Ezekiel 37:1-14 contains a passage with a prophetic message for last-days Israel. Please read those verses so that this post will be meaningful to you.
Briefly, the prophet Ezekiel is shown a vision of a valley filled with human bones that were “very dry”, indicating they had been there for a long time. The Holy Spirit instructs Ezekiel to prophesy to these bones so that they might come back to life. Here is that prophecy: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:5). As Ezekiel was saying this, he heard a rattling sound of bones coming together and he saw sinews, flesh, and skin cover them. But the breath of life was not in them, so he was instructed to prophesy again to the breath. As he prophesied again, breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great number. The Holy Spirit then identifies to Ezekiel what those bones represent. He said: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:11).
The vast majority of prophecy teachers identify this passage with the regathering of Jews to the holy land and the establishment of the modern state of Israel. But is that sound hermeneutics to come to that conclusion? Could it not be a vivid description of the resurrection? Verses 12-14 are definitive, in my opinion.
The Spirit tells Ezekiel to prophesy a third time. “Behold, O, My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O, My people and have brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it says the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:12-14). These verses are definitive in that dead Israelites are being resurrected from their “graves”(Hebrew-sepulchers). There is no reason in the text to not take this literally and instead, impose a metaphorical understanding of Jews being currently relocated to their ancient homeland. Remember, the default hermeneutic is literal. While this passage certainly may be used to conclude that Israelis will eventually be fully restored to their homeland, the language is that of a physical resurrection from the dead followed by a relocation to the land of Israel. Also, we have the phrase “Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” The modern Israeli nation of regathered Jews is mainly secular and does not, as yet, other than superficially, acknowledge their existence as a sovereign act of the Lord.
While there are many scriptures attesting to the fact that the modern rebirth of Israel is truly a work of God, this passage from Ezekiel is not one of them.
I think we can safely conclude that Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones is a vivid portrait of the resurrection of the righteous at Jesus’s second coming.
Maranatha, Jim