Page 192 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

186 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.

first half of the chapter, not their quickening individu­
ally, however true it may be, but their national resusci­
tation under the operation of the Spirit, not of man’s
will or the world’s politics, as becomes the people
chosen and now finally to be blessed of Jehovah.
There was a distinct fresh blessing to be conferred on
them, the disappearance of an old reproach which had
long dishonoured Israel from the days of Rehoboam as
long as it had subsisted in the land. When God sets
to His hand for their restoration in the latter day, He
will re-unite them as they were of old under David and
Solomon, never to have their unity broken or even
threatened again. This is reserved for the true Beloved
when He reigns as the Prince of peace.
“ The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying,
Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write
upon it, For Judah, and [for] the children of Israel his
companions: then take another stick, and wTrite upon
it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and [for] all the
house of Israel his companions: and join them one to
another into one stick; and they shall become one in
thine hand.” (Ver. 15—17.)
It is indeed no obscure proof of human perverseness
that words like these should ever have been mistaken.
Yet they have been and are, not among the despised
Jews who cleave to their future hopes, but in contempt
of their present responsibility by Christians under the
gospel of God’s indiscriminate grace in the dead and
risen Christ to every soul that believes, be he Jew or
Gentile. Thus it is then that Satan deceives all. The
Jews are right in maintaining that Israel are yet to be
blessed in their land under Messiah and the new cove-