Page 222 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

216 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
illegitimate to sever these chapters in an absolute man­
ner from those we have already had before us. The
closing series (chaps, xl.—xlviii.) is the glorious but
fitting and most intelligible sequel to the prophecies
immediately before: so much so that the previous
series (chaps, xxxiii.—xxxix.) prepares for it, announc­
ing the judgment but happy return of the chosen nation
in the last days, far beyond what was at hand. We
have had the new ground laid of individual conduct
before God in chapter xxxiii., the leaders judged in tdiap-
ter xxxiv., and Edom in chapter xxxv.; then the pre­
diction of Israel’s restoration to their own land with a
new heart and a new spirit—yea, with God’s Spirit
within them—in chapter xxxvi. We have seen the para­
bolic vision in chapter xxxvii. of the dry bones suddenly
invested with life and strength, which are expressly
said to mean not Christians nor men at large, but the
house of Israel, under the figure of resurrection, caused
to live and placed by Jehovah in their own land , and
this too united as they have never been—Ephraim and
Judah—since the days of Jeroboam, under one head,
one king, in the land, on the mountains of Israel. We
have had before us the last and most formidable attack
to be made upon Israel whilst thus settling in peace in
Canaan, when the great north-eastern chief with his
myriads of followers shall be exterminated by divine in­
tervention (Chaps, xxxviii. xxxix.). No allegory this, as
they shall then learn to their cost; and Israel shall know
and the spared Gentiles too, for Jehovah shall be thus
glorified in His people on earth. Most appropriately fol.
lows the last vision, where is laid down with precision the
polity of Israel, both sacred and civil, and the descend­