Devotion: Ezekiel 36:1-15 You will know that I am the Lord

We continue our study in Ezekiel, the last time we met was about Set your Face against Mount Seir. You can read more in my Ezekiel Studies here and here.

Today the Lord God has a word against the mountains of Israel, and I have to admit, upon first reading I am quite confused.   Normally when God speaks out to someone or some region it is a word of judgement upon them.

But God seems to do a flip here. 

Saying to them... because the nations around you have spoken out against, therefore I will heap dismay upon their heads. 


 ⁶ Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations. ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach.

The Lord's word to Israel is that he wants them to be fruitful and multiply.  That he will be an aid to them. 
⁸ “But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. ⁹ For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. ¹⁰ And I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt. ¹¹ And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. 

Just as he aids them though, they need to know that he will allow them to walked on, to be a land inhabited by others, to be a land and people possessed by others. 
And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹² I will let people walk on you, even my people Israel. And they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children. ¹³ Thus says the Lord God: Because they say to you, ‘You devour people, and you bereave your nation of children,’ ¹⁴ therefore you shall no longer devour people and no longer bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord God. ¹⁵ And I will not let you hear anymore the reproach of the nations, and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord God.”

I admittedly find these verses hard to follow.   Perhaps I am missing something in them.
It's like on one hand God is lifting them up, and on the other he is disciplining them.   What do you see reader?  Cause seriously I feel like I am totally missing something here.

In the end God will not let his people be a reproach to the nations and they will know that HE is God. HE is the Lord.   That's what I get out of this passage.  YOU?