And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them from every side, and bring them into their own land
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
Ezekiel holds two sticks, one named for Judah and one for Joseph. God joins them into a single stick in his hand, and this verse explains the sign: one people, one land, one king. Has that already happened in some spiritual form, or is it still ahead?
Two fulfilments are often proposed: the small group of Jews who returned from exile in Babylon, or the church. One writer rules out both.
It is pointless to twist such language to fit the remnant of Jews that returned from Babylon, or the church at Pentecost. There is not even a resemblance. It is a union of the two long-divided houses of Israel, and nothing else. Not even a shadow of its accomplishment has appeared yet. Words could not be more explicit. The language excludes every sense except the future gathering and union of all Israel as a single nation under one king. They will never be divided again, never defiled again.
The two sticks stand for a real historical tear. The kingdom split in two, and the halves stayed rivals.
The ten tribes separated from the house of David under Jeroboam, when Rehoboam came to the throne. Ever since, there had been more or less hostility between the two kingdoms, with some occasional alliances. The prophets had kept speaking of the reunion of the two peoples under the Messiah.
The same writer marks when the healing comes.
When Messiah returns and establishes His kingdom, this promise will be fulfilled. It would have been fulfilled when He first came, if His people had received Him.
Israel's own kings tried to mend the split and failed. The sign shows why it will work now: the two sticks become one in the hand that holds them.
How beautiful it is that in God's day, when the Lord takes up the staff of Israel and of Judah, it will be reunited in His hand. It will be one, as it has never been since the division. All efforts in the past have been futile. King Rehoboam might fight to bring back the tribes that had revolted, but it was utterly impossible. The efforts of other kings ended the same way. Hezekiah might send out a gracious invitation for Israel to come back to the God of their fathers. A few people might be restored, but it is only a temporary, partial thing. But when the mighty Son of God takes hold of His people, that broken staff will be reunited and become one — a rod, a sceptre, by which He will reign over the whole earth.
The verse does not name the king, but the passage goes on to call him "my servant David." Writers take that as pointing past David himself.
The Jew is not "cast off" in the sense in which Scripture uses the word — as final rejection. That is because there is the most abundant testimony that the day is coming when the Lord will re-gather His ancient people, the house of Israel and the house of Judah. He will plant them in the land which He gave to them and to their fathers. For God has plainly said, "One king shall be king over them all," and "My servant David shall be king over them" (Ezek. 37:22, 24) — a beautiful allusion to Christ!
The reign meant is an earthly one. Christ is King here "not as Head of the church in heaven, but as king of Israel when He reigns over the earth." Since the prophecy was spoken there has never been "an approach to its accomplishment" (William Kelly).
Nothing here is offered on terms. Every clause is something God says He will do.
This prophecy will find its accomplishment in their own land, and under the King whom God will raise up for them. God will once more be openly their God, with His sanctuary set among them forever. That the time of all this is future should need no argument. Nor should it need one that the promise can never be set aside by any unfaithfulness of the people He speaks of. God has attached no condition to it here, and He states that He will Himself fulfil it.
The reunion brings joy, not just order. One writer pictures that day. Judah and Israel, "so long divided and scattered, will at last meet in the land." There they will "realise how good and pleasant it is for those who are brothers, not only to meet, but to dwell together in unity" (Hamilton Smith).
- One hand. The two sticks become one in the hand that holds them — the healing is God's act, not a treaty between the tribes.
- One nation. The split under Jeroboam and Rehoboam is undone. The two kingdoms end, and Israel is one people again.
- One land. God names one place: the mountains of Israel. It is the land He gave their fathers — not heaven, and not the church.
- One king. Writers see "my servant David" as Christ reigning over the earth. Under Him the union can never break again.
- One promise. God attaches no conditions, so no failure of the people can cancel it. Commentators agree it still waits ahead.
And they shall not defile themselves any more with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; and I will save them out of all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel has just joined two sticks into one, a sign to a people split in two and stained by idolatry. God now promises to heal both wounds and to own them as His people again — but when, and for whom?
The verse promises that Israel will never again defile itself with idols. Earlier in the same book, God tells how deep that cleansing goes:
He will sprinkle "clean water" upon them and they shall be clean. All their filthiness and their love of idols will be gone, because He will have put "a new heart" and "a new spirit" within them. The water will cleanse them so deeply and so completely that their whole nature will be different. Once He has done this mighty work, they will look back with disgust at what they once were.
This union undoes one very old failure. The kingdom split in two under Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and stayed split:
God had a further, fresh blessing for them: an old reproach would disappear. That reproach had dishonoured Israel from the days of Rehoboam, for as long as it lasted in the land. When God sets His hand to their restoration in the last days, He will re-unite them as they were long ago under David and Solomon. Their unity will never be broken, or even threatened, again. God keeps this for the true Beloved when He reigns as the Prince of peace.
The ESV says God will save them "from all the backslidings in which they have sinned." Older translations read "out of all their dwelling places," and that wording raises a practical problem: the ten tribes vanished from history. One writer answers that we do not have to know where they are:
If God has said it will be so, we have a right to expect it. He will bring the ten tribes out of their hiding places. He will save them out of all their dwelling places where they have sinned, and will cleanse them... God may have the ten tribes in some little-explored region of the earth. Or they may emerge, when no one expects it, out of a nation they have long been confused with. But we are not bound to show where they are.
Some say the promise came true when a remnant came home from exile in Babylon. Others say it describes the church. One writer rejects both, on the ground of what the words say:
It is pointless to twist such language to fit the remnant of Jews that returned from Babylon. It is just as pointless to fit it to the church at Pentecost. There is not even a resemblance. It is a union of the two long-divided houses of Israel, and nothing else. Not even a shadow of its accomplishment has appeared yet. Words cannot be more explicit... Never again shall they be divided, never again defiled.
God sets no terms on this promise:
That the time of all this is future should need no argument. Neither should this: God has attached no condition to the promise here, and He affirms that He will Himself fulfil it. So the unfaithfulness of the people He speaks of can never set it aside.
The cleansing is not an end in itself. It clears the way for God to own them again — and their history shows how astonishing that is:
Then the true David, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be their king. Fully cleansed from their sins (Ezek. 37:23), they will walk in the fear of the Lord. They will be under the blessing of the everlasting covenant of peace (Ezek. 37:26). God sets His sanctuary among them forever. The sin of that nation reached its height in the murder of His Son and their Messiah. After all that, what infinite grace for God to say, "My tabernacle also shall be with them: yes, I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Ezek. 37:27).
- Cleansed — God puts in a new heart and a new spirit. That changes the whole nature, so the idols go and the old ways disgust them.
- United — God heals the split that began under Rehoboam. Under Christ's reign, that unity will never be broken again.
- Gathered — God saves them out of every place where they sinned, including the tribes no one can now find. He knows where they are; we do not have to prove it.
- Unconditional — God attaches no terms to this promise. He will fulfil it Himself, so their unfaithfulness cannot cancel it.
- Owned — cleansing ends in relationship: after all their sin, God still says they are His people and He is their God.
And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd and they shall walk in mine ordinances, and keep my statutes, and do them.
The vision of the two sticks ends with a promise of one ruler. God's servant David will be king — one shepherd over a people split into two kingdoms for centuries. Who is this "David"? When has this ever happened? And how will a nation that never kept God's rules come to walk in them?
Here the name points to someone other than the shepherd boy of Bethlehem. Commentators have taken it in different ways, and one writer weighs them:
Some have applied this to Zerubbabel, the head of Judah when the people came back from captivity in Babylon. Those who deny a future restoration of Israel take that line. Others take these words in a literal sense. They teach that David the king will head the nation once more, and that, raised from the dead, he will be the one shepherd over His people. It is not David, but He who according to the flesh is the Son of David and David's Lord as well. The one Shepherd can only be the Messiah. Many passages show that David's name stands here as a picture of another.
The promise runs through a death. Ezekiel's Shepherd is the One who gave His life for the sheep:
David's shepherd care, faithfulness and service to his father's flock will be seen in perfection when Jesus, the Son of David, looks after His Father's sheep. Compare Micah 5:1-5 with Matthew 2:5-6. The One who will shepherd Israel is the Mighty God become Man. Such a Shepherd cannot fail. But He must be struck down and die, to secure blessing for the sheep of Israel and also for the sheep who will form the church (Zech. 13:7; John 10:11, 15-16). Such a Shepherd could not be held by death. God raised Him from among the dead — Jesus, the Son of God, the Great Shepherd of the sheep (Heb. 13:20).
The word "one" is the point of the whole passage. Two sticks became one in the prophet's hand, and the sign has a single meaning:
It is a union of the two long-divided houses of Israel, and nothing else. Not a shadow of its fulfilment has appeared yet. No words could be plainer. This rules out every meaning except the future gathering and union of all Israel as one nation under one king. Never again will they be divided; never again defiled.
Some read the verse as already fulfilled — by the small group that came back from Babylon, or by Christians today. The plain wording rules both out:
Here again is confirmation, if any were needed! No sober believer can doubt that only Christ can be meant — Christ not as Head of the church in heaven, but as king of Israel when He reigns over the earth. Since the prophecy was spoken, nothing has ever come close to fulfilling it. They have never all had one shepherd. Israel has never walked in His judgments, or kept His statutes and done them.
The second half of the verse promises obedience from a people whose history was disobedience. Earlier chapters of Ezekiel show how (the writer quotes an older Bible version):
God gathers them out of the countries where they had been scattered and brings them into their land. The inward change He works in them is described further in Ezekiel 11:19-20: "I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes." And Ezekiel 36:25-27 adds the Spirit put within them as the power to enable them to do so.
The same person is both king and shepherd. That shapes the kind of rule He brings:
This is God's thought of rule, and Christ, the true Shepherd, shows it in full. Even when He takes the rod of iron, as He will do in the time soon to come, it will be to "tend" or shepherd the nations with it. Here is One with whom rule is ministry, and subjection to Him is subjection to eternal love itself... The One who claims obedience shall be the One who has walked in obedience, and that at all cost to Himself.
- One person. "David" here is not the son of Jesse raised again but the Messiah, David's Son and David's Lord. The name works as a picture.
- One death. This Shepherd is first struck down to win blessing for the sheep. Raised again, He keeps the shepherd office that death could not take from Him.
- One flock. Two sticks become one. God gathers the long-divided houses of Israel into one nation under one king, never split again.
- One future. Commentators insist that nothing in history has matched these words yet — not the return from Babylon, not the church. The promise still stands ahead.
- One heart. They will walk in His statutes because God gives a new heart and His Spirit — and because the King who commands obedience first lived it Himself.
And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children for ever and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And I will make a covenant of peace with them it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.
God is not patching up something broken here. He promises a covenant that never runs out, a people settled and multiplied, and a sanctuary standing among them forever. Three questions follow. How is this covenant different from the one Israel already broke? Why is it called peace? And who are "them"?
Israel already had a covenant, and it could not restore them. One writer sets that first covenant against the one God now promises.
Israel's covenant, made at Sinai, could bring about no restoration. But God promises to make a covenant that will last forever. Through it He will restore the nation and bring them to acknowledge Himself.
The difference is not in the wording. It is in who carries it. One writer points out that this covenant rests on one side only.
There is no condition here at all — nothing that rests on people meeting their responsibility. Israel is asked for nothing: God alone fulfils the terms.
The word "peace" here rests on something done. One writer sets this promise beside the cross.
So God will make the "covenant of peace" with them — "He has made peace by the blood of His cross." So it will be an everlasting covenant with them.
Another writer names what this peace is based on, and the covenant it matches.
God will have established a "covenant of My peace." It rests on this: their Messiah bore "the chastisement of our peace" in His death. This covenant of peace will no doubt be the same as the "new covenant" which Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 31.
The sanctuary set among them is more than a building in the picture. One writer says what its presence proves.
His sanctuary standing in the midst of them is the very sign that He accepts His people Israel. That acceptance will never change. Taken plainly as they read, these words are clear everywhere and fully consistent, as God's words must always be.
Given what the nation had done, that acceptance startles the writers.
Completely cleansed from their sins, they will walk in the fear of the Lord. They will be under the blessing of the everlasting covenant of peace. God sets His sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. What infinite grace, after all the sin of that nation, ending in the murder of His Son and their Messiah.
God had said something very like this before, and it was never fully kept. One writer points out that the earlier promise carried an "if."
While Israel was still in the wilderness, the Lord told them how to behave once they were in the land. He gave them this promise, conditional on their obedience: "And I will make my dwelling among you... And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people." Because of Israel's sins this promise was never entirely fulfilled. So He repeats it through Ezekiel, for God never allows His purpose to be frustrated.
The rest of the chapter shows who "them" are. One writer sums up what God does for the nation.
It is the resurrection of the nation, which was really dead and buried. But God opens their graves, and places them again in their land, restored to life as a nation... They would walk in His statutes and His judgments, and dwell forever in their land. The sanctuary of God would be in their midst for evermore.
Writers add that there is instruction here for readers who are not Israel, provided the two hopes are not confused.
In all these Old Testament passages we may see a deeper spiritual meaning, one that speaks to the heart and conscience of believers today... For Israel, their future settlement and blessing will be on earth, in the Holy Land. But the church, in the glory it will one day display, is seen coming down from God, "out of heaven."
- Cause — Sinai's covenant failed because it depended on Israel. This one asks nothing of them. It rests on God's "I will."
- Basis — It is a covenant of peace because He made peace by the blood of His cross. Their Messiah bore the chastisement.
- Gift — The sanctuary in their midst is the sign that God accepts them, and that acceptance will never change. This is infinite grace toward the nation that killed His Son.
- Fulfilment — God once promised to walk among them if they obeyed. Israel's sin broke that promise. Here He gives it again, with no conditions.
- Result — A nation raised from its grave and settled in its land forever, with God dwelling at the centre. Israel's hope is on earth; the church's is from heaven. Keep the two apart.
And my tabernacle shall be over them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Ezekiel 37 ends with God naming what stands at the centre of His restored people's life: His own home among them. Three questions follow — when this happens, who "them" means, and why God had to make the promise twice.
This verse closes a chapter about a nation raised from the dead. One writer traces the move from dry bones to this final pledge:
God steps in and gathers the scattered of Israel on the earth. Until now they were two divided peoples. Now they are reunited under one Head, as one nation. It is the resurrection of the nation, which was really dead and buried. But God opens their graves and places them again in their land, restored to life as a nation... David (that is, Christ) will be their king. God Himself will completely cleanse them. They will keep His laws and live for ever in their land. God's sanctuary will be in their midst for evermore. His tabernacle, His dwelling place, will be among them — He their God and they His people.
Older wording calls this dwelling place God's "tabernacle." The word is not new here. It reaches back to Israel's first years out of Egypt, and God had promised it once already, on terms Israel failed to keep:
The tabernacle was God's first dwelling place on earth among His people Israel, after their redemption out of Egypt. "Let them make me a sanctuary," He said to Moses, "that I may dwell in their midst" (Exodus 25:8)... While Israel was still in the wilderness, the Lord gave instructions about how His people should behave once they were in the land. With them came this promise, conditional on their obedience: "I will make my dwelling among you... And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people" (Leviticus 26:11-12). Because of Israel's transgressions, this promise was never entirely fulfilled. So God repeats it through Ezekiel, for He never allows His purpose to fail, and applies it to the time of Messiah's kingdom.
Some translations read "over them" instead of "with them." Then the picture is shelter — the covering Israel once turned away from:
Divine love lingers on it: "My tabernacle also shall be over them." Those are the covering wings Israel once refused. One day they will know the blessing of them. The promise goes on: "and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore."
This promise does not go to a people who earned it:
Israel will be fully cleansed from their sins (Ezekiel 37:23), and they will walk in the fear of the Lord. They will be under the blessing of the everlasting covenant of peace (Ezekiel 37:26). That nation's sin ended in the murder of His Son and their Messiah. After all that, for God to say this is infinite grace.
Commentators here resist reading Israel out of the verse. One writer holds that the plain reading is the one that makes sense:
God says plainly that His sanctuary is in the midst of them. That is the very sign of His acceptance of His people Israel, and that acceptance will never change. This is quite the opposite of what we have in Christianity. Our difficulty has been to treat Christianity as God's final thought for the earth as well as heaven. Then these passages make no sense to us unless we read them in a way that changes them a great deal. Taken just as they read, they are clear everywhere and fully consistent, as God's words must always be.
The passage still speaks to Christian readers, but the setting differs:
In all these Old Testament passages, and in many others (such as Ezekiel 37:26 and following), we may see a deeper spiritual meaning. It speaks to the heart and conscience of believers today... But we need to remember one difference. Israel's future establishment and blessing will be on earth, in the Holy Land. We see the church in its future displayed glory coming down from God, "out of heaven."
The same words appear again at the end of the Bible:
The word tabernacle in Revelation 21 clearly points back to these scriptures. Israel's encampment was the first outward expression of God's purpose to have His eternal home among His people. His tabernacle in the wilderness, surrounded by the twelve tribes, was both a foreshadowing and a prophecy. And the more perfect dwelling of the thousand-year kingdom becomes in turn a picture of His perfected tabernacle in eternity.
- Dwelling, first — it begins at Exodus 25:8. God asks for a sanctuary so He can live among a people He has redeemed.
- Dwelling, refused — that promise hung on obedience. Israel's transgressions meant it was never fully realised.
- Dwelling, renewed — God says it again through Ezekiel, under an everlasting covenant of peace. He never lets His purpose fail.
- Dwelling, over them — read as shelter, the wings Israel once refused become the covering they enjoy at last, while the nations look on.
- Dwelling, for ever — the wilderness tent, the coming kingdom and Revelation 21 form one line. God lives with His people, and it never ends.
And the nations shall know that I Jehovah do hallow Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.
Ezekiel 37 ends with the promise that closes the whole vision: God's sanctuary set among His restored people for ever, with the nations looking on. Two questions come up again and again — who is "Israel" here, and what does it mean that God Himself makes Israel holy?
The chapter moves from a valley of dry bones to a nation re-made. The sanctuary is where the story lands. One writer traces the steps:
The dry bones of Israel, of the nation as a whole, are gathered together by the power of God... It is the resurrection of the nation, which was really dead and buried. But God opens their graves, and places them again in their land restored to life as a nation... God Himself will cleanse them completely. They will walk in His statutes and His judgments, and live for ever in their land. The sanctuary of God will be in their midst for ever; His tabernacle, His dwelling-place, will be among them, He their God and they His people.
The sanctuary does not rest on Israel's record. The verses just before it speak of an everlasting covenant. One writer links that covenant to David and to the resurrection of Christ:
It is, as Isaiah says, the sure mercies of David — that everlasting covenant the LORD makes with Israel; and the resurrection of Christ explains it. So He was to reign — not only to ascend and become the beginning and Head of a new work on high, but to reign — over Israel in their land.
Another writer compares it with the covenant made at Mount Sinai:
Israel's covenant, made at Sinai, could bring no restoration. But God promises to make a covenant that will last for ever, and by it He will restore the nation and bring it to acknowledge Him.
Much of the debate over this verse is about whether "Israel" means the church. Writers here say no. The chapter describes two long-divided kingdoms becoming one:
It is just as pointless to twist such language to fit the remnant of Jews who returned from Babylon as to fit the church at Pentecost. There is not even a resemblance. It is a union of the two long-divided houses of Israel, and nothing else. Not even a shadow of it has happened yet... Never again will they be divided, never again defiled.
The wording here is not new. God said something very close to it at Sinai, and the repetition is itself the point:
While Israel was still in the wilderness, God gave instructions about how they were to live once they reached the land. With them He gave this promise, on condition that they obeyed: "I will make my dwelling among you... And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people." (Lev. 26:11-12.) Because of Israel's sins, this promise was never fully kept. So it is repeated through Ezekiel — God never lets His purpose fail — and applied to the time of Messiah's kingdom.
(Older translations read "I will set my tabernacle among you.") Dennett adds that God's tent in the wilderness, with the tribes camped around it, pictured the same thing.
The verse makes the nations the audience. What they learn is how God governs the world:
Many verses say, "And they shall know that I am the LORD." The leading thought in those declarations and judgments of God is this: the showing of His government on the earth. It is a government that makes clear the true character of God in His rule, and secures its display in the world, despite the unfaithfulness of His people — and that, in grace as well as in holiness.
The sanctuary is a real place, not just a spiritual idea:
When Zion is restored, Israel will have the sanctuary of God once more. This was what marked them out long ago, and it will be so again in the day to come... The cloud of glory that left so unwillingly when Israel sinned will return again to their joy.
- Resurrection. The chapter begins with a nation as dead as dry bones. God opens the graves. Everything that follows — one king, one land, one sanctuary — flows from that.
- Covenant. The guarantee is an everlasting covenant of peace. The covenant made at Sinai, writers here say, could never restore anyone.
- Dwelling. God's aim all along is to live among His people. He made this promise in the wilderness, and He renews it here, because He never drops His purpose.
- Israel. Writers here read this of a real reunion of the two long-divided houses of Israel in their own land. They reject reading it of the church or of the return from Babylon.
- Witness. The nations are the audience. When the sanctuary stands in Israel's midst, they see God's rule over the earth for what it is — in grace as well as in holiness.