NOTES for Eze 39:1-29
Speaking of the universal battle the Lord wages against the forces of evil, the prophet Ezekiel proclaims the central truth our hope requires: God will triumph. It will be a complete and final victory over evil, and of the day it is accomplished the prophet speaks in the person of the Lord: “I will make My holy name known.” These words immediately direct us to the final chapters of the Gospel of John, where in His High Priestly Prayer to the Heavenly Father the Lord Jesus says, “I have manifested Your name to the people,” and also, “Father, glorify Your name.” These two texts, the prophecy and its fulfillment, are most closely bound together, and the whole of chapter 39 of the prophet Ezekiel can be understood precisely in connection with the Last Supper and Christ's final discourse with His disciples. The apocalyptic picture of the battle corresponds not to the outward course of the events of Holy Week, but to their inward spiritual intensity. The defeat of Gog's hordes of which the prophet speaks is literally fulfilled when the Lord Jesus declares: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”
After saying that all God's people will take part in burying the defeated forces of evil, the prophet declares God's will concerning a certain sacrificial feast, and the meaning of his words cannot fail to astonish. First of all, like the battle with evil, this feast is universal. All creation, including the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field, is invited to take part. This is not simply a Temple sacrifice in accordance with the ordinances of Moses and Solomon. All creation participates in it, and at this supper flesh and blood are eaten, although their consumption is categorically forbidden. Moreover, the Lord says of this sacrifice that He Himself will slaughter it for us, whereas the sacrifices of the Old Testament were, on the contrary, slaughtered by human beings for God. It follows that this is something exceptional: not one sacrifice among many, but a unique and only Sacrifice.
Its details are hidden from the prophet's sight. This is not surprising, because the Incarnation of the Son of God is an event too incredible for even spiritually gifted people to comprehend and express before it takes place. Still less can we expect a prophet who sees in the Spirit the essence of the event but thinks in the categories of his own experience to speak of the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man. Nevertheless, he sees and proclaims the Lord's Sacrifice, which is accomplished in connection with His victory.
Thus, according to the prophet, God's victory and the establishment of the Kingdom of David's Descendant will be connected with the Sacrifice that God Himself will offer and with a feast to which the whole world is invited: all the nations that will see God's judgment, and all creation. From almost this very moment, the feast will become one of the most widespread symbols of the Kingdom of Heaven in Israel's spiritual tradition, which the Lord Jesus Christ will follow when He so often turns to this image.
The chapter ends with incredible and unexpected words, yet words so longed for by the exiles, about the return of the deported and scattered children of God's people. Half a century before King Cyrus and almost six centuries before the New Covenant, the prophet announces that God, who struck and purified Israel, will gather it once more in the Promised Land and never abandon it again. Here, as throughout the book, the prophet returns to his crucial theme of human individuality and personal responsibility. Unlike other prophets who also proclaim that on the last day God will no longer forsake His people, Ezekiel speaks more precisely: “I will leave none of them there any longer... because I will pour out My Spirit.” In other words, the promised outpouring of the Spirit will mean that no person will be separated from God, but God will be close to every person. Once again in the prophet Ezekiel we see a foretelling of the incredible nearness of God that will be granted on the day of Pentecost.