15 28<\/strong>. Prophecy of the reunion of the restored Israel into one kingdom, ruled by one king, even David<\/p>\n (1) Eze 37:15-23<\/em><\/span>. Symbol of the union of Judah and Israel into one kingdom, with its explanation.<\/p>\n (2) Eze 37:24-25<\/em><\/span>. There shall be one king over the new nation, even David.<\/p>\n (3) Eze 37:26-28<\/em><\/span>. Jehovah’s covenant with the people shall be everlasting, and his presence will sanctify them.<\/p>\n Eze 37:15-17<\/span><\/p>\n Take thee one stick.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Joining the sticks<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Contrary to nature.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Displeasing to God.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Disastrous to themselves.<\/p>\n That and other sin had reduced them to a condition of national bankruptcy, physical serfdom, social misery, and moral degradation.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is of great importance to the Church itself.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is an immense advantage to the surrounding community.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It is well pleasing and highly honouring to God.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He breathed into them a principle of spiritual life.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>He sent them wise advisers and earnest intercessors.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>He visited them with a sore trial. The Babylonish captivity. Common suffering often awakens common sympathy, and common sorrow begets mutual interest.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>He appointed them a common work. The rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem. A common service for Christ is still promotive of union among Christians.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>He makes His residence in their midst (Eze 37:27<\/span>). Christ in the midst of a Church acts like a magnet in the midst of steel particles: He attracts all to Himself. As Christians are enabled to love Christ and approach Christ, so will they love one another and approach one another. (F. Morgan.<\/em>)<\/p>\n The word of the Lord came unto me again<\/strong>,…. Immediately or quickly after he had the above vision of the dry bones, and the explanation of it:<\/p>\n saying<\/strong>: as follows:<\/p>\n Reunion of Israel as One Nation under the Future King David<\/p>\n This word of God directs the prophet to represent by a sign the reunion of the tribes of Israel, which have been divided into two kingdoms (Eze 37:15-17<\/span>), and to explain this sign to the people (Eze 37:18-21<\/span>), and predict its sanctification and blessedness under the reign of the future David (Eze 37:22-28<\/span>). What is new in this word of God is the express prediction embodied in a symbolical action, of the reunion of the divided tribes of Israel into one single people of God, which has been already hinted at in the promise of the raising to life of “the whole house of Israel” (Eze 37:11<\/span>). This brief indication is here plainly expressed and more fully developed.<\/p>\n Eze 37:15-28<\/span><\/p>\n Eze 37:15<\/span>. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, <\/em> Eze 37:16<\/span>. And thou, son of man, take to thyself a piece of wood, and write upon it: Of Judah, and the sons of Israel, his associates; and take another piece of wood, and write upon it: Of Joseph, the wood of Ephraim, and the whole house of Israel, his associates; <\/em> Eze 37:17<\/span>. And put them together, one to the other, into one piece of wood to thee, that they may be united in thy hand. <\/em> Eze 37:18<\/span>. And when the sons of thy people say to thee, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by this? <\/em> Eze 37:19<\/span>. Say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will take the wood of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his associates, which I put thereon, with the wood of Judah, and will make them into one stick, that they may be one in my hand. <\/em> Eze 37:20<\/span>. And the pieces of wood upon which thou hast written shall be in thy hand before their eyes. <\/em> Eze 37:21<\/span>. And say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will take the sons of Israel out of the nations among whom they walk, and will gather them from round about, and lead them into their land. <\/em> Eze 37:22<\/span>. I will make them into one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all; and it shall not become two nations any more, and they shall not henceforth be divided into two kingdoms any more; <\/em> Eze 37:23<\/span>. And shall not defile themselves by their idols and their abominations, and by all their transgressions; but I will help them from all their dwelling-places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; so that they shall be my people, and I will be their God. <\/em> Eze 37:24<\/span>. And my servant David will be king over them, and be a shepherd for them all; and they will walk in my rights, and keep my statutes and do them. <\/em> Eze 37:25<\/span>. And they will dwell in the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, in which their fathers dwelt; there will they dwell, and their children’s children for ever; and my servant David will be a prince to them for ever. <\/em> Eze 37:26<\/span>. And I make a covenant of peace with them for ever, an everlasting covenant shall be with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and put my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever. <\/em> Eze 37:27<\/span>. And my dwelling will be over them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. <\/em> Eze 37:28<\/span>. And the nation shall know that I am Jehovah, who sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.<\/p>\n <\/em> The symbolical action commanded in Eze 37:16<\/span> and Eze 37:17<\/span>, which the prophet no doubt performed in all its external reality (cf. Eze 37:19<\/span> and Eze 37:20<\/span>), is easily understood, and expresses the thing to be represented in the the clearest manner. The writing of the names of the tribes composing the two kingdoms recalls to mind the similar act on the part of Moses (Num 17:1-13<\/span>:17ff.). But the act itself is a different one here, and neither the passage referred to nor Eze 21:15<\/span> furnishes any proof that signifies a staff or rod. Ezekiel would undoubtedly have used for a staff. Nor have we even to think of flat boards, but simply of pieces of wood upon which a few words could be written, and which could be held in one hand. The before the names to be written upon each piece of wood is the sign of the genitive, indicating to whom it belongs, as in the case of the heading to David’s psalms ( ). This is evident from the fact that in the construct state is used instead. The name is to indicate that the piece of wood belongs to Judah or Ephraim, and represents it. The command to Ezekiel to write upon one piece of wood, not only Judah, but “the sons of Israel, his associates,” arose from the circumstance that the kingdom of Judah included, in addition to the tribe of Judah, the greater portion of Benjamin and Simeon, the tribe of Levi and those pious Israelites who emigrated at different times from the kingdom of the ten tribes into that of Judah, who either were or became associates of Judah (2Ch 11:12<\/span>., 2Ch 15:9<\/span>; 2Ch 30:11<\/span>, 2Ch 30:18<\/span>; 2Ch 31:1<\/span>). In the writing upon the second piece of wood, is an explanatory apposition to , and an accusative governed by . But the command is not to be understood as signifying that Ezekiel was to write the words upon the piece of wood; all that he was to write was, “Joseph and the whole house of Israel, his associates.” The name of Joseph is chosen, in all probability, not as the more honourable name, as Hvernick supposes, but because the house of Joseph, consisting of the two powerful tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, formed the trunk of the kingdom of the ten tribes (Kliefoth). The “whole house of Israel, his associates,” are the rest of the tribes belonging to that kingdom. The two pieces of wood, with these inscriptions upon them, Ezekiel is to put together, and hold in his hand bound together in one. , what these (two pieces of wood) are to thee, is equivalent to, what thou meanest to indicate by them. For the rest, compare Eze 24:19<\/span>. In the word of God explaining the action (Eze 37:19<\/span>), the wood of Joseph is not the piece of wood with Joseph’s name written upon it, but the kingdom represented by this piece of wood which was in Ephraim’s hand, inasmuch as the hegemony was with the tribe of Ephraim. Instead of the wood, therefore, the tribes (not staffs) of Israel, i.e., the Israelites who constituted these tribes, are mentioned as his associates. God will put these upon the wood of Joseph ( ), i.e., will join them together, and then place them with the wood of Judah, i.e., the kingdom of Judah, and unite them into one wood (or nation). , the construction of which has been misunderstood by Hitzig, is neither in apposition to , nor governed by : “and will put them thereupon, upon the wood of Judah” (Hitzig and Kliefoth), or, “I add them to it, (namely) with the wood of Judah” (De Wette); but it is dependent upon , “I take the wood of Joseph…and the tribes of Israel, his associates, which I put thereon, along with the wood of Judah, and make them into one wood.” The construction is rendered obscure simply by the fact that the relative clause, “which I put thereon,” is attached to the principal clause ‘ by Vav consec<\/em>. In , “they shall be one in my hand<\/em>,” there is probably an antithesis to , those who have come into Ephraim’s hand, the tribes severed by Ephraim from the kingdom of God, will God once more bring together with Judah, and hold in His hand as an undivided nation. – In Eze 37:20<\/span> the description of the sign is completed by the additional statement, that the pieces of wood on which the prophet has written are to be in his hand before their eyes, and consequently that the prophet is to perform the act in such a way that his countrymen may see it; from which it follows that he performed it in its outward reality. The fulfilment of the instructions is not specially mentioned, as being self-evident; but in Eze 37:21-28<\/span> the further explanation of the symbolical action is given at once; and the interpretation goes beyond the symbol, inasmuch as it not only describes the manner in which God will effect the union of the divided tribes, but also what He will do for the preservation of the unity of the reunited people, and for the promotion of their blessedness. This explanation is arranged in two strophes through the repetition of the concluding thought: “they will be my people,” etc., in Eze 37:23<\/span> and Eze 37:27<\/span>. Each of these strophes contains a twofold promise.<\/p>\n The first (Eze 37:21-23<\/span>) promises ( a<\/em>) the gathering of the Israelites out of their dispersion, their restoration to their own land, and their union as one nation under the rule of David (Eze 37:21<\/span>, Eze 37:22<\/span>); ( b<\/em>) their purification from all sins, and sanctification as the true people of the Lord (Eze 37:23<\/span>). The second strophe (Eze 37:24-27<\/span>) promises ( a<\/em>) their undisturbed eternal abode in the land, under David their prince (Eze 37:25<\/span>); ( b<\/em>) the blessedness conferred upon them through the conclusion of an everlasting covenant of peace (Eze 37:26<\/span> and Eze 37:27<\/span>). This second promise, therefore, constitutes the completion of the first, securing to the nation of Israel its restoration and sanctification for all time. The whole promise, however, is merely a repetition of that contained in Ezekiel 34:11-31 and Eze 36:22-30<\/span>. – The three factors – the gathering out of the nations, restoration to the land of Israel, and reunion as one people – form the first act of divine grace. The union of the Israelites, when brought back to their land, is accomplished by God giving them in David a king who will so rule the reunited people that they will not be divided any more into two peoples and two kingdoms. The Chetib<\/em> is not to be altered into the plural , as in the Keri<\/em>; but is to be supplied in thought, from the preceding clause, as the subject to the verb. The division of the nation into two kingdoms had its roots, no doubt, in the ancient jealousy existing between the two tribes Ephraim and Judah; but it was primarily brought to pass through the falling away of Solomon from the Lord. Consequently it could only be completely and for ever terminated through the righteous government of the second David, and the purification of the people from their sins. This is the way in which Eze 36:23<\/span> is attached to Eze 36:22<\/span>. For Eze 36:23<\/span><\/em> compare Eze 14:11<\/span> and Eze 36:25<\/span>. Different interpretations have been given of the words, “I help them from all their dwelling-places, in which they have sinned.” They recall to mind Eze 36:29<\/span>, “I help them from all their uncleannesses.” As signifies, in that case, “to preserve therefrom,” so in the present instance the thought can only be, “God will preserve them from all the dwelling-places in which they have sinned.” Hengstenberg is of opinion that the redemption from the dwelling-places does not take place locally, but spiritually, through the cleansing away of all traces of sin, first from the hearts, and then, in consequence, from all around. In this way is the land changed, through the power of the Lord, into another land, from a sinful to a holy one; just as before it had been changed from a holy to a sinful one through the guilt of the people. But if this were the only thought which the words contained, Ezekiel would certainly have placed the before ‘ . As the words read, the deliverance of the people from their sinful dwelling-places is to precede their purification, to prepare the way for it and bring it to pass, and not to follow after it. The dwelling-places, at or in which they have sinned, cannot be the settlements in foreign lands, as Hitzig supposes, but only the dwelling-places in Canaan, to which the Lord would bring them after gathering them from their dispersion. does not signify, “leading out from these dwelling-places,” which is the explanation given by Kliefoth, who consequently thinks that we must understand the words as denoting the leading over of Israel from the present Canaan, or the Canaan of this life, to which its sins adhere, to the glorified, new, and eternal Canaan. This view is utterly irreconcilable both with the words themselves and also with the context. Even if meant to lead out, it would not be allowable to transform the “leading out” from the sinful Canaan into a “leading in” to the glorified and heavenly Canaan. Moreover, the further development of this promise in Eze 37:25<\/span> also shows that it is not in the glorified, eternal Canaan that Israel is to dwell, but in the earthly Canaan in which its fathers dwelt. It is obvious from this, that in all the promise here given there is no allusion to a transformation and glorification of Canaan itself. The helping or saving from all dwelling-places in which they have sinned would rather consist in the fact, therefore, that God would remove from their dwelling-places everything that could offer them an inducement to sin. For although sin has its seat, not in the things without us, but in the heart, the external circumstances of a man do offer various inducements to sin. Before the captivity, Canaan offered such an inducement to the Israelites through the idolatry and moral corruption of the Canaanites who were left in the land. And with reference to this the Lord promises that in future, when His people are brought back to Canaan, He will preserve them from the sinful influence of their dwelling-places. But this preservation will only be effected with complete success when God purifies Israel itself, and, by means of its renovation, eradicates all sinful desire from the heart (cf. Eze 36:26-27<\/span>). In this way is appended in the most fitting way to ‘ . – Through the removal of all sinful influences from around them, and the purifying of the heart, Israel will then become in truth the people of God, and Jehovah the God of Israel (Eze 37:23<\/span>).<\/p>\n Israel, when thus renewed, will walk in the rights of the Lord and fulfil His commandments, under the protection of its one shepherd David, i.e., of the Messiah (Eze 37:24<\/span>, cf. Eze 36:27<\/span>, and Eze 34:23<\/span>); and its children and children’s children will dwell for ever in its own land, David being its prince for ever (Eze 37:25<\/span>, and cf. Eze 36:28<\/span> and Eze 34:24<\/span>). What is new in this promise, which is repeated from Ezekiel 34 and 36, is contained in , which is to be taken in the strict sense of the word. Neither the dwelling of Israel in Canaan, nor the government of the David-Messiah, will ever have an end. is therefore repeated in Eze 37:26<\/span> in the promise of the covenant which the Lord will make with His people. The thought itself has already been expressed in Eze 34:25<\/span>, and is to be understood, both here and there, as comprehending all the saving good which the Lord will bestow upon all His sanctified people. There are only two factors of this salvation mentioned here in Eze 37:26<\/span><\/em> and Eze 37:27<\/span>, namely, the multiplication of the people, as the earthly side of the divine blessing, and the establishing of His eternal sanctuary in the midst of them as the spiritual side. These two points refer back to the former acts of God, and hold up to view the certain and full realization in the future of what has hitherto been neither perfectly nor permanently accomplished on account of the sins of the people. , in Eze 37:26<\/span>, is not to be taken in connection with , so as to form one idea in the sense of dabo eos multiplicatos <\/em> (Venema and Hengstenberg), for we have no analogies of such a mode of combination; but , I make, or place them, is to be taken by itself, and completed from the context, “I make them into a nation, and I multiply them (cf. Eze 36:10-11<\/span>, Eze 36:37<\/span>). Ezekiel has here Lev 26:9<\/span> and Lev 26:11<\/span> in his mind, as we may see from the fact that the words, “I give my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever,” are obviously formed after Lev 26:11<\/span>, “I give my dwelling in the midst of them;” in such a manner, however, that by the substitution of for , and the addition of , the promise is both deepened and strengthened. In the change of into , he may indeed have had the words of Exo 25:8<\/span> floating before his mind, “they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them;” nevertheless he deliberately selected the expression “my sanctuary,” to indicate that the Lord would dwell in the midst of Israel as the Holy One, and the Sanctifier of His people. Moreover, the words are not, “my dwelling will be in the midst of them, or among them” ( ), but , over them. This expression is transferred from the site of the temple, towering above the city (Psa 68:30<\/span>), to the dwelling of God among His people, to give prominence to the protective power and saving grace of the God who rules in Israel (cf. Hengstenberg on Psa 68:30<\/span>). The sanctuary which Jehovah will give in Israel for ever, i.e., will found and cause to endure, that He may dwelling the midst of it to shelter and bless, is the temple, but not the temple built by Zerubbabel. As an objection to this Jewish interpretation, Jerome has justly said: “but how could it be said to stand ‘ for ever<\/em>,’ when that temple which was built in the time of Zerubbabel, and afterwards restored by many others, was consumed by Roman fire? All these things are to be taken as referring to the church in the time of the Saviour, when His tabernacle was placed in the church.” There is no reference whatever here to the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel; not because that temple did not stand for ever and was destroyed by the Romans, but chiefly because God did not make it His abode, or fill this temple with His gracious presence (Shechinah). The sanctuary which God will place for ever among His people is the sanctuary seen by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 40ff.; and this is merely a figurative representation of the “dwelling of God in the midst of His people through His Son and Holy Spirit” (cf. Vitringa, Observv<\/em>. I. p. 161), which began to be realized in the incarnation of the Logos, who is set forth in Joh 1:14<\/span> as the true , in the words , and is continued in the spiritual dwelling of God in the heart of believers (1Co 3:16<\/span>; 1Co 6:19<\/span>), and will be completed at the second coming of our Lord in the “tabernacle ( ) of God with men” of the new Jerusalem, of which the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple, since Israel will then first have become in truth the people of God, and Jehovah (God with them) their God (Rev 21:3<\/span>, Rev 21:22<\/span>). – The promise concludes in Eze 37:28<\/span> with an allusion to the impression which these acts of God in Israel will make upon the heathen (cf. Eze 36:36<\/span>). From the fact that Jehovah erects His sanctuary in the midst of Israel for ever, they will learn that it is He who sanctifieth Israel. , to sanctify, means, “to remove from all connection either with sin or with its consequences. Here the reference is to the latter, because these alone strike the eyes of the heathen; but the former is presupposed as the necessary foundation” (Hengstenberg). The words rest upon the promises of the Pentateuch, where God describes Himself as He who will and does sanctify Israel (compare Exo 31:13<\/span>; Lev 22:31-33<\/span>). This promise, which has hitherto been only imperfectly fulfilled on account of Israel’s guilt, will be perfectly realized in the future, when Israel will walk in the ways of the Lord, renewed by the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n Thus does this prophecy of Ezekiel span the whole future of the people of God even to eternity. But the promise in which it culminates, namely, that the Lord will erect His sanctuary in the midst of His restored people, and there take up His abode above them for ever (Eze 37:26<\/span>.), is of importance as helping to decide the question, how we are to understand the fulfilment of the restoration to Canaan into the land given to the fathers, which is promised to all Israel; whether, in a literal manner, by the restoration of the Israelites to Palestine; or spiritually, by the gathering together of the Israelites converted to the Lord their God and Saviour, and their introduction into the kingdom of God founded by Christ, in which case Canaan, as the site of the Old Testament kingdom of God, would be a symbolical or typical designation of the earthly soil of the heavenly kingdom, which has appeared in the Christian church. – These two different views have stood opposed to one another from time immemorial, inasmuch as the Jews expect from the Messiah, for whose advent they still hope, not only their restoration to Palestine, but the erection of the kingdom of David and the rebuilding of the temple upon Mount Zion, together with the sacrificial worship of the Levitical law; whereas in the Christian church, on the ground of the New Testament doctrine, that the old covenant has been abolished along with the Levitical temple-worship through the perfect fulfilment of the law by Christ and the perpetual efficacy of His atoning sacrifice, the view has prevailed that, with the abolition of the Old Testament form of the kingdom of God, even Palestine has ceased to be the chosen land of the revelation of the saving grace of God, and under the new covenant Canaan extends as far as the Israel of the new covenant, the church of Jesus Christ, is spread abroad over the earth, and that Zion or Jerusalem is to be sought wherever Christendom worships God in spirit and in truth, wherever Christ is with His people, and dwells in the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit. It was by J. A. Bengel and C. F. Oetinger that the so-called “realistic” interpretation of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament – according to which, after the future conversion to Christ of the Jewish people who are hardened still, the establishment of the kingdom of God in Palestine and its capital Jerusalem is to be expected – has been revived and made into one of the leading articles of Christian hope. By means of this “realistic” exposition of the prophetic word the chiliastic dogma of the establishment of a kingdom of glory before the last judgment and the end of the world is then deduced from the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse; and many of the theologians of our day regard this as the certain resultant of a deeper study of the Scriptures. In the more precise definition of the dogma itself, the several supporters diverge very widely from one another; but they all agree in this, that they base the doctrine chiefly upon the prophetic announcement of the eventual conversion and glorification of all Israel. – As Ezekiel then stands out among all the prophets as the one who gives the most elaborate prediction of the restoration of Israel under the government of the Messiah, and he not only draws in Ezekiel 40-48 a detailed picture of the new form of the kingdom of God, but also in Ezekiel 38 and 39, in the prophecy concerning Gog and Magog, foretells an attack on the part of the heathen world upon the restored kingdom of God, which appears, according to Rev 20:7-9<\/span>, to constitute the close of the thousand years’ reign; we must look somewhat more closely at this view, and by examining the arguments pro<\/em> and con<\/em>, endeavour to decide the question as to the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the future of Israel. In doing this, however, we shall fix our attention exclusively upon the exegetical arguments adduced in support of the chiliastic view by its latest supporters.<\/p>\n (Note: These are, C. A. Auberlen, “The Prophet Daniel and the Revelation of John;” also in a treastise on the Messianic Prophecies of the Mosaic times, in the Jahrbb.f. deutsche Theologie<\/em>, IV pp. 778ff.; J. C. K. Hofmann, in his Weissagung und Erfllung im A. u. N. Testamente<\/em>, and in the Schriftbeweis<\/em>, vol. II p. 2; Mich. Baumgarten, article “Ezekiel” in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia<\/em>, and here and there in his commentary on the Old Testament; C. E. Luthardt, The Doctrine of the Last Things in Treatises and Expositions of Scripture<\/em> (1851); and Dr. Volck, in the Dorpater Zeitschfit fr Theologie und Kirche<\/em>, IX pp. 142ff.; and others.)<\/p>\n The prophetic announcement, that the Lord will one day gather together again the people of Israel, which has been thrust out among the heathen for its unfaithfulness, will bring it back into the land given to the fathers, and there bless and greatly multiply it, has its roots in the promises of the law. If the stiff-necked transgressors of the commandments of God – these are the words of Lev 26:40-45<\/span> – bear the punishment of their iniquity in the land of their enemies, and confess their sins, and their uncircumcised heart is humbled, then will the Lord remember His covenant with the patriarchs, and not cast them off even in the land of their enemies, to destroy them, and to break His covenant with them; but will remember the covenant which He made with their ancestors, when He brought them out of Egypt before the eyes of the nations to be their God. He will, as this is more precisely defined in Deu 30:3<\/span>., gather them together again out of the heathen nations, lead them back into the land which their fathers possessed, and multiply Israel more than its fathers. On the ground of this promise, of which Moses gives a still further pledge to the people in his dying song (Deu 32:36-43<\/span>), all the prophets announce the restoration and ultimate glorification of Israel. This song, which closes with the promise, “Rejoice, ye nations, over His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and repay vengeance to His adversaries, and expiate His land, His people,” continues to resound – to use the words of Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, II 2, pp. 89, 90) – ”through all the Old Testament prophecy. Not only when Obadiah (Oba 1:17<\/span>) and Joel (Joe 3:5<\/span>) promise good to their nation do they call Mount Zion and the city of Jerusalem the place where there is protection from the judgment upon the nations of the world; but Micah also, who foretells the destruction of the temple and the carrying away of his people to Babylon, beholds Mount Zion exalted at last above all the seats of worldly power, and his people brought back to the land of their fathers (Eze 4:1<\/span>; Eze 7:14<\/span>). The same Isaiah, who was sent to harden his people with the word of his prophecy, is nevertheless certain that at last a holy nation will dwell in Jerusalem, a remnant of Israel (Isa 4:3<\/span>; Isa 10:21<\/span>); and the holy mountain of Jehovah, to which His scattered people return from all the ends of the world, is that abode of peace where even wild beasts do no more harm under the rule of the second David (Isa 11:9<\/span>, Isa 11:11<\/span>). After all the calamities which it was the mournful lot of Jeremiah to foretell and also to witness, Jehovah showed this prophet the days when He would restore His people, and bring them back to the land which He gave to their fathers (Jer 30:3<\/span>)…. And the same promise is adhered to even after the return. In every way is the assurance given by Zechariah, that Judah shall be God’s holy possession in God’s holy land.”<\/p>\n (Note: Compare with this the words of Auberlen ( der Prophet Daniel<\/em>, p. 399, ed. 2): “The doctrine of the glorious restoration of Israel to Canaan, after severe chastisement and humiliation, is so essential and fundamental a thought of all prophecy, that the difficulty is not so much to find passages to support it, as to make a selection from them. By way of example, let us notice Isa 2:2-4<\/span>; Isa 4:2-6<\/span>; Isa 9:1-6<\/span>, Isa 9:11<\/span> and Isa 9:12<\/span>; more especially Isa 11:11<\/span>., 24ff., 60ff.; Jer 30-33; Eze 34:23-31<\/span>, 36-37; Hos 2:16<\/span> -25; Hos 3:4-5<\/span>; Hos 11:8-11<\/span>; Hos 14:2<\/span>.; Joe 3:1-5<\/span>; 4:16-21; Amo 9:8-15<\/span>; Oba 1:17<\/span>; Mic 2:12-13<\/span>; Mic 4:1-13<\/span>; Mic 5:1-15<\/span>; Mic 7:11-20<\/span>); Zep 3:14-20<\/span>; Zec 2:4<\/span>., Zec 8:7<\/span>., Zec 9:9<\/span>., Zec 10:8-12<\/span>; 12:2-13:6; Zec 14:8<\/span>.” Auberlen (pp. 400f.) then gives the following as the substance of these prophetic descriptions: “Israel having been brought back to its own land, will be the people of God in a much higher and deeper sense than before; inasmuch as sin will be averted, the knowledge of God will fill the land, and the Lord will dwell again in the midst of His people at Jerusalem. A new period of revelation is thus commenced, the Spirit of God is richly poured out, and with this a plenitude of such gifts of grace as were possessed in a typical manner by the apostolic church. And this rich spiritual life has also its perfect external manifestation both in a priestly and a regal form. The priesthood of Israel was more especially seen by Ezekiel, the son of a priest, in his mysterious vision in ch. 40-48; the monarchy by Daniel, the statesman; while Jeremiah, for example, unites the two (Jer 33:17-22<\/span>). What took place only in an outward way, i.e., in the letter, during the Old Testament times, and withdrew, on the other hand, into the inward and hidden spirit-life during the time of the Christian church, will then manifest itself outwardly also, and assume an external though pneumatic form. In the Old Testament the whole of the national life of Israel in its several forms of manifestation, domestic and political life, labour and art, literature and culture, was regulated by religion, though only at first in an outward and legal way. The church, on the other hand, has, above all, to urge a renewal of the heart, and must give freedom to the outward forms which life assumes, enjoining upon the conscience of individual men, in these also to glorify Christ. In the thousand years’ reign all these departments of life will be truly Christianized, and that from within. Looked at in this light, there will be nothing left to give offence, if we bear in mind that the ceremonial law of Moses corresponds to the priesthood of Israel, and the civil law to the monarchy. The Gentile church has only been able to adopt the moral law, however certainly it has been directed merely to the inwardly working means of the word, or of the prophetic office. But when once the priesthood and the kingly office have been restored, then, without doing violence to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the ceremonial and civil law of Moses will unfold its spiritual depths in the worship and constitution of the thousand years’ reign.”)<\/p>\n Continued in next section<\/p>\n [continued from previous section]<\/p>\n <\/em> This restoration of Israel Ezekiel describes, in harmony with Jer 31, though in a much more detailed picture, in the following way: – ”The condition of things in the future will differ from that in the past, simply in the fact that Israel will then have a heart converted to fidelity and obedience by the Spirit of God (Eze 11:19<\/span>; Eze 36:27<\/span>), and will live in good peace and prosperity under the shelter of its God, who is known and acknowledged by all the world (Eze 36:23<\/span>). The land to which it is restored, a land most decidedly represented by Ezekiel as the same as that in which its fathers lived (Eze 37:25<\/span>), appears throughout merely as a happy earthly dwelling-place, and the promise of its possession as an assurance given to a nation continuing to propagate itself in peace” (Hofmann, p. 576). This manner of depicting the condition of the Israel restored and glorified by the Messiah, as a peaceful settlement and a happy life in the land of the fathers, a life rich in earthly possessions, is not confined, however, to Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but stands out more or less conspicuously in the Messianic pictures of all the prophets. What follows, then, from this in relation to the mode in which these prophecies are to be fulfilled? Is it that the form assumed by the life of the people of Israel when restored will be only a heightened repetition of the conditions of its former life in Palestine, undisturbed by sin? By no means. On the contrary, it follows from this that the prophets have depicted the glorious restoration of Israel by the Messiah by means of figures borrowed from the past and present of the national life of Israel, and therefore that their picture is not to be taken literally, but symbolically or typically, and that we are not to expect it to be literally fulfilled.<\/p>\n We are forced to this conclusion by the fact that, through the coming of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven which began with Him, the idea of the people of God has been so expanded, that henceforth not the lineal descendants of Abraham, or the Jewish nation merely, but the church of confessors of Jesus Christ, gathered together out of Israel and the Gentiles, has become the people of God, and the economy of the Old Testament has ceased to constitute the divinely appointed from of the church of God. If, therefore, the Jewish people, who have rejected the Saviour, who appeared in Jesus Christ, and have hardened themselves against the grace and truth revealed in Him, are not cast off for ever, but, according to the promises of the Old Testament and the teaching of the Apostle Paul (Rom 11), will eventually repent, and as a people turn to the crucified One, and then also realize the fulfilment of the promises of God; there is still lacking, with the typical character of the prophetic announcement, any clear and unambiguous biblical evidence that all Israel, whose salvation is to be looked for in the future, will be brought back to Palestine, when eventually converted to Christ the crucified One, and continue there as a people separated from the rest of Christendom, and from the earthly centre of the church of the Lord gathered out of all nations and tongues. For, however well founded the remark of Hofmann ( ut sup<\/em>. p. 88) may be, that “holy people and holy land are demanded by one another;” this proves nothing more than that the holy people, gathered out of all the families of the earth through the believing reception of the gospel, will also have a holy land for its dwelling-place; in other words, that, with the spread of the church of the Lord over all the quarters of the globe, the earth will become holy land or Canaan, so far as it is inhabited by the followers of Christ. The Apostle Paul teaches this in the same Epistle in which he foretells to Israel, hardened in unbelief, its eventual restoration and blessedness; when he explains in Rom 4:9-13<\/span> that to Abraham or his seed the promise that he was to be the heir of the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness of the faith, which Abraham had when still uncircumcised, that he might become a father of all those who believe, though they be not circumcised, and a father of the circumcision, not merely of those who are of the circumcision, but of those also who walk in the footsteps of his faith. And the apostle, when developing this thought, interprets the promise given to the patriarch in Gen 12:7<\/span> and Gen 15:18<\/span>: “to thy seed will I give this land” (i.e., the land of Canaan), by (inheriting the world), he regards Canaan as a type of the world or of the earth, which would be occupied by the children born of faith to the patriarch.<\/p>\n This typical interpretation of the promise, given in the Old Testament to the seed of Abraham, of the everlasting possession of the land of Canaan, which is thus taught by the Apostle Paul, and has been adopted by the church on his authority, corresponds also to the spirit and meaning of the Old Testament word of God. This is evident from Gen 17, where the Lord God, when instituting the covenant of circumcision, gives not to Abraham only, but expressly to Sarah also, the promise to make them into peoples ( ), that king of nations ( ) shall come from them through the son, whom they are to receive (Gen 17:6<\/span> and Gen 17:16<\/span>), and at the same time promises to give to the seed of Abraham, thus greatly to be multiplied, the land of his pilgrimage, the whole land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession (Gen 17:8<\/span>). This promise the Lord, as the “almighty God,” has not carried into effect by making Abraham and Sarah into nations through the lineal posterity of Isaac, but only through the spiritual seed of Abraham, believers out of all nations, who have become, and still will become, children of Abraham in Christ. It was only through these that Abraham became the father of a multitude of nations ( , Gen 17:5<\/span>). For although two peoples sprang from Isaac, the Israelites through Jacob, and the Edomites through Esau, and Abraham also became the ancestor of several tribes through Ishmael and the sons of Keturah, the divine promise in question refers to the people of Israel alone, because Esau was separated from the seed of the promise by God Himself, and the other sons of Abraham were excluded by the fact that they were not born of Sarah. The twelve tribes, however, formed but one people; and although Ezekiel calls them two peoples (Eze 35:10<\/span> and Eze 37:22<\/span>), having in view their division into two kingdoms, they are never designated or described in the Old or New Testament as . To this one people God did indeed give the land of Canaan for a possession, according to the boundaries described in Num 34, so that it dwelt therein until it was driven out and scattered among the heathen for its persistent unfaithfulness. But inasmuch as that portion of the promise which referred to the multiplication of the seed of Abraham into peoples was only to receive its complete fulfilment in Christ, according to the counsel and will of God, through the grafting of the believing Gentile nations into the family of Abraham, and has so received it, we are not at liberty to restrict the other portion of this promise, relating to the possession of the land of Canaan, to the lineal posterity of the patriarch, or the people of Israel by lineal descent, but must assume that in the promise of the land to be given to the seed of Abraham God even then spoke of Canaan as a type of the land which was to be possessed by the posterity of Abraham multiplied into nations.<\/p>\n This typical phraseology runs through all the prophetical writings of the Old Testament, and that both with regard to the promised seed, which Abraham received through Isaac (Gen 21:12<\/span>) in the people of Israel, and also with reference to the land promised to this seed for an inheritance, although, while the old covenant established at Sinai lasted, Israel according to the flesh was the people of God, and the earthly Canaan between the Euphrates and the river of Egypt was the dwelling-place of this people. For inasmuch as Abraham received the promise at the very time of his call, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, and the germs of the universal destination of the people and kingdom of God were deposited, according to Gen 17, in the subsequent patriarchal promises, the prophets continued to employ the names of Israel and Canaan more and more in their Messianic prophecies as symbolical terms for the two ideas of the people and kingdom of God. And from the time when the fortress of Jerusalem upon Mount Zion was exalted by David into the capital of his kingdom and the seat of his government over Israel, and was also made the site of the dwelling of Jehovah in the midst of His people, by the removal of the ark of the covenant to Zion, and the building of the temple which was planned by David, though only carried into execution by Solomon his son, they employed Zion and Jerusalem in the same typical manner as the seat and centre of the kingdom of God; so that, in the Messianic psalms and the writings of the prophets, Zion or Jerusalem is generally mentioned as the place from which the king (David-Messiah), anointed by Jehovah as prince over His people, extends His dominion over all the earth, and whither the nations pour to hear the law of the Lord, and to be instructed as to His ways and their walking in His paths.<\/p>\n Consequently neither the prominence expressly given to the land in the promises contained in Lev 26:42<\/span> and Deu 32:43<\/span>, upon which such stress is laid by Auberlen ( die messianische Weissagungen <\/em>, pp. 827 and 833), nor the fact that Mount Zion or the city of Jerusalem is named as the place of judgment upon the world of nations and the completion of the kingdom of God, to which both Hofmann and Auberlen appeal in the passages already quoted, furnishes any valid evidence that the Jewish people, on its eventual conversion to Christ, will be brought back to Palestine, and that the Lord, at His second coming, will establish the millennial kingdom in the earthly Jerusalem, and take up His abode on the material Mount Zion, in a temple built by human hands.<\/p>\n Even the supporters of the literal interpretation of the Messianic prophecies cannot deny the symbolico-typical character of the Old Testament revelation. Thus Auberlen, for example, observes ( die mess. Weiss<\/em>. p. 821) that, “in their typical character, the sacrifices furnish us with an example of the true signification of all the institutions<\/em> of the Old Testament kingdom of God, while the latter<\/em> exhibit to us in external symbol and type the truly holy people and the Messianic kingdom in its perfection, just as the former set forth the sacrifice of the Messiah.” But among these institutions the Israelitish sanctuary (tabernacle or temple) undoubtedly occupied a leading place as a symbolico-typical embodiment of the kingdom of God established in Israel, as is now acknowledged by nearly all the expositors of Scripture who have any belief in revelation. It is not merely the institutions of the old covenant, however, which have a symbolico-typical signification, but this is also the case with the history of the covenant nation of the Old Testament, and the soil in which this history developed itself. This is so obvious, that Auberlen himself ( ut sup<\/em>. p. 827) has said that “it is quite a common thing with the prophets to represent the approaching dispersion and enslaving of Israel among the heathen as a renewal of their condition in Egypt, and the eventual restoration of both the people and kingdom as a new exodus from Egypt and entrance into Canaan (Hos 2:1-2<\/span> and Hos 2:16<\/span>, Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>The sad condition of the people of Israel at the time the prophet wrote. It was that of separation and of estrangement. Such a condition was–<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The happy condition to which the people of Israel were about to be restored. That of unity, harmony, and oneness. Union in a Christian Church is a condition greatly to be desiderated, and earnestly to be sought by all its members.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The agency by which this delightful change was to be effected.<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n