Ezekiel 20:33-48--The LORD Will Restore Israel

Ezekiel 20:33-48
English Standard Version

The LORD Will Restore Israel
33 “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I will be king over you. 34 I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36 As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord GOD. 37 I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38 I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

39 “As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.

40 “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. 41 As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. 43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. 44 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.”

45  And the word of the LORD came to me: 46 “Son of man, set your face toward the southland; preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb. 47 Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. 48 All flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.”

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"With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm" is a refrain that accompanies the story of the Exodus and the plagues that brought judgment on Egypt and brought salvation for Israel.  The LORD says that if He has to use the kind of force against Israel that He used against Egypt to make them submit to Him and return to Him, He will do it.  This is not because He is a malevolent despot, but because He loves His people too much to let them continue in their sins or let the corruption of wicked people destroy the righteous along with them.  The wicked are like a cancer that needs to be cut out for the good of the body of the righteous.  It will be painful and maybe severe, but you wouldn't say the pain inflicted by such a surgery was out of malice, but great care for the patient.

Israel has faced judgment in the past and they are about to face judgment again because they did not learn from the lessons of the past.  The LORD will purge the rebels and riffraff from among His people.  The book of Numbers tells of such a rebellious group that started on the outskirts of the camp, but ultimately made its way even into the leadership of the people so that by the end of the last man to die in the judgment was an elder of the people that openly prostituted himself with a woman of Midian that were there to try to bring God's judgment on His people instead of His blessings.

The LORD tells these elders that have come to inquire of Ezekiel to go away to their idols that they want to worship and to return to Him no more .  Let their idols try to save them (they can't).  The LORD is sickened by them trying to treat Him like one of their pagan gods that they can just show up when they need something and make the right sacrifices and say the right prayers and they will magically get what they want for the right price.  The LORD wants an eternal, monogamous, covenant marriage-like relationship with His people.  If they want to be unfaithful, then He has every right to ask for a divorce and to leave them to their whoring and the consequences of them seeking after "strange flesh."

Yet, the LORD will not destroy His people completely.  One day in the near future, they would be gathered together in the Land once again, and they would offer genuine worship to the LORD.  In that day, they will destroy all the idols and all the high places left in the Land that were not destroyed by the Babylonians.  The hearts of the people would be turned back to the LORD, but the issues that led them to idolatry will remain in their hearts until the Promised One comes that will put an end to sin and bring a better covenant.

This judgment and restoration will all be for the sake of His own good and holy Name which "His people" have soiled.  He will punish His children, but then He will also show the world how much He loves them, even though they don't deserve it.  In all this the world should say "See how He loves them!"  He loved them enough to not let them remain in their sins and He loved them enough to not let them remain in exile forever.  He bore the burden of their sins upon Himself and He also went into Exile with them so that He would keep His promise to them that He would be with them wherever they went.  The Land would be judged though and this southernmost part of Israel in the wilderness would be made particularly barren.  Though it once had trees that thrived in the arid environment and even some forests that grew in that environment, all of its trees would be cut down and burned with fire, making it turn into an even drier and more desolate place without any shade or comfort.  The people will not completely escape all consequences of their sin.  Even in their restoration, there will still be some judgment that occurs.