Complete Return Unlikely
The destruction prophesied in the early part of this book is not as
comforting as the promises of restoration are here in the latter part of the
book. God assured them in the last chapter that he would gather the House of
Israel out of captivity and return them to their own land, but there were two
things that might render this unlikely:
- They were so comfortable where they were, so intermingled with the
pagan population and so uninterested in returning that the Prophet
compares then to a "valley of dry bones", dead men which could and
should be brought back together and raised to life, but was so
content in their present condition that they interfered with the
process.
- They were so divided amongst themselves; so much animosity still
existed between Judah and Ephraim, the northern and the southern
kingdoms, even in captivity. But this was prophesied to end by the
sign of two sticks in the hand of the Prophet that became one,
indicating that there would be a happy coalition between the two
nations. In this there was also prophesied a coalition between the
Jew and the Gentile, the northern kingdom becoming Samaria or
Gentile and Judah representing the Jews. So the Prophet prophesies
the Kingdom of Christ that would unite the Jew and the Gentile and
of the glories and graces of that kingdom.
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