“Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob.
Ezekiel 28 closes a long run of prophecies against Tyre and Sidon. Then the tone changes. The last word is not the fall of a proud city but the gathering of a scattered people. Two questions follow: what does it mean for God to "manifest my holiness" in Israel, and who does this promise belong to?
Placement in the chapter
The verse comes right after the judgment announced on Sidon. One writer traces the order of the whole closing section:
J. N. DarbyThe judgment of Sidon is added. And then, once all hope has been taken from Israel, and the judgment of the nations is complete, God gathers them and settles them in their land in peace for ever.
How God makes Himself known
God had just said He would be shown to be holy in Sidon. One writer sets that beside Israel, and beside the way God is known today:
William KellyGod is now known in and by His grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. Before the gospel He was known by His judgments, and so it will be again, when the year of Jehovah's favour begins together with the day of vengeance of our God. How solemn is the difference between the lines marked out for Sidon and for Israel! The Sidonians would know He is Jehovah by the judgments in their city, the judgments through which He would be shown to be holy. Israel would know Him as Jehovah their God in a different way. They would know Him when He has gathered them in from the nations where they are still scattered, and when He is shown to be holy in them in the sight of the nations.
Holiness completed in blessing
If God can show His holiness by judging a city, why gather a scattered people at all? The answer given here turns on what suits God Himself:
F. W. GrantOnce again, and finally, God will make His name holy. He will do it in the grace that is His own — a grace that cannot surprise us, once we know how it has dealt with ourselves... Yes, He is shown to be holy in judgment first, as He must be. Yet He will only be shown to be fully holy in blessing, as suits Him... This, then, is how the story ends. There is no triumph of man in it, but there is the triumph of God's own sovereign grace.
The land given to Jacob
The land is named as the one God gave to "my servant Jacob". One commentator points out that Israel has so far held it on one basis only:
Hamilton SmithAs to the land: it would be given to Jacob and his seed. Israel took possession of the land, and lost the land, on the ground of responsibility. They have never yet held it according to this promise, on the ground of sovereign grace.
Israel, not a picture of the church
Some apply promises like this one to the church. Commentators here reject that, and point to the chapters that follow in Ezekiel:
T. B. BainesWhat simple blindness to apply this to the Church! So, again: "I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you." The next chapter describes the vision of the dry bones. About those bones the prophet is told, "these bones are the whole house of Israel."
What the watching nations will learn
The verse says God acts "in the sight of the nations". One writer weighs what those watching nations will take from it:
W. TrotterTestimonies such as 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.
Summary
- Judgment first. Sidon learns who God is through the judgments that fall on her. Israel learns the same lesson by a different road — gathering, not ruin.
- Grace completes. Judgment shows God holy because it must. Only blessing shows Him fully holy, and that blessing comes in the grace that is His own.
- The land stands on promise. Israel held the land on the ground of responsibility, and lost it. They have never yet held it on the ground of sovereign grace — and that is what this verse promises.
- Israel, not a symbol. Commentators here read this as a real regathering of the house of Israel, like the vision of dry bones that follows in Ezekiel — not a picture of the church.
- The nations watch. The point of the restoration is public: through it the one true God becomes known everywhere.