Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 39:25

"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;" (Ezekiel 39:25)

The Lord now gathers all those "of Jacob" that had been carried captive, either by force against their will, or through other providences, including emigration of their own volition, and restores them to their historical homeland; and this I think refers not simply to the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel, which has already happened and thereby precedes the coming victory over Gog, but to the Isaiah 60 event, which seems to be a homing-instinct of the newly Christian Jews worldwide to return to Palestine, or, metaphorically, applies to their return into the fold of Christ, as it were, or even a measure of both.

And this, as Gill notes, is not just a return of the tribe of Judah, but of all of Hebrew descent, and the Lord shall be "jealous", that is, zealous (as Gill points out) for His holy Name, that the enemies of His people can no more mock His promises to Abraham of old, to whom He swore in His own Name:

"For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself" (Hebrews 16:13)

Let this serve as a warning to professing Christians today who are adamant that God has finished with the Jews and that Israel today is merely the Gentile church transcendent.

This teaching is not of the Reformed faith and seems to be espoused by those acting, knowingly or not, in service of the Antichurch of Rome or of many or even most of the erstwhile Protestant churches that have turned their back on the Reformation's doctrines and form of worship.

And so it is "the house of Israel" in Ezekiel 39:23, that is, the biological descendents of Jacob, that this prophecy is directed at.