Ezekiel 36:11

Eze 36:11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better [unto you] than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 11. And will do better unto you.] This must necessarily be understood of spiritual blessings by Christ; for temporals, they never had the like to those in the days of Joshua, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze_36:11

I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings.

Hope for your future

I. What is there, then, so good in our beginnings?

1. One choice enjoyment was our vivid sense of pardon. Taken out of the bonds of iniquity, our hearts danced at the very sound of the redeeming name.

2. You had then a delicious enjoyment of the good things of the covenant of grace. You did not know a tenth of what you know now, but you intensely enjoyed what you did know.

3. And, at that time, we were like the children of Israel in a third matter, namely, that we had repeated victories. You marvelled to see how the adversary was subdued beneath the, foot of your faith. Those were good times, were they not--those beginnings?

4. In those days you had great delight in prayer. When alone with Christ, it was heaven below; and in the prayer meetings, when Gods people were warm at heart, how you delighted to unite with them!

5. In those days we were full of living fruitfulness. What marvels we were going to do; ay, and we did many of them by Gods good grace!

6. Then, if we had but little strength, yet we kept the Lords Word. If we had but one talent, we made as much use of it, perhaps, as some do with ten.

7. Oh, how we loved the Saviour when first we discovered how He had loved us with an everlasting love!

II. Can anything be better than this? Well, it would be a very great pity if there could not be, because I am sure we, when we were young beginners, were not much to boast of; and all the joy we had was, artier all, but little compared with what is revealed in the Word of God. In what respects, then, can our future be better than that which is behind?

1. I answer very readily, faith may be stronger. At first it shoots up like the lily, very beautiful, but fragile; afterwards it is like the oak with great roots that grip the soil, and rugged branches that defy the winds.

2. God gives to His people, as they advance, much more knowledge. We learn the art of dissecting truth--taking it to pieces, and seeing the different veins of Divine thought that run through it; and then we see with delight blessing after blessing conveyed to us by the person and sacrifice of our exalted Lord.

3. Love to Christ gets to be more constant. It is a passion always, but with believers who grow in grace it comes to be a principle as well as a passion. If they are not always blazing with love, there is a good fire banked up within the soul.

4. As Christians grow in grace, prayer becomes more mighty. If the Lord builds you up into true spiritual manhood you will know how to wrestle.

5. So, I think, it is in usefulness. Growing Christians, and full-grown Christians, are more useful than beginners. Their fruit, if not quite so plentiful, is of better quality, and more mellow.

6. In fact, this one thing is clear of all believers who have grown in grace--that the work of grace in them is nearer completion. They are getting nearer heaven, and they are getting more fit for it.

III. How can we secure that it will be better with us by and by than it is now?

1. I answer, first, keep to the simplicity of your first faith. Never get an inch beyond the Cross; for, if you do, you will have to come back. That is your place till you die: you nothing, and Christ everything.

2. At the same time, practise great watchfulness. We ought to have the eyes of a lynx, and they ought never to be closed. We know not which way the next temptation will come.

3. The next advice is, grow in dependence upon God. You cannot keep yourself unless He keeps you. Remember that.

4. Determine, at the very beginning, to be thorough. Daily dread lest in anything you should omit to do your Lords will, or should trespass against Him. In this way your joy shall be maintained, and you shall be settled after your old estates; and God will do better unto you than at your beginnings.

5. Seek for more instruction. Try to grow in the knowledge of God, that your joy may be full. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Better on before

In some parts of the Western Highlands of Scotland the travellers eye is delighted by the clear and sunlit waters of the lake, running far up into the hills. But as he climbs over the slopes and catches sight of the waters of the Atlantic, bathed in the glory of the setting sun, he almost forgets the beautiful vision which previously arrested him, for the latter scene is far superior. Thus do the growths of spiritual character unfold richer conceptions of Christs infinite love and character. (R. Venting.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which was accomplished under Christ, to whom all these temporal deliverances did direct them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

do better . . . than at your beginnings--as in the case of Job (Job 42:12). Whereas the heathen nations fall irrevocably, Israel shall be more than restored; its last estate shall exceed even its first.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. I will multiply upon you man and beast] The agriculturalist and the beast of burden.

And will do better unto you than at your beginnings] I agree with Calmet, that it would be difficult to show the literal fulfilment of this prophecy from the days of Zerubbabel to the birth of Christ. The colouring is too high for that period; and the whole falls in better with Gospel than with Jewish times.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) Will multiply upon you.—The promises of abundant blessing of this, with the previous and following verses, certainly received a partial fulfilment at the time following the return from the exile, and in the subsequent Maccabean period; yet one cannot but feel that the language of promise, if taken only in a literal sense, goes far beyond the historic fulfilment, and hence that these earthly blessings are the shadow and type by which is set forth the higher spiritual blessing given to the Church without stint.

Settle you after your old estates.—This does not mean that particular families are to have again each their own former inheritance—though, doubtless, this was true, as far as circumstances allowed, of the comparatively small number of families who returned—but that they shall in general be settled and prosperous, as of old. And even this promise is eclipsed by the next clause: “I will do better unto you than at your beginnings,” which can only be considered as fulfilled in the spiritual blessings, far higher and better than anything of earth, of the Messianic kingdom.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. Jer_31:27; Jer_33:12-13; Hos_2:23; Zec_8:4-5. On “old estates,” i.e. former condition, cf. Eze_16:55.

your beginnings] i.e. early or former estate, Job_8:7; Job_42:12. The phrase “increase and bring fruit (multiply),” common in some parts of Pent. (Priests’ Code), is wanting in LXX.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And I will multiply upon you man and beast,.... Not only men, but beasts also, of which the mountains had been deprived, being killed by the enemy for present use, or drove off for future subsistence; but now there should be an increase of them, which should feed upon the herbage of the mountains, and the rich pastures on them, to the great advantage of the proprietors:

and they shall increase and bring forth; or, "multiply and increase" (h); both men and beasts:

and I will settle you after your old estates; that is, you mountains shall be inhabited by those that formerly dwelt in you, and you shall be enjoyed by your right owners; by those who had you in possession from the beginning, from the times of Joshua; by whom you were settled on them by lot, according to their several tribes:

and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; not that the land should be better or more fruitful than in the times of Joshua, who led the people into and found it a land flowing with milk and honey, and abounding with all kind of fruit; or that the people should be more flourishing in temporal things than in the times of David and Solomon; for no such fruitfulness and prosperity took place upon the return from the Babylonish captivity: but rather this is to be understood of spiritual blessings and privileges in the times of the Messiah; and particularly when the Jews will be converted in the latter day:

and ye shall know that I am the Lord; that is, the inhabitants of the mountains of Israel, the converted Jews, shall know and own the Messiah, and that he is Jehovah, the eternal God, and not a mere man.

(h) "multiplicabuntur et crescent", Pagninus, Montanus; "multiplicabunter et fructificabunt", Cocceius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Greater. Septuagint, "similar." (Haydock) --- It would be difficult to shew that the Jews arrived at greater eminence after the captivity than before, (Calmet) though they were less addicted to idolatry. Their kingdom was not independent: they had no prophets, &c. But the superior numbers and excellence of the Christian Church is manifest.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

These verses contain much the same promise of future good which God engageth to do for Israel after their return out of Babylon. He will multiply men upon the mountains of Israel, he will increase them; now, lest any should reply there had been too many men on the mountains, even all the heathen, God addeth, they shall be all of them of the house of Israel, Jews, and they should settle and build the wasted cities, not Jerusalem only, but other cities also; even wasted houses shall be built, you shall have large stocks of cattle, that your condition shall be as in days of old.

Will do better unto you; I will give spiritual blessings instead of temporal, and Messiah’s kingdom shall hasten to you instead of that which was abolished: in whatsoever this better consisted, it is certain God performed his word.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.