Perhaps the most important Old Testament concept that helps us understand the nature of the promises made to Israel in Ezekiel 40-48 is the concept of covenant. The word “covenant” appears in modern, secular English in certain types of legal documents in which it means a formal, sealed contract. In the Bible, the word “covenant” (Hebrew berith) is also used in this manner as, for example, when employed of marriage contracts (e.g., Prov. 2:17; Mal. 2:14; cf. Ezek. 16:8). But the word berith in the Old Testament has another meaning as well. It is often used in international treaties, such as those between Solomon and Hiram (1 Kings 5:12), between Aram (Syria) and Judah (15:19), or between Ephraim and Assyria (Hosea 12:1). The New King James Version typically translates these uses of berith with the word “treaty,” which indeed is the closest English equivalent.
The underlying connection between berith used as a treaty, and the covenant that God made with Israel, is important because, in many ways, the covenant between God and Israel is very similar to treaties made between nations. The covenant between God and His people is like the treaties between nations that contain the obligations of both parties, the various benefits to each participant, and the sanctions for breach of the treaty.
We see this dramatically shown by Deuteronomy 27-30. These chapters describe in detail the covenant-making ceremony that was to take place at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, near Shechem (modern Nablus). The mountains are called the Mount of Blessings and the Mount of Cursings and for good reasons. In the covenant-making ceremony, blessings and cursings were read from these mountains, corresponding to the listing of benefits and sanctions of a treaty between nations. A list of prohibited activities is read out in the following manner:
“ ‘Cursed is the man who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’ ” (Deut. 27:16, 17).
A detailed list of blessings for obedience follows these initial curses (Deut. 28:1-14). The nation would have fertile wombs and abundant crops (v. 4); its enemies would be defeated (v. 7); the people would become holy (v. 9), and the Lord would open the storehouses of the heavens to send rain on the land (v.12). But if the people are disobedient, then there would be a corresponding set of curses (Deut. 28:15-68): the wombs and crops would be cursed (v. 18); the Lord would plague them with diseases that attack humans, animals, and crops, and there would be disastrous droughts (vv. 20-23); they would be defeated by their enemies (vv. 25, 26); they would be exiled from their lands (verse 36), and they would be scattered among the nations (vv. 64-68). After further, rehearsal of benefits and sanctions of the covenant, the people receive a final challenge: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil… . I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him” (Deut. 30:15-20).
Thus, integral to the covenant between God and Israel was this dual prospect: blessings or cursings. The blessings were not given unconditionally, nor were the cursings. This theme of covenant blessings and cursings also appears prominently in the writings of the prophets. For example, Jeremiah is told quite explicitly that what God has threatened is conditional (Jer. 18:7-10). If the nation changes, then so will what happens to them: “This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: “ ‘Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations.… It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin’ ” (Jer. 36:1-3).
The book of Ezekiel presents this same concept. The prophet Ezekiel is well aware that the covenant has both blessings and curses. He warns his hearers of the judgment that God would bring them under “the bond of the covenant” (Ezek. 20:37). Yet, as well as this threat of judgment, there is also the promise of a covenant of peace (Ezek. 34:25; 37:26). So in Ezekiel, as in the rest of the Old Testament, we find two aspects of the covenant between God and His people: if they obey the law of God, they will receive blessings such as the promised restoration and renewal depicted in Ezekiel 40-48. But if they disobey God’s law, they would receive the judgments of God.
At times, the dual nature of these promises and threats of judgment is underlined. A clear example is Ezekiel 20:30-44. This passage begins with threats of judgment and ends with promises of restoration. The same pattern occurs in Ezekiel 11. It threatens judgment on the leaders because of their sin (vv. 1-15) but after judgment a promise of restoration (vv. 16-25). But perhaps this theme finds its most explicit expression in Ezekiel 33:11: “Say to them: ‘As as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”
Thus, the judgments threatened against Israel are meant to bring Israel to repentance. A stern realism can be detected in this chapter—that the nation as a whole would not repent, and it is only individuals within the nation who would respond. But this verse clearly shows that while God knows this would happen, His will is otherwise. He desires that the whole nation should repent. He places before His people is a choice: they could choose to turn away from their wickedness, whereupon God would be delighted to shower blessings upon them. Or they could continue as they are, and judgment would fall upon them. As with other chapters in Ezekiel, there is a gritty realism that the nation would continue in sin, and that judgment would fall. Only then would they repent, and at that stage, God would be able to give them the blessings that He so much wants to shower on them.
With this information in mind, we realize that such prophecies in Ezekiel 40-48 are not unfulfilled prophecies but are instead one of two options that God laid before Israel. In both Deuteronomy and Ezekiel, God has provided two separate visions of the future for His people. The visions correspond to the terms of the covenant: One set of visions belongs to the blessings of the covenant. God would bring His people back from all the different nations. He would live with them in the magnificent temple described in Ezekiel 40-43. Blessings would flow from God to the people. In a tangible way, those blessings are expressed in the river that flows from the throne of God to bring life and healing to those parts of the country that are desert and dead in the present age (Ezek. 47:1-12). Further, we see them shown by God’s willingness to defend His people from their enemies (Ezek. 38:17-19). These are but the detailed outworkings of the blessings of the covenant.
But the curses of the covenant are also well represented in Ezekiel. One must say that the book devotes more space to the problem of Israel’s sin and the impending judgment facing the nation than it does to the promises of a glorious future. Given continued sin, the nation faced severe punishment under the judgment of God (e.g., chs. 4-10).
Which of these two visions of the future turned out to be the one that Israel took? Judgment! From this perspective, it can be seen that there are a large number of Ezekiel’s prophecies that were fulfilled. They include the destruction of Jerusalem, the despoiling of the land, and the exile of the captives. Almost everything that God threatened against the Israelites came to pass. Why? Because the people chose a course of action that brought upon them the curses of the covenant.
What of the promised blessings? The Lord presented them on a conditional basis. The blessings of the covenant could have come true for Israel, just as the cursings did. But they had only a partial fulfillment. Some of the tribes did return to Palestine and did resettle there and rebuild the temple. But what happened to them hardly reflected any of the promises made in Ezekiel 40-48.
Why was this so? Scripture tells us more about the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Israel and Judah than it does about the return from exile. But what is visible in the historical accounts in Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophetic commentary of Malachi tends to indicate that even after the Exile, there were still significant problems with the nation’s relationship to the worship of the one true God (e.g., Ezra 9; 10; Neh. 13:15-27; Mal. 1:6-2:16). Israel continued to cut itself off from the blessings of the covenant.
In summary, then, it is probably incorrect to describe Ezekiel 38-48 as an unfulfilled prophecy. Instead, it should be described as covenantal promises that showed how God desired to bless the nation, but those were available only if Israel kept within the terms of the covenant. Because this did not happen, the promises were not realized.