Ezekiel prophesied about the judgment of Jerusalem and other nations in
Ezekiel 1-32. In Chapter 33, a messenger came and gave the news that
Jerusalem had been destroyed. Ezekiel then spends the rest of his
prophecies in telling about the restoration of Israel in the future. He
is giving his messages to the Jews in exile where he is also among them.
“Ezekiel was living among the exiles 700 miles from Jerusalem, and
during the period of his preaching the temple was in ruins…Ezekiel was
taken into exile as a captive in 597 BC, after Nebuchadnezzar had
captured Jerusalem and carried away Jehoiachin, the royal family and the
leading citizens and skilled artisans.” (Spirit of the Reformation
Study Bible, p.1304.) While he was in exile, Jerusalem was destroyed in
586 BC.
In trying to understand Ezekiel’s prophecies concerning
the restoration of Israel, we must realize that he was giving hope to
his immediate audience who were the Jews in exile. He was giving them a
message from God that told them that all was not lost and that their
nation would be restored in the future. This restoration would take
place beginning when many of the Jews returned to Palestine under Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel and the temple was rebuilt. However, we cannot
say that Ezekiel’s prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel were
fully fulfilled in this return of the Jews from exile. True, there was a
definite restoration and the temple was rebuilt. Yet, his prophecies
pointed to more than just that return from that first exile of the Jews
in the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel.
For one thing,
Ezekiel prophesies that David would be their shepherd and king. Now,
David was long dead when they returned from the first exile. So, this
prophecy could not have been fulfilled then if Ezekiel was referring to
the David in Israel’s history. He would have to be referring to another
David who would yet come. Who then was that David and had he come when
that first restoration from exile took place? We read in
Ezekiel 34:23-24
– “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will
tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be
their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord
have spoken.” Again, we read in
Ezekiel 37:24
– “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one
shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.
They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where
your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s
children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their
prince forever.” This David could only be referring to the Messiah who
would yet come and not to the historical David who had already died.
David was a type of the Messiah who would come in the future. When the
people of Israel came back to their homeland under Ezra, Nehemiah, and
Zerubbabel, the Messiah had not yet come, but He would come to their
descendants in the future.
Certainly there was a beginning of
the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecies at the first restoration. The
Jews came back to their homeland and rebuilt the temple. It was this
same temple to which the Messiah would come. Two passages point out the
significance of this second temple and its relation to the coming of the
Messiah. First is
Haggai 2:6-9
which says, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I
will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry
land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will
come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.
The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the
former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant
peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” Another passage is
Malachi 3:1
which also points to the Messiah and says, “’See, I will send my
messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord
you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,
whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.” The Messiah did
come to His temple when Jesus came. He visited the temple, He taught in
the temple, He cleansed the temple, He prophesied concerning the temple,
and eventually brought judgment on the temple in 70 AD.
This
first return of the exiles prepared the way for the coming of the
Messiah by the rebuilding of the temple and it would be their
descendants such as Zechariah, Simeon, Anna, and others who would
welcome Him when He came. He would also be welcomed by all who believed
on Him during His earthly ministry.
Though David had died
long before, yet His descendant was there in Jesus Christ. It was this
descendant of David who was recognized and welcomed as the Messiah. On
the Day of Pentecost Peter declared that Jesus was indeed the descendant
of David who would come that it was this Jesus who was the Messiah. In
Acts 2:29-36,
Peter says, “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch
David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a
prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place
one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of
the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave,
nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we
are witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has
received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out
what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet
he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make
your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ Therefore let all Israel be
assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord
and Christ.” Not only had the Messiah come but He had poured our the
Holy Spirit upon His disciples to be with them reminding us of Ezekiel’s
prophecy in
Ezekiel 37:27 where he says, “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
So, we can say that Ezekiel’s prophecies were fulfilled when the Jews
returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple at the first restoration
and was further fulfilled when Jesus came to the temple Himself being
the David that was promised. It was further fulfilled at Pentecost when
the Holy Spirit was poured out and came to live in and with the
disciples. However, we cannot say that this completely fulfills
Ezekiel’s prophecies for there seems to be more yet to come.
One thing we must make clear is that God’s people were continued in and
through the church. Even now Ezekiel’s prophecies are being fulfilled
through the church, the new Israel, as people come to the new David,
Jesus Christ and as God’s Spirit lives in and among them. There is a
definite continuation of God’s people in the church of Jesus Christ and
we cannot accept the sharp distinction made between Israel and the
Church by some popular teachers today. This can be the only proper
interpretation of passages like
Ephesians 2:11-22
– “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and
called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’
(that done in the body by the hands of men) – remember that at that time
you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God
in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have
been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our
peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the
dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its
commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one
new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to
reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to
death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far
away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have
access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer
foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members
of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the
whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in
the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a
dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
This passage and
others like it in the New Testament seem to teach that the church is a
continuation of Israel and the people of God. The prophecies of Ezekiel
point to a time when the people of Israel would serve David, their King.
Certainly a beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy happened at
Christ’s first coming. The New Testament church was begun by the
descendants of those who heard this prophecy of Ezekiel the first time.
The New Testament church was founded by Jewish descendants of the very
ones that Ezekiel gave the promise to.
Again, we read
Ezekiel 37:24-25
– “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one
shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.
The will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where
your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s
children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their
prince forever.” The founders of the New Testament Church were
certainly the ones to whom this prophecy initially referred. They lived
in the land of Israel and they served the new David, Jesus Christ.
However, we cannot say that they completely fulfilled this prophecy for
it speaks of their living in the land forever.
Therefore, we
must look for a further restoration of the Jews in which they would
return to their own land and this time would not leave it again. We must
remember that in 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were
disbursed among the nations. So, the first restoration was not a
permanent one for the Jews. There would have to be another restoration
in the future to see these prophecies of Ezekiel fully completed.
Chapters 38 and 39 seem to point to some future period beyond the first
restoration. It would be a time when the Jews would once again return to
their homeland but this time they would not be scattered about but
would remain in the land. Although nations would attack them, the Jewish
people would remain for God would rescue them. It would also be a time
when they would turn to the Lord and the implication is that they would
accept the Messiah at that time and as a whole would become the
followers of the new David as their shepherd. Ezekiel 39:21-29 describes
this wonderful conversion of the Jewish people to the Lord – “I will
display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the
punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them. From that day forward
the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. And the
nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their
sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and
handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. I
dealt with them according to their uncleaness and their offenses, and I
hid my face from them. Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I
will now bring Jacob back from captivity and will have compassion on
all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. They
will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me
when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them
afraid. When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered
them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy
through them in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am
the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the
nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I
will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on
the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Ezekiel 38-39 corresponds remarkably to
Zechariah 12-14 and seems to describe the same events. God pours out His Spirit on the Jews in both passages.
Zechariah 12:10
says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the
one they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourns for an only
child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”
It is true that in the early church there were Jews who mourned over
their rejection of Jesus and then turned to Him. Yet they were only a
remnant of the total Jewish population. Many Jews continued to reject
Jesus and also persecuted the Christians. The prophecy in Zechariah
mentioned above seems to show a mourning of a much greater extent
encompassing all of the Israelites.
Zechariah 12:11-14
tells of the extent of the conversion that takes place among the Jews –
“On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping
of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan
by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of
David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives,
the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and
their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.”
This future conversion of Israel predicted by Ezekiel in chapters 38-39
seems definitely to be a future event that is yet to come. Though the
Jews are even now back in their homeland in Palestine, the Jewish people
have not as a whole been converted to Christ. Yet, that day will come
according to the Apostle Paul who seems to describe a future conversion
of Israel in
Romans 11; 25-27
(ESV) – “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be
unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon
Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way
all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come
from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my
covenant with them when I take away their sins.’” Earlier Paul talked
about the olive tree representing the people of God. Israel was the root
of the tree but some of her branches had broken off and had been
replaced by others showing that the Gentiles had been grafted into the
olive tree. Yet, he points out that the Jews could yet be grafted in
again to their own olive tree. In
Romans 11:23, Paul says, “And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
Romans 11
predicts a future conversion of the Jews associated with the fullness
of the Gentiles. This could very well be pointing to a future worldwide
revival including the conversion of the Jews to Christ.
Unlike
my dispensational friends, I believe that Israel’s future conversion
will not be a separate event from the church but rather a wholesale
coming into the church and becoming followers of Christ. Their coming in
will be accompanied by an extensive revival among the Gentiles as well
(fullness of the Gentiles).
What we see in Ezekiel 34-39 points
to the Messianic age and a future conversion of the Jews. Parts of
those chapters are fulfilled in the New Testament church but they also
point to a future conversion of the Jews to Christ and a future grafting
in of the Jews into the church.
This article is not a detailed study of
Ezekiel 34-39
but rather a simple overview showing that the prophecies given there
point not just to the first restoration of Israel from exile but rather
to a further fulfillment some of which occurred when Jesus came the
first time and more will be fulfilled in later times when the Jews as a
whole are restored and accept Jesus as their Messiah.
