What is Israel's current spiritual condition even though they have returned to the land?
Israel has returned to its homeland physically, but remains spiritually dead. Though the nation has been regathered from every nation under heaven and shows outward restoration—bones with muscle and skin—there is still no spiritual life. They await the second coming, still spiritually dead and not yet made alive.
Les explains that Ezekiel 37’s valley of dry bones pictures Israel: very dry bones, white as snow, a nation out of the land of promise, away from temple worship, and blinded. God is bringing them back to life. Israel has been shaking and rattling and returning to the homeland from every nation under heaven, as seen for the last 48 years and their 48th Independence Day. The muscle and skin are returning, but Les stresses there is still no life spiritually—they remain spiritually dead. He says this is the same analogy Paul uses in Romans 11, the whole nation coming back to the land and coming back to life, waiting for the second coming as we look at it, though they think it is their first coming.