Ezekiel 37:22, commentary and pictures

God will make His people one nation in their own land under one king over them all, never again to be two nations or divided into two kingdoms. The one King is Christ, the second David, the one Shepherd and Prince who reigns forever as King of kings. The one nation is the second Israel, the Israel of faith, Abraham's seed through faith in Christ, in which Gentiles are fellow heirs with Jews and there is neither Jew nor Greek. The promise was conditional on Israel's repentance and return to God, and because they failed it was never literally fulfilled to them, but its greater fulfillment belongs to Christ's second coming and the new heavens and new earth. It will be fulfilled in the resurrection and final gathering, when God opens the graves, the dead in Christ rise, the living are gathered with the trumpet to meet the Lord, and His cleansed, commandment-keeping people dwell with His sanctuary among them forever undivided.

Wording and Ancient Setting

God will make His people one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel under one king over them all, so that they will be no more two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms, leaving only one kingdom. After He delivers them so that strangers no longer oppress them, He gathers Israel from among the nations and restores them to their land to end their division.

The promise stands in the vision of the valley of dry bones in chapter 37, which is a lively portrayal of the resurrection. There bodies are formed, receive the breath of life, and live again, showing the restoration of the dead and teaching immortality through resurrection. Its reviving power is found in the Word of God for those who say their bones are dried and their hope is lost, when they take hold of God and His mighty power. The same prophecy promises the resurrection together with the uniting of Israel's scattered people and kingdoms, and God opens the graves of His people and brings them into Israel, making resurrection the gateway to the promised land.

The vision came around 587 B.C., after the ten tribes had been in captivity for more than a century and while Ezekiel lived among Jewish exiles near Babylon. It belongs to a prophecy of Israel's future restoration and glory, expressed in figures and language suited to the prophet's time.

The fuller restoration to which the verse belongs included gathering the scattered faithful from the nations to their own land, raising the righteous dead, subduing enemies, defeating Gog and Magog, cleansing the land, and pouring out divine life and healing. It included building a new and more glorious temple and sanctuary, redividing the land among the twelve tribes, making Jerusalem a praise in the earth, and going out from that glorious city to convert the nations. Restored in their own land as Ephraim and Judah no longer divided, with David reigning over them and God dwelling among them, they become a distinct people and a light declaring God's salvation and glory among the nations.

Jews misread the promise of unity under one king through pride and expectation of worldly station to mean that at His first coming Messiah would exalt Israel and subdue other nations. By confusing Christ's first coming with His future glory they looked only for worldly station and emolument, rather than receiving Him as Redeemer not of the Jews only but of the whole world. The promise points to Christ's second majestic and glorious appearing, not His first advent, while the Samaritans instead expected Him to be the Redeemer of the whole world. Pressing that false worldly reading upon the Samaritans embittered them through great bitterness from the Jews toward them and led them to discard all sacred writings except those of Moses.

Conditional Offer Never Realized

The promise of one reunited nation under one king was offered on condition that Israel turn back to God, heed the prophet, yield wholly to Him, truly repent, forsake sins, put away wickedness and iniquity, accept His terms, and be ashamed of their iniquities. God was willing and able to revive the captive nation pictured as dry bones, gather the scattered faithful from the nations, and restore them to their own land if they obeyed. That restoration from Ezekiel 36 onward included raising the righteous dead, subduing enemies, building a new temple, redividing the land, and pouring out divine life and healing.

Because Israel largely failed to turn, did not yield, did not truly repent, and was not ashamed, the promised restoration was not fulfilled for them as described and never literally fulfilled. Their refusal left only a shadow of what had been shown, fulfilled only in part, in small part, feebly, or in limited measure. What would have been fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon if they had forsaken sins and returned wholeheartedly was therefore fulfilled only in small part after the restoration.

That limited fulfillment saw fewer than fifty thousand return, elsewhere reckoned as only about forty thousand or only a small number willing to return, and the nation later fell under Roman power. The sanctuary was never rebuilt as envisioned, the glory of God did not rest upon His children, and the resurrection and reunion of the chapter never took place then.

The verse will never be fulfilled in fullest literal detail or in the local conditions of Ezekiel's time, remaining only as a faint type and never to be fulfilled in detail. Its promise concerning true Israel will be fulfilled in the future though not in every detail as described, when the faithful receive future glory and the fullness of their immortal inheritance. Its greater, broader, more glorious fulfillment belongs to what God will do for His children at Christ's second coming and in the new heavens and new earth, including the earth made new, when He shall punish forever those who would destroy His people, and its fulfillment cannot exclude God's gospel work to the world for all alike.

One King and True Israel

The one king over the reunited nation is Christ, called My servant David in the chapter, the second David and the one Shepherd. In the glorified state that one Prince and Shepherd is Jesus, Prince Immanuel, who reigns over God's people forever. When He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords everything will be right forever, and His rule is the truth about universal dominion. The prince described in Ezekiel's temple vision is a frail mortal, not Christ.

The one nation is the second Israel, the Israel of faith. It is Abraham and all who are his seed through faith, all who accept Christ by faith as Abraham's true children, with Jesus as the one Shepherd in one fold. Its people are those who belong to Christ, who worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. The first Israel under the first David belonged entirely to the first covenant, so the reign of the second David cannot be joined to the natural descendants of Jacob without mixing two different systems that cannot be transferred to each other.

Its fulfillment cannot exclude God's gospel work to the world for all alike, in which the Gentiles are fellow heirs and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian and Scythian. God's plan to gather a people who prevail by faith includes both Jews and Gentiles. Messiah comes as Redeemer not of the Jews only but of the world, and His second majestic and glorious appearing, not His first advent, brings the one united nation under one king. The two sticks of Judah and Ephraim represent restored spiritual Israel, not the Book of Mormon and the Bible joined together.

Its people are marked by the new covenant, which writes God's law in the heart and brings forgiveness of sin. That unity is expressed in keeping God's commandments and having the faith of Jesus, made possible in Christ by putting away iniquity. The King will rule over a people who have left idols and walk in God's judgments and keep His statutes, dwelling forever in the land with God's sanctuary among them forever.

Resurrection and Final Gathering

Ezekiel 37 is a resurrection promise, for the whole house of Israel is shown raised from the graves, with bodies formed receiving the breath of life and living again. God's pledge to open the graves of His people and bring them into Israel makes resurrection the gateway to the promised land and to possessing their own land together. It is not a national return to Palestine during the reign of death, nor a restoring of the Jews to their own land in mortal life under a future Davidic king. The promised one nation no longer divided into two kingdoms is the people of God raised from their graves and brought forth at the resurrection, like a nation born in one day.

That gathering from among the heathen on every side to their own land is the final gathering at Christ's return, when the graves are opened and the dead in Christ rise first and the living are caught up together to meet the Lord. The dry bones are the whole house of Israel, and opening their graves is Christ sending His angels to gather His elect from the four winds with the great sound of a trumpet. This is the only gathering of Israel that remains to be fulfilled, the gathering of the New Testament, not a future national return to Palestine. The promise of one nation under one king belongs to this restoration in which the dead are raised and the living gathered with them.

That final unity comes when those ready to perish and the outcasts worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem, fulfilled in the New Jerusalem. The King will rule over a people who have left idols and walk in God's judgments and keep His statutes, dwelling forever in the land with God's sanctuary among them forever. Israel planted in its own land and no longer divided is realized in the earth made new, where God's saints remain forever and serve in His glorious sanctuary. These conditions are linked to the new earth and the New Jerusalem, where God dwells with His people.

The chapter is a prophetic witness to the blessed, only hope of the children of God. The Son of God will come with all the shining angelic host, the dead will hear His voice, and those who sleep in Him will come forth to everlasting life and immortality. Eternal life comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming and the resurrection, through faith in Him, to the glory of God, and it is the hope of the promise made to the fathers that God would raise the dead. The kingdom should not be expected to appear immediately, for what a master in Israel should have known concerning resurrection from the dead and the change to immortality must precede the kingdom's inheritance by people in their present mortal state.

This restoration has no fulfillment before Christ's second advent, but belongs to the coming glorious Messianic kingdom under one king, Christ called My servant David, with the two sticks of Judah and Ephraim as restored spiritual Israel. Had Israel been faithful they would have returned to the mountains of Israel and the enemies described in Ezekiel 38-39 would have been destroyed. The prophecy that declares God will gather His people from among the nations and bring them to their own land is also associated with Persia and the power ruling in the north. The restoration is placed at the beginning of the day of the Lord, before the resurrection of the just, and is applied to the gathering and deliverance of all living saints, including many of literal Israel and the Israel of God in every nation, when God puts a new spirit within them in the land of the covenant of peace.

Unity and Present Application

The joining of the divided sticks shows the church made one in God's hand when believers are brought back to the old paths under Prince Immanuel in commandment keeping and the spirit of prophecy. The promise that the divided kingdoms become one nation under one king with division ended is therefore a present call to oneness that must precede revival.

That oneness answers sectarian division, for divisions come from evil and are healed only by turning from sin and being united in Christ. This reunion of God's divided people is made possible in Christ by putting away iniquity. Its people are not literal Israel as a nation but those who belong to Christ, who worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. Their unity is expressed in keeping God's commandments and having the faith of Jesus, as the new covenant writes God's law in the heart and brings forgiveness of sin.

After God delivers His people so strangers no longer oppress them, He makes them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel with one king over them all, never again two nations nor divided into two kingdoms, so that only one kingdom remains. In that restoring of Ephraim and Judah as one nation in their own land, no longer divided, David reigns over them and God dwells among them. Thus restored they stand as a distinct people and a light and praise among the nations, declaring God's salvation and glory.