Why is Israel outside the Promised Land considered dead?
Scripture pictures Israel outside the land as dwelling in graves among Gentile nations, cut off from temple, priesthood, and altar, and therefore hopelessly out of touch with God. Being outside the Promised Land is likened to death; God restores life by bringing them back to the land of Israel.
Les teaches that the bones in Ezekiel 37 are the whole house of Israel. Israel has been out in the graves, which is how God refers to the Gentile nations. Israel out of the land is a nothing: without a temple, without a priesthood, without an altar, hopelessly out of touch with God while outside the land of promise. The Word of God calls those habitations in Gentile areas graves, and they are like a dead people so far as God is concerned. But He is bringing them back to life by bringing them back to their promised land. In verse 12, God says He will open their graves and bring them to the land of Israel, their homeland. The two sticks—the northern ten tribes and the southern two tribes—are put together to become one stick.