Ezekiel 37:20

"And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in try hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and, I will be their God."

GOD EXPLAINS THE MEANING

"And one king shall be king to them all ..." (Ezekiel 37:22). What can this mean? "The first phase of this was fulfilled when Israel came into Canaan as one people without distinction between Ephraim or Judah; and the final phase of it, their obedience to `one king,' is still future."[15] We can agree with Cook to the extent that the second phase has not been fulfilled in over two thousand years; but we cannot follow his additional comment that the complete fulfillment will come, "When all Israel shall acknowledge the rule of Christ."[16] Our position is that "All Israel" has already acknowledged Christ and serve him continually. There is no Israel (in the sense of the true Israel) who are not following the Saviour, who alone is the True Vine, the real Israel; and there is no other!

Clarke has a wonderful comment on Ezekiel 37:22 -

"One king shall be king to them all. Politically speaking, they never had a king from that day to this; and that grand government spoken of here must refer to some other time - to that when they shall be brought into the Christian Church with the fullness of the Gentiles, when Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords shall rule over them."[17]

Like many other great students of God's Word, Clarke here overlooked the fact that Israel, as represented by the "righteous remnant,' the apostles of Jesus, the ingathering on Pentecost, etc. have already come into Christ who is now ruling over the true Israel of God, as seen in Matthew 19:28. Certainly that event must be associated with "the times of the regeneration," that is, the times of "the new birth," which by any logical interpretation must be identified with the current dispensation of the grace of God.

Some quote Paul from Romans 11:26, "So all Israel shall be saved," as if it said "Then all Israel shall be saved," which, of course, it does not say. What is meant is that "In this manner," that is, by accepting and obeying Christ, and in no other way, but in this way alone, SO all Israel shall be saved. ("See our elaboration of this in Vol. 6 of our New Testament Series, in loco.")

"One king shall be king to them all ..." (Ezekiel 37:22). "This was not Zerubbabel, who was never a king, either in fact or in name, and who ruled over a very few Jews for a very few years; whereas the king here reigns forever. Messiah is meant. The union of Judah and Ephraim alike under one king is actually a reference to the union of Jews and Gentiles (with whom Ephraim and his tribes were at that phase of history identified) under the Messiah."[18]