Ezekiel 37: 3-8, A Prophecy Fulfilled In Acts 2: 1-4

[tulsa 2011]

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[TD="class: alt1"]Ezekiel 37: 3-8, A Prophecy Fulfilled In Acts 2: 1-4

"And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
4. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
5. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
7. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them." Ezekiel 37: 3-8

The dry bones representing Old Covenant Israel as being focused only on the flesh put on flesh in a metaphoric sense. There was a remnant seen in Hebrews 11 who had faith. But in this transformation of Old Covenant Israel, which turned out to be a remnant seen in Romans 11: 5, Old Covenant Israel in the narrative of this prophecy still lacks the Holy Spirit. "But there was no breath in them."

Then Ezekiel 37: 9-14 says "Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
11. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD."

What happened on the Day of Pentecost described in Acts 2: 2-4? "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

Peter in Acts 2: 16-17 said at the time that this rushing wind as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit and the speaking in tongues was a fulfillment of Joel 2: 28 "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour my spirit upon all flesh; and tour sons, and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."

The mighty rushing wind and the speaking in tongues was the coming of the Holy Spirit which was prophesied in Joel 2: 28, But Acts 2: 2-4 is also a fulfillment of Ezekiel 37:10-12.

"Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." "And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live,and I shall place you in your own land." Ezekiel 37: 12, 14

Ezekiel 37: 22: "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel: and one king shall shall be king to them all..."

Ezekiel 37: 25 "And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever."

Since one of dispensationalism's starting doctrines is that scripture must be interpreted literally, therefore Ezekiel 37: 22, 25 have to be literal and physical, and not metaphors.

Since dispensationalism says that every time Israel is used in scripture it must refer to Old Covenant Israel, and to dispensationalism there can be no other Israel. So the dispensationalist see Ezekiel 37: 12-14, about opening the graves of physical Israel and placing the resurrected people in the land of Israel, and in your own land, as being the important part of the prophecy of Ezekiel 37. They cannot see Ezekiel 37: 12-14 as being metaphoric and not literal. Bringing Israel out of their graves refers to changing them from being fixated on flesh to being able to have spiritual discernment and to have the Holy Spirit in them. They are reborn from the flesh into the Spirit. This began to happen at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Old Covenant Israel, as the majority, the broad way of Matthew 7: 13, was focused on that which is of the flesh - and which is literal - and for that reason when Christ appeared among them and their leaders, the Pharisees, saw that the kingdom of God Christ brought did not meet their fleshly expectations, they rejected him and had him crucified.Then, beginning in the 19th century the dispensationalists have honored this Old Covenant Israel of the flesh and of the literal, and in honoring them have in a sense joined themselves to Old Covenant Israel, the majority on the broad way of Matthew 7: 13.

In view of what Ezekiel 37 is all about, the transformation of Old Covenant Israel and the appearance of Christ and then the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) to a remnant of Old Covenant Israel, Gog in Ezekiel 38 begins to look like a metaphor for the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 11, and the false prophets and false teachers of II Peter 2: 1-3. Gog is not Russia nor any country. It is a spirit inspiring the huge number of false prophets who are seen in Ezekiel 38 as an army attacking Israel. But the Israel they attack is not Old Covenant Israel; it is Israel reborn in Christ some time after its remnant received the Holy Spirit at the Day of Pentecost.


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[rodd]

These epochs are literal don't worry about that.

 

[NoHype]

Thing is, Ezekiel 37 has verses meant metaphorically, and verses meant literally, just as all the OT Books of God's prophets have.

Thus a 'blanket' interpretation that it is all either metaphorical, or all literal, is a type of thinking that gets away from what our Heavenly Father was revealing there in Ezekiel 37 once it is all put together in the mind.

It is pointing to the historical separation of Israel when God split old Israel into two separate kingdoms per 1 Kings 11 thru 2 Kings 17, and then their joining back together into one kingdom again like of old, with "one shepherd" (our Lord Jesus), and David as their king. Their joining into one kingdom of Israel again with "one shepherd" over them and David as their king still has yet to happen, even to this day.

If that joining of the two houses ("two nations" idea there) is metaphorical, then it would mean their separation per OT history never happened. It would mean a whole lot of OT Scripture is false.

The "dry bones" idea is about the future resurrection on the day of Christ's return, and it is semi-metaphorical, for like Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor.15, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

Lot of Churches today have what our Lord Jesus called the "hireling" (John 10) in them, misleading God's people in many things. Those are not truly Biblical learned per God's Way, because He did not 'call' those. They see their preacher office as a job and mostly like a business, a way to make a living, and that's mostly where their thinking is. Since Christ did not 'call' them, they are not given proper understanding in many Scriptures, so they are left to create many doctrines on their own, or latch onto created doctrines of others they read from organizational Quarterlies, etc., and that... they do a lot by pulling a couple of verses in God's Word and going on for an hourly sermon with ideas that hardly have anything to do with the actual Biblical context the verses are given in. And by the deceived of God's people in those kind of Churches seeing those hirelings do that kind of thing, they think it must be OK, and many brethren follow suit.

So, how does the believer on Christ Jesus keep from being deceived by those hirelings, or even know if the Church they are in has a hireling doing that kind of thing?

Easy, stay in God's Word for yourself, asking our Heavenly Father and His Son to SHOW you, then discipline yourself in it how He said (Isaiah 28 is the example; line upon line, precept upon precept...). If we ourselves are lazy in studying all of God's Word for ourselves, and instead put our trust in the hireling, then we deserve to be deceived away from God's Truth in His Word.

I've discovered many brethren didn't really believe our Heavenly Father and Son would 'directly' guide them in deeper Bible study for their selves. But once they got down to disciplining their self in all of it, asking The LORD for understanding, they were very, very surprised at how He opened His Word up to them, and became shocked at how many of men's doctrines they had accepted that were not actually written in God's Holy Writ.

 

[TruEarthTruMan]

Thing is, Ezekiel 37 has verses meant metaphorically, and verses meant literally, just as all the OT Books of God's prophets have.

Thus a 'blanket' interpretation that it is all either metaphorical, or all literal, is a type of thinking that gets away from what our Heavenly Father was revealing there in Ezekiel 37 once it is all put together in the mind.

It is pointing to the historical separation of Israel when God split old Israel into two separate kingdoms per 1 Kings 11 thru 2 Kings 17, and then their joining back together into one kingdom again like of old, with "one shepherd" (our Lord Jesus), and David as their king. Their joining into one kingdom of Israel again with "one shepherd" over them and David as their king still has yet to happen, even to this day.

If that joining of the two houses ("two nations" idea there) is metaphorical, then it would mean their separation per OT history never happened. It would mean a whole lot of OT Scripture is false.

The "dry bones" idea is about the future resurrection on the day of Christ's return, and it is semi-metaphorical, for like Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor.15, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

Lot of Churches today have what our Lord Jesus called the "hireling" (John 10) in them, misleading God's people in many things. Those are not truly Biblical learned per God's Way, because He did not 'call' those. They see their preacher office as a job and mostly like a business, a way to make a living, and that's mostly where their thinking is. Since Christ did not 'call' them, they are not given proper understanding in many Scriptures, so they are left to create many doctrines on their own, or latch onto created doctrines of others they read from organizational Quarterlies, etc., and that... they do a lot by pulling a couple of verses in God's Word and going on for an hourly sermon with ideas that hardly have anything to do with the actual Biblical context the verses are given in. And by the deceived of God's people in those kind of Churches seeing those hirelings do that kind of thing, they think it must be OK, and many brethren follow suit.

So, how does the believer on Christ Jesus keep from being deceived by those hirelings, or even know if the Church they are in has a hireling doing that kind of thing?

Easy, stay in God's Word for yourself, asking our Heavenly Father and His Son to SHOW you, then discipline yourself in it how He said (Isaiah 28 is the example; line upon line, precept upon precept...). If we ourselves are lazy in studying all of God's Word for ourselves, and instead put our trust in the hireling, then we deserve to be deceived away from God's Truth in His Word.

I've discovered many brethren didn't really believe our Heavenly Father and Son would 'directly' guide them in deeper Bible study for their selves. But once they got down to disciplining their self in all of it, asking The LORD for understanding, they were very, very surprised at how He opened His Word up to them, and became shocked at how many of men's doctrines they had accepted that were not actually written in God's Holy Writ.

Actually your consideration for the “two sticks” being untied also happens right there in Acts 2.
“say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” ’ The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. And say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭37:19-22‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬
you’ve got the northern and southern kingdoms being gathered together from the lands where they were scattered, set in their own land and becoming one nation, and setting one king (Jesus which you’ve already pointed out) over them all. Now let’s go to Acts 2.
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2:1‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬
“Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2:5‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬
“Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty deeds of God.””
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2:9-11‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬
This is the gathering of the 2 kingdoms
The diaspora from the nations all the way to Jews and proselytes. Culminating in the two sticking coming together and appointing one head (Christ).
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2:36-38‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬