Ezekiel 39

“My fury shall come up in my face,” refers to the usual manifestations of intense excitement—a flushed countenance, the blood rushing to the head and imprinting the marks of strong feeling upon the face. The indignation of the Almighty is intensely aroused against these heathen hosts who are combined to pillage and destroy His people.

22,23. The exalted purpose of God in these judgments is shown—viz., to magnify His power; to make His name great; to vindicate His holiness and His righteous justice, and to make all the nations know that He is the Lord, the glorious Ruler of all kingdoms, and the no less glorious Deliverer of His people.

Chap. 39. This chapter continues and closes the subject of the preceding one, expanding its descriptions and reiterating its momentous truths. H. C.

The present chapter proceeds to describe the defeat of Evil and the triumph of God and His people. We must bear in mind that Ezekiel is not predicting the invasion of an actual army, but the advance of Evil under that figure. So he declares the overthrow of Evil by the figure of a host routed and slain, and the consequent purification of a land, partially overrun and disturbed. It is the manner of Ezekiel to dwell upon the details of the figurative acts which he portrays, bringing them before the mind as vivid pictures, and employing, so to speak, the strongest coloring. This has led some so to rest on the picture as to forget that it is a figure. Thus they have searched history to find out some campaign in the land of Israel, some overthrow of invaders, on which to fix this prophecy. B. C.

9,10. To measure the vastness of this grand armament and give the reader some conception of its magnitude, their weapons of war are said to have supplied fuel for all Israel seven years. Now is the time for Israel to rob and plunder those who have long robbed and plundered her. These “weapons” made thus prominent remind us of Isaiah’s words: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”

11-14. Still further to aid the mind to conceive the vastness of this slaughter, the prophet describes the burial of their dead. It occupied seven months—seven, the round number occurring here again in its long, indefinite sense. At first all the people of the land seem to have been engaged in this work.

17-20. Here is another of the usual features in a description of great slaughter—a summons to every beast and fowl, to the hyenas and vultures that delight in human flesh, to gather to this great feast prepared of God for them. Of course, this aims to fill out and heighten the description of an immense slaughter.

21,22. Sublimely will the Lord Jehovah “set His glory before all the heathen” by means of this appalling destruction of their armed hosts. They shall know that this is the work of His hand, and shall see that indeed He is mighty to save His people and to avenge them on their proudest foes. The house of Israel too shall see and know God’s hand. This grand display of it will suffice from this time forward and forevermore! They will never again have occasion to doubt whether God loves Zion and will defend her against whatever may assail.

25-29. The nearer fulfilment of verses 25, 26—the first instalment of blessings—came in the restoration from Babylon under Zerubbabel. Its subsequent instalments belong chiefly or wholly to the Gospel age, and take the form peculiar to this age—Gospel blessings. That great restoration was a pledge and symbol of all future deliverances that God would achieve for His people. The perpetuity of His favor and love is insured by the mission and work of His Spirit. “For I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel” is the unfailing guaranty and pledge of abiding and glorious prosperity to Zion (verse 29). Of course this promise looks down to the Gospel age, of which the mission of the Comforter is the grand, distinctive characteristic.

These two chapters depict the intense antagonism of the powers of evil in this world against the Church and kingdom of God. In costume Jewish, to make it readily intelligible to the people of whom Ezekiel wrote, it is yet, in thought and bearing, mainly Christian, belonging to the latter days of the reign of Satan. It does not show that the land of Israel (Palestine proper) shall be the battle-ground; it does not teach that this malign onset shall be with bows and spears and horsemen; it does not even show that Zion’s enemies shall come out of “the north parts”—all these are features of costume, drapery, representation. The real truth lies under all these features, and should be carefully kept distinct from them all. This truth is that sin and Satan will assail God in the form of an assault upon His truth and His people. The conflict will be terrible. What precise form it shall assume this passage did not aim to show. The forms of Satan’s onsets change from age to age. Their name is legion. It is quite in vain to speculate beforehand as to the form they will assume in any given age, present or future. It rather behooves us to study all his wiles and never be ignorant of his devices; but especially to rally round the banner of our King and accept His leadership in the mighty conflict. So fighting and so trusting, victory is sure to Zion, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it! H. C.

29. I have poured out My Spirit. Compare Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10; Acts 2:17. There Peter distinctly appropriates these prophecies to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the inauguration of the Church of Christ by that miraculous event. But this was the beginning of the fulfilment of these verses of the prophets. They shall find their consummation when time shall be no more. B. C.

The kingdoms of light and the kingdoms of darkness are coming into conflict every hour. Armageddon is occurring in some part of the world every day. Wickedness always grows more wicked till it meets the sword of judgment. The devil must be either converted or crushed. Jerusalem had either to accept Christ or be razed from the face of the earth. Slavery had to be abolished by the sentiment of justice or by the cannon. Where disease has taken hold of the body there must be either a complete cure or complete corruption. That is the law of the universe; and Jesus emphasized it in His prophecies of the “coming of the Son of man.” The world is not growing better; but millions of saved people in it, a number every year increasing, are growing better, by the grace of God implanted in their hearts. All not saved shall by the very law of their nature “grow worse and worse.” We do not know whether the world as a whole will have its Armageddon, but as to individuals, cities, races, we know that they have because we have seen them, and if we live we shall continue to see them. Interior.