S40 || When Judgment Ends, Restoration Begins || Ezekiel 34:23-31 || Session 40

Turning points can reveal the most profound truths. In the latter verses of Ezekiel chapter 34, we witness a dramatic shift from judgment to restoration as God pivots from condemning Israel to promising their future blessing. This pivotal moment raises fascinating questions about biblical prophecy, God's character, and the future of Israel.

After spending more than two dozen chapters pronouncing judgment on Israel for their sins, God suddenly changes course and promises to restore them under the leadership of "my servant David" - despite David having been dead for over 400 years when Ezekiel delivered this prophecy. This specific language challenges us to consider: Is this a metaphorical reference to Jesus as the Davidic Messiah, or does it point to a literal resurrection of David himself to serve as prince under Christ's kingship?

We explore the rich promises contained in this passage - a covenant of peace, secure dwelling in the land, abundant harvests, and protection from enemies - examining whether these should be understood literally or spiritually. The specific language used makes it difficult to spiritualize these promises without distorting their plain meaning, challenging theological systems that claim God has permanently set aside national Israel in favor of the church.

The stark contrast between Ezekiel's earlier messages of condemnation and this beautiful vision of restoration reveals something profound about God's nature. He is both just and merciful, both wrathful against sin and faithful to His promises. This balanced portrait gives us confidence that God will keep His word, not because of human faithfulness but because of His own unchanging character.

What does this mean for believers today? If God remains committed to His promises to Israel despite their repeated failures, we can have absolute confidence in His promises to us through Christ. Join us as we reason through this fascinating chapter that bridges judgment and hope, revealing a God who keeps His covenants throughout all generations.

Chapters

• 0:00 Israel's Future: Questions about Ezekiel
• 3:31 God's Promised Restoration of Israel
• 8:47 Understanding God's Character Through Judgment
• 11:51 David as Future Shepherd of Israel
• 17:54 Israel vs Church: Examining Restoration Prophecies
• 23:24 The New Covenant and Final Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

Is it possible that this Old Testament book of Ezekiel will have not only applications to us today in our lives and our churches, but will it also have some valid things about the future? We're going to find out today on Reasoning Through the Bible. If you have your copy of the Word of God, open it to Ezekiel chapter 34. As a reminder, what we've been seeing is that God has lifted up this prophet Ezekiel, and he's been speaking through Ezekiel to the Jewish people that have been taken captive and moved to the nation of Babylon. And Ezekiel spent more than two dozen chapters condemning the behavior of the Jewish people and predicting the fall of Jerusalem. We saw that. So he's been proven true to the people in his day by predicting these things before he had news of it happening. Therefore, through those literal fulfillment, we can take seriously the rest of Ezekiel's prophecies. Today, we're going to see what God says about the future of Israel. And really, from here on, God is going to be building the nation Israel. After the first large sections of the book of Ezekiel, God tearing them down. Now he's going to be restoring them and building them back up. So let's go ahead and jump in. Steve, can you start at verse 23 and read through verse 31?

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

Then I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken. I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing, and I will cause showers to come down in their season. They will be a showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslave them. They will no longer be a prey to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not devour them, but they will live securely, and no one will make them afraid. I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nations any more. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares Lord God. As for you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, you are men, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.

SPEAKER_01: 3:29

Well, this is a rather amazing passage. And if we ask ourselves, what is the main thrust of this passage? What's the main point? Well, the answer is that God is going to restore Israel. So, Steve, in that passage, what are some of the things that God says he's going to do when he restores Israel?

SPEAKER_00: 3:48

He says that he is going to send his shepherd. This is after the previous verses where he just condemned the shepherds that are overseeing the nation of Israel at the present time and has gotten them into the place where they are now exiles from the land itself. And that through that shepherd that he's going to send, that he's going to give them green pastures, that he's going to give them a place where it's going to produce fruit. They're going to live securely there. They're no longer going to be prey to all the animals. So it's a picture of a restored land of Israel that's going to be very productive. It's almost like when they first spied out the land and where it was described as a land of milk and honey. But I think it's even going to be better than that because they're not going to have to fight their way in and take over the land. They're going to be residing there securely and in peace. And God is going to have their shepherd watching over them.

SPEAKER_01: 4:50

As you pointed out, he had just spent time talking about the wicked shepherds. Now, in verse 23 and 24, God is going to put a righteous shepherd over them, which means he has to take away the wicked ones. Verse 25, God will set a covenant of peace over them. He will make sure they live in security. He will make, quote, the places around my hill a blessing, unquote, which means he's going to bless the land, specifically around the temple mount. That's my hill, is what he says. Verse 27, the earth will yield its blessing. So to me, this just raises a glaring question. Does it seem strange to you, Steve, that God has spent in the book of Ezekiel more than two dozen chapters being very direct, very blunt, using very emotional descriptive language, talking about the horribleness of Israel's sin over and over again, condemning them, wave after wave of other countries that are going to go in. He did all those illustrations that Ezekiel had to act out, showing the filthiness of Israel's sin. Yet here, now, instead of destroying them completely, he says, I'm going to restore them. I'm going to bring them back. The earth is going to yield its fruit. I'm going to rain down blessings on them. I'm going to have them live securely. Does that seem strange to you? Because the contrast is just quite amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 6:23

It's not a surprise to me from the standpoint of God keeping his promises. He made this land promise to Abraham, said it was an everlasting one. And he then passed that down to Isaac and then also to Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And we have the 12 sons who are the 12 tribes. So to me, it's not surprising that God is going to keep this land promise covenant with them. In order to do that, he's people are going to reside there. So, no, it's not surprising. Now, I've often said, Glenn, that a reason why this land promise and God fulfilling it and keeping it is important to us is because he has made us a promise and a covenant of everlasting life when we believe and trust in Jesus Christ. Well, if the everlasting commitment and covenant that he made with Abraham for the land and for them to be his people is overthrown, and now it means something else, what are we supposed to do with this everlasting promise of eternal life? How do we know that that's not going to change in the future either? So God keeping his promise here for this land and for them to be his people is significant to me for that reason. And we're going to see even further, as you mentioned in the introduction to this session, that this is just the beginning of God talking about the restoration. We're going to see how he's going to restore them. We're going to see the different aspects and characteristics of the restoration of Israel. So it's going to be very encouraging to me. It shows me God's character. And I'm glad that I have a God that I can trust that whenever he makes an everlasting promise that it's not going to be something that's going to be changed in the future.

SPEAKER_01: 8:20

You mentioned God's character and it telling you some things about God's character. When we look at the book of Ezekiel, it has large sections that have very strong condemnation. Very, very strong condemnation and wrathful judgment. It also has sections that have very great blessings and very loving restoration. What does that tell us about God's character and his nature when he can do both of those, both wrathful judgment and loving restoration?

SPEAKER_00: 8:56

It gives us a glimpse of how he can be merciful and gracious to us. So to me, it's a depiction of God and also that we can take encouragement that he's going to be just, that there's going to be a justful judgment because he is God, but yet he's going to be merciful and he's also going to follow through on the promises that he's made. So to me, it gives me comfort of knowing that's the type of God that he is.

SPEAKER_01: 9:24

In the flow of the book, we can find another very interesting thing about God's nature. For the first portions of the book of Ezekiel, the false prophets were saying, Oh, God's not going to destroy Jerusalem. That would never happen. God was saying, Oh, yes, I am. I'm sure there were some of the Jewish people who didn't know which prophet was true, whether it was the other prophets or whether it was Ezekiel. When Jerusalem finally did fall, it showed Ezekiel to be a true prophet. And at that point, God switches. Prior to Jerusalem falling, God had all these messages about condemnation and all these very horrible descriptions of what was going to happen. Once it happened, God changes his message. Now he's talking about loving restoration. He's talking about raining down showers of blessings and restoration and peace. That's our God. It tells us that yes, he will judge. He will judge sin. He doesn't wink at sin. But once it happens, now he's talking about restoration. Can we apply that to our life today?

SPEAKER_00: 10:37

I think we can, in knowing that at some point we're going to have glorified bodies. We have a future in the messianic kingdom. And then after that, we're going to have a new heavens and a new earth, and we're going to have an eternal dwelling place in the new Jerusalem. So yeah, I think that we can take comfort of knowing that there is a future. We're currently tied to this world and the evil things that are going on with the world, the draw of the world to pull us into the anti-Christian type of lifestyles the world brings. But at some point, we're going to have this restored land and earth that we're going to be living in as well and being able to take advantage of it. God is not going to just restore the kingdom of Israel, but He's also going to restore the earth. And we are going to be able to live in a much better place than what we're living in now regarding the world.

SPEAKER_01: 11:38

In verses 23 and again in 24, God is in the midst of talking about restoring Israel. And he mentions a person specifically twice, actually, once in 23 and again in 24. Who does the Lord say will be the shepherd over Israel?

SPEAKER_00: 11:55

He refers to him in one part in 24 as his servant David. And then later he says he will be a prince among him. And in the next verse calls him his prince David.

SPEAKER_01: 12:07

So he says David very clearly twice. What's interesting, keep in mind, is that David had been deceased for over 400 years. By the time Ezekiel was around giving this prophecy, David had been dead for many centuries. Yet, let me read those verses again so you can kind of get the thrust of what God's saying here. Verse 23, then I, this is God speaking, then I will set over them, Israel, one shepherd, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken. So he even emphasizes it. So what can we conclude, Steve? David, as a person, had been dead for over 400 years, yet he emphasizes at least future to when Ezekiel said these words was still future. So how could it be that David could be the shepherd that's feeding Israel? Well, there's two or three logical possibilities. One is that David would resurrect and feed them at some future time. Our minds automatically go to the Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel 7, where God promised David a descendant of his would be king of Israel. And over in the New Testament, that's clearly Christ. Christ is said to be the son of David multiple times in the New Testament. So how do we untangle this? Do we hold that it's actually David in some future resurrected state? Or is he giving some sort of a spiritual application to Christ?

SPEAKER_00: 14:27

I think that we can take here that reading the plain meaning of the text, that it is David and he will be resurrected. We know that we're all going to be resurrected at some point. So it's not out of the ordinary to think that David's going to be resurrected as well and be able to be a servant and a prince over the people of Israel in the Messianic kingdom. A way to back that up is that whenever it talks of Jesus or the Messiah, it refers maybe to the root of Jesse or a branch of David or the line of David. Those are indications of the Messiah. But here it says David himself, and we don't see the Messiah, who we now know as Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, referenced directly as being David. He being Jesus is of the line of David. He is the root of Jesse. He is the branch that is spoken about. So I think we can conclude from this that this is actually going to be David in a resurrected body.

SPEAKER_01: 15:38

Notice here what it does not say. It does not say son of David, it does not say descendant of David. It says David. And again, verse 23, God repeats it for emphasis. And I think the reason it was repeated for emphasis was simply because the same question we have, which is, he'd been dead 400 years. So how could he do it? Now, this isn't the only place in the Old Testament where God specifically says David, in a future sense, is going to do this. And it's predicted after David has been long in the grave. Jeremiah 30, verse 9, Ezekiel 37, verses 24 and 25 is coming up in this book, and Hosea 3, verse 5. And of course, the one we just read here in Ezekiel 34. So those are at least four places in the Old Testament that specifically say David is going to be the servant in some future date. It says, verse 23, David will be shepherd over them. Verse 24, David will be prince over them. It does not say in these passages, David will be king over them. The Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7, God tells David, one of your descendants will be king over Israel forever. Here it does not say David will be king. It says he will be prince, says he will be shepherd. Therefore, I would conclude along with you, Steve, it could in some stretch mean Christ, but the plain meaning of the language is that it's most probably David himself in a future resurrected situation where there's a kingdom on earth.

SPEAKER_00: 17:41

So Glenn, there is a teaching in our day and time that says that the church is spiritual Israel. Therefore, all of the promises that have been given to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled with Christ's coming, and that now the references to the nation of Israel itself is the church. Now we've refuted that several times in our teaching of the various books. The church is the body of Christ. But let's look at that from that perspective here. Do you think that there's any type of teaching that you have heard that says that David is going to be a prince over the body of Christ?

SPEAKER_01: 18:24

Let me address this idea that quite popular in some circles, a millennial and covenantal theology circles, that God is done with Israel as a nation, they then read passages like this and take them to mean Christ, the Christian life or the church itself. Let me go back and point out some of the passages in this section we just read. And if you were to take the position when it says here, David, that it's somehow Christ and the church and the Christian life, here's what you would have to do to the specifics in this section. So let me just mention a few of these and show you what difficulty and hurdles you have to come over to hold that position. Verse 25, God says that he, God, will quote, eliminate harmful beasts, unquote, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods, unquote. Then verse 27, at that time, quote, the earth will yield its increase. God's flock will, quote, be secure on their land, unquote. Which land? Their land. Verse 28, quote, they will no longer be prey to the nations, unquote. The beast of the earth will no longer devour them. Verse 29, they will not again be victims of famine in the land. Quote, they will not endure the insults of the nations anymore. Verse 30, this speaks of they, the house of Israel, are my people, God says. To make this language fit the Christian life or the church in general, you would have to stretch the meaning beyond the normal meaning of all of those passages. Harmful beast, suddenly or not harmful beast. Live securely in the wilderness doesn't mean that. The earth yield its increase is spiritualized away into something else. No longer be prey to the nations. My friends, the church has been prey to the nations. Read the news on any given day. You'll find missionaries, their lives taken. And if you're going to really spiritualize it, what does Paul say in Romans chapter 7? The things I want to do, I don't do, and the things I do, I don't want to do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? The Christian life is a torment of living in a sinful body and trying to overcome our sin. Meanwhile, we're chained to this body of death. They will not endure the insults of the nations anymore. How many insults are applied to Christians on a daily basis? My friends, you have to spiritualize away the normal meaning of the language in every sense and every verse. We cannot take the language to mean the plain meaning of the language and have it come out to be anything but a future resurrected state where David is going to be an under-shepherd to the Lord Jesus Christ, who's going to be king over Israel on the earth. And that's what the text says. It's not my interpretation. I'm giving you what the words on the page say. Now, to further that, we also cannot say that these prophecies were fulfilled in the intertestamental period in between the time they returned from Babylon and the first century when Jesus came, simply because the same reasons we just gave, Israel was in repeated conflict with other nations. They were constantly being either insulted or under the thumb or fighting with the Greeks or the Romans or the Seleucids or somebody. Therefore, it would seem that the only logical conclusion is that a literal time in history for ethnic Israel to be blessed by God when David resurrects, we're going to see this again in very clear language in chapters 36 and 37. They're in the same section of the book, and they clearly present a restoration of national Israel.

SPEAKER_00: 22:44

So one other thing to bring out in this section here, Glenn, is that in verse 25, he says, I will make a covenant of peace with them. Now, this is not the first time that he's mentioned covenant in Ezekiel. He also mentioned the covenant in chapter 16. There he said it's going to be an everlasting covenant. And then over in Jeremiah, it talks about the new covenant that he's going to make with both Israel and the house of Judah. So here we have God not limiting this new covenant that he's going to make with the house of Israel and the people of Israel in Jeremiah 31. He's already mentioned it two times here in Ezekiel, talking about this covenant. Now we've brought out before that the new covenant is linked to Jeremiah 31 in Hebrews, that we as Gentiles are able to take advantage and participate in that new covenant. But God is clear, not just in Jeremiah, but now the second time in Ezekiel, that there's going to be a new covenant that's going to be established with the nation of Israel and his people. Once again, that's part of the restoration here in verse 25 of chapter 34. He calls it a covenant of peace.

SPEAKER_01: 24:08

The Old Testament and the New make it quite clear that people from the beginning of time up till the end of time are separated from God because of sin and then saved by one thing: faith. Faith in the Lord God, and specifically in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. That and that alone is the only way for people to be saved, Old Testament, New, in between, whatever, is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way. Now, it is also true that the new covenant that you just pointed out, Steve, the book of Hebrews says, we are grafted in. That is the basis of our salvation. The new covenant is connected with the promises that were made to Abraham. So, yes, the Gentile believers are grafted in to the covenant that is made with Israel in Jeremiah 31. So therefore, the unbelieving Jews were cut off. All that's true. The mistake that a lot of Bible teachers make is they say, because of that, therefore, here's the mistake they make: God is done with national Israel. And that's the part that just does not follow. And we've taken the time as we've gone through Ezekiel to go through all of these passages. It is quite clear that God has a purpose and a destiny for nations. We also saw as we went through Genesis, it is quite clear. I mean, read Genesis 17. God says, I will, I will, I will, many times, and he's the one that's going to restore them. We're going to see as we get to these upcoming chapters, he says it again, not because of anything you have done, he says in Ezekiel 36, 37. It's because of my name. So he's not going to restore them because of their disobedience. He's judging them because of their disobedience. He's going to restore them because he made a promise and he's going to come through with his promise. And somehow, a lot of these modern Bible teachers, yes, we should focus on salvation and the doctrines around salvation, very much so. But we should not limit God and say that salvation is the only thing he is able to do. He is quite capable, thank you very much, of also having more than one thing that he's doing at a time. And judging nations, he is quite capable of doing that. And that's just one of these things that I think people don't read these Old Testament passages. They don't go through them in detail. They read and get correct much of the New Testament doctrine, but then they reinterpret the Old Testament and wrench the text from its context and break it from its moorings and make it say things that it just doesn't say. So with that, we're going to stop there. That brings us to the end of Ezekiel chapter 34. Next time we're going to see Ezekiel 35, where God, before he can restore Israel, he's going to remove a nation from its way. We can take this application that we're going to see in Ezekiel 35 and apply it to people today. What do we do with people that hate the Jews today? Will God judge people on the earth today when they have repeated hatred for his people, even though they may be disobedient towards God? What will God do? And what does he expect from people and how we should treat Jewish people in the Jewish nation today? We're going to see that next time as we continue to reason through the Bible.