Charles Spurgeon Commentary Ezekiel 34:27

"And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those that made bondmen of them." — Ezekiel 34:27 (ASV)

And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.

The Jews will know that God is the Lord when they will return to their own land. The poor, tired sinner, best of all, knows that God is God when the bands of his neck are broken off him. By nature, we all have bands around our necks; it is only God who takes them off. Pilgrim, you know, lost his burden when he looked at the cross; it rolled away down into the sepulcher. And if you had asked him then, "Is God, God?" "Yes," he would have said, "otherwise, I would not have had the bands of my neck loosened." No man who has had the bands taken off him will ever doubt that there is a God.

Let him experience that holy calm which springs from the fact of his having been set free in gospel liberty, and he will say, "This is the work of God; no man, no human power could have done it." I can never be an Arminian as long as I feel myself a sinner. I am obliged to come back to this: Lord, I must be saved by sovereign grace, or not at all. A single day's experience is enough to take all the self-conceit out of a Christian if the Lord should leave him to his own unaided strength.

We best know that God is God when we have had the bands broken off our necks. How many are there sitting here with bands on their necks—slaves, wearing the yoke upon their shoulders? They cannot see it, but it is there, nevertheless. Who is there who can say, "My bands are broken from my neck"?

"'My sins are drowned, as in a flood,
Of Jesus' pure and matchless blood.'

"I am finally discharged; the bands are broken off my neck, truly, God is God."