Ezekiel 20:37

And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: I WILL CAUSE YOU TO PASS UNDER THE ROD - metaphor from a shepherd who makes his sheep pass under his rod in counting them (; ). Whether you will or not, ye shall be counted as mine, and so shall be subjected to my chastening discipline, with a view to my ultimate saving of the chosen remnant (; cf. John 10:27). I WILL BRING YOU INTO THE BOND OF THE COVENANT - I will constrain you by sore chastisements to submit yourselves to the covenant to which ye are lastingly bound, though now you have cast away God's bond from yo...

He follows up the same kind of instruction, that the people were not permitted to perish because they belonged to him, as if he had said that they should be always his, whether they liked it or not. And yet he seems to promise here what was very agreeable, that he would always esteem them as his flock. This is the meaning of _to pass under the rod_; for שבט, _shebet_, does not mean a scepter here, nor a staff by which a delinquent is struck, but it means a shepherd’s crook. It is, then, a simile taken from a shepherd who numbers and marks his flock; and this phrase often recurs. It means, because God has once acquired the people as his own, he cannot be rightly deprived of them. The exiles, indeed, had imagined themselves free if they could blot out of their minds and memories the name of the true God, and pollute themselves with the defilement’s of the Gentiles. But God, on the other ha...

33-44 The wicked Israelites, notwithstanding they follow the sinful ways of other nations, shall not mingle with them in their prosperity, but shall be separated from them for destruction. There is no shaking off God's dominion; and those who will not yield to the power of his grace, shall sink under the power of his wrath. But not one of God's jewels shall be lost in the lumber of this world. He will bring the jews to the land of Israel again; and will give them true repentance. They will be overcome with his kindness: the more we know of God's holiness, the more we see the hateful nature of sin. Those who remain unaffected amidst means of grace, and would live without Christ, like the world around them, may be sure it is the way to destruction....

Verse Ezekiel 20:37. _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 WILL 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....

God’s future dealings with His people: (1) in judgment Ezekiel 20:32; (2) in mercy Ezekiel 20:39. Ezekiel 20:32 The inquirers had thought that if Jerusalem were taken, and the whole people became sojourners in a foreign land, they would cease to be a separate nation. In their love for idolatry some may have even desired this. But more probably they thought that this very consequence precluded the possibility of such a catastrophe. God answers that He will not allow them to become as the pagan, but this will only subject them to

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 20:1 A new date is given, and includes what follows to Ezekiel 23:49. The last note of time was in Ezekiel 8:1, and eleven months and five days had passed, during which the prophecies of the intervening chapters had been written or spoken. We may note further that it was two years one month and five days after the prophet's call to his work (Ezekiel 1:1.), and two years and five months before the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem (Ezekiel 24:1). The immediate occasion here, as in...

AND I WILL CAUSE YOU TO PASS UNDER THE ROD,.... That is, such whom God will not take vengeance on, and shall not die in the wilderness of the people; but whom he will have mercy on, and show favour to, and bring at length into their own land; these he indeed will bring under the rod of correction and chastisement, by which they shall be brought to a sense of sin, a confession of it, humiliation for it, and to seek to Christ for salvation from it; or under the rod of his word, the rod of his strength, he sends out of Zion the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation; by which they shall be brought to agree unto and comply with the way of salvation by Christ; to submit to his righteousness; to embrace the doctrines of the Gospel, and be subject to the ordinances of it: or the allusion is to shepherds, in taking an account of their flocks, or at the tithing of them, who strike and mark them...

ROD The passage is a prophecy of the future judgment upon Israel, regathered from all nations (see "Israel," (Isaiah 1:24) refs. Into the old wilderness wanderings. (Ezekiel 20:35). The issue of this judgment determines who of Israel in that day shall enter the land for kingdom blessing. (Psalms 50:1); (Ezekiel 20:33); (Malachi 3:2); (Malachi 4:1); (Malachi 4:2) see other

CHAPTER S 20-24 Further and Final Predictions Concerning the judgment of Jerusalem _ 1. Jehovah rehearses His mercies bestowed upon Israel (Ezekiel 20:1) _ 2. The impending judgment announced (Ezekiel 21:1) 3. Jerusalem's sins and whoredom (Ezekiel 22:1; Ezekiel 23:1) 4. The parable of the boiling pot and the last word (Ezekiel 24:1) Ezekiel 20:1. The chapter contains a divine retrospect and an arraignment of th

THE RESTORATION OF THE FUTURE. But after all, Yahweh has chosen Israel (Ezekiel 20:5) for a purpose, and that purpose must not be frustrated; and despite the sin and darkness of the present, Ezekiel looks hopefully out to the future. But first there must be a sifting. Israel is to be gathered into the wilderness between Babylon and Canaan (Ezekiel 20:35) and passed under the rod as the shepherd passes the sheep; there the rebels shall be left, but the good shall be brought to Canaan, and with self-loathing and penitent hearts they will offer on Mount Zion acceptable worship. Then Yahweh's gracious purpose will be fulfilled, and His power and His character will be recognised by Israel and the world alike....