I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 35:4 is part of a prophecy against Seir, which is Edom. It belongs to Ezekiel's twenty-two-year plea for Israel to turn to God, which uses the kingdoms on every side of Israel as illustrations of how God deals with men. God lays their cities waste and makes them desolate in order to bring down the pride of those kingdoms, so that Israel can see how He judges pride and learn to yield to Him.
Ezekiel 35 to 37, including this verse, teaches the hope of the resurrection. Ezekiel 35 stands within the last nineteen chapters of Ezekiel that are appealed to in support of the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ, and the inheritance of the saints. That earthly use is rejected, because the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming of Christ when the earth is made desolate, and admitting that desolation overthrows the theory of the return of the Jews and the earthly ideas connected with it.
Ezekiel 35:4 is part of a prophecy against Seir, which is Edom. It belongs to Ezekiel's twenty-two-year plea for Israel to turn to God, which uses the kingdoms on every side of Israel as illustrations of how God deals with men. God lays their cities waste and makes them desolate in order to bring down the pride of those kingdoms, so that Israel can see how He judges pride and learn to yield to Him.
Ezekiel 35 to 37, including this verse, teaches the hope of the resurrection. Ezekiel 35 stands within the last nineteen chapters of Ezekiel that are appealed to in support of the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ, and the inheritance of the saints. That earthly use is rejected, because the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming of Christ when the earth is made desolate, and admitting that desolation overthrows the theory of the return of the Jews and the earthly ideas connected with it.