Valley of Dry Bones.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
1 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.
3 And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O Lord God, You know."
4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord." ' "
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.
9 Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." ' "
10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.
14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it," says the Lord.' "
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1 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
Again whether Ezekiel was taken to a different place is uncertain. It is likely that this was a spiritual experience, not a physical transportation but a vision.
God showed him a valley filled with dry bones.
2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.
These bones besides being the bones of dead men in the open, unburied and were very dry.
These bone would have been a disgrace in the minds of Israel. They were corpses that had not been buried properly.
When one sees bones, it tells us that once there had been life but that life has ceased to be and to see those bones, lifeless with no hope of ever living again.
3 And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O Lord God, You know."
The natural answer to a question like this is no way. Naturally speaking that is.
However, Ezekiel had experienced the power of God and knowing the God of Israel was an omniscient, omnipotent God who knows all things and can do all things, answered, “Oh, Lord God, You know”.
This is the same way that the Apostle John answered when asked a similar question.
Rev 7:13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
John answered in the same manner as Ezekiel.
Rev 7:14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Eze 37:4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
Prophecy: There are two meanings to prophecy. To proclaim/preach., or to predict.
In this sense it is to proclaim the word of God. Preach to these bones.
God’s sovereign will was that these bones should live. God has also ordained the way in which these bones should come alive. Through the preaching of the word.
This is the way that God brings to life the things that are dead.
In Genesis, God made man from the dust of the earth, lifeless. Then God breathed into the nostrils of Adam and he became a living soul.
When Lazarus was in the tomb, he was dead. It was when Jesus shouted to him, Lazarus come forth. At Jesus word, he came alive.
God predestined us to life and He also predestined the means by which we were to be made alive.
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1 Cor 1:21 Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
1 Peter 4:6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
Without the Spirit, man is dead. Adam was dead, Lazarus was dead and we were dead.
When the word of God is preached, God can cause the breath of life to enter and the dead shall live.
Eze 37:5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
When we preach the Gospel, we are preaching to the dead, the spiritual dead and God by the power of the Holy Spirit, quickens to life, the hearer and raises him up so that he can respond to the Gospel and live.
Eze 37:6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord."
When this happens there is a complete transformation, What was dead, not only comes alive but is a new creation.
The dry bones became sinew and flesh and skin and the body became a living being.
When one is born of God through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, through the power of God’s word, they become new creations in Christ.
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Ezekiel could have said no but he didn’t. He obeyed God and many were blessed.
Eze 37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over;
So it is with us. We too have been given a commission to preach to the dead and if we refuse we are robbing someone of a blessing.
We have to realise, that we too are preaching to the dead. It is as though we are preaching in the local cemetery, no one can hear, unless God by the Holy Spirit moves on them.
However the truth is that we are not preaching to the dead in a cemetery but to the living dead.
Those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Alive in the flesh but dead in the spirit.
Eze 37:8b but there was no breath in them.
Until God breathes life into the dead, they remain dead. Life comes from God. Both physical life and spiritual life.
Without the breath of God (Ruach- wind – breath - life), there is no life.
Jesus said, Joh 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the LIFE”.
Without Christ there is no life.
With Christ, there is abundant life.
John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Notice that the bones became sinew, flesh and skin but without the breath they were inanimate.
9 Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." ' "
10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Jesus speaking to Nicodemas about being born again said.
John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
It is the Holy Spirit that empowers. When the Holy Spirit enters the inanimate, it becomes animated, the subject becomes empowered to live and become a great army.
When one is born again and is empowered by the Holy Spirit, they join a host of others and become part of the body of Christ and become a great army.
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
There are many churches today that are dead also, void of the Spirit.
They look alive, they act like they are alive but they are dead.
If the Word of God is preached in these churches, they too can be revived.
Spurgeon quote:
“Decayed Churches can most certainly be revived by the preaching of the Word, accompanied by the coming of the heavenly ‘breath’ from the four winds. O Lord, send us such revivals now, for many of thy Churches need them.”
End of quote.
Eze 37:11 Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
This may have surprised Ezekiel, that these bones represented not only the house of Israel but all Israel. Not only the house of Judah but all the Northern tribes as well.
To the Israelites all hope had gone, cut off from God, without God and without hope in the world.
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Both the nation of Israel and we, were separated from God by our sin. We were without hope but God in His mercy opened our graves and caused us to come up out of our graves and bring us into the land.
13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.
14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it," says the Lord.' "
Spurgeon in 1884 said this:
“The meaning of our text, as opened up by the context, is most evidently, if words mean anything, first, that there shall be a political restoration of the Jews to their own land and to their own nationality; and then, secondly, there is in the text, and in the context, a most plain declaration, that there shall be a spiritual restoration, a conversion in fact, of the tribes of Israel.”
The prophecies of Ezekiel as has been said before have a fulfilment in the prophets day, the time of the first coming of Christ and the times of the end.
History has seen the fulfilment of these prophecies and there is no reason to think that all will be fulfilled.
There was a great move of Jews going back to Israel in the late 1800s.
The first restoration of Jews to the land of Israel began in the late 1800s, known as the “First Aliyah”.
Aliyah, meaning ascent. is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel.
Most of these new immigrants came from Russia and Yemen, and set up towns including Petah Tikvah, Rishon LeZion and Zikhron Ya’akov.
Just before WW1 began the “Second Aliyah” made up of Russian Jews, following pogroms and anti-Semitism in their country. Inspired by Socialism and Jewish nationalism, this group started the first kibbutz and revived the Hebrew language.
After WW1 the Third Aliyah came to Israel, also from Russiabut they arrived after the establishment of the British Mandate over Palestine and the Balfour Declaration and set about creating a sustainable Jewish agricultural economy by strengthening and building the kibbutz movement and its ancillary institutions.
The Fourth Aliyah, which took place over a short period of time from 1924 to 1929, was mostly made up of Jews seeking to escape anti-Semitism in Poland and Hungary. Many of these immigrants were made up of middle-class families who established small businesses and created a more rounded economy.
The Fifth Aliyah coincided with the rise of Nazism in Germany and extreme nationalism across Eastern Europe and included the largest number of immigrants to date- nearly one quarter of a million Jews entered Mandate Palestine between 1929 and the beginning of World War II. This group of immigrants included professionals, doctors, lawyers and artists. They created a thriving art and architecture scene, and with the establishment of the Port of Haifa, a thriving economy. Most arrived prior to 1936, when the British began imposing harsh restrictions on Jewish immigration as a result of increasing anger and violence in the Palestinian Arab community. In 1939, the British issued the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration, leaving many European Jews during the Holocaust with nowhere to go. Illegal immigration, though dangerous, became a necessity. By the time the United Nations agreed to split Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, a very well ordered and lively Jewish society had been created there.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, more than 3 million Jews have moved to Israel. As of 2014, Israel and adjacent territories contain 42.9% of the world's Jewish population.
Since then there has been a flow of immigration into Israel and over the years, Israel has flourished, although still a secular society.
However, there is still a future fulfilment of Ezekiels prophecy that will be the ultimate fulfilment at the time of Jesus Christ’s coming to the earth.
David Guzik quote:
It is difficult to miss that Ezekiel 37:1-14 is about God’s promised restoration of Israel.
It is a restoration so wide and so deep that any fair examination of Israel’s history must confess that it has not yet happened.
Although God did bring Israel out of seventy years in captivity, at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, However they were scattered again in 70AD.
This means that this prophecy has a future fulfilment and will be fulfilled as part of God’s plan for Israel in the very last days.
Also spiritually this prophecy relates to the salvation of the church and is very relevant in its application.
To be converted, to be brought to life, one must recognise their sin and that they are dead.
Once converted, a Christian has the responsibility to preach to the dead.
Christians must have full confidence in the power of God’s word.
Christians must recognise the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the church and work to build up the church of God through local fellowship.
Christian must never write off a person or situation as dead but to believe that God can revive the dead and put life into dry bones.
No one is beyond the saving power of God in Jesus Christ. We do not who the elect of God are, so we must proclaim the Gospel of salvation to all men.
God by the Holy Spirit will move on those that God will draw to Himself and it is He who will breathe life into the dry bones.
