“The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ So I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’” Ezekiel 37:1-3.
This prophecy contained in the first fourteen verses of Ezekiel 37 concern the resurrection of the nation of Israel.
A nation which up to recently had gone for 2500 years without self-government and 1800 years without a national home.
The miracle here is for the most part the identity of the Jew; nations have come and gone the Hittites, Assyrians, the Babylonians, have all appeared then vanished.
But the Jew remains distinct and set apart despite being dispersed throughout the world for some 1800 years. This is the hand of God, and it is God who will keep His promises, as He has to this day.
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9.
This is the underlying characteristic behind all of God’s actions; despite all the horrific events that will soon be seen in this study.
It is the will of man to kill, subjugate, and mistreat one another; it is the will of God that all men should have the peace found only in Him through salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
God the Father and God the Son are telling you through the Holy Spirit, that they are, “…not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.
It has been said, that “God loves us so much that He would rather die than live without us.”
Concerning the immutability of God’s word, below is another prophecy:
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:3.
And again, in the book of Daniel, an angel speaking of the end times and the tribulation said this:
“And he said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.’” Daniel 12:9-10.
So, a prophecy written circa 592-570 B.C. is now coming to pass, “…and indeed they [the bones] were very dry.”
“Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘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.’”’ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.” Ezekiel 37:4-8.
Ezekiel prophesies and the bones come together, and the flesh and skin cover them, yet there is no breath. This is the first stage of the resurrection of Israel.
There are many great men who put together the body of knowledge from which some of the things are drawn from in this study; the late Dr. David L. Cooper, see biblicalresearch.info/index.html; Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, see ariel.org; and Dr. Tim LaHaye, specifically his book, “The Beginning of the End”.
There is no doubt that the bones coming together began with the First World War, more of which will be built upon shortly.
In 1916 World War I was going against Britain, racking up casualties since they could not manufacture smokeless gunpowder and TNT quickly enough to supply the war effort.
A Jew named Chaim Weizmann invented a formula to overcome this problem, changing the course of the war.
To honor him, the British asked him to name his reward; his request was for Palestine to be designated the national homeland for the Jewish people. This was granted and the Balfour Declaration was signed on November 2, 1917.
Dr. LaHaye points out in his book “The Beginning of the End”, that the explosions from TNT make a sound like the description in Ezekiel “…a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together”.
In fact, a marginal note in the New American Standard Bible renders the word noise as thunder. So an alternate reading could be; “…a thunder, and suddenly a rattling”, something that would closely resemble the sound of TNT. There is more on the Balfour Declaration in the above-named book.
From 1920-1946 the main obligation of the British Mandate was to implement the Balfour Declaration. This was not very successful due to opposition from the Arabs surrounding Palestine, and meddling by the United Nations.
In July 1922, the British divided Palestine into two districts, the Jews permitted only on the west side.
In 1946, the British partitioned Palestine, creating an independent Palestine-Arab state, Jordan.
November 29, 1947, the United Nations partitioned western Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. The Arabs rejected this and the Muslim Mufti of Jerusalem stated: “I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers. Murder them all!”
On May 14, 1948, Israel declared their independence, becoming a nation. On that day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq invaded with the intent of destroying it. But it was God’s will that Israel survive. And survive they did, against overwhelming odds.
In 1949 an armistice was signed with four of these countries; yet the Arabs made no attempt to solve the Palestinian Arab refugee problem. Instead, they were left in camps to be used as political pawns.
During 1966-1967 several attempts were made to invade and destroy Israel. Again, in June of 1967 a concerted effort was made to destroy the little country; when it was over, Israel controlled Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Sinai Desert (which Israel returned to Egypt in another peace treaty), Judea, Samaria, and parts of the Golan Heights.
On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur, a holy day in Israel, Egypt and Syria attacked, and were again repelled.
The disputed area, “The West Bank”, had belonged to Jordan since 1948; not to the Arabs living in Palestine.
Throughout all of this from 1917 on, Israel has continually appeased the Arab Muslims to make peace; in return, treaty after treaty has been broken by the nations of Islam, many of which have called for the annihilation of the Jews.
Never, ever forget the Muslim treachery and deceit accomplished through the Palestinian leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah trained and aided by Iran. As long as Israel exists there is no treaty that will be honored.
Islam is a theocracy which has those (including then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) who hold that the Jews must be killed, and worldwide chaos must be created before judgment day and their Islamic eternal state can be achieved.
Through all this Israel has been vilified by a gullible or malicious media, which has managed to turn public opinion against them, in spite of the fact that they are the only truly free country in that area.
Are they righteous? No, they are not. But they hold to the same moral code as the west, which is laid out in a Judeo-Christian system, and as such, they stand out like a beacon in a murderous moral morass that has enslaved millions.
Even though many of them are atheists or agnostic; it is their history that defines their morality, whatever their belief.
All of this because of one man in 1916 who invented a more efficient way to manufacture smokeless gun powder and TNT.
This is all the hand of God. Described below are current events followed by a glorious future.
“Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’” Isaiah 43:4-6a.
Rebirth of a Nation, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com updated on 10-5-15, reposted on 11-26-23.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.