Page 203 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 197
left quietly at home. It is the day of just retribution
and of divine government on earth, when the manslayer*
so long estranged yet preserved, returns to the land of
his possession. And shall not God avenge His own
elect when he whose trust is in his numbers numberless
casts his greedy look on the land where Jehovah’s eyes
rest continually ?
The prophecy then supposes the return of the people
as a whole to their land, not of a remnant only, as after
the Babylonish captivity. But there is more. It sup­
poses a condition of unsuspected quiet such as differs
from any period of Israel’s history in the past. Of
this Gog is to take advantage, but to his own ruin. He
has no faith in God’s love for His people, and never
thinks of His taking His place in their midst for their
defence against their foes.
“ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It shall also come to
pass in that day that things shall come into thy mind,
and thou shalt devise a wicked device, and thou wilt
say, I will go up to the land of villages, I will invade
those who are at ease, that dwell securely, all of them
dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor
gates to take spoil and to take prey, to turn thy hand
against the wastes that are inhabited and against a
people gathered out of the nations, gathering cattle and
goods, dwelling in the midst [or on the height] of the
land.” (Ver. 10—12.)
If the day is come for Israel to be blessed in the
mercy of God, it is no less the day for the judgment of
the nations. Of these we have here the last in order,
and perhaps the widest in extent, the awfully impressive
lesson at the final confederacy before the reign of peac*