Monday 21 July 2014

Ezekiel 36

Ezekiel 36:22-25 must have been fulfilled during Old Covenant times, I think, because the issue that God was said to be cleansing Israel from was idolatry (verses 18, 25). Idolatry was the cause of Israel's captivity - and the captivity cleansed them of it, just as God said. But idolatry is virtually non-existent amongst the modern Diaspora. And those doing Aliyah have not needed to be cleansed of it.

Also verse 26 goes on to prophesy the new birth. The new birth was the next step in Israel's cleansing which God would offer the nation AFTER regathering them to their land and cleansing them from idolatry through the captivity. Ezekiel 36:22-25 therefore preceded the new birth.

So the order of events was: 

> idolatry 
> captivity 
> regathering, and cleansing from idolatry, and restored Old Covenant Levitical practise in a rebuilt Temple 
> the coming of Messiah and the new birth, while those things had been fulfilled and were still a reality in Israel. (Soon afterwards they forever ceased to be a reality in Israel - in AD70).

If we make Ezekiel 36:22-25 to instead be about the future, then the Scriptures which follow (in verse 26, about the new birth) are no longer about the new birth (like Paul said they were even in the first century AD). Instead we make them to be about a future revived interest in Judaism.

Making it about the future is also confusing because it means that while on the one hand we are expecting a nationwide revival of Judaism in Israel, on the other hand we are also expecting great troubles ahead for Israel, because Jesus portrayed a picture of trouble and persecution in Israel immediately before His return, not a picture of utopian peace and godliness. And we can't say the Jews will all turn to Christ AFTER the second coming, because it will be too late then, as Jesus explained in His parables.

So I think what we are seeing in modern Jewish history is not the direct fulfilment of prophecies like Ezekiel 36. Rather, what we are seeing is I think the aftermath of the fact that such prophecies were already fulfilled in Israel long ago.

That's the Gospel truth which explains Jewish affairs since Ad70 until the present - it's the truth which Israel needs to confront. It's the Apostles' doctrine. It's the way they interpreted the Prophets. That's how it seems to me when reading the prophets and the apostles.

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