NOTES for Eze 37:13-14
For Ezekiel the possibility of the future return of the people of God on the land of their fathers is connected to its spiritual renovation, with this breath of God, which gives life to man. It is doubtless the same breath that God "breathed into the nostrils" of man at the creation (though in the story of the Book of Genesis it is indicated by another word). The fallen man lives already more as much with this breath, as with according to the word of the Bible, "the blood", his source of life ("the soul") turns out after the fall to be connected not with the breath of God, as it was the case before the fall, but with his own nature. It is also possible like that, if not to live a full life, then at least, to exist. As a single person, quite as a whole nation.
It will be particularly the existence according to the residual principle, not so much the life, as the survival. Here one is already not to the independence, to his statehood, to the opposition to the enemies: for all that are needed such spiritual strengths, which cannot be found, by relying on his own nature instead of God. Paradoxically, the captivity in such a spiritual state was the best way out. It was not indeed about the destruction of the people, even those who were deported in Babylon, nobody was going to be killed. The authorities didn’t care in any way even about the assimilation: if it had place partially, it was only as a natural process in such conditions.
It is in particular the natural and the ease of such a life that put every Jew being in Babylon, before a choice: remain faithful to the God of their fathers or get rid of it, as one gets rid in the new conditions of an extra burden, which now doesn’t give any advantage, but can create problems (even if not catastrophic). However in order to keep the faith of their fathers, it was necessary to renew it, and the prophet speaks in particular about this spiritual renewal. He understands perfectly that to receive the possibility of returning on the land of the fathers, and thus, in fact it is possible to receive the chance for another one again, the second history, only by having obtained the necessary spiritual strengths for the new historic way to come.
Otherwise this second history will not only be fruitful, but cannot simply begin. Ezekiel, understanding perfectly the current spiritual situation, does not speak accidentally about the renovation of the people, as of its resurrection: because it is really about the return into the life already lost, as or almost as after centuries will return to it the resuscitated by Jesus. And we can consider of miracle the later life of the resuscitated, even if in a not yet transformed body, we can also consider of miracle the whole after captivity history of the Jewish people. Miracle, which the culmination will be the coming of the Messiah.