Ezekiel 36:37-38 (ESV)
“Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
This section (Ezekiel 31-36) is all about God bringing desolation on the cities and countries that went either against His word of His people. Israel and Judah are among these hordes that rebelled against God. There is much judgement in this section due to the rebellious nature of actors. But in the end, we come to the above moment. In the above we read about God’s great restoration. The entire point of the discipline is to being us to redemption. The entire point of the discipline is for them to know who God is. They are lost and running away from God. God, however, intervenes and brings them back to Him. For what purpose? That they may know God. Note how God’s own Son would say this prior to His crucifixion:
John 17:3 (ESV)
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Eternal life is to know God and His son, Jesus Christ. That is the point of Ezekiel’s writings. God is using the prophet to prepare the hearts of the people for their need of a Messiah. This discipline and destruction of rebellion is to bring them to the point of redemption.
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