EXEGETICAL STUDY OF EZEKIEL 37 ‘VISION OF DRY BONE’ AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIA’S RESTORATION AND NATION BUILDING

Abstract

A careful exegetical study of Ezekiel 37 shows that there are theological correlations between the context of the vision of „dry bone? and the contemporary Nigerian situation. Thus, this paper investigates the theological implications of the Israelic situation of exile and the eventual restoration and nation-building in light of hope for Nigeria?s situation. Therefore, this paper employs a secondary data collection method by reviewing relevant literature, and it uses in-depth exegetical analytical methods to analyse verse-by-verse, Ezekiel 37. At the same time, the theological significance of each passage is also discussed in detail, and their implications are examined in relevance to the contemporary Nigerian situation. This paper concludes that contemporary Nigeria is a perfect semblance of Ezekiel 37?s vision of „Dry Bone? with a poverty-stricken hopeless situation and enormous divisions, respectively. It is recommended, amongst others that, while Nigerians should keep hope alive and look forward to a better Nigeria, the government should ensure equality and provision of amenities to cater for the well-being of the people; then, moral values should be upheld by all stakeholders; and the Church should wake up to its civic and spiritual responsibilities.