Israel in the End Times Part 7 Kathryn Kuhlman Ezekiel 37 The Valley of Dry Bones

From the 24th chapter of Matthew. Verily I say unto you, this is Jesus speaking, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Now watch something very carefully. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not. pass away. You have heard me say it over and over again. God's Word needs no defense. The Bible needs no defense. God needs no defense. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the true Messiah, needs no defense. The Holy Spirit needs no defense. The Word of God speaks for itself. And the greatest proof for the authenticity of the Word of God is prophecy. Always know that. Never forget it. And I repeat it. The greatest proof that you and I have for the authenticity of the Holy Bible of God's Word is Bible prophecy. God cannot lie. The one who has kept His Word in the past will keep His Word today. The Bible is not just a treatise on theology or morals or history or science or any other topic. It is a revelation of God, of the fallen man, the way of salvation. and of God's plan and purpose in the ages. You and I can stake our very life on the faith of the Lord. Ezekiel had a vision that God gave unto him. And think how many years ago More than 1400 years before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Think of it. God knows no such thing as time. And one thing is sure. God will keep his word. Not only to Israel. Not only to Abraham and the seed of Abraham. Every one of us personally. All right? Let us take just a few minutes and review Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. And the 37th chapter of Ezekiel opens with this strange sight. It was a strange vision, believe me. Which God gave to the prophet Ezekiel. And the amazing thing is... that before the vision ended, God himself gave the interpretation. There could be no mistake whatsoever as to the interpretation of the vision that God gave to Ezekiel. Listen. The hand of the Lord was upon me, carried me out in the spirit of the Lord. set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, they were very many in the open valley, and, lo, they were very dry. I just read the first and second verses from the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. upon this valley, filled with the bones of human skeletons. Something happened. He spoke instinctively. He asked a question. Can these bones live? Can a miracle take place? Is it possible, humanly speaking, for these skeletons, these human skeletons, skeletons, glitched and dry, to live? And while he was asking the question, he also answered it. Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. Continue reading. Fourth to the sixth verses. And God spoke to Ezekiel, saying, and this is what God said, Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. i will lay thin news upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that i am the lord what a prophecy what a prophecy don't stop there Whatever you do, don't stop there. The prophet was obedient unto the Lord. And it continues. And so I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise. And behold, a shaking. And the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them. and the skin covered them above. But there was no breath in them. This is amazing. The prophet had just looked upon a valley of dry bones, human skeletons, parched and dry. And the word of the Lord said, prophesy unto them. And as he did so, Something happened. Flesh and sinew came upon these bones. Something else happened. And breath came into them. That breath signifies spiritual life. Ezekiel continues. Thus saith the Lord God. come from the four winds o breath breathe upon these plain that they may live and so i prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceedingly great army what a sight What a sight to behold! How the prophet must have stood there in amazement, in wonderment, to see this great miracle take place before his very eyes. But the amazing thing is, God did not leave the prophet in doubt. He did not leave you. He did not leave me. He did not leave the Gentile world, neither Israel, in doubt. as to what he was talking about. Immediately, he gave the interpretation of the vision. The same chapter. I'm still in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. You've got to accept it. You can't explain it away. You can't spiritualize it. You can't. It's there. All right. Begin with the 11th verse. There it is. These bones are. Now, I'm not taking some man's interpretation. I am taking the very word of God, the highest authority in heaven and earth. These bones are the whole house of Israel. Now, the graves that he was talking about are the nations of the world. in which Israel had been buried nationally for centuries. And always remember, whenever we speak of Israel, whenever we think of the Jew being God's chosen people, they are an earthly people. And this earthly people has been buried nationally for centuries. But the day has come, even in our present generation, when the Jew has been established again as a nation. And these graves are the nations of the world in which the Jew has been buried nationally for centuries and literally centuries. Oh, sure, for a very long, weary period of the world's history. The oppressed Jew has said, Our bones are dry, they're parched. Our hope is lost. But sometimes I wonder, if really away down deep in the recesses of their heart, they really had never lost hope. Sometimes I wonder, I wonder if instinctively the Jew, whether it was in Germany or Russia or here in the United States of America, if somehow instinctively he knew that there was hope and that he would be returned to his own country. Now the Lord has a message for his people. In the 12th and the 14th verses, I'm continuing to read from the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. Behold, O my people. Now watch. We know this is not to the Gentile. For he has just said, these bones are. the whole house of Israel. He continues talking about the same people. 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 and shall put my spirit in you and ye shall live and I will place you in your own land. Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, performed it, saith the Lord. Oh, this is thrilling. This vision of the restoration of the nation of Israel does not represent, as some may think, a physical resurrection to a second chance. It's amazing sometimes. how stupid even some of our best Bible scholars can be. We always like to spiritualize things. We always like to put a different interpretation on it than God intended. When it is so plain that if you're spiritual at all, if you have any leading of the spirit, and if you're just without... prejudice, let the Holy Spirit be your teacher, the one who has spoken, is as simple as can be. Yeah. This nation of the restoration of the nation of Israel does not represent a physical resurrection to a second chance. This would be absolutely contrary to all the positive teaching of the Word of God. What a man does with the Lord Jesus Christ in this life determines forever the destiny of his never -dying soul. We do not have another chance, whether we be Jew or Gentile. We do not have another chance after death. Our destiny, so far as spiritual life is concerned, is determined right here before the soul leaves the body. And you cannot absolutely, there is no scripture, I'll challenge any Bible teacher to show me any scripture that proves that we have a second chance after death. Now, here, right here in this life. And what is true for the Gentile? What is true of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? What is true of the Gentile is true of the Jew also. I repeat, what a man, whether he be Jew or Gentile, does the Lord Jesus Christ in this life. Now, determines forever the destiny of his never -dying soul. Moreover, as we have often said, that every individual, whether he be Jew or Gentile, must accept Christ as his own personal Savior if he would spend eternity with Him. What we see in this 37th chapter of Ezekiel is God's prophecy of Israel's national resurrection. Keep that in mind. God's covenants to Abraham and Abraham's seed are earthly covenants. The Jew as a chosen people are an earthly people. Know that. For many dreary centuries, the Jew has been buried in the cemetery of the Gentile nations. But today, the Jew has come indeed into his own, when God has opened the graves, so to speak. He has led his people back to their own homeland. National Israel has long been dead in the graves of Russia, of Germany, of England. of France, of Italy, of Canada. Long the Jew has been dead nationally in the grave. But the Word of God, and it's here in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, tells us that the day would come when the Jew would be taken out of her graves, and this... is exactly what has happened in our generation. Think of it. Sure, bones have been bleached throughout the passing centuries in the valley of the nations of the world. But a glorious resurrection has happened. A wonderful resurrection. And if you are a person of any intelligence whatsoever, You cannot take issue with the fact that there has been a wonderful national resurrection in Israel. It's there. You cannot close your eyes to it. It's there. They are now the head of the nation and not the tail. All right, now watch. They're coming together, the dry bones, as I've been reading to you from the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. And indeed, they've been covered with sinews and flesh and skin, represent exactly what we are witnessing today in Israel. Think of the thousands and thousands of Jews who've returned to their homeland. But remember, they are returning, they have returned in unbelief. Now, when I say in unbelief, I do not mean in unbelief so far as God is concerned. Know that. Oh, sure. I just read to you from a newspaper. of May the 31st, 1967. The Israelis pray beside their tanks. They chant King David's Psalms. They have not returned in unbelief so far as God is concerned, but it's still unbelief so far as the Messiah is concerned. But the day will come when they will accept Jesus Christ, not as an imposter, but they will accept him as the nation, as their true Messiah.