The address is still to the mountains of Israel. These are beautiful words which Jehovah, to comfort His people, puts into the lips of the prophet. The mountains, so long barren, would shoot forth their branches and prepare fruit for His people. Then their imminent return is announced: "For they are at hand to come." The near fulfillment was the return of the remnant from the Babylonian captivity. But that does not exhaust this prophecy; there is a greater homecoming in store for Israel, when they will be gathered out of all countries to possess the land and multiply there as they never did in all their past history. "And I will multiply men upon you (the mountains), all the house of Israel, even all of it." No one could claim that this promise found its fulfillment when a small portion of the house of Judah returned from Babylon. Here it speaks of all the house of Israel. And the waste places shall also be builded again as promised by former prophets, for instance in Isaiah lviii:12, lxi:4; Amos ix:11, 12, 14. Still greater is the promise, "I will cause you to be inhabited after the former estate, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Such was not the case when they returned from Babylon. And what blessing will come to them, when at last God does all these things! "Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you (the mountains), even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men." All would be changed. Jeremiah had announced, "I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people since they return not from their ways" (Jere. xv:7). When the Lord keeps His promise and brings them back, their sorrows will be at an end. What are the sorrows and sufferings of the Babylonian captivity in comparison with the sufferings which befell them in the year 70 and throughout this dispensation! And the last page of Israel's sorrow is yet to be written. All is preparing now for the great tribulation, and then there will be the intervention from above, and the coming Lord will wipe away all their tears. Four times the prophet uses the words "any more" (verses 14-15), "Neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nation to stumble any more, saith the Lord God." Inasmuch as there is reproach now upon that nation and they are a reproach, and that they have stumbled, we know that these words still await their fulfillment.
III. Israel's Past Sins and Chastisement.
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they had entered unto the nations, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land (verses 16-20).
It needs no lengthy comment to explain this paragraph. The whole history of that nation bears witness to it. They were an unclean, a stiffnecked nation; a nation which rejected His word, yea, Himself, and worshipped idols. But their crowning sin came when they delivered the Lord Jesus Christ, their own Messiah-King, into the hands of the Gentiles. His blood was shed upon the land and they cried, "His blood be upon us and upon our children." And as a result they were scattered among the nations, where they also profaned His holy name (Isaiah lii:5; Rom. ii:24). What then has Israel done to deserve blessing? The rest of the chapter answers this question.
IV. Restoration and Blessing Through Grace.
But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify 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 the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 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. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses; and I will call for the corn and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the nations. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 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 become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate; I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord (verses 21-38).
The Lord's own name, His holy name, which they profaned among the nations, is what moves Him to act. He tells them that it was not for their sakes, for any merit in them, that He would do the things which His prophet is about to announce. It was His own name as the Lord Who is a covenant keeping God, the holy name they had so miserably outraged, which He must vindicate. The nations were to know, and will yet know, that He is God. He will sanctify His great name, and declares, "I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes." But how? When in infinite grace He deals with this nation and manifests Himself as the loving, covenant-keeping, grace-bestowing Jehovah. And that will be when He, Who died for that nation on the cross (John xii:50-53), Whom they rejected, Whose name they have profaned, returns from His glory-place. Then will His name be sanctified in all the earth, when in wondrous grace He lifts His nation from the dunghill of shame and want and brings them back to their own land.
This is so marvelously promised by Ezekiel. The characteristic word in verses 23-38 is the word "I will." It is the word of sovereign grace. Eighteen times Jehovah saith what He will do. They are the "I wills" of Israel's hope and coming glory.
He will gather them from among the nations and all countries and bring them back to their own land. Only a superficial expositor can speak of a fulfillment when they returned from Babylon. But even if this were so, though it is not, the verses which follow have never been fulfilled in the past. The cleansing of the nation is next promised: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean."[29] It refers us to the water mixed with the ashes of the red-heifer, which was sprinkled with a hyssop on the unclean, typifying the precious blood of Christ in its cleansing power (Heb. ix:13-14; x:22). Thus when the people of Israel believe on Him and look upon Him Whom they pierced (Zech. xii: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. xiii:1). Then follows the promise of the new birth of Israel. "A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." The stony heart is to be taken away and they will receive a heart of flesh. Our Lord had this passage in mind when He talked with Nicodemus about the new birth. Nicodemus, the teacher in Israel, was ignorant of the fact that this new birth for Israel is necessary in order to be in that coming kingdom and to receive its blessings. Therefore the Lord said to him, "If I have told you earthly things (about Israel and the new birth as the way into the kingdom) and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" (the heavenly blessings which follow His sacrificial death).