Ezekiel 36—Christendom's Early Restoration
36:1. Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the Word of the Lord.—In Chapter 6 is described the iniquities of the nations of Christendom and their doom. Chapter 36 describes the rejoicing of the non-Christian elements over her fall, and God's jealous anger against them. It foretells the early re-peopling of the nations of Christendom, their conversion to true Christianity, and the reason for God's action in behalf of the nations just previously destroyed. Taken literally, it foretells the same good future for His chosen but long-chastised people, the Jews. This is the message to the nations (mountains) of Christendom, as the Word of Jehovah concerning them.
36:2. Thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession.—Because the revolutionists, who shall overthrow the nations of Christendom, shall say against them, “Aha, even the oldest and greatest nations of Christendom are under the control of us revolutionists, Socialists and laborites.”
36:3. Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people.—Thus saith Jehovah God to the nations of Christendom: Because the revolutionists shall have justly made you desolate and overrun you in every direction, so that you might be ruled over by pagan, fleshly-minded, infidel, revolutionary rulers, and because you shall be the subject of flippant discussion among the revolutionaries, and through your fall become infamous among all the heathen peoples of the world, in Europe, America and elsewhere.—Lam. 2:15, 16.
36:4. Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the Word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about.—Therefore, ye nations of Christendom, thus saith Jehovah to the nations, great and [pg 544] small, to the religious denominations, to the lowly members of society, to the masses wasted and desolated by war and revolution, to the governments, local and national that shall be abandoned, which shall become the victims of the Socialists, laborites and other revolutionists, who shall hold you in derision for your fall from eminence to desolation.
36:5. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of My jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed My land into their possessions with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.—Therefore, saith God, surely I am jealous over the reflections they cast upon Me, and at the mouths of many prophets have I foretold the destruction by anarchy of the rest of those who falsely profess My name and then help to desolate Christendom—the “Christian” infidels and all the former fleshly-minded Christians (Idumeans) who shall have presumed, with malicious joy, to overthrow the order of things which bears My name—Christendom!
36:6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I have spoken in My jealousy and in My fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen.—O nations of fallen Christendom, My people, because you shall have borne shame and reproach from the ungodly revolutionists, I will bring My jealous fury to bear upon your destroyers.
36:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I have lifted up Mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.—Jehovah has sworn (lifted the hand) that the Socialists, laborites, etc., shall bear a similar shame and reproach, when their short-lived order of things has in turn been desolated by the anarchists.
36:8. But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.—A branch signifies a person born from another; as, Christ was a Branch of David. Here the branches shooting forth from the mountains are the people of Christendom, slain in revolutions and anarchy, springing forth, rising from the dead, to people Christendom again. But you, O nations, of Christendom, your dead shall rise up from their sleep in the dust of the earth, to the earthly restitution—resurrection; you shall yield proper fruitage as the truly Christian people of Christendom; for they are close at hand to come back in the dust of the earth, in the mire of trenches, fortresses and battle fields. They sleep in death, ready to come, for “All that are in [pg 545] their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth” to resurrection.—John 5:28, 29.