weaknesses and wants of men. His people were slow of heart to understand his word ; and there- fore he " gave them line upon line, and precept upon precept," and exhibited truth to them under every form, if so be they might be able to receive it at last, and to obtain the blessings which he held forth to them in his Gospel.
The restoration promised in the chapter before us does not merely relate to the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon. To that indeed is its primary refe- rence ; but it manifestly has respect to a recovery from their present state of dispersion, and to a spiri- tual deliverance from their bondage to sin and Satan : for, not only are the expressions too strong to be confined to a mere temporal deliverance, but the emblem mentioned in the subsequent part of this chapter, of uniting two sticks in the prophet's hand, shews that the whole is to be accomplished, when all the tribes of Israel, as well those which were carried captive to Assyria as those of Judah and Benjamin, shall be reunited under one head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That this period is yet future, you cannot doubt, when you hear the words of God to the prophet : " Son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his com- panions. Then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions : and join them one to another into one stick ; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these ? say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one King shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all