Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went.
God speaks here to people already in exile, scattered for their sin. Their ruin had shamed His name among the nations, and that name — not their record — is the reason He gives for restoring them.
The chapter first says why Israel lost the land and went into exile. One writer traces the charge from their conduct at home to their disgrace abroad:
Such was Israel's way in the land and out of it. Everywhere they were a shame to Him who chose them as His own. In Canaan there was idolatrous corruption and murderous violence; among the nations they profaned His name. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and He does not change: therefore they were not consumed. Instead, He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.
The exiles did not need to speak against God to dishonour Him. Their state among the nations did it for them. One writer presses the same charge against the Jew who boasted in the law:
By his own account, his boasted knowledge of the law brought him no saving power. It only supplied fuel for his proud misuse of it and his contempt of others. Who, then, dishonoured God more openly? Was it not written even more strongly in their own prophets? What did Isaiah say (Isa. 52:5)? And what did Ezekiel say (Ezek. 36:20-23)? No doubt their foreign masters made them cry out under it. But was it not true that Israel profaned Jehovah's holy name among the nations wherever they went?
The phrase rules out every claim Israel might have made. Had God treated them by their record, there would have been no nation left:
Israel will then be restored to the land because of God's sovereign goodness. Had He dealt with them according to their sins, they must have perished. Over and over again, in their long history, they have deserved the unsparing judgment of God. But their blessing rested on His promises to Abraham and on His own counsels of love. It was bound up with the honour of His Name. So time and again, when He might have consumed them, He spared them, to vindicate the honour of His great and holy Name.
Verse 32 repeats the point and adds a command to feel it. One writer sets that alongside the promised inward change:
But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can, for His own sake, do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen… "I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake" (v. 22). "Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord God, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel" (v. 32).
Acting for His own name does not leave His people out:
God is jealous of His holy name; He acts to vindicate it, and in this His people get their full blessing. How gloriously redemption accomplishes both — His glory and our blessing. And so with Israel in that day. But living safely as a regathered people will only give them a deeper sense of their shame and wrongdoing. The grace that restores and blesses writes our failure on the heart more deeply than the rod of judgment does.
The promise does not stop at bringing people home. Commentators note that the same passage guarantees an inward work, and that this rules out treating the return from Babylon as the fulfilment:
Was the Jew — not to speak of Israel — then cleansed from all his filthiness? Malachi tells a different tale; and so in fact did our Lord prove in person. Here, when fulfilled, we have no less a blessing promised than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in holy obedience — they His people, and He their God.
Another writer ties this promise to Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel:
The Lord shows what Nicodemus ought to have known. Even for the earthly promises the testimony of God was clear: Israel had to be born again, born of water and of the Spirit.
The same ground holds for everyone God blesses:
In sovereign goodness He has blessed us. It was not because of anything in ourselves, or because of anything that we have done. We were only sinners, alienated from God, and enemies by wicked works. We know that He has forgiven our sins, and as it is written in 1 John 2:12, it is "for His Name's sake."
- Name dishonoured. At home Israel shamed God's name by idolatry and violence. Among the nations they profaned it again.
- Name pitied. God did not consume them, because He had pity for the name they had outraged — He does not change.
- Name, not merit. Had He dealt with them by their sins, they must have perished. Their blessing rested on His promises and His own counsels of love.
- Name vindicated. He acts to clear His own name. In that same act His people receive their full blessing — His glory and their good together.
- Name applied. The promise runs on to a new heart, a new spirit and His Spirit within — what Jesus told Nicodemus he should already have known, and what believers now receive, forgiven "for His Name's sake."
And I will hallow my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I [am] Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be hallowed in you before their eyes.
God scattered Israel for its sins. But the scattering became a scandal. The nations looked at the exiles and drew their own conclusions about Israel's God. This verse answers that scandal. God will act — not to reward His people, but to clear the honour of His own name, with the whole world watching.
The chapter first shows how the damage happened. Inside the land and outside it, the people who carried God's name made that name look small.
That was Israel's way in the land and out of it. Everywhere they were a shame to Him who chose them as His own: corruption through idols and murderous violence in Canaan, and the profaning of His name among the nations. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and He does not change, so they were not consumed. Instead, He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.
God first says what His reason is not. That rules out any thought that Israel had earned the change. What kept them alive was the honour of the name they had disgraced.
God will then bring Israel back to the land, out of His own sovereign goodness. Had He dealt with them according to their sins, they must have perished. Again and again through their long history they have deserved God's unsparing judgment. But their blessing rested on His promises to Abraham and on His own counsels of love, and it was bound up with the honour of His Name. So time and again, when He might have consumed them, He spared them, to vindicate the honour of His great and holy Name.
Older translations read "I will sanctify my great name" where the ESV says "vindicate the holiness of my great name"; both mean God will show that name to be holy. He does not do it by wiping out the offenders. The verses that follow spell out His method, and it is a series of gifts.
But Jehovah would step in and sanctify His great name before the nations. He would do it by bringing His people back from among them and cleansing them from all their filthiness. He would take away the hardness of their hearts, give them His Spirit, and cause them to walk in His statutes. He would plant them in the land which He had given to their fathers, own them as His people, and be Himself their God.
God works in them, not just for them.
The Lord could do no more for Israel. Even so, He can do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself, and He does it for His own sake.
The promise looks outward. It reaches past Israel to the nations.
I will take you from the nations (this is how that mighty, world-wide impression comes about) and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land… Testimonies like these put it beyond question. Israel's restoration will have one great moral effect on all nations: Jehovah, the one true God, will become known everywhere.
The return from exile under Cyrus did not fulfil this promise. What God promises here is far bigger than what happened then.
The return from Babylon was no fulfilment, but at most a foretaste. Only a small remnant came back. Ezra 9 does not take the same ground, and does not claim to be what the faithful were waiting for; neither does Nehemiah 9. The one speaks of "our bondage," the other of being "servants this day"… How far this falls short of what Ezekiel promises should need no argument. The mass of Israel remained scattered up and down the nations after the decree of Cyrus.
The same charge comes up again in the New Testament, and it reaches past Israel.
It all comes down to one solemn statement. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the religious man. The Apostle is speaking of the Jew, but what he says is just as true of the professing Christian. Unbelievers have blasphemed mainly because of the corrupt and degraded ways of those who claim the Christian name. Men would not have turned Christian just because Christians lived consistently. But if Christians lived up to what they claim, men would have no reason to blaspheme God.
- Profaned. The very people who carried God's name dragged it down — at home through idolatry and violence, abroad through their ruin.
- Pitied. God did not act because Israel deserved it. He had pity on His own outraged name, and that name kept them alive.
- Purified. He clears His name by cleansing, not by destroying: a new heart, His Spirit, and a people brought home.
- Published. God works in Israel "before their eyes," so that all nations come to know the one true God.
- Pending. The return from Babylon was at most a foretaste. The full sanctifying of the name is still ahead. Meanwhile the same warning lands on anyone who bears God's name today.
And I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
God promises to gather a scattered people out of every country and bring them back to the land He gave their fathers. Three questions follow. Why does He do it? When does it happen? And what must change inside the people before the land can bless them?
The verses just before this one strip away any thought that Israel earned the return. Their scattering had shamed God's name among the nations. One writer roots the promise in God's unchanging character, not in anything the people had done.
Such was Israel's way in the land and out of it — everywhere a shame to Him who chose them as His own: idolatrous corruption and murderous violence in Canaan, and profaning His name among the nations. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and He does not change; therefore they were not destroyed. Rather, He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.
Notice who does the acting in this verse. God takes, God gathers, God brings. The same pattern runs through the whole paragraph, and one commentator counts it.
From here to the end of the book, everything is still unfulfilled. It cannot be fulfilled until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again and takes the throne as King… The characteristic words in verses 23-28 are the words "I will do." It is the word of sovereign grace. Eighteen times Jehovah says what He will do. They are the "I wills" of Israel's hope and coming glory.
Some read this as already done when the Persian king Cyrus sent the exiles home from Babylon. But the promise reaches "all the countries," not one.
The return from Babylon was no fulfilment, but at most a foretaste; for then only a small remnant returned. Ezra 9 does not claim to be what the faithful were looking for, and neither does Nehemiah 9. One speaks of "our bondage." The other says they are "servants this day," and that the land God gave their fathers yields much increase to the kings He has set over them because of their sins. How far this falls short of what Ezekiel pledges should need no argument. After the decree of Cyrus, most of Israel stayed scattered up and down the nations.
This verse promises land. What follows it is a work God does inside the people. The blessings are earthly and real, and so is the change needed to hold them.
In the statement of restored blessings to Israel in Ezekiel 36, the detail of earthly things is very clear. All of it is restored Israelite blessing. Among these blessings, however, we find a work to be done in them, to qualify them to hold and enjoy those blessings before God.
Nicodemus was a leading teacher in Israel. Jesus showed him that he had to be born again, and one writer ties that lesson back to this chapter.
Then, as He showed to Nicodemus, a master in Israel, the new birth was necessary even for the enjoyment of earthly blessings. As a teacher in Israel, he ought to have known this from the testimony of the prophets… The nation is morally renewed in this way, so that they may loathe themselves for their sins before God.
The gathering is not a private act. One writer looks at its effect on the watching nations.
"I will take you from the nations" — it is in this way that this mighty, worldwide impression is to be produced… Testimonies like these put it beyond question. The great moral effect of Israel's restoration upon all nations will be this: Jehovah, the one true God, will become known everywhere.
What about the movement of Jewish people back to that land today? One writer urges caution.
We must not necessarily suppose, however, that the return of the Jews to the land of their fathers in large numbers is the direct hand of God. God of course foresees such events, and they may and do work along the line of the fulfilment of prophecy. Scripture prophesies the return of the Jew to his own land in unbelief, and this is what is happening at the present time.
- Cause — God acts for the honour of His own name, not because the people deserved it. He does not change, so they were not destroyed.
- Gift — Eighteen times He says "I will." The gathering is sovereign grace from start to finish.
- Order — First the land, then the work God does inside them. That inward work fits them to enjoy the outward blessing.
- Reach — "All the countries" is far wider than the small return from Babylon, which was at most a foretaste.
- Result — Every nation comes to know Jehovah as the one true God. And the new birth a teacher of Israel should have known from the prophets stands written here.
And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols will I cleanse you.
God speaks here to a people scattered among the nations, and He promises them a cleansing they cannot do for themselves. Three questions follow: what the "clean water" is, when the sprinkling happens, and why God does it at all.
Every verb in this promise belongs to God. One writer sets the promise beside the reason God gives for it. The reason is not Israel's improvement.
But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can for His own sake do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen... "I am not doing this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake." (v. 22.)
Notice how many promises here begin with "I will."
"Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you." All help comes from God: cleansing, a new heart, and the Holy Spirit. This is the purpose of God for His name's sake. How precious the "I wills" of God! "I will take you." Yes, from His own heart's free grace He will do all this for Israel.
Sprinkled water was not a new idea to Ezekiel's hearers. Two earlier passages would have come to mind.
Ezekiel prophesied that God would "sprinkle clean water" upon Israel in the coming day, so that they might be clean. His readers would have thought back to the book of Numbers, where the sprinkling of water comes up twice. Numbers 8 gives the way the Levites were cleansed so that they might enter their service. Moses was told to "sprinkle water of purifying upon them." Numbers 19 gives the way the ordinary Israelite was cleansed from the various defilements he might pick up. From the ashes of a red heifer they were to make a "water of separation," and they were to sprinkle it on people and things that were defiled. That water, which purified, was made from "the ashes of the burnt heifer" — a picture of the death of Christ — and "running [or, living] water" — a picture of the Spirit.
The picture in Numbers and the promise in Ezekiel point the same way. The New Testament confirms it.
It is the Word of God which brings the death of Christ in its separating and purifying power to bear upon the soul... Ephesians 5:26 confirms it again: there "water" and "the Word" mean the same thing.
Israel already had washings under the law. This promise is different.
The cleansings under the law were ceremonial and external, and therefore of no real use. The prophet declares, and our Lord repeats, that this was to be real. A cleansing, not by purifying the flesh, but by a new birth, through the Spirit of God.
Jesus once pointed Nicodemus, a respected teacher in Israel, back to what the prophets had already written. This verse is part of that testimony.
As He had shown to Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, the new birth was necessary even for the enjoyment of earthly blessings. As a teacher in Israel, he ought to have known this from the testimony of the prophets... In this way the nation is morally renewed, so that they may loathe themselves for their sins before God.
The promise is set in a future gathering, not in the return from Babylon.
He will gather them from among the nations and all countries and bring them back to their own land. Only a shallow interpreter can speak of a fulfilment when they returned from Babylon... So, when the people of Israel believe on Him and look upon Him whom they pierced (Zech. 12:10), they will be cleansed. "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness" (Zech. 13:1).
The effect goes deeper than a change of behaviour.
The water will cleanse them so deeply and completely that their whole nature will be different. Once this mighty work has taken place, they will look back with disgust at what they used to be... A moral renovation will have been accomplished.
- The cause. God acts for His own name's sake, not for Israel's.
- The gift. The verbs are all "I will": cleansing, a new heart, and the Spirit all come from God's free grace.
- The means. The sprinkled water recalls Numbers 8 and 19. The ashes picture Christ's death and the living water the Spirit, and Ephesians 5:26 ties the water to the Word.
- The reach. This washing is real, not ceremonial. It works by new birth — the very thing a teacher in Israel should have known.
- The result. A nation gathered back to its own land, cleansed when it looks on the One they pierced, and so changed that it loathes what it once was.
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
These words sit inside a promise God makes to Israel, a nation scattered and beaten: He will bring them home and change them from the inside. Two questions follow — when does this happen, and what is a "heart of stone"?
Israel came home from exile in Babylon, and many read that return as the fulfilment. Commentators point out that the details of the passage rule it out.
But there is a further and clearer proof that it has not yet been fulfilled... Was the Jew — let alone all Israel — cleansed from all his filth then? The book of Malachi tells a different story, and the Lord Himself proved it when He came in person. What is promised here, when it is fulfilled, is nothing less than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and cause that they shall walk in holy obedience, they His people, and He their God.
The image is not random. God had already given Israel His law carved into stone tablets.
In their hearts, the people of Israel were much like the stone the law was written on. It fits that God wrote the law on tablets of stone. You can smash a stone tablet, but you cannot stretch it or bend it like rubber... Israel proved itself to have a heart of stone. There was no surface left to write on. So in this book the Lord says, in effect, "I am going to make Israel new. I am going to work by My Spirit, so that they will be able to receive what I will write in a coming day."
Commentators insist this promise is not an improvement of what is already there.
The change Ezekiel predicts goes right down to the foundation. It gives a person a new heart and a new spirit. Then he wants what is good, and he walks in obedience. Verse 27 shows this. No wonder the Lord Jesus called it a new birth. It does not adjust the nature a person already has. It gives a nature that is completely new. The new heart is "given." The new spirit is "put within you." It is to start again from the very first.
The verse names two steps, and their order matters.
In Ezekiel 36, the first step is the removal of the stony heart, which is replaced by a heart of flesh. It is that which is impressionable and on which the Spirit of God writes.
But the heart God gives is not passive.
The heart of giving your life to God is that it must be willing... that surrender must come from the heart, or it is not surrender at all... "And I will give you a new heart," says the Lord. But the new heart He gives is a heart that freely chooses to serve its Master.
Read the chapter and count the promises. God also gives His reason for making them.
Did you notice in that passage in Ezekiel, how God says, "I will," "I will"? It is God speaking of what He will do of Himself and for Himself. It goes with a new covenant. God is no longer demanding what people ought to be for Him. He is saying what He will do for them Himself, and for His own glory.
Two lines in the chapter say why God acts.
But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can still do the wonderful work of turning their hearts to Himself, for His own sake... "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy name." (v. 22.) "It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel." (v. 32.)
Verse 26 gives a new spirit; verse 27 gives another gift, and the difference is easy to miss.
Verse 27 speaks of "My Spirit" which is to be put within born-again Israel in that day. Some Bibles print it without a capital letter, but it should have one. It means the Spirit of God, and it is different from "a new spirit" in the verse before.
If the promise is Israel's, the condition it addresses is not theirs alone.
The law proved that they were beyond correction. In the same way we learn that "nothing good dwells in me (us)" and that "sin dwells within me (us)" (Rom. 7:17, 20). Our hearts, then, are not less stony than theirs. God must act before a heart can take an impression. This He has done in new birth.
- Stone diagnosed. The law was written on stone because Israel's heart was stone — unbending, and offering nothing for God to write on.
- Stone removed. The first move is removal, not repair; a heart of flesh is one that can take an impression.
- Spirit given. Verse 26's "new spirit" and verse 27's "My Spirit" are two gifts, not one; only with both does obedience follow.
- Grace sovereign. Every promise in the chapter is "I will," and God states the reason: His own name, not their deserving.
- Still future. Commentators say the return from exile fell far short. This is the new birth of a nation still to come — and the same stony heart, and the same cure, apply to every person now.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and ye shall do them.
This promise closes a chain of "I will" statements. God cleanses, gives a new heart, then puts His own Spirit inside His people. Who is it for? When does it happen? And how does God make obedience instead of demanding it?
Commentators say this promise is still future. It describes far more than the return from Babylon.
Here, when it is fulfilled, we have no less a blessing promised than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and make them walk in holy obedience — they His people, and He their God. To claim this has ever yet happened is the grossest exaggeration.
The chapter gives the reason. It is not that Israel improved. It is the honour of God's own name, and the work is His to do.
The Lord could do no more for Israel. Yet for His own sake He can still do the wonderful work of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen. He says, "I do not do this for your sakes, house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake." "It is not for your sakes that I do this, says the Lord God. Know this: be ashamed and humiliated for your own ways, house of Israel." The Spirit gives life. God alone has life in Himself; He alone can communicate life.
The verse before speaks of cleansing with water. This verse adds the Spirit. Jesus joined the same two when He spoke with Nicodemus, a respected teacher in Israel, and expected him to know where they came from.
As a picture, water stands quite simply for moral cleansing, as we find it in Ezekiel 36. The Lord Jesus pointed back to this scripture when He spoke to Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus asked, "How can these things be?" The Lord answered, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" He should have known them. They were right there in Ezekiel 36, which mentions both the "water" and "My Spirit."
The phrase "cause you to walk in my statutes" turns God's earlier dealings with Israel around completely.
It is important to notice also the entire change as to the law, when God shall set up the millennial kingdom. Under the law God commanded and required everything. In the kingdom of God He produces everything by the new nature and the Spirit. Even repentance comes only after He gives them new birth in the land.
The new covenant promise draws the same contrast. God's laws move from stone to the inside of a person.
The first blessing named here is that the Lord gives His laws into the mind, and also writes them on the heart. This stands in sharp contrast with the first covenant, which was written on stones… The laws stood outside the Israelite. They were not written on his heart.
The gift is not an end in itself. The verse ties it to something you can see: keeping and doing.
Because of this there will be spiritual life in Israel. That life will show itself in active obedience to God's will. As God directs, so they will do… We shall see, however, that the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost has a fulness and permanence that Old Testament times barely pictured.
The promise itself belongs to Israel's future. Yet writers apply its principle to believers today.
In Ezekiel 36:27, along with the heart of flesh, He says, "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My ways." We have the Spirit now as the Spirit of His Son, sent into our hearts crying, "Abba, Father." He is also the bond that unites us with Christ in glory, and with one another. And along the way, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not according to flesh but according to the Spirit.
One writer draws a sharp line between the Spirit poured out and the Spirit living inside believers.
We must tell two things apart. One is the pouring out of God's Spirit, mighty and gracious an effect of divine power as it is. The other is the Holy Spirit Himself sent down to live in believers… God will, no doubt, dwell among His people. But that will be blessing under His rule — a very different thing indeed.
- Cause. God acts for His holy name's sake, not because Israel deserves it. He says, "It is not for your sakes that I do this."
- Gift. He does not repair the old heart; He removes the stone, gives a heart of flesh, and puts His own Spirit inside.
- Reach. Jesus used the same water-and-Spirit words with Nicodemus. Israel is not the only one who needs new birth.
- Result. The law once commanded from outside; now God produces obedience from within — even the repentance comes after the new birth.
- Timing. Commentators hold that the promise is still future for Israel. Since Pentecost, believers already have the Spirit living in them — a fulness the Old Testament barely pictured.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
In one sentence God promises two things at once: a place to live and a relationship to live in. Commentators ask when this happens and who "you" means. They also ask why the land comes last, after the new heart and the Spirit.
Some treat these words as already fulfilled in Israel's past. One writer tests that against what the verses promise:
Was even the Jew — let alone Israel as a whole — cleansed then from all his filthiness? Malachi tells a different story, and the Lord Himself proved the same when He came in person. Here, when fulfilled, we have no less a blessing promised than the new birth of the Jewish people. God will give them a new heart and a new spirit, take away the heart of stone, and give a heart of flesh. He will put His Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in holy obedience. They will be His people, and He will be their God.
Notice the order. God cleanses, gives a new heart and puts His Spirit within them. Only then does He name the land. One commentator points to where Jesus picks up that order, in His talk with Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel:
The Lord Jesus refers mainly to this passage in John 3, though not to it alone. He told Nicodemus that He had spoken of earthly things. As a teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have understood this: the renewing of heart was necessary for the blessing of Israel on the earth.
Another writer follows the same order to its end. The people get the land only when they are ready for it:
God must take the heart of stone out of the flesh, so that a heart of flesh — a true, tender, feeling heart — may be theirs. He adds the blessed assurance: "I will put My Spirit within you." Then comes what they are only now fit for, and secure in: "You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers."
Some read "the land that I gave to your fathers" as a picture of spiritual blessing. One writer holds to the plain sense and compares Israel's portion with the Christian's:
There are spiritual mercies mixed in with their blessings. But they will be in the land of their fathers, and God is going to make that good to the generation to come. … The prophet says, "You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers." Nothing can be plainer than this. He is to bless Israel on the earth — in their souls too, no doubt: but the sphere of this blessing is the holy land. It is His earthly people, not the Church.
He adds that he would not object if someone preached the gospel from these words. He asks only that no one blots out Israel's hopes.
The words "you shall be my people" answer an older verdict. Israel had carried the name Lo-Ammi, "not my people":
For centuries God could not acknowledge them as His people. They bore the name Lo-Ammi, that is, "not my people" (Hos. 1:9). But the moment will come when Israel is restored. They will have accepted Christ, confessed their guilt, and will serve God with true dedication. Then they will again be able to bear the name of God. Then the full blessing will rest on that nation.
These promises belong to the new covenant. One writer places its public start at a definite time:
God will make the new covenant publicly with Israel. It fulfils the unconditional promises He made to Abraham, 430 years before the law was given. For this, God must gather Israel back to her own land. The public confirming of the new covenant will happen at the same time as the millennial reign of Christ.
- Cleansed, then settled. God does the inward work first — cleansing, a new heart, His Spirit. Only then does He settle the people in the land. He never reverses the order.
- Born again. God promises the new birth of a nation. These are the "earthly things" Jesus said a teacher of Israel should already have understood.
- Fit to hold it. God gives the land to a people who are now fit for it and secure in it, because He has changed their heart.
- Owned again. "My people" reverses the verdict Lo-Ammi, "not my people". These are God's earthly people, not the Church.
- Still future. Israel's earlier return to the land did not fulfil this — Malachi shows the people were still not cleansed. These promises wait for the new covenant that God will make publicly with Israel when Christ reigns.
And I will save you from all your uncleannesses; and I will call for the corn and will multiply it, and lay no famine upon you.
This verse ends a run of promises where God pledges to do it all Himself — cleanse, renew, settle, feed. Two questions follow: why does cleansing from sin sit in the same sentence as grain and harvest, and when will any of this happen?
The chapter sets the promises in order. God washes Israel and gives them a new spirit first. The grain comes after that.
Before Israel enjoys the earthly blessings in the promised land, Israel will be born again. Israel will be sprinkled with clean water, and will have a new spirit put within them. It is afterwards they have the earthly things of the kingdom of God… The important thing to notice is that in all this the Lord had not gone beyond the earthly things, or what was essential to their enjoyment — that is, the new birth. Of course, a man must all the more be born again to have blessings in heavenly places. But even the Jewish people must be born afresh to have the earthly promises in God's kingdom.
The reason is not Israel's improvement. God acts to sanctify His own great name in front of the nations, and the restored land is part of how He does it.
The nations insulted Israel as a land whose ancient high places were their prey. As the spies had said, it was a land that devoured its inhabitants. God uses this to show that He favours His people. Jehovah declares that He will restore peace and prosperity to the land and take away their reproach… But Jehovah would step in and sanctify His great name before the nations. He would bring His people back from among them and cleanse them from all their filthiness. He would take away the hardness of their hearts and give them His Spirit… The reproach that the land devoured its inhabitants would then plainly have no basis. God would multiply earthly blessings to His people. Jehovah's work would be clear to everyone.
The people supply nothing here. The repeated "I will" carries the message.
All help comes from God: cleansing, a new heart, and the Holy Spirit. This is the purpose of God for His name's sake. How precious the "I wills" of God! "I will take you." Yes, from His own heart's free grace He will do all this for Israel.
The same writer turns this on the reader.
And is He not the same blessed God now? Poor helpless, sin-burdened soul, He says, I will cleanse you, and you shall be clean.
One writer takes this promise of fertility at face value. He ties it to what the New Testament says about creation.
It is useless to explain away this prediction of restored and increased fertility. It is no use calling it unbelievable, or denying that God's power will do something so striking, as if it were beneath His attention. The New Testament shows us the principle in Romans 8. God will yet set the groaning creation free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. … The difference here is that the apostle ties this deliverance to the revealing of the risen saints. The prophet ties it to the restoration and renewal of Israel.
The return from Babylon is often treated as the fulfilment. Writers here reject that, and point to the returned exiles' own words as proof.
The return from Babylon was no fulfilment, but at most a foretaste; for then only a small remnant returned. Ezra 9 does not take the same ground, and does not claim to be what the faithful looked for. Nor does Nehemiah 9, later still. One speaks of "our bondage." The other speaks of being "servants this day… in the land that you gave to our fathers… and it yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins."
Salvation from "all your uncleannesses" is the moral cleansing that water pictures in this chapter. Jesus expected Nicodemus, a leading teacher in Israel, to know that.
In the natural creation God has given water as the cleansing agent. It cleanses internally when we drink it. It cleanses externally when we wash in it. Used figuratively, it simply sets out the idea of moral cleansing, as we get it in Ezekiel 36. The Lord Jesus referred to this scripture when He spoke to Nicodemus, as recorded in John 3. In answer to the question, "How can these things be?" the Lord said, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" He should have known them. There they were in Ezekiel 36, which mentions both the "water" and "My Spirit."
- Name — God acts for the sake of His own name, profaned among the nations, not because His people deserved it.
- Cleansing — Salvation from uncleanness is the new birth. Clean water pictures it, and Jesus expected Nicodemus to have read it here.
- Order — The washing comes first; only then the land. Even earthly promises need a people born again.
- Plenty — The grain and the end of famine are literal. They belong with creation's own coming release from decay.
- Future — The small return from Babylon left Israel still servants in the land. The promise still waits.
And I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the increase of the field, so that ye may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.
This verse sits inside a list of promises God makes to Israel. He has cleansed them and given them a new heart. Now He promises trees and fields so fruitful that no nation can point at a starving people again. Does such language mean what it says? And when has it come true?
The order matters. Cleansing comes first, and the harvest follows.
But there is more. The prophet goes on to say that this blessedness in store for Israel will include outward favour and earthly abundance in a way never known before: "I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you."
Another writer explains why a harvest belongs in a chapter about hearts.
The increase of the land follows as a necessary consequence. Israel's portion is in the earth, and therefore nature itself is a witness to the relation in which they stand to God. It has been largely a witness against them, as we know. It is yet to bear testimony of another kind.
Some readers treat the fruit and fields here as a picture of something spiritual. Kelly refuses that, and points to Romans 8.
It is useless to explain away this prediction of restored and increased fertility. It is useless to call it unbelievable, or to think it beneath God's attention. It is an extraordinary display of divine power. The New Testament shows us the principle in Romans 8. The groaning creation is still waiting to be set free from its bondage to decay, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. But no gospel message promises this. It is the fruit of divine power when Christ is no longer hidden but appears in glory, and the sons of God are revealed too.
Nothing in Israel's history has matched this. Darby notes that the promises arrive together, and that the nations will see it.
Then the nations would know that this restoration was Jehovah's doing. We find this last point more than once in Ezekiel. It is an important part of the re-establishment of Israel. Like the other promises, and above all their happening at the same time, it has never yet come true.
The disgrace God removes is public, and His answer begins inside the people themselves.
The past failure of the nation is put before them so that they may own it before God. The nations said, "These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of His land" (v. 20). But then God remembers that His name is involved, and for His holy name's sake He delivers them. Then, as He had shown Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, the new birth was necessary even for the enjoyment of earthly blessings.
Plenty is not the end of the story. What follows it is repentance.
It is not so much the knowledge of the evil we have brought on ourselves that brings repentance. In its full character it is the wonder of the Lord's grace that does so, as the apostle says: "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance." So it will be when God's mercy brings Israel back into their land, and they find His abundant welcome in the light of His glorious presence. They will remember their evil ways and the wrongs they did, and will loathe themselves for their sins and detestable acts.
The same writer then turns the verse toward believers today.
God has taken Christians out of the world, and they are strangers and pilgrims in it. Their portion is elsewhere. But sadly, with Christians too there can be a disgrace of famine, which shows how we stand with God. How many have gone down to Egypt, as Abraham did long ago, because of a famine in their own things! ... If we are not in communion with God we have less than anyone else, for the world is a wilderness to us, however much we may dream of plenty in it. God certainly does not deny us our own portion, but only those who live in it find it.
- Cleansed first. Cleansing comes before crops. The harvest is the visible tail of an invisible work.
- Given, not earned. God Himself summons the grain and multiplies the increase. He does it for His holy name's sake, after the nations mocked a people driven from their land.
- Literal, not symbolic. Commentators warn against explaining the fertility away. Romans 8 shows creation waiting for freedom when Christ appears in glory.
- Still future. The promises belong together and arrive together. Israel's history has never yet seen them come true.
- Goodness breaks the heart. God's goodness, not the memory of sin, breaks the heart. Believers now can still live in famine, dreaming of plenty in a world that is not their portion.
And ye shall remember your evil ways, and your doings which were not good, and shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and for your abominations.
Ezekiel 36 is a chain of promises. God gathers Israel back to the land. He washes them clean, gives them a new heart, puts His Spirit in them, and makes the land fruitful again. Verse 31 tells us what happens after all that — and the order is the whole point.
The self-loathing of verse 31 is not the door into blessing. It is the response of people who have already been cleansed and inwardly remade.
The cleansing by the water will be so deep and so basic that their whole nature will be different. Once this mighty work has taken place, they will look back with disgust on what they used to be (verse 31). A moral renovation will be complete.
One writer links the chapter to what Jesus told Nicodemus, a Jewish religious teacher.
God puts the past failure of the nation before them so that they may own it before Him... As He had shown to Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, the new birth was needed even for the enjoyment of earthly blessings — and as a teacher in Israel he ought to have known this from what the prophets said... God morally renews the nation in this way, so that they may loathe themselves for their sins before Him.
Nothing in the human heart produces self-judgment on its own.
There is more. Grace alone, applied by the Holy Spirit to the soul, produces true fear of God and judgment of self. "But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." This is also what leads Israel here to hate and confess their past sins with a full heart. How glad they are to bow to the sovereignty of God, who uses it in saving mercy!
It also marks a change from the way Israel lived under the law.
When God sets up His kingdom, everything changes as to the law. Under the law God commanded and required everything. In the kingdom of God He produces everything by the new nature and the Spirit. He even produces their repentance, after they are born again in the land.
Verse 31 sits right next to God's plain statement that Israel has earned none of this. He says it twice in the chapter.
The Lord could do no more for Israel than He had done. Yet for His own sake He can still do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen... "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name." (v. 22.) "It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel." (v. 32.)
Israel's future rests on the honour of His name, not on their record.
The phrase goes further than regret over particular acts.
"I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Not "I despise my sins." Plenty of people do that. It is "despise myself." Have you ever said "I am undone"? That is what Isaiah said. He did not say "I am going to be undone if I do not turn over a new leaf."
Psalms that retell Israel's history point to the same change.
These Psalms are prophetic. They express the repentance and national confession of Israel after the Lord has saved them. Then the nation is born again, with a new heart and a new spirit within them. They read their history rightly and learn to know the God of Jacob as never before. It is the fulfilment of Ezekiel 36:31.
Self-loathing is not where this ends.
They will then remember their ways and loathe themselves for deeds that were not good (Ezekiel 36:31). Grace has made their sin the opportunity for its mighty triumph. Because of that grace, their hearts will then turn wholly to the Lord. This will make them fit to bring good news to the nations.
- Order — Cleansing, new heart, new spirit, then self-loathing. Repentance here is the fruit of God's work, not the fee paid for it.
- Cause — Grace, applied by the Spirit, produces true fear of God and self-judgment. Forgiveness is what makes reverence possible.
- Motive — Twice God says He acts for His holy name, not for their sake. No one can claim credit for the blessing.
- Depth — True repentance says "I despise myself," not just "I despise my sins." You judge yourself, not just your record.
- Result — Israel will read its own history rightly at last, and so become fit to carry good news to the nations.
Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord Jehovah, be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
God has just pledged to gather Israel, wash them clean, give them a new heart and put His Spirit within them. Then He interrupts the promises to state the motive behind them — and it is not anything He found in the people.
God could do no more for Israel than He had done. So He will do a work inside them, and the reason lies in Himself:
But though the Lord could do no more for Israel, He can for His own sake do the wonderful work in them of turning their hearts to Himself. And this will happen... The Spirit gives life. God alone has life in Himself; He alone can give it. Where the Spirit works for salvation, He opens the eyes to see and the ears to hear, and then He removes the veil from the heart and wins the heart for the Lord.
That moves the guarantee from the people to God's own name:
He cannot, and will not, fail to glorify that name, any more than He can deny Himself.
Hearing that you are not the reason for your own blessing can feel crushing. Kelly, writing on the same promise earlier in the book, draws the opposite conclusion. This is the one thing that keeps a guilty person from being beyond help:
They will then be accepted and know Jehovah, and the promises to the fathers will be fulfilled. This is true not only of us who now believe and go to heaven at Christ's coming, but of the children of Israel on the earth, who will then truly repent. Their repentance will be so real only because of His mercy. He acts freely above the evil of His creatures, for His own sake. If He did not, then to be a sinner would mean ruin without remedy or hope.
The command to be ashamed comes after the promise of cleansing, not before it. Self-judgment is what grace produces, not a price grace charges.
But further, it is grace alone that produces true fear of God and judgment of self, when the Holy Spirit applies it to the soul. "But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." This is also what leads Israel here to hate and confess their past sins with a full heart. How glad they are to bow to the sovereignty of the One who uses it in saving mercy!
So this shame is not regret that leaves a person unchanged:
As the result of all this there will be a new born nation. They will simply hate the things they once loved, and hate themselves for having indulged in them. They will also love the things they once had no desire for. It will be a completely new Israel that enters into the blessings of the kingdom.
The verse names its audience: the house of Israel. Commentators say this promise has still not come true:
The return from Babylon was no fulfilment, but at most a first instalment, because only a small remnant returned... How far this falls short of what Ezekiel pledges should need no argument. God said: "I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land." The mass of Israel remained scattered up and down the nations after the decree of Cyrus.
This ground is not reserved for one nation. God names the same reason for those He calls in from outside Israel:
And what shall we say about His dealings with those He has called out from among the Gentiles to be a people for His Name? In sovereign goodness He has blessed us. It was not because of anything in ourselves, or anything we have done. We were only sinners, cut off from God, and enemies through our evil deeds. We know that He has forgiven our sins, and as it is written in 1 John 2:12, it is "for His Name's sake."
- Cause. The motive is God's own name. Nothing in Israel supplied the reason, and nothing in them ever could.
- Guarantee. Because the reason sits in God's name, it cannot collapse — He can no more fail to glorify that name than deny Himself.
- Hope. If God acted only on what He found in people, a sinner would be ruined without remedy. He acts above the creature's evil, for His own sake.
- Fruit. Shame here follows cleansing. Grace alone produces the fear of God and the honest hatred of one's own past.
- Reach. The same ground covers those called from among the nations. God blesses and forgives them for His Name's sake, not for anything in themselves.
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah In the day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities I will also cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by.
Ezekiel speaks to exiles whose land lay empty and ruined for every traveller to see. God promises that this same ground will be farmed again — and commentators ask two things: what must happen first, and whether it has happened yet.
Verse 33 dates the farming of the land to the day God cleanses His people from their sins. The land is not a separate subject. It shows how Israel stands with God.
The increase of the land follows as a necessary consequence. Israel's portion is in the earth, and therefore nature itself is a witness to the relation in which they stand to God. It has been largely a witness against them, as we know. It is yet to bear testimony of another kind. Christians are taken out of the world, and are strangers and pilgrims in it: their portion is elsewhere.
The same sequence is traced through the chapter as a whole — inward renewal first, then the ground repaired.
The nation is thus morally renewed that they may loathe themselves for their sins before God.
Darby traces Jesus' words in John 3 back to promises like this one.
The Lord Jesus refers mainly to this passage in John 3, though not only to it. He tells Nicodemus that He had spoken of earthly things. As a teacher of Israel, Nicodemus ought to have understood that this renewing of the heart was necessary for Israel's blessing on the earth.
Kelly refuses to soften the promise into a picture. He ties it to the groaning creation of Romans 8.
It is useless to explain away this prediction of restored and increased fertility. It is useless to call it unbelievable. It is useless to treat it as beneath God's attention, for it is an effect of divine power shown in an extraordinary way. The New Testament shows us the principle in Romans 8. The groaning creation is yet to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. But this comes under no message of the gospel. It is a fruit of divine power. It comes when Christ is no longer hidden but appears in glory, and the sons of God are revealed too.
The ruin had an audience: everyone who passed by. The recovery will have one too.
And what a witness to man this will be! They will say: "This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited!" There is no room left for doubt or question — Jehovah has done this. There will be no skeptics or atheists in those days. Yet even that amazing sight will not remove the hatred in man's heart.
Some see the farming revival in that land today as this verse coming true.
Do we not see the fulfilment of this Scripture before our very eyes? Less than a hundred years ago the land was desolate, barren and hopeless. Today it is prosperous and bursting with activity.
Others say human effort can only run ahead of God. A future invasion will strip the land once more before He makes the promise good.
Jewish industry apart from God tries to bring this about ahead of time. But in the day of the Antichrist, the overwhelming invasion from the north will lay the land waste again — for the last time.
Kelly tests the promise against history and finds it still future.
The remnant who came back from exile saw nothing like this. There was no rebuilding of the once desolate cities as part of their inheritance. But God will surely make good every word when the day comes to restore the kingdom to Israel. Under the law Israel was ruined. Under the gospel there is neither Jew nor Greek, but union with Christ in heaven. When the kingdom is shown in power, Israel will be restored to their land and cities, no longer waste, but under the blessing and glory of Jehovah.
- Cleansed first. The tilling of the land waits for the day God cleanses His people. The healed ground is the visible end of an inward work, not a separate promise.
- Told in advance. Jesus told Nicodemus that a teacher of Israel should have known it: Israel's blessing on earth waits on a renewed heart.
- Ground restored. Writers take the fertility as real, not as a picture. When Christ appears in glory, God frees creation itself from its bondage to decay.
- Seen by all. The land lay ruined in the sight of everyone who passed by. The same watching nations will admit that the rebuilding is the Lord's work.
- Timing disputed. Some see today's prosperity in that land as the fulfilment. Others see human effort running ahead of God. All agree the lasting tilling belongs to the kingdom shown in power.
And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities [are] fortified [and] inhabited.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the nations that shall be left round about you shall know that I Jehovah build the ruined places [and] plant that which was desolate I Jehovah have spoken, and I will do [it].
This chapter ends with a ruined land rebuilt, and the nations nearby watching. Who gets the credit for the change, and when will it happen?
The chapter has already set the nation's failure in front of them. One writer points to what moved God to act anyway.
The past failure of the nation is set before them so that they may own it before God. The nations said, "These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of His land" (v. 20). But then God remembers that His name is involved, and for His holy name's sake He delivers them.
What convinces the onlookers is a landscape. One commentator notes both the force of that sight and its limit.
What a witness to man this will be! They will say: "This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited!" That leaves no room for doubt or question any longer: Jehovah has done this. There will be no sceptics or atheists in those days. Yet, sadly, even that amazing sight will not remove the enmity of man's heart.
The verse says the nations "shall know that I am the LORD." One writer shows how far that knowledge will travel.
"For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land" (Ezek. 36:23-24). This is how God will produce that mighty, world-wide impression. The passage needs no comment; it speaks for itself… We could multiply testimonies like these many times over. But surely these put it beyond question. The great moral effect of Israel's restoration on all nations will be this: Jehovah, the one true God, will become known everywhere.
Some do not take promises like this literally. Two writers resist that. The first argues from the record. The ruin came just as predicted, so we should expect the rebuilding on the same terms.
The predictions of the desolations came true in a wonderful way. So why not expect the promises of blessing to come true just as literally? Then "they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited." "I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it." Just think of the glory of Christ filling the heavens above, and the earth beneath like the garden of Eden.
The second answers a different objection: that soil and harvests are too small a matter for God. He points to a New Testament passage built on the same principle.
It is useless to explain away this prediction of restored and increased fertility. It is just as useless to call it incredible, or to deny that it shows divine power in an extraordinary way, as though the matter were beneath God's attention. The New Testament shows us the principle in Romans 8. The groaning creation is yet to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
If the promise is literal, has it happened? One writer weighs all the parts of the promise together.
Then the nations would know that this restoration was Jehovah's doing. We find this last point more than once in Ezekiel. It is an important part of the re-establishment of Israel. Like the other parts — and especially their happening at the same time — it has never yet happened.
Another commentator warns about human effort that tries to produce this restoration ahead of God's time.
Jewish hard work apart from God seeks to bring this about early. But the overwhelming Northern invasion in the day of the Antichrist will devastate the land again — though for the last time (Joel 2:1-3). Nothing can delay the coming of the long-rejected One much longer.
- Cause. God moves because His name is involved, not because Israel earned it. The nations had said His people had to leave His land.
- Proof. The rebuilt land is the argument. It leaves no room to doubt that Jehovah has done it. Yet the sight alone will not cure human enmity.
- Reach. The effect is not local. Israel's restoration is how the one true God becomes known everywhere.
- Literal. Judgment on the land came literally. Expect the promised fertility in the same way — by the same power that will free the whole groaning creation.
- Certain. Every part of this promise still waits, and they arrive together. Human effort may copy it early. Only His word secures it: "I have spoken, and I will do it."