Ezekiel 36:1 - Meaning and Application

The prophet had been told to turn toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them (Ezekiel 6:2). Then God was coming out to contend with his people, but now he is returning to them in mercy, so Ezekiel must speak good and comforting words to these mountains (Ezekiel 36:1, Ezekiel 36:4). God tells the mountains, and through them the hills, rivers, valleys, ruined places, and deserted cities, to hear his word (Ezekiel 36:4, Ezekiel 36:6). The people were scattered in every direction, and nothing remained there to address except the land itself, which the Babylonians had not carried away. The earth remains forever.

To show the mercy God had kept in reserve for his people, he speaks as if he still had a quiet kindness for the land. If the Lord had meant to abandon it forever, he would not have called on it to hear his word, or shown it such promises. Here we see, first, God’s compassionate notice of the land of Israel in its ruined state. It had become both a prey and a joke to the surrounding nations (Ezekiel 36:4). It became a prey because they all grew rich from its plunder. When Babylon conquered Israel, its neighbors rushed in like people looting a shipwreck, each one taking whatever he could grab (Ezekiel 36:3). They made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became a possession for the nations and for the few who had themselves barely escaped a similar ruin. No one thought it wrong to strip an Israelite. As people often do, they praised success and despised failure.

The land also became a joke to them. They took everything and then laughed at what they had done. The enemy said, “Aha! Even the ancient high places are ours” (Ezekiel 36:2). Neither the land’s age, its honor, its holiness, nor its defenses protected it. The more honored that land had been, and the more people had admired it, the more pleasure its enemies took in plundering it. That shows a low and base spirit, because the greater the former glory, the more painful the fall. God mentions this as part of Israel’s present misery: they were being talked about everywhere and treated as a disgrace among the nations (Ezekiel 36:3). All over the region, people spoke of Judah’s fall and usually added some sharp or mocking remark. They were the scorn of those who lived in comfort and the contempt of the proud (Psalm 123:4). People who always have something to say about everyone, but never anything kind, made sure God’s people were a public reproach. So it was also with Christianity in its suffering days, when it was spoken against everywhere.

Second, we see God’s just anger against those who celebrated the ruin of Israel, especially the remaining neighboring peoples and Edom. They took large parts of God’s people’s land for themselves, and it is called “my land” because it truly belonged to him (Ezekiel 36:5). They did more than seize a neighbor’s property, they reached into what was God’s own possession. It was holy land, and they put their greedy hands on it. They did not recognize that God still had any claim there, and they acted as if they had won it in a lawful war. They did it without fear of God, without regard for his judgments, and without pity for Israel’s suffering. They rejoiced because they gained land, and they hated Israel because Israel lost. For a worldly heart, gain by any means is joy enough. For a spiteful heart, another person’s misery is also joy. Those who had no chance to plunder God’s people at least mocked them, so they became a shame among the nations (Ezekiel 36:6). Everyone ridiculed them. To be sure, they had brought much of this on themselves by their own sin, so God was right in judging them. Still, the nations acted cruelly.

How will God respond to those who used words and deeds to abuse his people? He has spoken against the nations and passed sentence on them. He will deal with them in the fire of his jealousy, for his own honor and for the honor of his people (Ezekiel 36:5). His love for both is strong, and so is his concern for their good name. They spoke against God’s people in malice, and God will speak against them in jealousy. There is no question which voice is stronger. He will speak in his jealousy and in his fury (Ezekiel 36:6). God is not a creature of passion, but he will act against them with such force that it will be as severe as human fury. He will speak to them in wrath and trouble them in his intense anger. What he says is fixed, because he confirms it with an oath. He has lifted his hand and sworn by himself, and he will not change his mind.

What is this strong, carefully declared promise? It is this: the nations around them will bear their own shame (Ezekiel 36:7). God, who is righteous and to whom vengeance belongs, will repay shame with shame. Those who poured contempt on God’s people will, sooner or later, carry that contempt themselves, perhaps even in this life through their own foolishness or troubles, and at the latest on the day when all who refuse to repent will rise to shame and everlasting contempt.

Third, we see God’s promises of favor toward Israel and the assurance of great mercy still waiting for them. God uses the insults and cruelty of their enemies as an occasion to show how deeply he cares for them and how ready he is to do them good. David hoped that God would repay him with good for Shimei’s cursing, and the same pattern appears here. Let them curse, but you bless. In this way, as in others, even the injuries done by God’s enemies can serve his people, though their enemies never mean it that way. We have no reason to complain if the less kind people are to us, the more kind God is, if the more graciously he speaks to us through his word and Spirit, the more graciously he acts for us in his providence.

The prophet must tell the mountains of Israel, now ruined and looked down on, that God is for them and will show his care for them (Ezekiel 36:9). Just as God’s curse reaches the ground because of human sin, so his blessing can reach it too. What follows is a promise of hope for the land and for the people.

First, the true owners will return to the land. God says, “My people Israel are near to come” (Ezekiel 36:8). They may be far from their own country, scattered through many lands, and held back by their enemies, yet they will return to their own border (Jeremiah 31:17). The time is said to be near because it is certain, and some of them would live to see it. A thousand years are like one day to God.

The mountains of Israel are desolate now, but God will make people walk on them again, especially his own people. They will not pass through as travelers, but live there as residents and owners. They will possess the land, not just for a short time, but for themselves and their children. It will be their inheritance. This pointed ahead to the heavenly Canaan, the final home of all God’s true people, gathered together from every place where they have been scattered.

Second, the land will give them a rich and comfortable living. After it has rested through so many sabbath years, it will be more fruitful afterward, as rest often prepares for new strength, especially sabbath rest. “You shall be tilled and sown” (Ezekiel 36:9), and it will yield its fruit to my people Israel (Ezekiel 36:8). It is a blessing to the earth when it serves people well, especially good people who use its gifts to serve God gladly.

Third, Israel will have not only food, but a settled home again. “The cities shall be inhabited; the ruins shall be rebuilt” (Ezekiel 36:10). God says, “I will settle you according to your old estates” (Ezekiel 36:11). Their own sin had thrown them into disorder, but now God’s favor will put them back in place. Like the repentant prodigal son, they will be restored to their father’s house, and even better than before. God often gives his people more comfort in the end than they had at the beginning.

Fourth, after they return, they will grow and multiply, so the land will not only be inhabited again, but well populated as before. God will bring back “all the house of Israel, all of them” (Ezekiel 36:10). That strong emphasis shows that those who return are the true remnant of Israel, the people God has stirred up to come back. Though only a few returned at first, others came later, until all were gathered back. Then God says, “I will multiply men and animals” (Ezekiel 36:10), and “they shall increase” (Ezekiel 36:11). God’s kingdom keeps growing. His church may shrink for a time, but it will recover and be filled again.

Fifth, the old shame attached to the land will be removed. Long before, the evil spies had spread a bad report, and lately that report had been revived, that the land was one that ate up its people through famine, disease, and war. Canaan had gained a bad name. It had once “spued out” its former inhabitants (Leviticus 18:28), and that had been twisted into reproach by those who should have understood it rightly (Numbers 13:32). More recently, it had also “devoured” the Israelites and driven them out.

But God promises that this will never happen again. “You shall no more bereave them of children,” he says, and “you shall devour men no more” (Ezekiel 36:12, 14). People will live out their full years, not have their lives cut short. Compare this with the promise in (Zechariah 8:4). God removes the shame of his people by removing the cause of that shame. When a nation flourishes in peace, plenty, and strength, the mockery of the nations stops (Ezekiel 36:15). And when God reforms a people, taking away sin itself, which is the real shame of any people, especially his professing people, then their reproach is gone. When God returns in mercy to a people who have returned to him in duty, their troubles will soon be made right and their honor restored.