Ezekiel 36:6

First of all we have Jehovah's word to the land itself. This is plainly connected with the claim the Edomite enemy had made to possess it. It must therefore be cleared of this reproach. The land is really Jehovah's land. He has never forfeited it, and He will never give it up to those who are His enemies. Israel are to have it on the surest ground possible — the ground of God's grace. They are to live in it as guests with Him, and so to know all the resources of His hand, and the full protection this relationship requires.

The Land — "My Land," whatever its state or divisions. It is Jehovah's Land, and if the people fail in every way, it falls into His hands. It was only entrusted to Israel — the Gentiles have no right except through Israel's sin, and none at all against the Lord.

So Ezekiel is now instructed to prophesy to the mountains of Israel... These mountains have been addressed before, in the sixth chapter, but in far other terms. They were then the seats of an idolatry that dared to lift its head in a special way in the high places of the land. Desolation had therefore come upon them, and the enemy had taken it up as a reproach both to them and to Jehovah Himself. But these mountains of Israel were green and fruitful ones, the pasture places for the flock; they also testified to the state of a people whom Jehovah owned as His.

Here it is the earth that God is dealing with, not eternal judgment. The prophet was to speak comfort to the mountains of Israel, desolate for so long. For God has not made the earth, or man upon it, to be forever the victims of sin and sorrow, of futility and corruption.

qana, "to be inflamed." It is the warm affection that cannot bear to see its loved one drawn away by another. A man is jealous of his wife, Num. 5:14. Paul felt it for the Corinthian saints, 2 Cor. 11:2. God felt it for the people and the land which He had chosen, and on which He had placed His name. Ps. 79:5; Ezek. 39:25; Joel 2:18; Zech. 1:14; Zech. 8:2. "Jehovah, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God." Ex. 34:14.

That word therefore takes in all the land... This is all the enemy could do. He could not make it yield its fruit to him. We already see this in the long sabbaths, when the land has rested while Israel has been shut out of it. It would yield its strength to none of the nations. The people who hold it now are easily described as mere plunderers, and nothing else... The land is still waiting for her true inhabitants.

The Lord thus pledges His oath, jealous for the blessing of Israel and indignant at the reproach still coming upon them from the nations. It is useless for men to apply such glowing words to the return from Babylon. That return was only a foretaste of what is coming for the whole people. Can anyone who respects Scripture and knows the facts pretend that the Lord multiplied men on the mountains of Israel, "all the house of Israel, even all of it"?

Do we see the people gathering back, and the land being sought by them for a new occupation? Surely we do see it now. In all this we have the proof that God is ready to turn His face towards them and towards their land alike.