Ezekiel 37:21, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 37:21 promises that God will take the whole house of Israel, both Ephraim and Judah, from among the heathen where they have gone and gather them on every side to bring them into their own land, the land promised to Abraham. That restoration was offered on condition of repentance, faith and obedience, and because Israel did not yield it was fulfilled only in small part with about forty thousand returning from Babylon and will never be fulfilled literally in all its local detail. Its full fulfillment comes on a broader and more glorious scale to spiritual Israel, meaning all who belong to Christ by faith from every kindred, tongue and people, who will inherit the earth made new with the New Jerusalem, not by a return of the Jewish nation to Palestine as a separate mortal nation. Those who held the other view taught that the ten tribes scattered since B.C. 721 will yet return to Palestine as tribes. The gathering left to be fulfilled is the final gathering at Christ's second coming, when He sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather His elect from the four winds, the dead in Christ rising first and the living caught up together with them in the resurrection that is the gateway to the promised land. Then the divided sticks become one nation under one king, David's seed Christ the one Shepherd, united in Christ by cleansing from sin.

Historical Setting and Language

The prophecy belongs to Israel's future restoration and glory given after Jerusalem had fallen. Its setting is about 587 B.C., when Ezekiel was among the Jewish captives by the Chebar, and the ten tribes had already been in captivity for more than a century. The promised restoration is expressed in the figures and language of Ezekiel's own time.

The promise is that God will take the whole house of Israel, including both Ephraim and Judah, from among the heathen whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. That land is the land promised to Abraham, and to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to be inherited by the faithful in Christ. The gathering is linked with being raised from the graves and brought into the land, with revival of the nation's hopes, and with the elect gathered from every direction at the opening of the graves and the resurrection of the dead at Christ's coming, as the gathering of Israel's promises still left to fulfill prophecy. Those who so hold it teach that the ten tribes scattered abroad since B.C. 721 will yet return to Palestine as tribes, with the time at hand for Jehovah to recover them by gathering them from all scattered lands though no one can tell with certainty where they are.

The verse stands in Ezekiel 36 to 48, and in chapters 37 to 39, promising blessings to Israel and glory to the land, city, and sanctuary. That wider restoration includes gathering the scattered people and uniting its divided hosts and kingdoms, setting a sanctuary among the people, building the promised sanctuary and glorious temple within Jerusalem made a praise in the earth, raising the faithful who slept in death, conquering all enemies far and near, and giving a new division of the land with God's presence among the people. It is not a prediction of a renewed sacrificial system, since Christ's once-for-all offering fulfilled all types and cannot be set aside, and God cannot return to the typical sacrifices that pointed forward to Jesus Christ.

Conditional Offer to Israel

The gathering and restoration offered was conditional on Israel turning to God, repenting, being ashamed of iniquities, putting away wickedness and receiving His Spirit, and meeting the conditions of faith and obedience. The whole prophecy from Ezekiel 36 to the close of the book, and especially chapters 37 to 48 concerning Israel and the sanctuary, stood under the universal conditions of obedience and disobedience and depended on Israel's acceptance or rejection. It must therefore be read in the light of the clearer New Testament revelation of the mystery that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel, so that it does not mean an exclusive national work but God's great gospel work to the world for all alike, in which there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian.

What God was prepared to do if Israel had yielded and returned wholeheartedly after the return from Babylon was to take Israel from the nations and restore them to their own land, gathering the scattered people willing to come. He would have raised the faithful of Israel who slept in death, the renewal represented by the dry bones which are the whole house of Israel also intimating the restoration of sleeping Israelites, conquered all enemies far and near, and made Jerusalem a praise in the earth. He would have reunited Israel and Judah as one nation under David's seed, with one king over them all no more divided into two nations or two kingdoms, built within Jerusalem the promised sanctuary and glorious temple described in the closing chapters, with a new division of the land and God's presence among the people, and made Israel a light to the world.

Because Israel did not repent, yield, turn from sin and wrongdoing, and meet the stated conditions, the promised restoration was not fulfilled to them as described and in all its stated details. The return from Babylon fulfilled these promises only in small part and in a limited way, with about forty thousand returning, and the fuller restoration with its resurrection and temple blessings was not realized. The people were not ashamed of their iniquities and did not return wholeheartedly to God, so Israel was rejected as to that conditional offer, though God's plan to gather a people still stands.

That unfulfilled restoration will never be fulfilled literally in its fullest local detail under the local conditions of Ezekiel's day, and the sanctuary of Ezekiel 37 to 48 will never be built. God cannot return to the typical sacrifices that pointed forward to Jesus Christ, since Christ Himself suffered and fulfilled all types. Its promises will instead be fulfilled in the last days in general but not in every detail, under different conditions, on a broader, stronger, and more glorious scale through the later revelations, faintly pointed to at the second coming. True Israel will still be redeemed and given the more glorious immortal inheritance in Christ, the earth made new, fulfilled to His people in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as its capital.

Spiritual Israel in Christ

Israel in this promise is the second Israel, Israel in the highest sense after the law of faith, the Israel of faith and of the new covenant, not the natural descendants of Jacob alone nor past history only. It is Christians from among all kindreds, tongues and peoples, including both Jews and Gentiles who prevail by faith, for all who accept Christ by faith become children of Abraham and are gathered under Jesus the one Shepherd. People gathered for God's name from among the Gentiles become part of Israel, and those redeemed in God's everlasting kingdom belong spiritually to the twelve tribes. Because Israel did not meet the condition of turning to God, the prophecy was not fulfilled as originally given, and its fuller fulfillment belongs to the new dispensation when the scattered people are united in one fold.

The one shepherd and king set over the gathered people in the same connection is David second, Christ, called My servant David, the one Shepherd and Prince Immanuel. He rules the reunited people in the coming Messianic kingdom, and its fulfillment is after Christ's second coming, when the delivered people are made one nation in the land with one king over them all, no more divided into two nations or two kingdoms. The first Israel and the reign of the first David belonged entirely to the first covenant, while the second Israel and the second David are under the new, so it is impossible to connect the reign of Christ with the first, literal Israel. Finding Christ as David in the same prophecy is the same reading that finds spiritual Israel in the promise of gathering.

The land is the one promised to Abraham, to be inherited by the faithful in Christ. The true heirs of the promise are Christ and all who belong to him by faith, including Abraham and his faithful descendants, who will possess the promised land together in the resurrection when death no longer prevents them from receiving it. God's purpose remains the same, so true Israel will still be redeemed and given a more glorious inheritance, the earth made new. The promise does not mean that the Jewish nation will return to Palestine as a nation in its present mortal state or be restored to a separate nation, since such a restoration would rebuild the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile which has been broken down in Christ. Its fulfillment is in Christ's people rather than in literal Israel as a distinct people, through turning from evil, being cleansed from sin, and putting away iniquity and belonging to Christ.

By contrast, those who held it taught that the ten tribes scattered abroad since B.C. 721 will yet return to Palestine as tribes. They taught that the time was at hand for Jehovah to recover them by gathering them from all the scattered lands through which they are now scattered, though no one can tell with certainty where they are, and bringing them into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Resurrection and Final Gathering

The dry bones are the whole house of Israel saying that their bones are dried and their hope is lost, expressing dried-up hopelessness. The explanation of the vision links gathering from the scattered countries with being raised from the graves and brought into the land promised to Abraham, so that resurrection is the gateway to the promised land. The figure also intimates the restoration of sleeping Israelites, and shows the resurrection of the righteous in which the dead will be raised and God's promise of life fulfilled in everlasting life and immortality at Christ's coming. That resurrection power is in the Word of God, which brings revival when the hopeless take hold of God and His mighty power.

The gathering from among the heathen into their own land is the New Testament and final gathering of God's people at Christ's coming, not the past return from Babylon. It is the only gathering of Israel still left to fulfill prophecy, the same gathering foretold in both Testaments and connected with the new earth. It coincides with the opening of the graves and the resurrection of the dead, when Christ sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather His elect from the four winds and from every direction. In it the dead in Christ rise first and the living are caught up together with them to meet the Lord, and the outcasts come to worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

That restoration takes place at the resurrection described in verses 11 to 14, not as a return to the land before Christ's coming. In that gathering the dead in Christ rise first and the living are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and the scattered and perishing come to worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. The true Israel, God's people, are then gathered from the four winds by the angels and inherit the world and the everlasting kingdom in the new earth. There they are settled permanently, with God's sanctuary among them.

That restoration occurs when the Gentile powers have filled up the measure of their iniquity and are overthrown, raising Israel's captive tribes from their scattered condition. It belongs before the latter days, when God brings His people from captivity and gathers the children of Israel from among the heathen on every side into their own land. When He has thus delivered them so that strangers no longer oppress them, they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom He will raise up unto them. They are made one nation in the land with one king over them all, no more divided into two nations or two kingdoms.

When God again breathes the breath of life into the dead they will live again. While the spirit or breath or life principle leaves the body the man dies and knows nothing, and death and life are mutually exclusive, so no one is both dead and alive at once. Both the just and the unjust remain under the dominion of death until then, and without grace through a Redeemer no one would ever live again. In that resurrection the righteous receive spiritual and immortal bodies to live and reign forever with Christ, and the unjust are raised to die again the second death from which there is no restoration.

The kingdom will not appear immediately in the present mortal state, since people in their present mortal state cannot inherit it. They must first be born from the dead and changed to immortality, a change prefigured by baptism. The gathering belongs to the time when God gives a new spirit and establishes His covenant of peace. It is fulfilled at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the righteous: many of literal Israel are gathered and delivered at Jerusalem, while God's Israel among all nations is also delivered and receives His Spirit, and they are later redeemed with the righteous dead at Christ's second coming.

The verse belongs to prophecies of Christ's second majestic and glorious appearing, not His first advent. The Jews misread such prophecies as predicting that Christ would at His first coming give Israel worldly station and reward, exalt Israel, and bring other nations under its rule and into subjection. Through lofty pride and desire for worldly position they confused the two advents and pressed that worldly expectation upon others. By contrast the Samaritans held that Messiah was to come as Redeemer of the world and not of the Jews only.

Unity and Present Application

Together with the next verse the promise describes the divided people becoming one nation under one king, for the two sticks stand for divided Israel and become one in the prophet's hand, with Israel and Judah united under David's seed. The gathering from among the nations and bringing back to their own land is therefore a gathering together and a uniting into one fold. Had the people met the conditions, God would have so gathered scattered Israel and restored them to their own land.

This gathering and uniting is fulfilled in Christ rather than in literal Israel as a distinct people, by the removal of sectarian divisions through turning from evil and being cleansed from sin. Unity comes through putting away iniquity and belonging to Christ, under Jesus the one Shepherd and Prince Immanuel. So applied, God gathers true believers of the remnant church into oneness in the old paths of commandment keeping and the spirit of prophecy, and such oneness must precede a revival.

Its fulfillment has come now, when the powers of earth are taking their positions in the lining up of nations for Armageddon and the third angel's message has been gathering force and spreading into all the world. It belongs to the same prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39 where Persia is joined with the great power ruling over the north parts. The verse therefore means the gospel message must now go among Persia and the regions round about to gather out God's children there, in opposition to the agents of the god of this world who are working day and night in those parts to gather the people to the battle of the great day.

The verse assures that God was willing and able to restore Israel from exile and is able to gather His scattered people and bring them back to their own land. The return of new life each spring gives hope that He will restore His people and make the desert blossom. That restoration was to be lasting only as the people turned from sin, were cleansed from iniquity, and received God's Spirit, for repentance was the condition for life rather than continued death. Its fuller fulfillment belongs to the new dispensation, when all who accept Christ by faith become children of Abraham, people gathered for God's name from among the Gentiles become part of Israel to be a light among the nations, and all are gathered under Jesus the one Shepherd in revival of the nation's hopes.