Eze 20:33-44 | Clarke

Ezekiel 20:33-44

Verse 35

I will bring you into the wilderness of the people - I will bring you out of your captivity, and bring you into your own land which you will find to be a wilderness, the consequence of your crimes.

There will I plead with you - There I will be your king, and rule you with a sovereign rule; and the dispensations of my justice and mercy shall either end you or mend you. Verse 37

I will cause you to pass under the rod - This alludes to the custom of tithing the sheep. I take it from the rabbins. The sheep were all penned; and the shepherd stood at the door of the fold, where only one sheep could come out at once. He had in his hand a rod dipped in vermillion; and as they came out, he counted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine; and as the tenth came out, he marked it with the rod, and said, "This is the tenth;" and that was set apart for the Lord.

I wilt bring you into the bond of the covenant - You shall be placed under the same obligations as before, and acknowledge your selves bound; ye shall feel your obligation, and live according to its nature. Verse 38

I will purge out from among you the rebels - The incorrigibly wicked I will destroy; those who will not receive him whom I have appointed for this purpose as the Savior of Israel. And I will gather you who believe out of all the countries where you sojourn, and bring you into your own land; but those of you who will not believe - will not receive the Son of David to reign over you, shall never enter into the land of Israel, but die in your dispersions. This is what the contradicting and blaspheming Jews of the present day have to expect. And thus, both of you shall know that he is Jehovah, fulfilling his threatenings against the one, and his promises to the other. Verse 39

Go ye, serve ye every one his idols - Thus, God gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they could not live, by thus permitting them to take their own way, serve their gods, and follow the maxims and rites of that abominable worship. Verse 40

For in mine holy mountain - The days shall come in which all true Israelites shall receive Him whom I have sent to be the true sacrifice for the life of the world; and shall bring to Jerusalem - the pure Christian Church, their offerings, which I will there accept, for they will give me thanks for my unspeakable gift. Verse 42

And ye shall know - Shall acknowledge that I am Jehovah. Verse 43

And there shall ye remember your ways - Ye shall be ashamed of your past conduct, and of your long opposition to the Gospel of your salvation.

These promises may, in a certain limited sense, be applied to the restoration from the Babylonish captivity; but they must have their proper fulfillment when the Jews shall accept Jesus as their Savior, and in consequence be brought back from all their dispersions to their own land.