Ezekiel 37:25, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel spoke after Jerusalem had fallen of restoration after judgment in the language of his own time, promising that God's people with their children and their children's children would dwell forever in the land given to Jacob under David as prince forever. It was a conditional promise from Ezekiel 36 onward that God would have fulfilled for Israel at the return from Babylon if they had wholly returned, obeyed and put away sin. Because they did not repent and yield it was never fulfilled literally, receiving only a feeble partial fulfillment when about forty thousand returned under Zerubbabel, with its greater fulfillment belonging to the second coming of Christ and the earth made new. My servant David is Christ, the second David and Son of David, and the land is the literal eternal home of God's people on the renewed earth, possessed through the literal resurrection when God opens the graves, makes His people alive by His Spirit and brings them into their own land. That restoration has no fulfillment before Christ's second advent but takes place at the final gathering from among the heathen and from the four winds at the trump of God, and it belongs to Christ and His saints as the second Israel under the new covenant, including the redeemed from every nation, not to a mortal restoration of the Jews as a nation in Palestine.

Historical Setting and Conditionality

Ezekiel 37:25 belongs to Ezekiel's later prophecies given after Jerusalem fell, speaking restoration and promise after judgment in the figures and language of Ezekiel's own time. It is part of the conditional prophecy running from Ezekiel 36 onward of what God would have done for Israel at the return from Babylon if they had wholly returned and yielded to Him. That fulfillment required obedience, being ashamed of iniquity and putting away sin and wickedness, under the universal principle of Jeremiah 18:8-10. If Israel had obeyed and met the stated conditions, God would have restored the people to their own land and fulfilled these promises in much greater measure, including dwelling in the land given to Jacob where their fathers dwelt, they and their children and children's children forever, with David as prince forever.

Because Israel did not repent, fully repent, yield to God's plan, or put away iniquities, the promised restoration was never literally fulfilled and never will be fulfilled literally. The glorious temple and sanctuary shown in Ezekiel 37-48 was never built in that glorious form, and only a shadow of it was erected by Zerubbabel. It never will be built and never can be built literally now, since that would require going back to the typical sacrifices pointing forward to Jesus Christ, which Christ Himself fulfilled by His suffering and death on the cross.

The prophecy received only a small, shadow-like, feeble and partial fulfillment when about forty thousand returned under Zerubbabel, with the nation later falling under Roman power. It stands only as a faint type fulfilled in general rather than in every detail, with its future glory coming to the true Israel but not in every detail described in Ezekiel. Its greater fulfillment belongs on a broader and more glorious scale to the second coming of Christ and the events connected with it, to the last days, to later revelations, and to what God will restore by His mighty power in the new heavens and new earth and the earth made new, not to a return to the local conditions of Ezekiel's time.

David Land and Descendants

“My servant David” as prince forever is Christ, the second David and Son of David from David’s royal line, who reigns on David’s throne over the gathered flock as shepherd and prince. This places restored Israel in God’s coming Messianic kingdom, which has no fulfillment before Christ’s second advent, and in a spiritual sense the redeemed in that everlasting kingdom belong to the twelve tribes of Israel. Those over whom He reigns are the second Israel, Israel in the highest sense after the law of faith, not the natural descendants of Jacob, for the first Israel under the first David belonged entirely to the first covenant while the second Israel under Christ belongs to the new covenant, so to join the reign of David the second to the first Israel confuses the two systems. This restoration and reign take place at the resurrection described earlier in the chapter, when God raises His people from their graves and brings them into their land, and the prophecy concerns what will take place after the resurrection.

The land given to Jacob is a literal dwelling place that abides forever as the eternal home of God’s people with their children on the renewed earth, not a spiritualized promise or removal to a distant heaven. The Hebrew word for land has a positive and literal meaning, used of the new creation just as of the original creation, for Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, which is evil, and not the good works of God such as the earth, so the earth itself is renewed and inherited by the meek forever. God will establish His sanctuary in the place where His people dwell and it will continue forever in the glorified state, and the land is the place of the sanctuary, not the sanctuary itself, with God’s sanctuary set in the promised land or the new earth.

The verse promises that restored Israel with their children and their children’s children will dwell together in that land given to Jacob as one united people no longer divided into two kingdoms, under one King with David as their prince forever. This restoration will take place at the final gathering of God’s people when Jesus comes, when before the latter days God brings His people from captivity and restores them to their land, and when He has delivered them so strangers no longer oppress them they serve the Lord their God and David their king raised up to them, no longer defiling themselves with idols or detestable things but obeying God’s judgments and statutes, with God’s sanctuary among them forever in the conditions of the new earth where God dwells with them. It was conditional and would have come after the return from Babylon if Israel had turned wholeheartedly from sin to God, but it received only a small, shadow-like fulfillment in the modest restoration under Zerubbabel, and its greater fulfillment belongs to the second coming of Christ and the events connected with it, not to a return to the local conditions of Ezekiel’s time. In God’s second recovery children and later generations dwell with their parents among the restored remnant, so that obedient children go with them toward the heavenly Canaan and share in the future of God’s gathered and redeemed people.

The everlasting descendants do not mean children will be born in the new earth, for those in the resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage. The verse itself does not speak of being multiplied; the multiplying belongs to the next verse and God does it in the resurrection, just as He has multiplied His people through all the past by regeneration. The everlasting descendants are the only true seed, the children of promise, whom Christ and His church are continually begetting through the word, and who will then all be manifested as the sons of God. In that sense people of faith of all ages are children of Abraham and of Isaac and all children of Christ, not a short-lived race but living forever.

Resurrection and Promised Restoration

The valley of dry bones is a lively portrayal of the literal resurrection, in which the whole house of Israel lies as dry bones and is rebuilt with bones and sinews and flesh and skin and lives when breath enters, standing as a great army. The promise of resurrection and of the uniting of Israel's scattered hosts and kingdoms belongs to Ezekiel 36 to 48, and the lasting dwelling in the land under David as prince forever is part of the Old Testament teaching of immortality through resurrection. The dead rise bodily in that vision, not as spirits passing at death to a higher life.

That dwelling in the land forever is the resurrection, when God opens the graves of His people and brings them up and makes them alive by His Spirit and brings them into their own land of Israel to possess it as an everlasting possession, which they cannot do while death reigns. This fulfillment reaches to the resurrection and the new earth rather than to a mortal restoration of the Jews to their former land under a future literal Davidic king, so the vision of the dry bones is connected with resurrection and not only with the return of the ten lost tribes. The whole house of Israel means all His elect, the opening of the graves means the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the gathering from among the heathen on every side means gathering the elect from the four winds one by one, from Assyria and Egypt and everywhere, to worship in the holy mount at Jerusalem. That gathering comes with the great trumpet as the trump of God at the descent of the Lord with a shout and the voice of the archangel, coincident with Matthew 24:31 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1, fulfilled in the Revelation 21 reality, and it is the only gathering of Israel that remains.

If God's people had heeded the prophet, the restoration would have included the resurrection of the dead described in Ezekiel 36 and 37. What God would have done for Israel in that day if they had turned and yielded was to raise from the dead the faithful who slept, conquer all enemies far and near including the kings of the north, make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, bring His life and healing power upon Palestine and the earth as never before, and build within that city the promised sanctuary with a new temple and a new division of the land and dwelling in the land given to Jacob with children and children's children forever under David as prince forever. Fulfillment required putting away wickedness and being ashamed of iniquities under the universal principle of Jeremiah 18:8-10, and because Israel never yielded the promise was never fulfilled literally and never will be built literally now, since only a shadow was erected by Zerubbabel and a literal building now would require going back to typical sacrifices that Christ fulfilled by His suffering on the cross.

No immortal soul or deathless spirit enters the person at resurrection, for man in his present state is mortal, the dead are dead and know nothing, and death and life are mutually exclusive contraries, so when the breath or life principle leaves the body the man dies and would never live again except by grace through a Redeemer. Both just and unjust remain under the dominion of death until that breathing again, when God again breathes the breath of life into the dead and they shall live again. The kingdom was not to appear immediately, but its establishment was connected with the dead being raised and changed to immortality, which baptism prefigures. The only blessed hope is the second coming of Christ, when the Son of God comes with the shining angelic host and the dead hear His voice and those who sleep in Him come forth to everlasting life and immortality through faith in Jesus Christ, with the righteous receiving spiritual immortal bodies to live and reign forever with Christ and the unjust living again only to die the second death from which there is no restoration.

Israel Gathering and Fulfillment

The restoration has no fulfillment before Christ's second advent but takes place at the final gathering of God's people when Jesus comes to reign with all His saints. The promised dwelling in the land and the rule of David's prince are connected with this final gathering, when the dead are raised and God's people are gathered to Him, not with a future return of scattered tribes to Palestine and not with the past return from captivity. The dwelling in the land given to Jacob with children and children's children forever under David as prince forever will be fulfilled when the graves of Israel are opened and the dead are raised.

That gathering is when Israel is taken from among the heathen on every side and gathered one by one from the four winds into their own land. It includes those ready to perish in Assyria and the outcasts in Egypt and those from everywhere, brought to worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. The great trumpet is the trump of God and the great sound of a trumpet of the angels at the descent of the Lord from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel, when Christ sends His angels to gather His elect. It is coincident with Matthew 24:31 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1, fulfilled in the Revelation 21 reality, and it is the only gathering of Israel that remains to fulfill the prophecies.

Then Israel and Judah will be united as one people and dwell forever in the land given to Jacob, together with their descendants, with one King ruling them. They will no longer defile themselves with idols or detestable things, but will obey God's judgments and statutes, serving the Lord their God and David their king raised up to be their prince forever. When He has delivered them so strangers no longer oppress them they dwell there with their children forever as one nation no longer divided into two kingdoms. God's sanctuary will remain among them forever, and the promised everlasting dwelling and God's presence among His people describe the conditions of the new earth, where God dwells with them.

The promise belongs to Christ and His saints, with the David who shall be prince forever as Christ the second David, and those over whom He reigns as the second Israel, Israel in the highest sense after the law of faith, not the natural descendants of Jacob. In a spiritual sense the redeemed in God's everlasting kingdom belong to the twelve tribes of Israel, including all who prevail by faith, Gentiles as well as Jews, as Abraham's literal and spiritual seed gathered to His fold. The first Israel under the first David belonged entirely to the first covenant, while the second Israel under Christ belongs to the new covenant, so to join the reign of David the second to the first Israel confuses the two systems and is impossible and absurd. It is not a mortal restoration of the Jews as a nation returning to Palestine under a future literal Davidic king, nor a future return of scattered tribes to Palestine, but reaches its fulfillment at the resurrection and in the new earth. The promised restoration did not occur because Israel failed to meet the stated conditions of returning to God with all the heart and was rejected, yet God's plan will nevertheless be fulfilled.

That dwelling forever is the resurrection, when the whole house of Israel as dry bones is brought up from their graves, given flesh and sinews and skin and Spirit, made alive, and brought into the land of Israel, their own land. Then Abraham and all his seed together come into possession of the land for an everlasting possession, which they cannot do while death reigns, with the whole house of Israel meaning all His elect and the opening of the graves meaning the resurrection of the dead in Christ. All the promises belonging to Israel and Judah will be eternally verified to themselves with perfect and perpetual personal and national identity preserved. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all indicated by the proper name Israel will be there in the resurrection as matter-of-fact persons, not as spirits or ghostly beings lost in the living mass, each filling the place for which natural and moral endowment and divine discipline qualified them, with Jerusalem dwelling safely under the dominion of David their prince and with Jehovah as their God and they as His people, distinct from the blessings in reserve for the Gentile believer which must be learned from promises naming them distinctly.

The prophecy was misinterpreted by confusing Christ's first coming with His future glorious appearing, falsely expecting Him at His first advent to give Israel worldly station and reward, to exalt Israel and subdue other nations and bring all other nations into subjection. The verse refers to His second majestic and glorious appearing as Redeemer not of the Jews only but of the world. The promise of David as king and prince over Israel forever with one shepherd ruling does not mean a living man is now that David holding the kingdom until Christ comes, and to set oneself forth as David their king of the latter days is delusion and deception that leads thousands who follow into the wilderness of error to perish. The prophecy associates Persia with the power from the north and speaks of God gathering His people from among the nations and bringing them into their own land, set against the nations' preparation for the coming battle of Armageddon, giving urgency to taking the gospel to Persia and nearby regions.

Covenant Sanctuary and Application

God will set his sanctuary in the very place where his people dwell, and that sanctuary will stand forever on the earth made new. The land is the dwelling place of the saints, not the sanctuary itself, yet the sanctuary endures within it as the sign of God's everlasting reign with Israel planted never to be removed. There Israel and Judah dwell together as one united people with their descendants forever in the land given to Jacob, no longer defiling themselves with idols, obeying God's judgments and statutes under one King with David as prince forever. What was offered conditionally from Ezekiel 36 onward, depending on Israel wholly returning, being ashamed of iniquity and putting away sin, was not fulfilled in the glorious temple form shown to the prophet because Israel was not ashamed, but God will more than make good all those promises to his Israel in Christ Jesus in the new heaven and new earth whose capital is the New Jerusalem. The everlasting dwelling with God's presence among his people describes the conditions of the new earth where God dwells with them.

The inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed is heirship of the world, the heavenly Jerusalem and the new earth, where they shall dwell forever. In that inheritance Abraham and all his descendants keep the everlasting covenant, which is the ten commandments given to Jacob for a law. The Sabbath commandment is part of that covenant and will not be excluded or excepted.

The vision of dry bones in chapter 37 is a lively portrayal of the resurrection, and resurrection power is found in the Word of God. Those who feel with Israel of old that their bones are dried and their hope is lost are revived when they take hold of God and his mighty power revealed in this book. The promises belong to his children if they return to him. In God's recovery of Israel children and later generations dwell with their parents in the land God gives them under David as prince forever, and in the second recovery obedient children accompany their parents among the restored remnant toward the heavenly Canaan.