A few more words on the G O’s sermon on Ezekiel 37, while this has been a standard text for camp meeting and revival sermons, it did little to clear up our misreadings and misunderstanding of Jewish history. It caused me to think back on the many books that I have read including a great deal of history that occurred between Malachi and Matthew and more recently the History of The Jews by Paul Johnson.
A careful reading of Jewish history does not suggest that they are God’s favorite people. A friend of mine for over 30 years and a leader in his denomination; says that what we have in the O T was written by the Jews themselves and that their understanding of their role in history was very subjective. In every century that I can find the Jews have had their valley of corpses which turned into dry bones. Yet they have made great contributions to literature, science, music and to finance. Perhaps we, the gentiles should have made them our favorite people?