Isn't it silly to prophesy to bones? :AMR:
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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 [Ezek. 37:12].
After reading this verse, someone is apt to say, “Wait a minute. You said this vision was not concerning physical resurrection.” I still insist upon that. Let’s drop down to verse 21:
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land [Ezek. 37:21].
This is what God meant in verse 12 when He said, “I will cause you to come up out of your graves.” Israel is buried in the nations of the world, and they are to be brought back and become a nation again.
I want to say something very carefully now concerning the three stages of the bones Ezekiel saw. I have said they are the key to understanding the future of the nation Israel, and I now want to add that if there is any place we have fulfilled prophecy, it is in these three stages. I don’t go much for finding prophecy being fulfilled on every hand, but I do see it here. Follow me carefully: The nation Israel was buried and scattered in the nations of the world, and was dead to God, dead to the things of God—that’s the first stage of the bones that we saw. Now since 1948 they have come back as a nation, but it is really a corpse over there today. They have a flag, they have a constitution, they have a prime minister, and they have a parliament. They have a police force and an army. They have a nation, and they even have Jerusalem. They have everything except spiritual life. If you walk from the old Arab section of Jerusalem where Islam dominates and come over into the Israeli section, there is no spiritual life. I want to say this kindly, but, as far as I am concerned, there is as much spiritual deadness on the one side as the other. There is a great deal more of that which is materialistic, which is intellectual, and which denotes civilization on the Israeli side, but there is no spiritual life whatsoever. This is symbolized by the second stage of the bones—bodies, but without life. That is where Israel stands today.
In verses 15–28 Ezekiel mentions two sticks. I will not go into any detail here other than to say that they typify the northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) kingdoms which will again become one nation. This means, my friend, that there must not be any “ten lost tribes of Israel”—at least, if there are, God knows where they are..." McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophets (Ezekiel) (electronic ed., Vol. 25, pp. 187–188). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
