The fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 is often claimed by those who with to proclaim that the existence of the nation-state of Israel has begun an unstoppable chain of events that necessitates the soon return of Jesus Christ. While I think that it may, indeed, be that the formation of a sovereign Israel in the historic land of the Israelites MAY be a partial fulfillment of Ezekiel 37, it is not necessitated. And as any Christian reading his Bible carefully would know the fact of the matter is that the dry bones not only have to come together but the Spirit of God needs to enliven them!
It is not enough, in Christian thinking, for Israel to be united in a common place. There have been efforts to repopulate the Holy Land for a long time – certainly previous to the Balfour Declaration. Jews have been congregating and Zionism has been going in Canaan for a very long time. Moreover, until the bones come to life it seems difficult, if not impossible, to say whether the Jewish diaspora returning to Israel is, indeed, a partial fulfillment. Many things could intervene between now and the Parousia – including, but not limited to, the nation of Israel ceasing to exist!
With this backdrop in mind, I do want to say that I believe that Israeli statehood IS a necessary part of fulfilling Ezekiel 37. However, the fullness of Ezekiel 37 cannot be achieved until Israel turns to God and, per Paul in Romans 11:26, all Israel will be saved.
Now, there are some obvious clues in Ezekiel that suggest when all Israel will be saved. It will happen in the end-times. And it will happen before the War(s) against Gog and Magog. And these will happen before the Millennial Temple is built. Granted, Ezekiel gives us little in the way of temporal clues. However, God has given us a clear picture of when this great turning to Christ will be.
Revelation 11 begins with John being told to measure the temple – an unmistakable allusion to Ezekiel 40-47. This is of course right on the heels of John being told to eat the little-book; another unmistakable allusion to Ezekiel. Thus, while reading this section of Revelation, it’s clear that John and the Holy Spirit want us to think about Ezekiel.
But it doesn’t stop there. There is not only the allusion to certain chapters of Ezekeil that cement the apocalyptic and end-times nature of the section. But there are references to other portions of the Bible. The allusion to the 1,260 days, mentioned a couple times in Revelation, as well as the 42 months, forces us to remember that this is apocalyptic as it is a direct reference to Daniel’s apocalypse as seen in Daniel 7:25; 12:7, 11, 12. Moreover, the description of the lampstands reminds us of Zechariah, and the apocalyptic flavor there.
The point is that John and the Holy Spirit routinely reference old testament passages that are set in the end-times. There are a variety of purposes for these quotations, references, and allusions. But the most obvious purpose is because the passages referenced are being fulfilled!
So let’s return to the text in Revelation 11. The culmination of the passage is the earthquake that levels much of Jerusalem – and it’s unmistakably Jerusalem, since it’s the city where Christ was crucified -- and what happens? People give glory to God. This is, so far as I can tell, the ONLY place in the Revelation where we see people in the Tribulation who repent of their sin. We know that there must be multitudes who DO repent: 144,000 from the 12 tribes as well as countless gentiles. But we don’t have their conversion described. Only here are we told about those who repent as they repent.
Even IF Israeli statehood fulfills the first portion of Ezekiel 37 – and it might well – the dry bones have not come to life because they will only come to life when all Israel is saved. And the salvation of all Israel is stated by Paul to be a definite prophetic fact: it will happen. The apostles, specifically Peter, believed that the salvation of Israel would lead to the Parousia and the Kingdom. He says so in his sermon in Jerusalem when he tells people to turn to Christ so that the “times of refreshing might come.” Oh, also, in case you think that that’s the church age, read the other things Peter says. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
It is indubitable, if we’re going to take prophecy seriously, that the return of Christ and the Kingdom of God on Earth will follow after Israel repents and turns to Christ.
Is there any other evidence in this portion of Revelation that this is what’s happening?
Well, let’s read:
13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
So, here in chapter 11 – with a WHOLE lot more Tribulation to come, about another 3.5 years, something happens that is so eventful that in Heaven the declaration is that the transfer of the Kingdom of the World to Christ is done – or at least a fait accompli! This is odd. There is literally nothing in chapter 11 that is unique to world or tribulation History, except 1 thing. Therefore, there is literally only one thing that verse 15 could be referring to. Guess what it is? It’s the repentance and salvation of ethnic Israel. And this is located about 3.5 years into the tribulation. Daniel speaks about the Antichrist breaking his treaty with Israel 3.5 years into the deal. Chapter 12 talks about the rapture of the church and the subsequent persecution of Israel.
Everything fits.
Now, I know that I’m not likely to convince anyone in 1,100 words. There are also some Bible studies from the Church that go into these in more detail. Anyways, I think it’s a pretty solid interpretation and hopefully it helps us to have confidence that God will keep His promises and the book of Revelation makes sense and is sensible and we can make sense of it, if we know our Bibles well, if we use good hermeneutical and theological methods and if we trust God to be truthful.