As the holy flock— The sheep and the lambs designed for the sacrifice at the three solemn festivals was very numerous, and at the same time the best of their kind. This also refers to Gospel-grace and blessings: and this whole prophesy will be fully accomplished at the general conversion and final restoration of the Jews.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The land of Israel was now desolate and depopulated; but God still thought upon the dust thereof. We have,
1. His compassionate regard towards this miserable country. It was become a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen. Their neighbours insulted them, and every tongue was ready to spread their infamy, to upbraid them with their sins, and mock at their suffering; while the nations around them, the residue, who had survived the judgments threatened, chap. Ezekiel 25-26; each seized that part of Judaea which bordered upon their own country, as their prey.
2. His jealousy for his believing people. Because with spiteful joy their enemies exulted in their miseries, and with daring intrusion entered the inheritance of the Lord, he hath spoken in the fire of his jealousy, and in his fury, that he will severely avenge their wrongs, and cover with shame and confusion these inveterate and malicious foes. Note; They who make God's people the subject of derision, will shortly be themselves exposed to everlasting shame and contempt.
3. God gives his believing people assurance of a happy restoration, and plenty of all good things in their own land; and the time is at hand. The mountains shall yield abundant fruit; though now uncultivated, they shall be tilled and sown; the cities that lie in ruins shall be replenished with inhabitants, and all the house of Israel, even all of it, not the two tribes only, but the ten tribes who went before into captivity, shall settle on their old estates, and see their flocks and herds multiplying under the divine blessing; and God will do better for them than at their beginnings; particularly with regard to the spiritual blessings bestowed in the days of the Messiah. Then should the mountains again become the abode of men, instead of wild beasts which had dwelt therein; the idolatries committed in them should cease, nor provoke God any more to bereave them of inhabitants; and the reproach which had been laid on the mountains of Israel by the heathen, as if they had devoured all who dwelt in them, shall for ever be at an end. Probably this prophesy looks to future times; and whatever fulfilment it received in the return of the Jews from Babylon, the perfect accomplishment of it is yet to come.
2nd, The chief end that God proposes is, the advancement of his own glory.
1. They had, indeed, forfeited all title to favour. By their sins they had dishonoured God, and defiled the land: so totally corrupted were they, that every thing they touched became in some sense unclean. Murder and idolatry marked their way, and provoked God to pour out his fury upon them, and to scatter them for their abominations into heathen lands. Yet even there all their sufferings were still ineffectual; they sinned yet more, and gave the adversaries of the Lord occasion to blaspheme. Their wicked lives brought a scandal on that name which they professed to reverence and serve, and the very heathen treated them with scorn. These are the people of the Lord: they mocked at their pretended relation to him; their conduct gave the lie to their professions; or it implied an insult on their God, as if, notwithstanding all the Jewish boasts, he were unable to save them from the hand of their enemies. Note; The sins of professors are the greatest scandal to religion, and give just occasion to the adversaries of the Lord to blaspheme: but woe unto him by whom the offence cometh!
2. God will glorify his great name and the riches of his grace in their deliverance. They had no reason to expect any thing from him but wrath to the uttermost, their provocations were so aggravated; but then the heathen would blaspheme the more: therefore, not for their sake, but for his own glory, he will interpose, and gather them from among the nations, and bring them to their own land.
3rdly, Whatever accomplishment this prophesy had in the return of the Jewish people from captivity when they were for ever cured of all inclination to idolatry, it seems to have a more especial regard to Gospel times. We have,
1. Many great and precious promises given to God's faithful people. [1.] God will cleanse them from all their sins, by the blood of sprinkling removing their guilt, and by the efficacy of his grace delivering them from the power of their iniquities. [2.] He will give them a new heart, a heart changed by his divine energy from its former state of corruption, hardness, and unbelief; another spirit shall influence and guide them; the stony heart, insensible and obdurate, shall be taken away, and in its stead a heart of flesh shall be given them, tender and susceptible of every gracious impression. [3.] Having made new their hearts, he will make straight paths for their feet, and enable them to walk therein. [4.] He will take them into covenant with himself: Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. [5.] He will give them plenty of all such good things as they need; particularly, what the Jews counted the greatest earthly blessing, they shall return to their own land; have abundance of corn and fruit; shall know no more famine as before; nor be reproached by the heathen, as forced to seek their bread from other countries; when, to the wonder and surprise of the surrounding nations, the land of Judaea, lately so desolate, shall be tilled, and become like the garden of Eden for fruitfulness; and the cities in ruins shall be fortified, and replenished with inhabitants. So soon can God's blessing make a barren land fruitful, as his curse makes the most fruitful land barren.
Many interpreters suppose, that all these promises are yet to receive their accomplishment in the latter day, in the recovery of the Jews from their present state of dispersion.
2. The effect of God's rich grace extended to them would be the unfeigned repentance of multitudes. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Nothing brings the soul so soon to true humiliation, and to such a sense of the baseness and ingratitude of sin, as a view of God's pardoning love: then we begin indeed to loath ourselves; sin appears the abominable thing that God hates, and therefore we hate it too: every remembrance of the past covers us with genuine shame; and, though God hath forgiven us, we can never forgive ourselves for having ever offended a God so gracious.
3. God intends his own glory in what he does for them, they being utterly unworthy of the least regard; yet, though it is a matter of pure grace, he expects that they shall seek it in the way of prayer, and be confounded for their former evil ways; and he will give the answer of mercy, increasing them as a flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, immense numbers of sheep being driven on these occasions to Jerusalem for sacrifice, and vast multitudes of worshippers assembled in the courts of the Lord's house; so numerous and populous should their desolate land and cities become; since he hath spoken it, the accomplishment is sure. Note; (1.) Salvation is of grace; our righteousness and deserts are utterly excluded in regard to merit: God alone must be exalted in mercy. (2.) God's promises do not supersede, but encourage our prayers. They who restrain prayer before God, sin against their own mercies.