Wilderness of the Nations Ezekiel 20:35

Ezekiel 20:35 I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will judge you face to face. ESV

The wilderness of the nations in the second exodus corresponds to the wilderness of Egypt in the first exodus. It need not be a geographical location. A number of 20th century commentators including Charles L. Feinberg saw it as figurative reference to a place of judgement typified by the forty years of wandering in the wilderness under Moses.

The gathering of the whole house of Israel in Ezekiel 20 chronologically precedes bringing the chosen into the land of promise. The weeding out of Ezekiel 20 under the shepherd metaphor results in a select group which will return to the land. All we are told about the fate of the remainder is that they will not enter the land. This again answers to the type of the first exodus generation who died in the wilderness.

The pattern of the restoration to the land of promise found in Ezekiel doesn’t appear to answer in any of the particulars to a secular zionist vision.  Secularism is the religion of modernism. It is a form of idolatry.  One thing we can be sure of, the messianic eschatological kingdom in the land of promise will not be secular.