Commentary on Ezekiel Chapters 33 through 39:

"The Prophecy of Ezekiel" (Part 2)

by Russell J. Schmidt

Ezekiel Chapter 34: Restoring the People of God

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

We left off last time with God preparing Ezekiel as to what God wanted him to prophesy to His people of Israel. God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the Israelites, that God has had enough and now they should be prepared to suffer the consequences.

Chapter 34 starts out with God condemning the religious leaders of Israel for not serving the Israelites, but only serving themselves. Although it was a collective effort by the Israelites, God here, seems to be putting the plight of the nation of Israel, squarely on the shoulders of the leaders of Israel. Their dysfunctional leadership led God to allow the nation of Israel to reap the consequences of their actions.

Now, with that said, there was still a responsibility on the part of the Israelites themselves, for disobeying God, but without proper guidance from their leadership to focus on God rather then on self-gain, the Israelites became ignorant to a godly lifestyle. In those days, it wasn't as easy as it is today to study the Word of God, where God's Word is so convenient to access.

Which, by the way, is also a part of the overall prophecies of the restoration of Israel. In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 11, we have a prophecy of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, entitled "The Branch from Jesse." Now Jesus who was not a direct descendant of Jesse, but called a branch from Jesse, because Joseph, Jesus' earthly step-father, if you will, was a direct descendant of Jesse, and in reading the entire chapter, it is clear that it is Jesus that is refered to here in this prophecy. By time we get to verse 9 of this chapter, the prophecy is directed to the end times of life as we know it. Verse 9 states, "for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."

This prophecy has been fulfilled, because the knowledge of God's Word is now accessible to almost every person on the planet. With modern day printing, internet access, and satellite communication, godly knowledge is easier to come by then ever before. In the remote areas of the world where the poorist people live and cannot afford, nor access the technology I mentioned, we have missionaries who are now able to get into those remote areas and distibute this knowledge manually. In the past forty years the knowledge of God has exploded throughout the world.

Also, the understanding of God's Word has become clearer to those who search the Bible for God's truths. I know with myself, I am amazed with the understanding that God has blessed me with in the past five years. I've been studying the Bible now for about 20 years and gained a tremendous amount of knowledge, yet it wasn't until the last five years that a real deep understanding of all that knowledge has set in. Which has prompted me to share this and spread the Good News!

Getting back to the topic at hand, the Israelites were totally dependent upon religious leaders of their day to read Scripture to them on the Sabbath. Without this reading from the religious leaders they had no access to Scripture. Printing presses were not something that were in existence at that time, every manuscript, of what was then called the Book of the Law, was written and translated by hand. The copies that were available, were only available to the religious leaders and the rich who were able to pay the exorbitant amount of money needed to purchase the Scrolls, which is what books were in those days. On the contrary, today you can access the Bible in many languages for free on the internet.

In verse 11 of chapter 34, God begins to layout His prophecy and plan to restore the children of Israel. We read in verse 11, "For thus says the Lord GOD: 'Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.'" God is going to take matters into His own hands, if you will. Back in the days of the prophet Samuel, when God Himself was the ruling authority for His people Israel— the Israelites decided that they wanted a king to rule over them like other nations around them had.

God warned them through Samuel that this wasn't a bright idea, but allowed them to have what they wanted. In steps Saul, who became Israel's first king.  Although Saul had some early successes as king, he eventually fell short of the expectations of the Israelites and God, when he got embroiled with a conflict with the Philistines and was intimidated by Goliath. God needed to step in to save the day, by inquiring to Samuel to seek Jesse and one of his sons as a successor of Saul, who lost favor with God, because of the same reasons we are discussing here in chapter 34, that would be poor leadership and guidance on spiritual matters.

Verse 13 is the theme we will see develop as this study unfolds— it reads, "And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country." Although God has relinquished His authority over the nation of Israel, His ultimate plan for restoration is evident right here in this verse.

In A.D. 70, approximately 30 years after Jesus walked the earth, Jesus' own prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem had come to fulfillment. We can find that prophecy in Matthew 21:42, "And Jesus said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.'" And that is exactly what happened in A.D. 70, when the Roman army burned down the city of Jerusalem.

The fire was so hot that any gold that was found in Jerusalem, was melted into liquid and seeped into the mortar and crevices of the stones that the buildings of Jerusalem was made of. When it came time for the Romans to plunder their conquest, they had to dismantle every building, stone by stone, to get at all the gold that liquefied and re-hardened in the crevices of the stones. Hence, Jesus' prophecy being fulfilled.

The result of the fulfillment of this prophecy would be approximately 2,000 years of the nation of Israel no longer being a nation, and its people being scattered around the world in countries foreign to them. On May 14th, 1948, close to midnight, the fulfillment of God's prophecy began with the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Israel, led by David Ben-Gurion, had come to an agreement with Great Britian to turn Israel back over to the Jewish people for the first time in almost 2,000 years.

But, this is only the beginning of this prophecy, as we move on in chapter 34, verses 23-24, we see a reference to the lineage of king David (not David Ben-Gurion, but king David of the Old Testament whose reign was between 1000 B.C. to 961 B.C. of the nation of Israel), it reads, "23) I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24) And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken."

Now, this reference to David, is not necessarily David himself, but a reference to his lineage, that being Jesus Christ. We can confirm this by sighting a prophecy in Jeremiah 23:5-7, which reads, "5) Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. 6) In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7) Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, 8) but, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land."

The last five verses of chapter 34 speaks of a time when Israel will dwell in that safety that we also read in Jeremiah's prophecy. That portion of the prophecy is still prophecy, and will be accomplished at a later time. But, as I mentioned, God's prophecy, given to Ezekiel, is well under way. The Branch of David, has been fulfilled, although the nation of Israel has not yet recognized Him, as we will get to later in this study, they will! The nation of Israel has been re-born, just as Scripture has said it would. Now, they just need to recognize that the Messiah that they have been waiting for, has already come.

Next month, we will move into a prophecy that is currently unfolding right before our very eyes. That being the current struggles that we see the new re-born nation of Israel experiencing.

Continue to Part 3, click here.

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