Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 39:27
"When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations" (Ezekiel 39:27)
"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." (Hosea 3:4-5)
Here the sense is that a chronological order of key events in modern Israel is being laid out:
- The Jews would first be scattered abroad worldwide as a despised nation ejected from their historical homeland, which is a great shame, humiliation and embarrassment, but something that was brought upon them for all their trespasses.
- Then they (or a large number of them) would be gathered out of the nations and returned to Palestine in anticipation of, and in time for, their latter days conversion to Jesus Christ, this gathering culminating in the Jews, prior to their conversion, enjoying a period of relative safety and security in their own historical homeland.
- Finally, while in that condition of feeling safe and secure – perhaps artificially bolstered by the peace treaty that I suspect Gog might broker for them (see the commentary on Ezekiel 38:14) – the Lord will be "sanctified in them (the newly Christian Jews) in the sight of many nations" through (a) His just destruction of Gog and his allies when they attack and perhaps even more so, (b) when the onlooking world sees that God has drawn Israel to Christ and accordingly, had only cast them off for their transgressions which, now repented of - by God's working alone (Ezekiel 11:19-20) - are clearly seen by the world to have been the root cause of God's distancing from them over the two millennia from Christ's first advent.
And so their conversion to Christ comes during the great national distress of
the Gog-led invasion that sees them without an historical ally able to help from the West, and this assertion will become even clearer when we conclude
this sweet epilogue to this terrible Day of the LORD at the end of Ezekiel 39, as follows in verses 28 & 29.
All of this is to the end that the Lord should be glorified in the sight of "many nations" (i.e. the entire world) through His merciful deliverances,
both spiritual and temporal, to the nation of Israel, and note that a precedence of the ungodly perceiving the intervention of God in Israel’s
affairs has been set in the case of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem under the supervision of Nehemiah during the reign of Artaxerxes
(in the 400s BC):
"And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof [i.e. of the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah], and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God." (Nehemiah 6:16)
Finally, note that Ezekiel 39:27 repeats the message some earlier passages, i.e.:
"Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God." (Ezekiel 28:25-26)
"For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick" (Ezekiel 34:11-16)
"And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. (Ezekiel 34:23-26)
(All of the above is also to be largely interpreted of the church transcendent being likewise protected and dwelling securely at that time, since all blessing to be bestowed on the restored Jewish people in Christ are likewise to be bestowed upon the Gentile church with whom they will finally be united, in accordance with Romans 11:15).
