WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO HAPPEN?
Part 3: Israel is Going to Return to the Land
by Max Frazier, Jr.

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles on prophetic issues relevant to our times. 
See the Philogian Archives for previous articles:
The Antichrist (February 2007), and the Russian invasion of Israel (May 2007)].

IAt precisely four o’clock, David Ben-Gurion rose and sharply rapped a walnut gavel on the table before him.  Clad in a dark suit, a white shirt and, in deference to the solemnity of the occasion, a tie, the Jewish leader picked up a scroll of white parchment…  The text Ben-Gurion was about to read had been typed on a separate piece of paper and stapled to the parchment.  “In the Land of Israel the Jewish people came into being,” he began.  “In this land was shaped their spiritual, religious and national character.  Here they lived in sovereign independence.  Here they created a culture of national and universal import and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.”

“Exiled from the land of Israel,” he said, “the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all the countries of their dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their return and the restoration of their national freedom.  Impelled by this historic association, Jews strove throughout the centuries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood.”  (Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre, O Jerusalem, p. 381-382).  Thus, on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was reborn in the modern era.

The question for our consideration is whether the resolution adopted by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, creating the State of Israel, and the subsequent declaration by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, have any relationship to prophetic Scripture. 

A Valley Full of Dry Bones
One of the most interesting texts in the Bible concerning Israel’s future is found in Ezekiel 37.  (Let me challenge you to take a few moments right now to read the first fourteen verses.  Read them slowly, but notice the excitement that must have welled up inside the prophet as he witnessed this great scene before him.)  Okay, now, have you caught the vision?  Can you picture a valley full of bleached, dry bones, piled one on top of the other?  I mean, we are talking about hundreds, even thousands, of skeletons.  The very scene is a reminder of death.  Now, can you picture those bones beginning to move in some inexplicable way…bone joining bone to reform a skeleton?  Then, from seemingly out of nowhere, muscles and tendons appear, followed by skin to cover the newly reformed skeletons.  There before you now lie a valley full of individuals…but, wait a minute, are they really people?  No, of course not, because there is no life in them.  But, in a moment all that is about to change.  As the winds begin to blow, suddenly first one person, then another, then another come to life.  There before you stands an army of people.  My friends, this is truly one of the most amazing scenes in all the Bible.

Anticipating Ezekiel’s quest for an explanation, God interprets what the prophet has just seen.  The valley full of bleached, dry bones represented the nation of Israel.  The world viewed the Jewish nation to have been dead.  But listen to these words of God: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel…I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land (Ezekiel 37:12, 14 NIV).  God is encouraging his messenger that a time would come when God would restore Israel to the lands of their forefathers.

Now, here is where this gets very challenging.  When would this return occur?  Are you ready to open your Bibles to seek to find an answer?  Okay, let’s begin.

A Return from Egypt
The Bible describes three returns of the Jewish nation back to the lands promised to the Patriarchs.  The first came under the leadership of first Moses and then Joshua and Caleb.  That story is recorded for us in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Joshua.  Let’s notice some of the unique features of Israel’s stay in Egypt.  First, the Hebrews (for that is what they were called then) went into Egypt at the command of God.  God spoke these words to an aging Jacob: “Jacob!  Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied.  “I am God, the God of your father,” he said.  “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.  I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again” (Genesis 46:2-4 NIV). 

Second, the stay of the family of Jacob in Egypt was of a defined length.  God had told Abraham that it would last four hundred years: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years (Genesis 15:13). 

Can we say that this return to the land could have been what God was describing to Ezekiel?  There are a few Bible scholars who would say “yes.”  But I have my doubts.  First, the nation of Israel, at that time, could hardly be said to have filled a valley full of bones.  Among nation groups, it was very small.  Second, although the people spent much time in slavery in Egypt, could we say that they were in graves?  A valley full of bones certainly seems to depict something catastrophic…and I don’t get that image from Israel’s stay in Egypt and their subsequent return to the land.

A Return from Assyria and Babylon
Because of the continual inclination to sin, God brought His judgment upon both the nations of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and Judah (the Southern Kingdom).  In the year 722 BC, the city of Samaria was seized and destroyed by the Assyrians.  The people of the Northern Kingdom were taken into captivity into Assyria (modern day Iraq).  Because of the presence of a few godly kings in Judah, God delayed His judgment upon the Southern Kingdom until 586 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Babylonians, destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, taking the people into captivity.  The prophet Ezekiel was among those who had gone into captivity into Babylon.  I am confident that he got excited as God described the return of the people to the land.

But, can we say that the vision of the valley of dry bones refers to Israel’s return from Babylon under the leadership of first Zerubbabel and then Ezra?  That story is found in the book of Ezra.  I am not certain that the time element fits.  We know that Cyrus, King of the Persians who had conquered the city of Babylon, issued a decree in 536 BC granting the Jews freedom to return to Jerusalem and their homelands.  That was a mere fifty years after Jerusalem had been destroyed.  And God had said that the captivity in Babylon would last no more than seventy years: This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10).  Fifty years…seventy years…hardly time for bones to bleach and become dry.  And, I also notice, that the Babylonian captivity could hardly be called a “grave” experience.  In fact, as one reads the book of Esther, one notices that many of the Jews decided to remain in Persia (ancient Babylon) instead of going back to their homeland. 

A Return that is yet Future
There is one fact that all of the prophets are in agreement: God will bring Israel back to the lands promised to Abraham.  The prophet Isaiah writes: He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth (Isaiah 11:12).  The prophet Amos declares: “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God (Amos 9:15). 

The prophet Jeremiah portrays the relationship between a returned Israel and their God: I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety.  They will be my people, and I will be their God.  I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul (Jeremiah 32:37-41). 

Let’s see if we can summarize what these texts are teaching:
      1.  There will be a universal return of Jews back to the land.
      2.  Once there, they will never be uprooted again.
      3.  They will have a singleness of heart and the fear of God will motivate them. 

Since 1948, Jews from around the world have been immigrating to Israel.  As one walks the streets of Jerusalem, one can hear languages from around the world.  The State of Israel has become as much of a “melting pot” as has the United States.  But, have the Jews come to the land seeking God?  Does the fear of God motivate them?  The majority of Jews living in Israel consider themselves to be secular, although this percentage is declining especially among younger Jews.  As my dear friend, Amnon Wallenstein, shared with me this past spring, as we sat and visited in the lobby of the King David Hotel, that he could not vote for a certain political candidate because “he does not know the Book.”  That statement seems to be indicative of most of Israel’s political leaders today.

Is Israel back in the land to stay?  Once again the Bible seems to indicate that another exodus will occur when the Antichrist will turn against them, killing many and driving multitudes into the wilderness… some say refuge will be found in Petra.

But What about the Valley of Bones?

I anticipated your question.  Let’s see if we can make some sense of it.  God specifically declares that He will bring Israel up from their graves (read verses 12 and 13).  The word “graves”, coupled with the thought of a valley full of bleached, dry bones, indicates a long time of suffering and death.  Friends, what were the experiences of the Jewish race after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD?  Yes, they were scattered to the four corners of the globe.  And, as they went, suffering followed them.  Only God knows the numbers who perished as the centuries came and went.

As World War II was coming to a close, the civilized world stood aghast as pictures emerged from the liberated German concentration camps.  Those photos of walking skeletons still haunt us now six decades removed.  Slowly we learned that six million Jews had been summarily put to death by the Nazi regime.  The bones of those six million could easily fill a valley.  I believe that the United Nations Resolution on November 29, 1947, came as a result of the horror stories being told throughout Europe.  Can we say that God truly opened the graves – the crematories and work camps of Europe?  Israel could return to their lands. 

But, since 1948, the nation of Israel has had very few years of peace.  It has known five major wars and two bloody Palestinian uprisings.  It seems that the little nation of Israel is the bulls-eye for the rest of the world.  Are there more graves in Israel’s future?  Is there more sufferings and death that the Jews must face before they can experience peace?  I believe the answer is “yes.”

So, what do I believe about Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones?  I believe that the vision was partially fulfilled in 1948 when Israel became a State.  But, its ultimate and final fulfillment waits another time when Jesus Christ Himself will come and lead His people back to their promised homeland.  This time they truly will live in safety.  And this time no one will drive them out again.

 

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