I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and 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?
God's Own Name, Not Israel's Merit
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.
William KellySuch 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.
Eighteen Promises of Sovereign Grace
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.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinFrom 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.
Not Fulfilled by the Return from Babylon
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.
William KellyThe 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.
The Land First, Then the Heart
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.
J. N. DarbyIn 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.
What a Teacher of Israel Should Have Known
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.
The Bible TreasuryThen, 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 Watching Nations
The gathering is not a private act. One writer looks at its effect on the watching nations.
W. Trotter"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.
Today's Return
What about the movement of Jewish people back to that land today? One writer urges caution.
A J PollockWe 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.
Summary
- 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.