Several blogs here are concerned with the role of the Holy Spirit. He had a role in a resurrection. His work is defined as taking place in the last days. The setting of Ezekiel 37 is important to appreciate the doctrine of the resurrection. Historically, the two southern tribes had gone into idolatry and the northern tribe had been carried off by the Assyrians in 722 BC. The three invasions and importations were in 606, 597, and 586 when the city was leveled. There were many prophetic predictions during this entire span of time, especially before the final invasion of 586 BC.
Chapter 37 deals with the setting of the Babylonian captivity. The circumstances were very difficult for the deportees. Psalm 137 gives insight into the emotions of Israel as they are carried off, sitting by the rivers to wait for even worse things.
Being removed from the land carried stronger implications than it would for you or I to be removed from our native land. When they were removed from the land, they considered themselves to be dead because God’s presence and favor are directly tied to the land that He gave them. Not only was the nation of Israel “land oriented” because it was a gift from God that identified them as a nation among the nations, but it was also the place where Yahweh ruled the people of Israel. The land of Israel could be pictured as a circle with the center as the very presence of God represented by the Most Holy place in the temple. From that core, we extend outward to take in the Jewish court to the court of the Gentiles, to the city of Jerusalem to Judah and the land of Israel. Their life was tied to the land and, in particular, the city of Jerusalem with its temple. This was the city of God because it was where the temple of God was located.
Today, God has not chosen to put his name in America as he did in Jerusalem (Deut. 12). They had a unique position that was never repeated because the physical gave way to the spiritual (John 4).
The resurrection of these dead bones was not referring to a physical resurrection of the dead but a figure of life from the grave because they will be deported from their foreign captors to be restored to their land (cf. verse 13). With this return, they would be given a new covenant of peace, reuniting the tribes, while David would be their king and God would dwell with them again because the tabernacle would be set in the midst of the people.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit would mean a resurrection, a new covenant, a new king, and a tabernacle. The New Testament speaks of this spiritual resurrection (cf. Ephesians 2:6-7, Phil. 3:11, Romans 6:4) from death to life but this does not negate any reference to another resurrection directly tied to the judgment of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Both are spiritual in as much as the gift of a new body is spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44). The presence of a body does not necessarily imply a physical body, therefore. We may live the resurrected life in a physical, vile body (cf. Phil. 3:21) or in a glorified spiritual body. Either way, it describes the spiritual life – a resurrected life. The difference is that one is living in the flesh (Romans 7:18, cf. “thorn in the flesh, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10), while the other is not but is given a new and glorious tabernacle, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).