Ezekiel 36:1–9 Bible Study: God’s Promise to Restore Israel

It’s the beginning of the New Covenant and what God is speaking through Ezekiel about a new covenant that he’s going to give with Israel, the new covenant that he also speaks of in Joel and other places through other prophets. To lay the background again, the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom, has just been decimated by three attacks from Nebuchadnezzar. The last attack, they destroyed the city and the temple and the people were really driven.

Historical Background of Ezekiel 36

Although the Lord told the remnant to stay in the land of Judah, they fled to Egypt as we saw when we went through Jeremiah. So desolation would be a word that you could use for what’s happened. And Ezekiel is aware of this and it has just come with words recently to him of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar’s attacked and the temple’s been destroyed.

The people that are in captivity in Babylon don’t have it too bad. As a matter of fact, we know later on when Cyrus became king of the Medes and the Persians allowed the people to go back to Israel, many of the people stayed in Babylon for quite a while because they felt very comfortable there. But that’s not where God wanted them.

He wanted them back in Israel. But as Ezekiel has brought these visions and what the Lord is telling him to share with the people, it’s very interesting because in chapter 36 it starts out where he shares the restoration, not of the people, but of the land. And it’s the restoration of the land that’s coming and then the restoration of the people is coming after that.

But it’s also very interesting that God said that the land would only prosper when the people were in the land and when they were walking in obedience to Him. And God has given them what’s going to be happening because it’s not what’s in Israel and Judah today when He’s speaking. But what’s going to be in the future is to tell the people God hasn’t forgotten you.

Now we just got done in the last session looking at Edom and God definitely forgot all about Edom and He judged Edom, the descendants of Esau. And the judgment was going to be severe and hard. And the people of Israel, after hearing Ezekiel’s condemnation of Edom that God had shared with them through Ezekiel, they’re probably going, well, what’s God going to do with us? Because He’s already destroyed Jerusalem.

He’s destroyed the temple. He’s taken the northern kingdom into captivity. Now He’s taken us into captivity.

What’s going to happen to us? And it’s interesting that it starts in chapter 36 with a new covenant with Israel and He begins by talking about the land. Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession.

Now I just want you to just stop here for a second because the enemies of Israel had really infiltrated Israel’s perception of how they should worship God. And prior to them being taken into captivity, one of the things that you saw happened and occurred under the three sons and the grandson of Josiah that became kings after Josiah was the fact that these men had opened up the whole culture to the worship of idols. And one of the things they did is they brought the worship to the high places in the mountains.

And whenever you see they worship in the high places and they’re talking about idolatry, it was not good worship. It was worship of idols. It was even involved at times human sacrifice, sacrifice of children, sacrifice of adults.

And the nation of Israel wasn’t exempt from this, but they’d been involved with it. And so you see that the enemies of Israel, they’re looking and they’re going, well, the mountains are desolate. Now they’re ours and we’ll do with them what they please.

And that’s what their perception is. But it’s not God’s perception and it’s not God’s promise. And we’re going to see that that’s why the Lord’s speaking to the mountains.

Thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord: 2 thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: 3 therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people: 4 therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about; 5 therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey. Ezekiel 36:1-7

Just pause here and I would go back and look at what we studied last week about the descendants of Edom, Esau, the Edomites. When they came and they saw that, and I didn’t mention this real strongly last week, but this is what happened. When Nebuchadnezzar is attacking from the north, the people were trying to escape to the south.

Well, the people that were south of Judah and Jerusalem were the Edomites. And now, as I mentioned last week, the Edomites are the closest relatives of the Jewish people that there is in the Middle East. The Moabites, the Ammonites, the Israelites, the other descendants of the wife of Abraham, the last wife of Abraham, all of those would be much more distant relatives.

But the Edomites, Esau was a twin brother of Jacob. The initial Edomites were like first and second cousins of the Israelites. And so as you go down through history, they’re still much closer related.

Yet these are the ones that hate Israel more than even the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Israelites, and all the rest of them. And when Nebuchadnezzar came from the north and was attacking Jerusalem and attacking Judah, the people of Judah were fleeing to the south. They were met by the Edomites and the Edomites killed them.

They either killed them or drove them back into the captivity of the Babylonians. And God said they would be punished for this because their attitude towards Israel was worse than anybody else’s. It was worse than the Canaanites.

And if you look at one of the worst tribes that is even spoken of more harshly than the Edomites was also a descendant of Esau, and that was the Amalekites. And the Amalekites, God condemned, and they were to be put to death during the time of Saul, which he didn’t do that either. But as men didn’t obey God’s commands, the results reared their heads generations later.

And Haman at the time of the Medes and the Persians and the time of Esther, he was the descendant of Amalekite king. And it just shows you God has a reason. The Amalekites were descendants of Esau and they hated Israel so much.

When Moses was bringing the people out of the promised land, what did the Amalekites do? They’d wait until the stragglers were there, the old people, the children, the ones that couldn’t keep up, the animals that were sick. Then they’d go in and they’d raid, steal their possessions, kill them. They wouldn’t attack the front where the men could fight back, but they attacked the weak.

And then finally they brought a battle against them. And that was where Moses had to hold up his hands and Israel would win. And when his hands fell, the Amalekites would win.

And Aaron and Hur had to go and help him hold his hands up. And the whole thing is, God said the Amalekites needed to be a memory, that they needed to be destroyed because of their absolute wickedness. People say, well, why did God do this? And I’ve actually had people ask me the question.

I sat on a plane one time with a guy and he was talking about this whole concept of, he says, well, God’s a bloody God. Look at, he said that Israel comes into the land there to destroy the Canaanites. Well, the Canaanites had ample time to repent of their sin.

What were the Canaanites like? The Canaanites were much like the descendants of Esau. They were a bloody people, a people that worshiped false gods, a people that did human sacrifice, a people that were disgusting and despicable in all the things they did. You don’t even want to read about their worship practices.

And if you look at today and look at today’s culture in the Middle East, Hamas and Hezbollah, the mullahs of Iran, they are of the same mindset as the Edomites, the Amalekites, the Canaanites. And I like to refer to their culture as a culture of death, a culture that loves to see Israel destroyed and killed, a culture that worships false gods, and a culture that really does the work of Satan. It’s really a satanic driven people.

And God said those people needed to be dealt with and judged in their time of judgment had come. Now, he’s speaking to the Israelites and he’s talking about the land. Well, he made promises about the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Guess what? Those promises still hold true today. And the thing is, as the Israelites are in captivity in Babylon, they just heard that Nebuchadnezzar invaded the third time, his armies attacked, the temple’s been destroyed, the walls of the city are coming down, the land has been desecrated. And what hope is there? Where’s this promise that was made? And so God’s speaking and he’s speaking to the land.

And he’s saying, the land is still Israel’s. The land is not the Babylonians. The land is not the Egyptians.

The land is not those that would be the pagan tribes that remain in that era. It’s not theirs. It’s mine.

And I’ve given it to Israel. Now, he goes and he says:

And this is something that Satan loves to do.

He loves to take over that which is God’s and claim it as his own. And God says, no, you’re not. With the joy of their heart, with the spiteful minds to cast it out a prey.

And it’s not exactly what is happening in the Middle East today with Hezbollah and Hamas and the so-called Palestinians that are really Egyptians and Arabs and of other nations. There is no such thing as Palestinians, but they like to call them that. And the thing is, they claim they want the land, but they really don’t want the land.

They just want Israel gone. And if they wanted land, they’ve got more land, a thousand times more land than Israel’s got. But why do they want this little strip of land? Why did the Edomites want this when God gave Esau, Mount Seir and much of the land that’s in southern Jordan today was given to Esau.

And plus they conquered other tribes and gained more land down there. And Esau, when he met Jacob, had 400 men that came with him. So he was ruling over a vast, greater amount of property than Jacob was, but yet he wanted Jacob’s.

The Arabs and the Muslims have vast areas of land, thousands of more people, but what do they want? They want the little strip that’s the size of New Jersey with one city in it they want to claim as their own, and that’s Jerusalem. And why is that? Because Satan wants it. Satan wants it because God said it’ll never be yours.

It will never be yours. You have control of the whole world. You’re called the prince of the power of the air because Adam gave you control over it, but you will never have control of this because I am the one who has given it to my servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the descendants of Jacob, not the descendants of the other sons of Abraham.

6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen: 7 therefore thus saith the Lord God; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. Ezekiel 36:6-7

And this was going to happen, and it happened as God brought the nation back into the land of Israel during the time of Cyrus, and they rebuilt the city of Jerusalem under Nehemiah, and rebuilt the temple under Ezra, but it was not as glorious as it had been under David and Solomon, but yet they were back in the land.

But we would see again that they would never have a king, and there was never a king in Israel again after the last sons of Josiah were taken into captivity in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. There was never another king. However, there is coming a king, and this will be the king that has been spoken of throughout prophecy.

The king of kings and Lord of lords is yet to come to Jerusalem. Now, I want you to understand why is Satan trying so hard to destroy this land and to take it over and to do everything to get God to destroy it, because ultimately, who rules from Jerusalem? We sang in one of the hymns today, it’s Jesus. Jesus is going to rule from Jerusalem.

He will be the king of kings and acknowledge the king of kings and Lord of lords by the whole world. At that time, Jesus will establish the millennial kingdom. He will rule from Jerusalem, and the nations of the earth will come and pay homage to him in Jerusalem.

It says if they won’t, there will be penalties because they don’t. So there’s still choice, even when he’s ruling on earth, but it’s going to be a rule of righteousness and justice and truth, not like today’s world, which is unjust, wicked, and evil. Whoever has the biggest club seems to be the one that rules.

But that’s not what it’s going to be like. It’s going to be ruled with justice, love, and truth. When Jesus comes, Satan doesn’t want him to come.

And so he’s doing everything in his power to prevent it. But the Lord says, even though during the time of Ezekiel, it appears that there’s no way the land’s ever going to be like it once was, I’m speaking to the land now. I’m not talking to the people.

I’m speaking to the land. You shall be restored. You’re not going to remain like this forever.

My jealousy won’t allow it. No, he isn’t jealous like you and I are jealous. His jealousy is a jealousy that is a jealousy for that which is righteous and pure and holy and to fulfill his promises.

Our jealousy is we want something that’s not ours. That’s not what God’s jealousy. That’s Satan’s jealousy.

God’s jealousy is he desires to have back in its fullness and completeness that which is his. And so he’s speaking, I’m jealous of my land. I want it to be what I promised it to be.

But I also have said these are the consequences, Israel. If you violate the promise, then the land will go desolate. But I haven’t forgotten you and it will not be desolate forever.

I will bring it back. And so he speaks to the land itself. But ye mountains, in verse 8:

8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. Ezekiel 36:8

Now, what he’s saying is the land is going to start to prepare and to produce and the people are going to begin to come. Well, that wasn’t during the time of Ezekiel. And we didn’t see the land bearing fruit right away during his time.

It was towards, it may have been towards the end of his life. I’m not sure if he was alive during the time of Cyrus or not. But the thing is, he’s saying it’s going to begin to bear fruit again.

But the ultimate fruit is going to be when I’m going to get ready to bring my people back and I’m going to bring them back in mass. And that’s what he’s going to speak of in the rest of this chapter and speak of in the chapters to come about the fact that Israel is going to come back into the land. And it’s going to come back into the land in a way that is unbelievable.

And what’s amazing is you and I have seen that happen in our lifetime. The land, you could have just as well have Mark Twain write the description that Ezekiel was speaking of here when he went and visited Israel in the mid 1800s. He said, this is a God forsaken land.

It’s nothing but swamps and desert and desolation. And there’s no people. There’s hardly any villages.

There’s nothing here. Why would anybody want it? That’s what his assessment was of what is today Jerusalem. My wife and I have been to Jerusalem and Israel.

It’s not like that. You go there. It’s an amazing thing.

It is just like God said and what he’s going to speak of later in Ezekiel. It’s like a rose blossoming in the desert. And they produce food.

They’ve created the desalinization techniques that Israel developed so they could have water. Way back we went on our first trip to Israel and I believe it was 2008. And it was a secular tour, but we had a really interesting tour guide.

And he knew a lot of history because they do. They have to study history in order to be a tour guide in Israel. And we were talking to him and we’re talking about the problems in the Middle East because they’ve always been there.

And he says, well, the biggest problem you’ve got is not oil. He said, the biggest problem you’ve got is water. He said, there is such a shortage of water and people will fight over the water.

Well, what Israel did is they developed this desalinization where they can take salty seawater and desalinize it and make it drinking water. They could go out to our wastewater treatment plant and they could make that water so pure that you could drink it. And they actually had people go over to Israel and they had this water there and they said, would you like to drink some? It’s really pure.

It’s really good. Guy drank it. He says, well, where’d it come from? Well, it came from our wastewater over here, but we’ve got the technique down for how we can purify our water.

And what they’ve done is they just turned this into massive places where they grow all kinds of different plants. And because of their climate, they can have all kinds of different plants. And they have fruit and vegetables and all kinds of things, grains, and they ship them to Europe and to other places in the world because they grow more than they need for themselves.

And this is a nation that about 150 years ago, the land was so desolate, you couldn’t look at it without saying, what is this? What good is it? And yet today, it’s that amazing. And God has blessed the land and he’s brought the people back. And we’ve seen it in our lifetime.

And Ezekiel is speaking of some of this here. Therefore, thus saith the Lord. And then let’s go down to verse nine.

9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: 10 and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: 11 and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.  Ezekiel 36:9-11

Why has this been done? It’s not because the Jewish people have been so ingenious that they’ve invented all these things. It’s because of God.

And Christians need to understand that. It is because of God. And God promised he’d bring the Jewish people back to their land.

And he also promised this land would just become amazing once again. And it has done just that. And he said that if you go to Israel today, the last time we were there, we were with our tour guide and he was out talking and he was joking around with us.

And he said, do you know what the national bird of Israel is? And people were guessing and guessing. And he said, no, it’s the crane. And then he pointed to all the building cranes going up around Tel Aviv and the new city of Jerusalem.

There’s building cranes everywhere because the land is just amazing. They were building and building the whole world. They’re talking about the fact that right now the world is on the brink of having a world depression because of the oil situation in Iran and the Strait of Hormoz.

But you know what happened in Israel? They had the best economy they’ve ever had. And this is why they’re being bombed and attacked. This is why people can’t even have their jobs.

Tourism is way down in Israel. Why? Because tourists can’t get there. Tourists can’t go around when they’re there because you have to be ready to go to a bomb shelter if Hezbollah or the Houthis or Iran start shooting rockets.

But yet their economy is the greatest it’s ever been. How can this be? I am the Lord and I will do what I say, not what men attempt to keep me from doing. And that’s what we need to realize as we look at this.

Well, I think we’ll stop here and we’ll pick it up in the last portion of chapter 36 where it’s talking more about the people coming back and a little bit more about the land. But I think it’s important that people understand the land of Israel because it’s being spoken of today by a lot of people. And a lot of them are Christians that want to say, oh, the land doesn’t belong to Israel.

That belongs to the Arabs. The land belongs to everybody else in the Middle East except the Jewish people. And I’ve even had people that I know that I thought were pro-prophecy, pro-Israel come out and say, oh, God’s done with the Jews.

The church has replaced the Jewish people. God’s done with, why don’t we just give the land away and then we wouldn’t have all these problems in the Middle East. I want to tell you, you start giving the land, try to give the land of Israel away, which God has given to the Jewish people.

That’s when the problems begin because God says, do not part my land. And he says in the last days, that’s what they’re going to try and do. And what are they trying to do now? Even the undertones of some of the peace agreements that are going on right now is to portion the land of Israel.

Why don’t they go portion the land of Jordan or portion the land of Iran or something? So yes. Yeah, we just got done studying the 70 years of Daniel. It’s in the book and it’s really 70 years of weeks is what it’s referring to.

And it goes back all the way to before the time of Ezekiel and Daniel. And what happened is the nation of Israel, they were given the law and as part of the law, they were to have years of Shabbat. And during their Shabbat years, they were to forgive their debts.

There was a whole bunch of things that were to be done. They never did it. They ignored 70 of those Shabbat years.

And so God says, okay, what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you 70 weeks of years as your judgment for not obeying me and doing what I said to do. And the first 69 weeks of years, and so it would be like seven years would be a week of years. The prophecy in Daniel says that the first 69 of those years would come and the Messiah would enter into Jerusalem, but then he would be cut off.

And that’s exactly the time. And you can look at other prophecies that say when Jesus would enter Jerusalem. And it was to the day that he entered Jerusalem and that Passover, where he was the Lamb of God that was offered for the sins of the world.

That was the 69th week of Daniel. Then the 70th week, there’s still one week of seven years that’s left. But God stopped everything and he allowed the gospel to be presented to the Gentile people.

And so it’s like he put the 70 weeks of Daniel on hold and the nation of Israel was scattered amongst the Gentiles. And that was done in 70 AD. And they had no land from 70 AD.

And even when they were there, they were still under Roman oppression. And it really wasn’t their own land in the sense of they weren’t ruling at Rome was, but then Rome scattered them amongst the nations. And God said, that’s exactly what would happen.

Further Research