EZEKIEL’S FAMOUS vision of the valley of dry bones has a deeper secondary meaning — a message for a supernatural audience that had conned Israel’s pagan neighbors into believing their ancestors were divine and could return to the land of the living.

God’s message, here and elsewhere (for example, the raising of Lazarus), was not just that He would restore Israel to the land, but that a resurrection for the faithful was coming. We discuss the implications of the dry bones in the context of other Old Testament passages that refer to the Rephaim, the divinized dead of the pagan Canaanites/Amorites. For example:

* Isaiah 26:13-19 (but compare the different translations of verse 19 in the ESV, KJV, and especially the Septuagint, which renders the last line, “the land of the ungodly [rapha, or Rephaim] shall perish.”)

* Job 26:5-6 (read “Rephaim” for “dead”)

* Isaiah 14:9-10 (read “Rephaim” for “shades”)

There is more going on here than is revealed by a surface level reading, and it sets up the next two chapters of Ezekiel — his prophecy of the war of Gog of Magog.

Dates for our 2019 trip to Israel are confirmed! The SkyWatchTV Wars of the Gods Tour flies from New York City to Tel Aviv Sunday, May 12, 2019, and returns Thursday, May 23. If you want to extend your trip a few days to join us in Jordan, you’d return Monday, May 27, 2019. More details coming soon!

Book Four of Sharon’s series of supernatural thrillers The Redwing Saga, Realms of Stone, is available now at Amazon!

Here are the links for Book Three of The Redwing Saga, The Blood is the Life; Book Two, Blood Rites; and Blood Lies: Book One of The Redwing Saga. Visit Sharon’s author page at Amazon.com for more.

Derek’s latest book The Day the Earth Stands Still: Unmasking the Old Gods Behind UFOs, ETs, and the Official Disclosure Movement, co-authored with Josh Peck, is available now in paperback and as a Kindle e-book! See www.OfficialDisclosure.com for more info.

Derek’s book The Great Inception: Satan’s PSYOPs from Eden to Armageddon is now an e-book for the Kindle and Nook! For free samples, click here for articles from the book, or click here for a series of short (5-10 minute) videos based on the book.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.