Page 195 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XXXVII. 189
observe my statutes, and do them.” (Yer. 24.) Here
again what confirmation if this were needed ! For no
sober believer can doubt that Christ only can be meant,
and Christ, not as Head of the church in heaven, but
as king of Israel when He reigns over the earth. Never,
since the prophecy was uttered, has there been an
approach to its accomplishment. Never since have
they all had one shepherd; nor have Israel walked in
His judgments, nor observed His statutes and done
them. Christians all over the world cannot be meant
here, still less when they go to heaven, but Israel only.
“ And they shall dwell in the land that I have given
unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have
dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, [even] they, and
their children, and their childrens children, for ever;,
and my servant David [shall be] their prince for ever.”
It is, as Isaiah says, the sure mercies of David—that
everlasting covenant Jehovah makes with Israel; and
this the resurrection of Christ explains. Thus was He
to reign—not merely to ascend and become the begin­
ning and Head of a new work on high, but to reign—over
Israel in their land. Indeed, in language strongly
resembling the prophet referred to, Ezekiel follows with
the assurance of Jehovah. “ Moreover I will make
a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an ever­
lasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and
multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst
of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be
with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be
my people. And the heathen shall know that I Jeho­
vah do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in
the midst of them for evermore.” (Yer. 26—28.) The