As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts - the great flock of choice animals for sacrifice, brought up to Jerusalem at the three great yearly festivals, the Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles.
Remarks:
(1) The grand distinction between the people of God, as Israel, and the people of the world, as Edom is, whereas the latter are finally given over to destruction, the former are only chastened for a time, and shall be finally and completely delivered. The people of the world may now seem exalted to a great height; but their elevation is of a carnal and material kind, and is therefore transitory. The elevation of the Israel of God is spiritual, and therefore permanent. Her hills are "the everlasting hills" (Genesis 49:26). The mount Zion, as the seat of God's earthly throne, "cannot be removed, but abideth forever" (Psalms 125:1).
Therefore Edom's shout of triumph over the fallen Israel shall be turned into wailing for her own fall. She had greedily thought to take possession of the "ancient high places" of the people of God (Ezekiel 36:2). Nay, more, she had turned into derision the promise of perpetuity which God had given to His people, as though that promise was now proved to be abortive, and had sneered at Israel's connection with Yahweh, as though He were unable to save them. This it was which especially provoked God to "speak in the fire of His jealousy" against the godless enemy (Ezekiel 36:5), and in behalf of His people. As Israel "had borne the shame of the pagan" (Ezekiel 36:6), so should the pagan henceforth and forever "bear their own shame" (Ezekiel 36:7). When the believer is cast down in spirit, and hears himself and the cause of the Lord "taken up in the lips of talkers" (Ezekiel 36:3), who taunt him in his adversity, saying continually, "Where is thy God?" let him wait in patient confidence, and ere long he shall have ample cause to praise the God "who is the health of his countenance, and his God" (Psalms 42:3; Psalms 42:11).
(2) The Lord declares to the people of Israel; "Behold, I am for you" (Ezekiel 36:9). Since God is ultimately to be for them, no power can avail anything that is against them: God will "turn to" His people in mercy, and they shall at the same time turn to Him in repentance. The restoration to their own land is to be literal; and all things and all persons in the restored state of Israel are to share in the coming blessedness - "the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the desolate wastes, the houses, the cities, man and beast" (Ezekiel 36:4; Ezekiel 36:8; Ezekiel 36:10).
Thus, the Lord is about to "bless the latter end" of Israel, as that of Job 42:12, "more than her beginning" (Ezekiel 36:11). So in the case of the spiritual Israel, the true Church; she is now a little and despised flock, but she shall at last be "a multitude which no man can number" (Revelation 7:9); whereas the anti-Christian faction, and all the carnal, worldly, and unbelieving, who shall for a time seem to triumph over the Church of Christ (Revelation 11:7-11), shall perish awfully and everlastingly.
(3) Palestine has been from the earliest ages as it were the grave of its occupants: it was so to the ancient Canaanites, through intense wars and then by the sword of Israel; it was so to Israel because of the judgments of God on account of their apostasy; it has been for 18 centuries a down-trodden country (Ezekiel 36:12-13). It is hereafter to be so "no more" (Ezekiel 36:14-15). Let us not doubt that, as the Word of God has so far been accurately fulfilled, what remains shall also come to pass. Let us observe the signs of the times, and so discern what we ought to do accordingly.
(4) The reason for Israel's having been removed by God was because of her uncleanness, just as a woman legal uncleanness caused her to be separated from the congregation (Ezekiel 36:17). Gods holiness constrained Him to judge His people, who were guilty of idolatry and bloodshedding, "according to their way, and according to their doings" (Ezekiel 36:18-19). Then, in their dispersion among the pagan, they brought dishonour on the holy name of God (Ezekiel 36:20), not only by their oppressions, usuries, and adulteries, but also through their miserable condition, which was the judicial consequence of those sins. See, said the godless pagan these wretched beings are the people of Yahweh, and "are gone forth out of His land!" (Ezekiel 36:20.) Such are the specimens to show what kind of a God this so-called holy, covenant-keeping, and omnipotent Yahweh is! Who would worship such a God? Lot the children of God remember that they are the representatives of the honour of God before the world. Let them therefore be scrupulously watchful over their whole conduct, bearing, and temper, so as to give no handle to the enemies of God to blaspheme.
(5) The dishonour put on the name of God, in the person of His exiled people Israel, by the pagan, was the primary moving cause which led Him to restore the Jews from Babylon (Ezekiel 36:21-22). So shall the same regard for the honour of His own holy name again lead him to gather the Jews out of all the Gentile countries wherein they are now dispersed, and to restore them to their own land (Ezekiel 36:23-24). It is not for any merit which God sees in His people that He has pity on them; for if God weighed their merits, there could be nothing in them to recommend, them to His favour (Ezekiel 36:22); but it is in consideration of His own holy name and character as the God of covenanted grace (Ezekiel 36:21), that so He may vindicate its sanctity before the nations from the reproach brought on it through the sins and the terrible punishment of the covenant-people (Ezekiel 36:23). Let us hence learn that the honour of His own holy name is the first grand end of all God's dealings of wrath and of mercy. Let us fall in with the purpose of God, and make the honour of His name our chief plea in our prayers for mercy, and our influencing motive in all our acts.
(6) The external restoration of Israel to their own land is to be accompanied or followed by an internal and spiritual restoration through repentance and conversion. Mere change of men's position avails little, without change also of disposition. The heart must be renewed, in order that there may be a real and lasting change for the better. God Himself engages to effect this change. If He commands Israel, "Make you a new heart and a new spirit" (Ezekiel 18:31), He also promises to give the power to do that which Israel could not do of herself: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh," etc. (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
Thus the Gentiles, understanding from the regenerated lives of God's people how holy God is, will perceive Israel's past troubles to have been only the necessary vindication of His righteousness; and thereby the name of God shall be sanctified among the nations. The same effect is produced on the world by the consistent walk of truly regenerated Christians: even the unbelieving are constrained to say, God is in you of a truth (1 Corinthians 14:25). The blood of Christ must sprinkle the heart from an evil conscience, in order that any of us may be clean before God (Ezekiel 36:25; Hebrews 10:22). It is the office of the Holy Spirit, which is often compared to pure waters, to apply the blood of the Saviour to the cleansing of the sinner. Then the stony, unimpressible heart gives place to a humble, tender, and teachable heart (Ezekiel 36:26). Covetousness, ambition, and love of "all" earthly "idols," with all other "filthiness" are thus "cleansed" from us; and we henceforth "delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22), to do its statutes (Ezekiel 36:27). Renewing grace effects as great a change in the soul as if a dead stone were turned into living flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). They who were not the Lord's people become the people of God (Ezekiel 36:28). They are "saved from all their uncleannesses" first, and then outward mercies follow. God, who formerly called a famine upon the land of Israel (Psalms 105:16), shall "call for the corn" (Ezekiel 36:29) which comes at His command, as a servant would come at a master's call.
(7) The result of the Lord's marvelous grace to Israel at last, so little to be looked for, considering their provocations, shall be, they shall remember their own evil ways and doings with loathing (Ezekiel 36:31), and shall perceive, with shame and self-condemnation, that it is not for their merits, but for His own name's sake, that God shows such gratuitous mercy (Ezekiel 36:32). Nothing so melts the sinner rate repentance as the love and grace of God, where He could only have looked for wrath because of his sins. Let us, if we desire true repentance, receive it as the gift of God at the foot of the cross of Christ, where we see our sin forgiven at the cost of such an awful sacrifice, flowing from the gratuitous love of God. The terrors of the law can frighten, but the grace of God in Christ alone can melt the heart.
(8) The Gentiles who have made the desolation of Israel a reproach against Yahweh Himself (Ezekiel 36:20), shall acknowledge the more than restored blessedness of Israel to be the work of God, and shall thereby be brought to know Him who hath changed the desolate land of Palestine into the garden of Eden (Ezekiel 36:34-36). And all these glorious results shall follow upon the prayers of His people, which He will previously stir them up to offer. When God purposes to bestow the richest blessings, He first of all stirs up His people to pray for them, and to plead His own promises as the ground of their petitions. He even now saith to the spiritual Israel, "I will yet for this be inquired of by my people, to do it for them" (Ezekiel 36:37). May He pour the Spirit of grace and supplications on His universal Church, and so prepare her for receiving floods of blessing from on high!