His name or reputation, and His reputation would be most enhanced by the prosperity of His worshipers (Ezekiel 39:25).

God was about to bring His people back from the lands of their enemies. This favorable treatment of Israel would cause God's name to be reverenced by many peoples (Ezekiel 39:27), In their homeland God's people would enjoy peace and security. Their sense of gratitude toward the Lord would make them keenly ashamed of their own former waywardness (Ezekiel 39:26). Gentiles would come to see that the Lord God reveals Himself in history; that He brought about the captivity of His people, and engineered their restoration to their homeland as well. Not one of His true people would be left in foreign lands (Ezekiel 39:28). No more would God hide His face from them, i.e., they would enjoy fellowship with God. This glorious state of affairs would exist in the age of the Holy Spirit when God has poured out His Spirit upon the house of Israel (Ezekiel 39:29). Already God had promised to pour out His Spirit on His people (Ezekiel 36:27; Ezekiel 37:14). Joel was the first prophet to make such a prediction (Joel 2:28), and after the time of Ezekiel that same promise was taken up by Zechariah (Zechariah 12:10).