Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Stay tuned as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses Israel's coming restoration right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Today our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, and he's talking about the coming restoration of national Israel, a restoration in fact that has already begun. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now with today's installment, here is Gary Hedrick.

Gary Hedrick: Thank you and welcome listening friend to another edition of the program. It's good to have you with us again today as we continue this series on Israel's coming restoration. We're talking about that great dry bones prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 37. It's a wonderful prophecy that maps out Israel's end-time destiny.

And we said that in verses one and two, the Lord shows Ezekiel a valley of dead, dry bones. Those bones represent the nation of Israel, which had been destroyed by the Assyrians and the Babylonians in 722 BC and later in 586 BC by the Babylonians. And in verse three, the Lord asks Ezekiel if he thinks those dry, dusty bones can ever live again. And Ezekiel says, "O Lord God, thou knowest."

Then in verse four, again he said to me, "Prophesy upon these bones and say to them, 'O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.'" And we talked about the fact that the Lord could have simply told Ezekiel what he was going to do, but instead he chose to involve Ezekiel in what he was going to do. So he told Ezekiel to speak to those bones.

Now that was kind of a silly thing to tell him to do, don't you think? You don't go around talking to dead bones. They institutionalize people for doing stuff like that. But what was Ezekiel's response? Did he say, "Come on, Lord, I'm not going to be made to look like a fool. After all, we've got to maintain some sense of decorum around here." Is that what he said? Not hardly.

Look at verse seven. Ezekiel says, "So I prophesied as I was commanded." He did what he was told. Instant obedience, like Abraham. When God told him to get up and go, Abraham got up and went. And Ezekiel prophesied as he was commanded. Then it says, "And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone."

Now here something begins to happen. But notice, it didn't happen until Ezekiel began to prophesy. It says, "As I prophesied, there was a noise." So again, like we were discussing on the last program, what is it here that releases the power of God? Ezekiel's obedience and his faith. In other words, when we obey God and when we believe God, that's what motivates God to act.

That's why prayer is such a powerful force because it involves both obedience and faith. When we pray, we are both obeying God and we are believing God. And by the way, did you know that in the New Testament, the Greek word for obey is virtually identical to the word for believe? There are places in the Greek New Testament where you can actually translate it either way because the concepts of belief and obedience are so closely related.

When you believe, you obey. Or you can say that obedience is the proof that you really believe. If you don't obey, then you don't really believe because your actions will be determined by your belief system. Does that make sense? So as Ezekiel prophesied, it says there was a noise, a rattling of the bones.

Then in verse eight it says, "And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, and there was no breath in them." Let's stop there and talk about this. What we have here is the beginning of the process of Israel's national restoration. Up to now, Israel has been dead and lifeless. Nothing happening, no signs of life. And that's how it was for Israel for almost 1900 years.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the land lay desolate for almost 19 centuries. The once prosperous cities of Judea and Galilee became ghost towns inhabited only by wandering tribes of Bedouins. Jerusalem, the Holy City, was overrun by the Gentiles, Catholics and Byzantines and others. But then something happened.

In 1881, the Zionist movement was born. Zionism was the first serious attempt in 19 centuries to reclaim the ancient Jewish homeland for the Jewish people. When it started in 1881, there were barely 24,000 Jewish people in all of Palestine. That's all. But then the Jewish people started coming back in waves of immigration known as Aliyah.

The first Aliyah was from 1881 to 1903 when 70,000 Olim or immigrants returned to the land. The second Aliyah was from 1904 to 1914. The third was from 1919 to 1923. And the fourth was from 1924 to 1931. The fifth Aliyah was from 1931 to 1939 when almost a quarter of a million Jewish people, most of them fleeing the Nazi persecutions, immigrated to Israel.

Thousands of Jewish people poured into Palestine from all over Europe and other parts of the world. From 1881 to 1946, the Jewish population of Palestine grew from 24,000 to more than 678,000. And as these Jewish people came into Palestine, they bought land and they began building towns and cities.

It was easy to buy the land because back in those days, most of it was owned by wealthy Arabs who didn't even live there. They thought Palestine was worthless. After all, it was mostly desert and swampland, useless. You couldn't grow anything there and you couldn't build anything, so they thought, what good is it?

So those greedy Arab landowners actually thought they were taking advantage of these poor Jewish immigrants by selling them this desolate desert real estate that they thought was worthless. But then what happened? Through hard work, sacrifice, and ingenuity, those Jewish settlers transformed a sandy wilderness into fertile farmland and citrus groves.

Today, it's a beautiful place. It's like Isaiah 35:1 where it says, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." That's exactly what has happened. The desert is blossoming like a rose. Flowers and fruit trees and farmland are everywhere. If you ever have an opportunity to go on one of our Israel tours, you'll notice that in some parts of the country, there are lots of sycamore trees, sometimes whole groves of sycamore trees.

The guide will explain that the sycamore trees mark the places that used to be swamps. The Jewish settlers discovered that the sycamore is a thirsty tree. It drinks a lot of water, hundreds of gallons a day if it's a big tree. So they went into the swamps and planted sycamores. And over the years, thousands of acres that had been soggy, worthless swampland have been transformed into fertile farmland and teeming orchards and beautiful meadows.

Israel is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. So this is the beginning of Israel's promised restoration. Through the prophets Isaiah and Joel, for example, God had promised that the time would come when Israel would be restored to her land, planted in her land, it says, never to be uprooted again.

And we're seeing the beginning stages of that restoration right now in the land of Israel. It's the rattling of the bones. And then the tendons and the flesh come upon them and the skin covers them. But what does he say? There was no breath in them. And do you know what, my friend? That is exactly what we are seeing in our generation.

In May of 1948, the modern state of Israel was born. That's the rattling of the bones. And she's there today, but there is no life in her. Spiritually, she's dead. But God is at work. You can hear those bones rattling. Now some people say there's no prophetic significance at all to the fact that the state of Israel was born in 1948.

It just sort of happened and it's a nice thing it happened and all that, but there's no spiritual significance to it. And certainly it does not represent a special work of the Lord in any way. That's what they say. But when I hear people say that, I always think, how can you possibly imagine that something of this magnitude could happen merely by accident?

Just think about it, my friend. It's the first time in 6,000 years of recorded history that a nation has been destroyed and its people scattered all over the known world, only to have those people return some 2,000 years later to reclaim their ancient homeland. Before 1948, that had never happened before in the history of humanity. It is nothing short of a miracle, my friend, a divine miracle.

Do you know who made it possible for Israel to return to her land? God did. Just think of all of Israel's ancient contemporaries: the Babylonians, for example, the Phoenicians, the Hittites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Where have they gone? They've disappeared into oblivion.

And yet the Jewish people are still with us. And not only that, but they've returned after nearly 2,000 years to reclaim their ancient homeland. Listen to me, my friend. Anyone who cannot see the hand of God in these events has to be blind. The Jewish people are back in their land for the first time in almost 2,000 years, and there is a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine for the first time in over 2,500 years.

It's the rattling of the bones, just as Ezekiel prophesied. And you can see the hand of God at work in this whole process of restoration. Well, there's a lot more here, but we're out of time. We'll continue on the next program, Lord willing. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. We've been listening to Dr. Gary Hedrick discuss Israel's coming restoration from the prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 37. Isn't it exciting to think that our generation is beginning to see the fulfillment of prophecies that previous generations could only dream about or read about in the Bible?

As we hear those bones rattling in the Middle East, we are reminded that the stage is being set for the end-time scenario described by the ancient prophet. If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on compact disc.

The title is Israel's Coming Restoration. It's available for your gift of just six dollars or more to help us keep this program here on your station. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292.

To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Israel's Coming Restoration, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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