Page 239 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XLIII. 233
fool. When it left, the Jews ceased to be the recognized
people of Jehovah; when they are taken up again under
Messiah and the new covenant, the glory comes back.
No mistake can be greater than the idea that this vision
applies to the first advent of Christ in humiliation when
the Jews rejected and crucified Him. The prophecy
requires us to believe that the glory will be actually
restored; but it was not, when the Jews returned by
'Cyrus’ proclamation, any more than when the Lord
Jesus was here; it will be, when He returns to reign.
Theocracy will then be established and flourish as long
as the earth endures; for it will rest on Christ, not on
the first man with all his failures under law. With grace
as its foundation, “ glory will dwell in the land,” and
this henceforth immutably. Then and not be­
fore shall the creature rejoice. Meanwhile it groans,
but in hope, for all of it shall be delivered; and
Christ is the sole deliverer at His coming in power
and glory. The Spirit now works in testimony.
“ And I heard [him] speaking to me from the house,
and a man was standing by me. And he said to me,
Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of
the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of
the children of Israel for ever; and the house of Israel
shall no more defile my holy name, they nor their kings,
by their whoredom, and by the carcases of their kings
in their supulchres ;* while they set their threshold be­
side my threshold, and their doorpost beside my door­

* Or, “ on their death.” “ When they are dead,” would seem to
be the force of Soncin. edition, supported by more than a
t ;
dozen of De Rossi’s MSS.