Ezekiel 37:24

"And my servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in mine ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, forever: and David my servant shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them: it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanc, tuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore."

"And my servant David shall be king over them ... forever ..." (Ezekiel 37:24,26). "This can be no other than Christ, of whom it was said when he was brought into the world, `He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever' (Luke 1:33)."[19]

"The Messiah is here called `David,' because he shall be of the seed of David."[20] The first verse of the New Testament flatly declares that Jesus Christ is the seed of David and the seed of Abraham. "Son of David" was the universal title by which the Coming Messiah was identified in Israel in the times of Christ, not only among the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians (Matthew 22:42), but also by the blind men (Matthew 9:27), the common people (Matthew 12:23), and even the stranger from Tyre and Sidon, the Syro-Phoenician woman who came to Jesus on behalf of her daughter, even she addressed the Messiah as "Thou son of David" (Matthew 15:22). The whole world of that era knew this was the true title of the Coming Messiah of Israel. The problem was that the Jews of that generation did not want the kind of Messiah they knew Jesus to be; they rejected him and had him crucified. The Jewish leaders of that period in Jewish history passionately wanted, more than anything else in heaven or upon earth, a successful general, sitting on a white horse leading an army, who would chase the Romans out of their land and restore to them that dirty old Solomonic empire, which, when they had it, became the scandal of forty generations!

"And they shall dwell in the land ..." (Ezekiel 37:25) Any fair reading of these verses indicates that God's promise actually meant that they would continue to live in Palestine generation after generation, children and children's children forever and ever under that Messianic king, the Son of David. Is it still going to happen? Why should it? Read Jeremiah 18:7-10 for the correct answer.

"David shall be their prince forever ..." (Ezekiel 37:25). It should not be overlooked that, "'Prince' was Ezekiel's normal word for `King.'"[21]

"And I will make a covenant of peace ..." (Ezekiel 37:26). We have already noted in earlier chapters that this `covenant of peace,' "Is none other than the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34; it will be an everlasting covenant as well."[22] It will not be founded on national or racial considerations of any kind whatever. The whole thesis of Ezekiel is that God holds men accountable, individually, and not as nations or races.

"I will ... set my sanctuary in the midst of them. My tabernacle also shall be with them ..." (Ezekiel 37:26,27). Of course, such a thing as this never happened in post-exilic Israel; but the Lord did not intend this verse as a prophecy that it would happen. "The thing promised is nothing less than the kingdom of God to be set up among them."[23] Did it happen? Most certainly it did. In the midst of them? Yes, in Jerusalem itself. On the Day of Pentecost, the word of the Lord "went forth from Jerusalem," as the prophets had foretold.

It will shock some people that these marvelous prophecies are here presented as applicable solely to the reign of Jesus Christ the true Messiah and the kingdom which he established; but as Plumptre stated it: "The only feasible exegesis is that which understands Jehovah's servant David here to be the Messiah, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the writer of Hebrews said, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever (Hebrews 1:8)."[24]

"And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah ..." (Ezekiel 37:28). Although this came to pass in a very significant degree, it is regrettable that all nations did not become followers of Christ, a very regrettable fact, no doubt due in part, to the unwillingness of racial Israel to accept and fully discharge her mission of accepting the Dayspring when he entered our earth life and taking the lead in inviting all the world to worship and adore him. Contrary to this fundamental purpose in the very existence of Israel, they not only rejected him and shouted for his crucifixion, but they opposed the work of the apostles, threatened to exterminate all of them, and hounded the missionaries of Christ all over Europe, until God removed, absolutely, their ability to be any further hindrance. We pity the Bible students who suppose that God still owes racial Israel anything whatever, based solely upon their being the fleshly residue of the posterity of Abraham. Neither the Holy Scriptures nor the demands of eternal justice can be supposed to teach any such thing.