Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 39:28

"Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there." (Ezekiel 39:28)

It appears from this that at the time of the glorious and happy return of the Jews to Christ there will be an irresistible impulse on those of them not yet resident in Israel to return to the Promised Land to worship the Lord Jesus there and to rejoice with their fellow countrymen, for the Lord says He will "have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there [i.e. abroad, away from the land of Israel]".

Rather interestingly, John Gill saw in this a connection to Isaiah 60's happy promises, as follows:

"Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee." (Isaiah 60:9)

...this is to be understood of the Jews converted in distant parts of the world, who shall be brought in transport ships to the churches of Christ, particularly in Judea; and the ships of Tarshish shall be used in that service principally, they shall be the chief that shall be employed. Most of the Jewish commentators, as Jarchi (aka Rashi), Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, think there is a want of the particle of similitude "as", and that it should be rendered, "and the ships of Tarshish, as at first"; and then the sense is, they shall be made use of now to bring, the converted Jews with their substance from foreign parts, as they had been in Solomon's time, for bringing gold and silver, and other things to him, from distant places, (2 Chronicles 9:21) but by Tarshish here is not meant Tartessus in Spain, as Vitringa; nor Tarsus in Cilicia; but the sea itself; which is so called; and so the Targum renders it, "the ships of the sea"; and Jarchi observes that this is the name of the sea; and what ships can be better understood than ours of Great Britain, so famous for shipping, and which claims the sovereignty of the seas? [Gill was writing in the mid 1700s, when the expectation among some writers was that the Kingdom of Daniel 7:18, i.e. Christ's spiritual reign aka the Philadelphian church age, would begin in Britain; however, it is my position that it begins in America, where most of the true believers today reside and where most displaced Jews also reside]

These may be principally employed in bringing great numbers of converts from different places to the church of God; and as Israel, when they came out of Egypt, came forth with silver and gold; and when they came out of Babylon, they were furnished with gold and silver, and everything convenient for their journey, and for the rebuilding of their city and temple, (Psalms 105:37, Ezra 1:4, Ezra 1:5) so when they are gathered from their present dispersion, and are called and converted, they shall come with their tribes to the church of Christ, and honour the Lord with their substance, and promote the interest of religion by it... (John Gill on Isaiah 60:9)

And this homing instinct shall be built upon the embraced and certain knowledge that Jesus Christ is God the Son, the same God Who scattered them all over the world as judgment for their sins, which sins were aggravated by being performed against the light and grace shown to their fathers in the days of the kings of Judah and Israel; this is why sin against light is so severely punished by God and why it will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for the towns of northern Palestine in which Jesus ministered:

"Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." (Matthew 11:20-24)

That being the case, the Lord's children today should not treat sin as trivial, as if it is something God is ever anxious to forgive without consequences; on the contrary, the severity of His dealings with David for his sins (adultery, murder), Jacob for his (dishonouring his father by lies), and even Moses for his (smiting the rock with his rod against the directions of God), should stand as salutary warnings to us today; yes, the Lord forgave their sins, but He imposed consequences upon them to stand as permanent reminders of the dangers of sin to the happiness of even the reborn man.¹

Accordingly, believers today who are suffering in their lives, beleaguered by affliction, weary and downtrodden, should inquire of the Lord to see if any great sin in still in their midst; likewise, we should examine ourselves to determine the sins of our youth, to seek repentance for them, to confess them, and warn others against doing likewise; and in all of this, we should be abhorring sin as against God and not merely as an inconvenient root of our own miseries, so that we should hate and flee from sin and consider the afflictive consequences of it as being an alarm call to alert us to our wickedness, rather than simply as a painful end in itself to be avoided.

All of the foregoing is beautifully summed up by "the weeping prophet", Jeremiah, in chapter 3 of his Lamentations:

"Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope... The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD... For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men... Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." (Lamentations 3:19-41)