Dry Bones to Living Army

3rd November 2024
The restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948 fulfilled the first part of God's prophecy through Ezekiel, but a second step follows the just previous restoration of them to their original land of the Old Testament. This remains yet to happen - their spiritual awakening. Just as God acted to restore physical Israel as told in Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37, then He has a second action as Chapters 37 and 38 describe a day when He will breathe spiritual life into their 'dry bones'. He can and will bring about spiritual revival to the nation. They won't stop being Jewish, but they will become Christians. The Jewish people's future conversion to Christ will come through a time of crisis, when nations from the north attack Israel. This pattern of the Holy Spirit's awakening work - bringing conviction of sin followed by spiritual life - applies not only to Israel but to all peoples and individuals who come under conviction to turn to God. There can be a "personal awakening" in the individual or "national awakening" as a nation to God. The threat of invasion from the North by a team of enemy nations will cause the Israeli people to repent of their sinful ways and cry out to God.
"Now those Old Covenant, Old Testament, New Covenant, New Testament are very much connected but they're not exactly the same meanings. The Old Testament contains the Old Covenant but also has many promises of the coming New Covenant which actually happens in the New Testament though there are plenty of prophecies in the Old Testament of those coming days. And up on the screen we have from Joel a prophecy which is a very important prophecy about how there's going to come a change in what God is doing by his spirit. And actually it is the change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. And my talk this morning is about that difference between the Old and the New Covenants and some of the things that we can learn about the fact that we're in the New Covenant in the fulfilment of many of the promises of the Old."

Listen to a recent sermon