Ezekiel 20:32-38 “What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, 'We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone.' (33) "As I live," says the Lord God, "surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. (34) I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. (35) And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. (36) Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord God. (37) "I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; (38) I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” In the above passage of scripture, the Lord gives us further insight into the event of the gathering of the Jews to the land of Israel, for He tells us that even though the Jews have desired to live among the world and become like the rest of the world, He will not allow that to happen. For they are His, and with a mighty hand with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out He will rule over them once again. God tells us that He will bring them out of the countries where they are scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. In other words, for those Jews who resist returning to Israel, they will experience more than enough persecution to make them change their minds. I want you to also notice that it is only after they have returned to Israel as a nation, that God will then plead His case with that nation. In other words, God’s agenda is to first bring them back to Israel, and only once that is accomplished, will He then add them to spiritual Israel. When our Lord tells Israel in the above passage that He will make them pass under the rod, He is referring to the fact that He will make sure that all have been accounted for, and that none have been left out. For that term refers to how shepherds in biblical days would count their flock of sheep, by making them pass under his rod as he counted them. But I also want you to notice, that not all who return to Israel will be brought into spiritual Israel. For our Lord says, that even though He will bring them out of the countries where they currently dwell, He will still purge the rebels and those who transgress against Him from among them, and those whom He purges, shall not enter Israel (speaking of spiritual Israel). Something else is revealed to us in this passage that is of significance, for our Lord says that He will bring Israel into the wilderness, and there He will plead His case with them. When we look at the section that deals with the two witnesses, we will see that it is in fact in the wilderness, that God’s prophets will preach the gospel to the children of Israel. Michael E.B. Maher
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