Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
For I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel - the sure forerunner of their conversion (Joel 2:28; Zechariah 12:10). The pouring out of His Spirit is a pledge that He will hide His face no more (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14; Philippians 1:6).
Remarks:
(1) This chapter continues the vision respecting Gog. As the land of Israel shall be the scene of Gog's wicked attack on the people of God, so shall it be the scene of the awful punishment inflicted upon Gog, and of the deliverance of Israel (Ezekiel 39:2-5). How often God thus marks the retributive justice of His dealings (as in the case of Ahab's and Jezebel's obtaining possession of Naboth's vineyard, through false accusation, murder, and robbery), by visiting the transgressor with judgment on the very scene of his guilt! (1 Kings 21:19; 1 Kings 22:38; 2 Kings 9:21; 2 Kings 9:25-26; 2 Kings 9:36.)
(2) Those who shall abet Gog virtually, though not actively joining him in the invasion, shall be taught, by bitter experience, to know that their fancied security in their sea-girt or sea-washed and distant lands, is a self-deceit (Ezekiel 39:6): a fire from the Lord shall consume them, so that they shall know, to their cost, the God of power, whom they refused to know as the God of grace and love (Ezekiel 39:6). Self-confidence and careless living, under the mistaken notion of security, have proved the ruin of millions of immortal souls.
(3) Israel hereafter shall, by the special grace of God, be kept from dishonouring the holy name of their God by their sins and the consequent judgments which made the pagan think that Yahweh was unable or unwilling to save His people. How joyful is the prospect to the people of God, that the time is ere long coming when they shall be placed under the blessed necessity of uninterrupted obedience to God's will! Temptations from the flesh, the world, and Satan, which now harass them, shall then be at an end. Sin, which is now their greatest sorrow, because it most dishonours the name of their dear Lord, shall be no more: and the Lord "shall make known His holy name in the midst of His people," with such attractive power that He "will not let them pollute it anymore."
(4) No weapon that is formed against the people of God shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17). The "weapons" of the anti-Christian hosts or Gog shall be burnt utterly, so that not a fragment shall be left to defile the Holy Land. The robber shall be rewarded in kind, being robbed of his ill-gotten prey, and the spoiler shall be spoiled (Ezekiel 39:10). The people of God must not suffer any pollution to be contracted from aught that appertains to the ungodly. In the coming great day of the Lord, "the Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend," as well as all persons "who do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire" (Matthew 13:41-42). This shall be the happiness of the redeemed, that in their heavenly abode there shall be no person or thing remaining that could tempt to sin, such as there was in the first paradise.
(5) Where Gog shall expect to find a spoil and a possession (even as the type Edom sought to dispossess Israel of the Lord's inheritance, Ezekiel 35:10), he shall only find a grave; and that a grave near the sea that entombs his ancient prototypes, the fire-blasted cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 39:11). The publicity of this place of burial will arrest the attention of the many who pass that way. These shall recognize the righteous judgment of the Lord in the destruction of Gog, and shall assist in the cleansing of the land (Ezekiel 39:14-15): so that "the Lord God shall be glorified" (Ezekiel 39:13), and the laud shall be perfectly, purified, (Ezekiel 39:16). How often are the transgressor's deeply-laid plans brought to nothing in a moment, and the mischief which he prepares for others recoils on himself! Those who have experienced great deliverances should be thoroughly zealous in promoting a complete and radical reformation. Every man should render the utmost help he can toward furthering the good work. Sin, the polluted thing, needs to be searched out in its most secret recesses. Let not the casual passer-by think that he is exempt from the duty of exerting himself in word and deed for the glory of God and the good of the Church, anymore than the stationary dweller in his own home. All have their place and work to do: and it is only by general cooperation that the work of the Lord can be most completely effected.
(6) Not only the Israelite people and sojourners, but also all the "pagan shall see God's judgment that He shall execute, and His hand laid upon the enemy," so that thereby God shall "set His glory among the pagan" (Ezekiel 39:21). A terrible sacrificial feast that shall be which God shall provide in the flesh of the various ranks of the enemy for all fowls of the air and beasts of the field (Ezekiel 39:17-20). The anti-Christian enemies of God, by severing themselves from Him in their overweening pride, divested themselves of their true humanity, and sank to the level of the beast, whence Antichrist is called "the beast." It is therefore a just retribution that beasts should be in part the instruments of punishing their beastliness.
(7) The judgment inflicted on Antichrist, in defense of Israel, shall lead the people of God "from that day and forward" to know the Lord as "their God" (Ezekiel 39:22). The pagan, too, shall know that it was not from lack of power or will, on the part of God, to save Israel, but on account of the Israelites' iniquity, that they "went into captivity," God having "hidden His face" from them because of their trespasses (Ezekiel 39:23). The mercy which shall at last be shown by God to "the whole house of Israel," in His jealousy for the honour of His holy name, which is involved in His people's deliverance (Ezekiel 39:25), will melt them into a penitent sense of the enormity of their sin; and they shall be ashamed of the past when they shall dwell safely and without fear in their own land (Ezekiel 39:26). Repentance in the fullest sense flows from the experience of God's undeserved forgiveness and grace.
(8) It is the Spirit of the Lord which, when poured out, inclines the heart to appreciate aright God's marvelous grace, and so produces repentance. The same Spirit in the heart is also the earnest to assure the children of God that their now reconciled Father will "hide His face from them no more" (Ezekiel 39:29). May the promise of the full outpouring of the blessed Spirit in the latter days on both Israel and the Church be soon realized! And for this end, may the spirit of prayer more and more pervade all the professing disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ!