Ezekiel 37:28

The presence of Jehovah makes the house wherein he dwells a sanctuary (holy place), and the presence of his sanctuary (he being there, Ezekiel 48:35) among the people sanctifies them or makes them "holy" a term which expresses two things: being the possession of Jehovah, and being in disposition and life all that the people of Jehovah must be. The idea that Jehovah's presence "sanctifies" the people is common. Jehovah's dwelling-place being among the people for ever the nations shall know that he "sanctifies" them. To sanctify is not to protect, it is to make the people his own and worthy of him, but this implies protection. Jeremiah 2:3, "Israel was a holy thing to the Lord, the first fruit of his increase, all that ate him up incurred guilt." The ideas in this verse lead naturally over to the episode of Gog's invasion, the issues of which so remarkably illustrate them.

The restoration of Israel includes the tribes of the north as well as Judah. All the prophets of this age regard the northern exiles as still existing, cf. Jeremiah 3:12-15: Isaiah 49:5-6, and the strong passage Isaiah 43:5-7 "every one called by my name," i.e. every member of the people of the Lord. Cf. the present prophet's disposition of all the tribes in the holy land, ch. 48.

Ch. 38, 39 Invasion of the Restored Israel in the latter days by Gog and all the nations lying in the outskirts of the world, and Israel's protection by Jehovah

These two Chapter s are closely connected with ch. Ezekiel 37:28, "the nations shall know that I Jehovah do sanctify" Israel. This recalls to the prophet's mind the invasion of Gog, a great and final attack on Israel by the nations, and he introduces the description of it here, as it illustrates so conspicuously what is said in Ezekiel 37:21-28. For the invasion of Gog is an episode out of connexion with the restoration of the people, which has formed the theme of the preceding Chapter s (33 37). It lies far in the future (Ezekiel 37:8; Ezekiel 37:16), long after Israel has been restored, and when it has dwelt long in peace in its own land (Ezekiel 37:8; Ezekiel 37:11). The sedulous care with which the land is purified from the carcases of Gog's host, every bone being carefully collected and the whole buried beyond the Jordan, is sufficient evidence of the holiness of Israel and the land at the time of Gog's attack (Ezekiel 39:11-16).

The prophet is not the author of the idea of this invasion. It has been predicted of old by the prophets of Israel, prophesying over long periods (Ezekiel 38:17; Ezekiel 39:8). Neither is it probable that the idea was one read out of certain prophecies merely by Ezekiel. More likely it was an idea widely entertained. The former prophecies on which the belief was founded are not to be supposed to have contained the nameof Gog, any more than the prophecies applied by the author of Isaiah 40 seq. to the career of Cyrus need have referred to him by name.

The conception is rather shadowy and vague. The time is indefinite, it is far into the years to come; the nations who cluster around the standard of Gog, himself a somewhat nebulous personage, are those lying in the uttermost regions of the world, which, had been heard of but never seen. The most distant north and the most distant south send their contingents to swell the innumerable host, and the far-off commercial peoples Sheba and Dedan and Tarshish follow his camp (Ezekiel 37:3; Ezekiel 37:5; Ezekiel 37:13). The description seems almost a creation, the embodiment of an idea the idea of the irreconcilable hostility of the nations of the world to the religion of Jehovah, and the presentiment that this must yet be manifested on a grander scale than has ever yet been. Hence the supernatural magnitude of the outlines of the picture (Ezekiel 37:9; Ezekiel 37:16; Ezekiel 37:20). The main idea of the prophet, however, is quite perspicuous. With the exception of Ethiopia, a somewhat general name for the most distant south, none of the historical nations appear under Gog's banner. These nations that came into connexion with Israel during her history have already learned to know Jehovah (ch. 25 32). They have not been exterminated, but his glory has been revealed to them and they no more trouble the peace of the restored Israel (Ezekiel 36:36). But the nations lying in the outskirts of the earth, as another prophet expresses it, "have not heard Jehovah's fame neither have seen his glory" (Isaiah 66:19), and he who is God alone must reveal himself to all flesh, for he has sworn by himself that to him every knee shall bow (Isaiah 45:23). Such is the meaning of this last act in the drama of the world's history. As it is Jehovah's final revelation of himself to all the nations of the earth, it is accompanied by all those terrors and convulsions in nature which in earlier prophets usually signalize the day of the Lord (Ezekiel 38:19-23). This indeed is peculiar in Ezek. that he places Jehovah's great and last revelation of himself afterthe restoration of his people to peace and felicity, while in the earlier prophets it precedes or accompanies their restoration; as it does even in prophets after him (Isaiah 40:5; Psalms 102:16). In this order he is followed by the Apocalypse (Revelation 19:11; Revelation 20:7). Besides the display of Jehovah's might in the overthrow of Gog and in the terrible convulsions of nature, his moral being and rule is also revealed through his people, for his protection of them now that they are holy and true casts light to the nations on his former dispersion of them (Ezekiel 39:23).

Gog is styled prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, nations lying in the extremities of the north (Ezekiel 37:15). Other nations are joined to these, lying in the furthest south (Ezekiel 37:5). And in the train of these warriors come the hosts of far-off commercial peoples, camp followers intent on gain (Ezekiel 37:13). It is, therefore, self-evident that the Chaldeans are not represented under the name of Gog. The Chaldeans are Jehovah's mandatories, commissioned to chastise his people, and humble the ungodly pride of such nations as Egypt and Phenicia, and Ezekiel's prophecies contain no threats against Babylon. He intimates indeed that the supremacy of that power is but temporary, naming 40 years as the term when a new condition of the world will arise, which presupposes her decline and fall. But the invasion of Gog appears to him to be far away in the indefinite future, long after the promises of the Lord to his people have been fulfilled, and this fulfilment must be preceded by the overthrow of the Chaldean power.

The passage extends to ch. Ezekiel 39:24, where the prophet resumes the point of view occupied in ch. 33 7 prior to the Restoration of Israel.