Ezekiel 37 - Introduction

XXXVII.

This chapter consists of two distinct communications. In the first (Ezekiel 37:1) the prophet sees a vision, and is directed in consequence to utter a prophecy; in the second (Ezekiel 37:15) he is told to perform a symbolical act, and explain its meaning to the people. There is a close connection between the two, and also between the latter and the two following Chapter s. In Ezekiel 37:1, Ezekiel, in a vision, sees a plain full of bones and is directed to prophecy to them; in consequence of which they come together, are clothed with flesh, and become alive. In Ezekiel 37:11, the vision is expressly explained to mean that the children of Israel, in their scattered and apparently hopeless condition, shall yet be brought together again and restored to national life. The vision is not at all concerned with the future resurrection; and yet it may well be thought that the idea of this was familiar to the mind of the people, as otherwise the prophet would hardly have chosen such a simile.

The course of thought in the later prophecy and its connection with what follows will be explained in its place.

EXCURSUS F: ON CHAPTER 37.

So much has been said in the interpretation of this chapter of the high spiritual view which can alone explain these prophecies consistently with themselves, that it may be unnecessary to add anything further; yet as correct views upon this point are absolutely essential to the right understanding of the remaining parts of this book, and as much misapprehension exists in regard to them, it may be well very briefly to mention some of the reasons why it is impossible to understand the language of Ezekiel in regard to the future as referring only to the Israelites after the flesh, and to the land in which they once lived.

Every one who compares the general scope and purpose of the two dispensations must see that they are essentially one, that the end was foreseen from the beginning, and that the earlier was distinctly preparatory for the later. The “Gospel was preached before unto Abraham,” and then “the law was added because of transgressions, until the promised seed should come” (Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:19); and this preparatory character of the old dispensation, recognised even by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15, &c.), was more and more insisted upon by the prophets (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31; Haggai 2:6, &c.). At the same time, they describe the future continually by means of already familiar events in their history (see Isaiah 40-66 throughout, especially Isaiah 62, 63), even going to the extent of promising again the reign of David (Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24; Hosea 3:5), and the coming in the last days of the prophet Elijah (Malachi 4:5). These prophecies are repeatedly and expressly interpreted of Christ and His forerunner, while the promised “new covenant” is explained of the Christian dispensation; and the description of the wonders accompanying its introduction (Joel 2:28, &c.) is applied to the circumstances connected with the first promulgation of the Gospel (Acts 2:16, &c.). Moreover, it was from the first expected that the “seed of Abraham” should embrace far more than his descendants after the flesh, and the promise that he should be “the father of many nations” is shown by St. Paul to mean that all who embraced his faith should be recognised as his children (Romans 4:16); while the correlated promise, “To thy seed will I give this land,” is extended in the same connection (Romans 4:13) to a promise “that he should be the heir of the world.” When these facts are joined (1) with our Lord’s teaching that the types and shadows of the old economy were fulfilled in Himself; that the time had come when Jerusalem should no longer be the place where the Father should be worshipped (John 4:21); and (2) with the apostle’s declaration that all earthly distinctions between Jew and Greek, or of whatever other kind, are passed away: that “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed” (Galatians 3:28); and also (3) with the whole argument in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Aaronic priesthood culminated and was absorbed in the higher priesthood of Christ, and that the whole sacrificial and Temple arrangements of old were typical and temporary, and were superseded by the realities of the Christian dispensation — there seems no longer room for doubt that the Jewish Church and nationality are things of the past, and have been merged for ever in the Church of Christ. At the same time, it is never to be forgotten that the prophets foretold, and history has fulfilled, that “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22), and that the law should “go forth from Sion,” and the “new covenant” be made with God’s chosen people; for it is abundantly evident that our Lord, after the flesh, was a Jew, and all His immediate followers were Jews. His Church was cradled among them, and it was not until some years after it had entered upon its career for the salvation of the world that its doors were thrown open to the Gentiles.

If, however, it were still urged that, all this being admitted, many prophecies, and notably those of Ezekiel, still seem, over and above these things, to look forward to a future restoration of the Jews to their own land, in a condition of great prosperity and power, it must be replied that the above considerations of the absolute removal in Christ of all distinctions among those who believe in Him are inconsistent with the future revival of these distinction in His Church; and that even such an explicit prophecy of the restoration of the fallen “tabernacle of David” as is contained in Amos 9:11 is expressly applied by the apostles (Acts 15:16) to the union of Gentiles and Jews in the Christian Church.

Besides all this, in predicting the future under the figures of what has gone before, the prophets frequently foretell what would be contradictory if it were to be understood literally. Thus Zechariah (Zechariah 14:16) declares that all nations shall come up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles: an evident physical impossibility. So also there is continual mention of the restoration of animal sacrifices with acceptance to God, which is inconceivable in the light in which those sacrifices are viewed in the New Testament. The offering of the “one sacrifice for sins for ever” (Hebrews 10:12) by Him who was the Antitype of all sacrifice necessarily brought to an end the whole typical system.

Finally, it is to be considered that the very representations of the old prophets are sometimes repeated in the New Testament as a means of describing a state of things which no one would dream of interpreting literally. This is particularly noticeable in the present passage. Ezekiel has been describing a spiritual resurrection of the people (comp. John 5:21), and then goes on to foretell an assault by their enemies which shall be frustrated by the power of God (Ezekiel 38, 39). The same thing is foretold in Revelation 20: the power of evil is restrained for a time, and there is a resurrection of the believers in Christ, with a period of blessing and prosperity; then the enemies of God (under the very same names of Gog and Magog) are gathered to battle, and destroyed by the power of God; and finally, the Church of the future, the heavenly Jerusalem, is revealed in its power and glory, in much the same way as in this passage of Ezekiel.

It can scarcely be necessary to add that the figurative interpretation of these prophecies does not affect the important question in regard to the purpose of Divine Providence in the continued preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, and the intimations in regard to their future, given in the Epistle to the Romans and elsewhere. Whatever may be the future designed for Israel, the question here is simply, What was the instruction intended to be conveyed in this chapter? And the reasons above given seem sufficiently to indicate the interpretation adopted.