Sermon Tone Analysis

summary

These two chapters seems intrusive.

The oracles against the nations ended in Ezekiel 32, followed by the announcement of Jerusalem’s fall (ch.

33) and a transition to the future hope of Israel (ch.

34).

Chapters 35-36 are an oracle against Edom (“Mount Seir”) followed by more restorative language in Chapter 36.

This episode explains why Ezekiel 35 isn’t interruptive because, for the Israelite and OT theology, the judgment of Edom was part of Israel’s restoration to her former glory.

Chapter 36, more obviously about the future hope of Israel, raises important questions about eschatology.

Specifically, many

Bible students assume the chapter’s comments about the coming of the Spirit and restoration of God’s people to the land pertain to a future millennial kingdom.

However, the NT quotes the chapter several times, at least two of which have fulfillment in the first century or the OT period itself.

Ezekiel 36 therefore raises the issue of whether any element of Ezekiel 36 awaits fulfillment in the distant future—a question that is appropriate the rest of the way (Ezekiel 37-48).

Ezekiel 35-36

So let's just jump to Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 35 is pretty transparent and we summarized it there.

I want to quote from Taylor again as we jump into chapter 36.

He writes:

Ezekiel’s promises of restoration for Israel began in chapter 34 with the prospect of new leadership in the person of the Lord as the good Shepherd and the Davidic Messiah as his nominee.

The future hope is now taken up again with the prospect, first, of a new land and then finally of a renewed people to dwell in it.

That's really what chapter 36 is about.

As far as structure, there are different parts of it.

The first part of it is an oracle to the mountains of Israel, just like we had an oracle to the mountains of Edom (Mount Seir) in chapter 35.

Here we get in the first fifteen verses an oracle to the mountains of Israel, which in and of itself has two parts.

That oracle is the first fifteen verses.

Verses 1-7 contain a promise or a vow that the nations round about Israel (and Edom in particular) will suffer reproach for the way they treated Israel.

Then in verses 8-15, we have a future restoration of the mountains of Israel that Edom helped beat up on (Edom helped in their conquest).

So we get this future restoration of Israel and the repopulation of the land by returning exiles.

So those fifteen verses are broken up into two sections like that and are an important part of the chapter.

Once we get past verse 15, in verses 16-21 we get a flashback to Israel's past— a flashback that basically explains why God allowed his people to suffer.

In these five or six verses it was "concern for his holy name."

Remember, the name of God is God's identity—it concerns identity, reputation, his sanctified presence, all that sort of stuff.

So when the people become corrupt… This is why in Israelite thinking and in Torah thinking, the people become corrupt and the land becomes corrupt.

That just defiles both God (in terms of reputation and person) but also the place that is supposed to be his dwelling—the place that is his allotted inheritance—this land of Canaan or Israel.

So this is why I'm bringing part of the name theology in here.

This is part of understanding what's going on here.

After verse 21, you get three short oracles about new blessings, which are to come once this whole process is initiated.

I want to be a little selective here when it comes to some of the things in chapter 36 because I'm essentially going to drill down in a few places that I think are the most important.

I’ll try to sort of set the stage again (just like we did in the previous episode with Ezekiel 33 and 34) that you're starting to get an eschatological flavor to some of the discussion because, naturally, when the subject of Israel's restoration comes up, that is future to the time that Ezekiel is writing.

What Future and When?

That raises this question of, well, the future that Ezekiel describes—does that mean the remote, distant future that's still future even to us (this whole concept of a future Millennial Kingdom, a future to us in the 21st century, a future regathering of Israel), or is that future something closer to Ezekiel's time (namely, the actual return from exile and then the events of the New Testament)?

Which future are we talking about here?

That's going to come up again.

We brought that up a little bit in that prior episode because we're going to run into again with Ezekiel 37, 38, 39, and even the whole temple vision of 40-48.

This question of which future we're talking about in terms of fulfillment for these chapters that remain in the book... Is this remotely distant, or is it something that was closer to Ezekiel's time or the New Testament time, and therefore already fulfilled?

That's a lingering question behind all this stuff.

So when it comes to chapter 36, the first fifteen verses, again, are pretty self explanatory.

You have a vow to the nations round about Israel, that they're going to suffer.

I'll just read a couple verses and then we'll start moving through here quickly.

(1-2)

This is kind of an interesting phrase.

"Ancient heights" actually shows up in Deuteronomy 32:13.

It could be sort of the heights of the north idea—the place of the divine council, holy ground, sacred ground—because in Psalm 48 the heights of the north refers to Zion and that kind of thing.

You could have some of that here (and I think you do have that lurking in the background conceptually).

And if you do, you have the nations (specifically Edom) essentially saying, "We're going to take Yahweh's land.

We're going to take his home spot, his inheritance."

And so this is why God reacts to it.

It basically says, "You're not getting away with this!"

So the first fifteen verses of this are saying "you're not going to get away with it" and then verses 8-15 are transitioning to restoration of this place to its rightful people and to Yahweh himself.

So that's really the first fifteen verses—pretty self-explanatory.

That becomes an illustration here.

"You've defiled the land" is essentially the point.

What you have done has, in fact, defiled holy ground, and this is why all this happened to you.

Verse 21:

How'd we do that?

We defiled the land.

How'd that happen?

Because of this whole litany of sins that we did.

Sin among the people of God defiles the land.

In New Testament terminology, this is why sin needs to be expelled from the Church—from the people of God.

The Church is where the presence of God now is.

This is why you get the idea of church discipline when you have an unrepentant sinner.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 to put that person out; the community is to deliver him unto Satan.

Why is that language there?

Because that's where sin belongs.

It belongs outside the camp, to use Old Testament language.

The idea is you put them outside the camp, outside holy ground (which is the community of believers) with the hope that they will want to come back.

The idea is restoration.

The key is to repent and then you're brought back into fellowship.

So it's a very "holy ground," "sacred turf," kind of idea behind church discipline thinking.

Here we have it in its own Old Testament context.

What I want to sort of focus on for the remainder of the episode is verses 22-32.

This is the section that talks about putting the spirit within the people of God.

I'm just going to read the whole section to the end here.

That's the end of the chapter.

Now here's the issue.

There are places in this passage that are very clearly linked to events in the New Testament.

Just by way of illustration, let's go back to verse 24:

24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.

You say, "Well, didn't that happen at the return from exile?"

If you know your Old

Testament history, God eventually brings the people back from Babylon into Canaan.

We have lists of them in Ezra.

They are people from Judah.

We do not have all the tribes accounted for in the lists of the returns as the Bible records them, so we have this idea that the ten tribes are still lost.

Indeed, when you get to the Gospels (and we talked about this when we did a few episodes on the tribulation period and Jesus and eschatology), the New Testament has this sense that Jews really thought of themselves as still being in exile.

They're still waiting for some of these things to happen and for the Messiah to return.

The Messiah, who is the Good Shepherd—the True Shepherd—(Ezekiel 34) is going to be linked to what's described here in chapter 36.

He's going to be linked to what's described in Ezekiel 37. He's going to be linked to 38 and 39 and all this other stuff.

So they view all these things as part and parcel of one big package.

In their minds, Israel is still...

All twelve tribes have not been restored.

And you look and this and think, wait a minute... "You have profaned my name among the nations."