Ezekiel 36:37,38 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I will yet be inquired of by the house of Israel The house of Israel must, 1st, Pray for these blessings; for by prayer God is sought unto and inquired after. What is the matter of God's promises, must be the matter of our prayers. By asking for the mercy promised, we give glory to the donor, express our value of the gift, our own dependance upon God, and put honour upon prayer, upon which he has put honour. Christ himself must ask, and then God will give him the heathen for his inheritance; must pray the Father, and then he will send the Comforter; much more must we ask that we may receive. 2d, They must consult the oracles of God, for thus also God is sought unto and inquired after: the mercy must not be an act of providence only, but a child of promise; and therefore the promise must be looked at, and prayer made for it, with an eye of faith fixed upon it, which must be both the guide and the ground of our expectations. In both these ways we find Daniel inquiring of God, in the name of the house of Israel: then when God was about to do these great things for them, he consulted the oracles of God, for he understood by books, namely, the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, both what was to be expected, and when; and then he set his face to seek God by prayer, Daniel 9:2-3. As the holy flock, &c. Flocks designed for holy uses, as sacrifices, and therefore further described by the place where they were presented, namely, Jerusalem; in her solemn feasts The three great annual feasts. These flocks were for quality the best of all, and for numbers very great on these solemn occasions: see 2 Chronicles 35:7; and 1 Kings 8:63. Thus shall men multiply, and fill the cities of replanted Judah. And the increase of the numbers of a people is then honourable, when they are all dedicated to God as a holy flock, to be presented to him as living sacrifices. Crowds are a lovely sight in God's temple.