What is commonly called the Jewish War was in fact actually a revolt against the Roman Empire. This war lasted from A.D. 66 to 73. It was one of the most significant and horrific events in Jewish history. In the end, Rome destroyed Jerusalem and left the temple in ruins. While this war certainly had lasting consequences for the nation of Israel, it also had spiritual significance. For example, the temple in Jerusalem was the center of both Judaism and Christianity. The Jews losing their spiritual home would shift the Christian movement from its Jewish roots into the Gentile world. I can only imagine what the devastation would have looked like during that time. The story we are considering today may not be quite as dramatic as the Jewish War, but certainly is similar.
In Ezekiel 37 we have the famous vision of dry bones. Let’s read Ezekiel 37:1-14.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then 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 the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
While many scholars believe this passage could refer to the resurrection of the dead, within the context of Ezekiel and the Babylonian captivity, it seems clear the text represents the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel and the resurrection and restoration that was coming. The text also points to the reunification of the nation from its two separate kingdoms.
Now, the prophet is spiritually transported and sees a valley of bones from a fallen army of long ago. This represents the condition of Israel after the Jews are taken captive. The nation had been crushed militarily, it was a defeated nation. Its people were in exile and were losing hope. But, God had a plan. This was not the end for the nation, and God is showing the prophet he will resurrect his people. He will do the impossible. James Dixon notes, “When Ezekiel had preached to the people that Jerusalem would surely be destroyed, the people were vainly optimistic and would not believe him. After the fall of Jerusalem, when he preached hope of the return and restoration, the people were hopelessly pessimistic and would not believe him. The Lord gave him this vision to dispel their gloom and help them understand that God can do the impossible.”
Now, what is the question God asks the prophet? “Can these bones live?” And the text makes it clear that Ezekiel is viewing a major catastrophe. Wisely, he answers Yahweh with, “O Lord God, you know.” The prophet is not going to presume he has the answer to the devastation. But the good news is that God does have the answer. The valley of bones represent Israel in exile, they have been judged. Yet, God is asking the impossible, can these dried up bones live? It is also important to note that the Israelites had a very specific way of burying their dead. When they buried the dead, they would bury them twice. When someone died, the family would place the body in a large family tomb. The preliminary burial would be to place the body in one of the chambers that lined the walls of the tomb. Then, the tomb would be sealed until another member of the family was buried. After a period if time when the body had dried up (skin, flesh, etc.) and there was nothing but a skeleton left, the family would place the bones in a bone coffin, an ossuary, usually in the middle of the tomb. The ossuary would hold the bones of many people. The purpose was to group everyone together to await the resurrection. But the people believed that the resurrection would occur in reverse order, meaning starting with the bones and ending up with a full body of flesh. This is exactly what Ezekiel was looking at, except it was the entire family of Israel, who had spiritually died.
But what does God do, he commands the prophet to prophesy over the bones. “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” In verse 5, we see by God’s divine word, the “breath” brings forth life. The Hebrew word for breath used here is “ruah”, which means breath, wind, spirit or heart. So, the miracle of rebirth and resurrection occurs when the prophet obeys and prophecies. Verse 7 tells us as Ezekiel prophecies that there was a sound! Before anything there was a sound! Now the Hebrew word used here is “qol”, which literally means voice, sound or noise. So when the prophet begins to speak there is a great sound! And there was a rattling. Again, I think looking at the original Hebrew is helpful. The word is “ra’as” in Hebrew which means earthquake, quaking, trembling or shaking. So, there is a great sound, then a shaking and what happens? The bones start to come together, then sinews and flesh and skin. Douglas Stuart notes that when Ezekiel preached the bones are resurrected. But, the miracle is not finished; the text says there was no breath or life in the bodies. So, what does God do? He tells Ezekiel to prophesy again. He says, “prophecy to the breath”…”come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” Now in the text the word breathe and wind is the same word, “ruah”. But, the phrase “four winds” has a different connotation, like the four directions or a region in the sky. The term four winds or four corners of the earth is used other places in Scripture. For example, the term four corners of the earth is used in Isaiah 11:2, Ezekiel 7:2, and Revelation 20:8. Both the terms four corners of the earth and four winds are also used in Revelation 7:1. The main idea is the four compass points or cardinal directions, which can be interpreted as the total surface of the earth. When the term in used in Revelation 7, the Greek transliteration is “anemos” which means a strong tempestuous wind or stream of air, but also means the four principal or cardinal winds. Because of the dual meaning of the term “four winds” I think Daniel Block is helpful here. He notes, “The prophet now has a new addressee, the ruah itself. But the word carries two different meanings within the verse. Whereas previously ruah had denoted “breath” in general, now the breath is clearly the breath that will blow on these bones and bring them to life. But the source of “the breath” is ‘arba’ ruhot, “the four winds”, meaning “the four directions”. Put another way, the breath or spirit will be coming from the source, which is God or Yahweh because he is the only One who has the power to give life.
Now, I do think it is incumbent for us to understand the significance of what is happening with the prophet. In verse 10, the text states, “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.” Sometimes our familiarity with a passage leads us to take things for granted without thinking them through. Iain Duguid notes in his commentary on Ezekiel that while this passage is familiar to the average reader, this isn’t necessarily an advantage. Think about it, because we have heard this story so many times, we lose the awe of some of its weight and meaning. Consider this, would the average person, whether deeply spiritual or not, prophesy to dry bones? Of course not! And while the passage is a vision, we should take to heart the magnitude of what God was telling Ezekiel to do. God is not limited. He can do the impossible if he so chooses. It is critically important to understand the significance of Ezekiel’s obedience. He faced an absolute impossible situation. Dry bones don’t come to life! Yet, by God’s power they absolutely come back to life. And this is no small miracle, it is a whole army, which of course symbolizes the entire nation coming back to life! They were dead, yet now they live!
And as we keep reading in the passage, God gives us the interpretation of the vision. This is verses 11-14:
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
What I love about this is that God makes the vision plain. He explains that the bones represent the entire nation. And that he is going to raise them up from the dead. “I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live.” Now, I want to stop here for a moment, so we can understand who the prophet Ezekiel was because I think this is significant in understanding the text. Ezekiel has been called a “priest in a prophet’s mantel.” He was from a family of priests. Because he and his family were considered part of the elite or aristocracy of Jerusalem, they were taken into exile when Ezekiel was around 25. It is important to know that Ezekiel would have received the absolute best education Jerusalem had to offer. But when you look at the book of Ezekiel, the first 24 chapters would have been written before the fall of Jerusalem, and the last 24 after that event. Ezekiel preached for close to 30 years to the exiles. The whole purpose of the book is to reveal to God’s people their sin and need for repentance, in fact, the captivity is the result of their rebellion. But, also the purpose is to prepare God’s people for restoration, change and renewal. In fact, the end of the book reveals the vision of the New Temple, which of course symbolizes the New Testament Church.
Now, moving back to Ezekiel 37:11-14, we find three things that Yahweh is going to do. First, we have the Hebrew word “hinneh”, which in our English Bible is “Behold”, but also can mean look or see. In other words, pay attention, I am about to give you some really good news. Yahweh says that he will open up the graves in Israel. It sounds a little strange, but we are about to see the resurrection of the nation. Second, God promises to raise Israel from their graves. Yahweh acts like a grave robber in a sense, and the treasure he is after is his people, to raise them up. Third, Yahweh will bring his people back into their own land. And here in the text the cemetery imagery is abandoned for exodus language. The people had lost hope after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. They thought that the tripartite blessing relationship of deity-nation-land was lost. Yet, God encourages his people that he will restore them to their hereditary homeland.
So, the main message is very encouraging. The Israelites may feel like they have lost everything. But God is faithful and communicating to the prophet and his people that he will indeed resurrect them and they will once again be in their own land. Sometimes at our lowest point when it seems all is lost, God wants us to remember he is there and he will make a way for our restoration. And we should keep in mind the greatest restoration is not physical but spiritual in nature. There is hope, there was for the Israelites in Ezekiel’s day and in our day. When we look around at the landscape today, things may seem beyond our control – it may appear that darkness has taken over. But that is a lie. God always makes a way for his people. There is hope for America and for the world. The Lord Jesus is that hope. He does the work of restoration. At the end of verse 14, the Lord says, “I have spoken, and I will do it.”
Now, to fully understand the prophecy and all God is going to do, I think you have to finish the rest of the chapter. And certainly starting in verse 15 there is a transition. In verses 15-23 you have a prophetic sign and an explanation. The Lord tells the prophet take two sticks, which represent the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and join them together into one stick. After the death of King Solomon, the nation was split in two. The ten northern tribes formed Israel, and the tribes of Benjamin and Judah formed the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. During the time of Ezekiel, when the exiles of Babylon learned of the destruction of Jerusalem, they experienced great loss, fear and discouragement. But God wanted his prophet Ezekiel to fill his people with hope. Even though they had experienced God’s judgment for their rebellion, God was going to restore his people. What does Yahweh promise? First, he promises restoration. Verse 21 states, “Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.” I think a question that comes up here is if this is a physical or spiritual restoration. In general, I believe it is both, but we should realize that the Jews return from the exile is only a partial fulfillment. In fact, Douglas Stuart notes, “It must be said immediately that the north and south of Israel never did unite politically. They never again gained independence and gradually submerged into the Persian, Greek, Seleucid, Roman, Turkish, and other empires, respectively. Therefore if one looks for a political fulfillment for this passage, it will not be found.”
Second, God promises unification, the two nations will become one. “And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.” (vs. 22) And we notice in this verse that it says there will be one leader or king over the entire nation. So, who is this leader – is it referring to the return of the exiles, or much later. My answer is Yes! Again, the return from the exile is a partial fulfillment of the prophecy. In Ezra chapter 1 Sheshbazzar is mentioned as the prince of Judah who led the exiles back to Jerusalem. Also in Ezra chapter 5 (vs. 14) it states Cyrus, the Persian king, appointed Sheshbazzar governor. And in verse 16 the text tells us this Sheshbazzar laid the foundations of the Temple in Jerusalem.
But we know this is not the end of the story in the prophecy. In Ezekiel 37:24, it says, “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.” So, when the text states there will be one king or shepherd over his people, Yahweh is not just talking about a leader like Sheshbazzar, he is referring to Jesus Christ. Now, for clarification we know this prophecy is Messianic because first of all this is after the time of King David, but also what the text states a few verses down make it clear we are talking about the New Covenant. So, the restoration and revival of the nation is wrapped up in the New Covenant and the finished work of Jesus Christ. The ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy extends to the New Testament. And as we continue reading in Ezekiel, we know the New Temple which is discussed in chapters 40-48 is in fact referring to the New Covenant or New Testament Church.
Let’s move to verse 25-26 in Ezekiel 37: “They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.” What we find here is very interesting and again we find this duality of the physical and spiritual promises of God. And as we look at these verses, we see the covenants of Abraham, David and the New Testament. But I want to pause here for a moment because the text, while certainly referring to the Abrahamic covenant, it states the land I gave Jacob. I think this is very purposeful. If we go back to Genesis 28, in verses 10-22 it discusses Jacob’s dream. Verse 12 states, “And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!” So, why is it important that Ezekiel uses the land of Jacob as his reference? This is actually really important. After Jacob’s dream, what does he say? “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Here we see a connection between earth and heaven – the physical and the spiritual. The location possesses a connection between heaven and earth, the house of God. This is very significant. The land in Ezekiel certainly is the physical land of Israel, but it is much more than that – it is the house of God. The prophecy is also referring to the coming and greater kingdom of Jesus Christ! The very last verse of the chapter states, “Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” God’s greatest hope and restoration is his promise of living with his people forever.
Now, let’s go back for just a moment to our previous points. We said God promises restoration, unification, but also he promises purification. And that is what the New Covenant is about. God cleanses all our sins and washes us clean. The work of Jesus Christ restores us by purifying our hearts. His work of forgiveness restores and renews. So, the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 is certainly about encouraging the exiles - that God will restore them to their own land. He will resurrect the dead nation and bring it back to life. But God also has a much greater purpose in his promises. The ultimate restoration of the nation would occur with the spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus restores, unifies and purifies.
By my question in closing is what is our part? What do we need to do? In fact, we have a dead nation in many ways today, much like the time of Ezekiel. Many of God’s people are living in exile, waiting for a national restoration. God is willing and able to restore our nation. The answer is the same. Jesus Christ is the only person who can restore our nation and bring it back to life. But again, what is our part?
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Jonah 3:1-10
As I am writing this, it is about 40 days until the new year. And I would submit to you, our part is repentance. We must fall down in repentance before a holy God. In the story of Jonah, the least to the greatest called out to God and repented. It really is not that complicated. From the least to the greatest we need to call out to God and repent. When God sees us truly turn from our wickedness and evil, then he may relent. Repent for the hand of God is upon our nation. Repent for God will not build upon anything but the foundation of Jesus Christ!
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27
Repent, so we can see God resurrect our nation!
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