God's New Covenant with Israel (6), Ezekiel 37:1-14

We are going to return to Ezekiel for two more references to the New Covenant with a fascinating context.  It will again show, I believe, that the New Covenant will be realized in the future by a literal nation of Israel.  Again, all Israel will be saved and it will be connected to the promised New Covenant.

·        Ezekiel 37:1-14:

o   Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones is a reference to the restoration of the nation.  That the actual nation is in view, and that it is not some symbolic reference to the Church, is evident from the context.  Ezekiel 35-36 speak of judgment on Edom (Mt. Seir) and Israel’s other enemies who thought to take her land when she was removed from it.  Ezek. 37:15-28 speak of the unity of the nation with the two kingdoms brought together.  Ezek. 38-39 speak of a battle involving confederacies of real nations invading the land of Israel.  So this resurrection is of the nation.

o   Having said that, the vision makes it clear that it is a full restoration, physical and spiritual.  The bones come together physically, and then the life (breath, Spirit) of God enters them.  All this comes about in the vision by the preaching of Ezekiel.  And the key to it all is the New Covenant truths in v14: I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall life, and I will place you in your own land.

The point here is that, as Jeremiah prophesied in the basic promise of the New Covenant, it comes to Israel, a united Israel, and through Israel to the Gentiles.  The fact that Gentiles in the Church are experiencing the blessings of the covenant does not take away from the fact that, at a later time, the Nation will receive the promised Holy Spirit that they rejected in Acts.

·        Ezekiel 39:21-29:

o   We often use this passage because of what it says about righteousness in the latter days.  When Christ returns all the world will finally understand what God was doing in history, and especially with His earthly people Israel.  Neither men, princes, nations nor ideologies were driving history.  Truly, the testimony of Jesus was the spirit of prophecy/history (Rev. 19:10).  God was always in charge, always moving to accomplish His purposes.  In the latter days, everyone will recognize and affirm this.  The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity (v23).  Then they (Israel) shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer (v28).

o   What is the key to all this?  How can it happen, finally?  For I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel (v29).  God will again turn His face to Israel and will bless her, but only because atonement was made so that God’s promised covenant could be realized.