Live in the Land

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Now we come to a controversial part of Ezekiel 37, even more than who constitutes the “whole house of Israel.”

Ezekiel 37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them.

God says that they will be His people, and He will be their God. One nation. In the land, on the mountains of Israel. It’s hard to see how anyone can interpret that as anything other than geography.

Verse 24 “‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd.

It’s a Messianic reference and Jesus, Son of David…prophecy fulfilled, King, Shepherd and priest.

 “They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. 25 They will live…”

 Where?

 “in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived.”

There you go.  In their own land, the land given way back at the beginning of being a chosen people.

I know some people are upset at the idea of the Jews possessing the land (even while allowing free passage or choice to live in Israel by Arabs) instead of a “two state solution” but it’s a fact that many Arabs already live in Israel.  Peacefully, to the credit of both.  

In fact, of the hostages recently in the news (importantly they are hostages NOT prisoners of war because they were taken before the war broke out) an Arab Israeli was rescued alive…but all those who were Jewish, including an American, were killed by Hamas.  There is obviously no peaceful coexistence in the minds of terrorists and even if a two-state solution were to prevail as a solution, it’d be temporary. One cannot live in peace with terrorists sleeping on your doorstep.

But someday, God will bring the “whole house of Israel” back to live–in peace–in the land He gave to Jacob. When in the future is unclear, but the fact of it is as sure as God’s Word.