Ezekiel 39:23 - Meaning and Application

This is the closing point of the whole matter. It refers not only to the predictions about Gog and Magog, but to all the prophecies in this book about Israel’s captivity and then their restoration and return from captivity.

God will let the nations understand the true meaning of his people’s troubles. He will also correct the wrong idea of those who used Israel’s suffering to insult the God of Israel, as if he could not protect them or had not kept his covenant with them. When God, after their change of heart and return to him, turned their captivity and brought them back to their land, and then, as they continued in that new path, gave them great deliverance from attacks like Gog’s, it would become clear to any fair observer that there was no reason for those insults. Israel went into captivity, not because God could not protect them, but because their sin had brought them outside his favor and protection (Ezekiel 39:23, Ezekiel 39:24).

The nations would learn that the house of Israel went into captivity because of their guilt, the same kind of guilt they had picked up from the nations around them, because they sinned against God. That was the true reason God hid his face from them and handed them over to their enemies. It was according to their uncleanness and their sins. This would not only silence attacks on God, but also bring great honor to him. When the troubles of God’s people are over and we can see their end, we understand them better than we did at first.

This would show God’s glory in several ways. First, God punishes sin even in his own people, because he hates it most in those who are nearest and dearest to him (Amos 3:2). Justice is praised when it is fair and does not show favoritism. Second, when God gives his people over to trouble, he does it to correct and reform them, not to please their enemies (Isaiah 10:7; Isaiah 42:24). So their enemies should not become proud. Third, no sooner do God’s people humble themselves under his discipline than he turns back to them in mercy.

God will also make his own people see what great favor he has kept for them, even after the troubles he brought them into (Ezekiel 39:25, Ezekiel 39:26): “Now I will bring back Jacob’s captives.” Why now? Because now God will have mercy on the whole house of Israel. He does it, first, because it is time for him to defend his own glory, which was harmed by their suffering. “Now I will be jealous for my holy name,” so that it will no longer be insulted. Second, he does it because they now repent of their sins. They have borne their shame and all their trespasses.

When sinners repent and take shame to themselves, God is ready to forgive and honor them. It especially pleases him when these penitent people look far back over their lives and are ashamed of all the sins they committed while they lived safely in their land and no one made them afraid. They must remember the mercies they enjoyed there and the protection God gave them, and let that make their sins seem even worse. They lived safely and could have kept living safely if they had stayed faithful. In fact, they sinned because they lived safely. Outward safety often leads to inner carelessness, and that opens the door to all sin (Psalm 73).

Now they are willing to bear the shame of this and admit that God justly brought them into a land of trouble, where everyone makes them afraid, because they sinned against him in a land of peace, where no one made them afraid. When they humble themselves under humbling circumstances, God will bring their captivity back.

What follows then? When God gathers them from their enemies and brings them home again, he will be praised for it: “I will be shown holy in them before many nations” (Ezekiel 39:27). As God was insulted when they were shamed in captivity, so he will be honored in their reform, when he makes them holy again, and in their restoration, when he makes them a happy and glorious people again.

They will also receive the benefit of it (Ezekiel 39:28): “They will know that I am the Lord their God.” God’s dealings with his people are meant for their good, and his grace goes with those dealings to teach them to see him as the Lord and their God in everything. Then those dealings do them good. They will see him as the Lord and their God in their calamities, knowing that he sent them into captivity, and so they must not only submit to his will but also try to meet his purpose in it. They will also see him as the Lord and their God in their comfort, knowing that he brought them back to their own land and left none of them among the nations.

By the changes we go through, if we look up to God in all things, we can come to know his different qualities and purposes better.

Then God and his people will never part again (Ezekiel 39:29). God will pour out his Spirit on them, to keep them from leaving him and turning back to foolishness, and to keep them steady in their duty. Then he will never hide his face from them again, and never stop showing them his favor as he had before. He will never stop doing them good, and to make that sure, he will work so that they never turn away from serving him. The Spirit living in us is a sure sign that God will continue to favor us. He will hide his face no more from those on whom he has poured out his Spirit. So when we pray that God would never cast us away from his presence, we must also pray just as earnestly that he would not take his Holy Spirit from us (Psalm 51:11).