It will not militate against may humble thoughts on the foregoing verses, to suppose, that the Lord is speaking here of his people and of the enemies of Israel in the former. The transition from one to another, and that suddenly made, is not uncommon in the sacred writings. The presumptuous boast of the enemies of God is strongly expressed. We have a similar passage, Exodus 15:9. There is a great beauty in the expression, unwalled villages, in allusion to the Lord's Israel. For the Church of Jesus, though the perfection of beauty, and joy of the whole earth, is in the eyes of the heathen, but a poor contemptible village. Is this Zion (say they) whom no man looked after, and none regarded? Nevertheless, Jerusalem though unwalled, and having no frontiers, no garrisons, no fortress, yet was in herself invulnerable, because the Lord himself was her wall of fire round about, and glory in the midst. Psalms 48:2; Isaiah 33:21-22. What is said in this passage, concerning Judea, as in the midst of the land; (or as the margin of our old Bibles very properly hath it, the navel of the land), may serve to teach us the vast propriety of the Lord Jesus making his appearance in substance of our flesh, when he came to redeem our nature in this centre of the world. For as all Geographers, both ancient and modern, have shown, the holy land is the navel, that is, the middle of the whole earth. Thus, therefore, by the Lord's appearing in the centre, it meant to show, that like the Sun at mid-day, whose rays of light extend in every direction, to illumine the whole hemisphere; so the Lord Jesus Christ, in his blessed influence, reached both East and West, and North, and South. The Reader of gracious views will, I am sure, forgive me if I add, that in a yet higher view we may consider the subject, and behold Christ as the centre or middle person of the Godhead, thus standing between the person of the Father, and of the Holy Ghost. For here Christ is as the land of unwalled villages, in whom his people rest; and to whom there is no obstruction to approach. He is indeed the centre of the whole Church on earth, and the centre of all glory in heaven, for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and his people, his Church, are complete in him, Colossians 2:9-10.
Ezekiel 38:10-13
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt thinkc an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely,d all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To takee a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?