"For
this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: ‘Here I am, I myself,
and I will search for my sheep and care for them. According to the care
of one feeding his drove in the day of his coming to be in the midst of
his sheep that have been spread abroad, that is the way that I shall
care for my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all the places to
which they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick gloom.'"
The
prophesied desolation of Jerusalem and the Jewish exile in Babylon was
by no means the end of Jehovah’s dealings with his renegade nation.
Another significant aspect, not only of the book of Ezekiel, but of all
Hebrew prophecy, has to do with the liberation, restoration and revival
of God’s covenanted people. Although the nation as a whole, particularly
the leadership, failed to live up to the obligations of the covenant
into which their forefathers had entered with God, Jehovah did not stay
resentful nor did he cast them off forever, but he extended forgiveness
and mercy in a very large way to a chastened remnant.
But the
relationship between God and his people was not to be as before. No, in
his compassion Jehovah purposed to permanently repair his relationship
with the Jews. At least that is what the prophecies relate. But while it
is noteworthy that the repatriated Jews did not resume the degrading
form of idolatry that they had practiced before their exile, it is also
apparent that the prophecy of Ezekiel only had a relative fulfillment
with regard to the post-exilic Jewish society. More importantly, the
shadows cast by this portion of the prophecy have profound significance
for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the coming of Christ, which is the subject of
this article.
