Page 190 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

184 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
and say unto them, Thus saitli the Lord Jehovah; Be­
hold, 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 ye shall know that I [am] Je­
hovah, when I have opened your graves, 0 my people,
and brought you up out of your graves, 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
Jehovah have spoken [it], and performed [it], saith
Jehovah.” (Ver. 11—14.)
To a mind simple and subject to scripture there
can be no hesitation here. To whatever use or appli­
cation we may turn the vision, its direct and express
meaning is God’s revival of His ancient people Israel,
then utterly destroyed, dead and buried, but yet to
quit their graves according to the word of Jehovah,
“ These bones are the whole house of Israel.” And
God would comfort His people as well as rebuke the
unbelief which said, u Our bones are dried, and our
hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.” His own faith­
ful grace will undertake to do what is manifestly beyond
the power of man. He declares that He will not only
disinter them from the graves wherein they now lie
buried as a nation, but will bring them into the land of
Israel—an issue suitable neither to those risen from the
dead nor to souls converted to God now by the gospel,
for what have we to do with the land of Israel ? But
restoration to their land is the simple and necessary
complement of the national resuscitation of Israel.
And so all the Old Testament testifies. Continually
we see the people and their land bound up: blessing by-
and-by on both, as now *las ! a curse on both.