Ezekiel 37
Summary for Ezek 37:1-14: 37:1-14 a From the promise of a vibrant city overflowing with life (36:38 b), the prophet was transported into a valley of death, surrounded on all sides by bones. It was a symbolic restatement of the promise that the Spirit of the Lord gives life (36:16-38 c).37:2 d This death scene seemed hopeless; these were not recently expired corpses but miscellaneous bones, scattered everywhere across the ground and ... completely dried out. This scene symbolized the attitude of the people. Their hopes for themselves were not merely dead; they were dismembered and desiccated.
37:3 e Son of man, can these bones become living people again? The expected answer was no, but Ezekiel knew that God’s power is unlimited, so he turned the question back to God. The real issue was not whether the Lord was able to make these bones live, but whether it was his will to do so.
Summary for Ezek 37:4-6: 37:4-6 f It was God’s will that these bones should live. His will was mediated through the prophetic message that Ezekiel was to speak ... to these bones, declaring that they should be restored into living, breathing bodies again, complete with flesh and muscles and breath.
• The word translated breath can also be translated “spirit” or “wind,” a play on words that continues throughout this chapter.
Summary for Ezek 37:7-8: 37:7-8 g Ezekiel obediently fulfilled his commission to prophesy to the bones, and in response, they came together into whole bodies. Yet a body of bones, muscles and flesh, and skin is still a corpse. These people still had to be filled with breath if they were to live (as in Gen 2:7 h).
Summary for Ezek 37:9-10: 37:9-10 i When Ezekiel prophesied to the four winds ... breath came into the re-formed bodies and they stood up on their feet as a great army prepared for action. This breath, emblematic of being filled with the Spirit, gave them life and empowered them for action, precisely as had happened to the prophet on two earlier occasions (1:28–2:2 j and 3:23-24 k).
Summary for Ezek 37:11-14: 37:11-14 l The oracle that follows explains this vision. The people in exile felt that they were as dead as old, dry bones. As a result, they felt that all hope was gone, but the Lord could and would restore them to life. God would once again call them my people, and he promised that he would open their graves of exile and bring them back to the land of Israel.
37:14 m The Lord would put his life-giving Spirit within his people. If the sovereign Lord had determined to raise them, no dryness on their part would hold him back.
Summary for Ezek 37:15-28: 37:15-28 n The prophet then performed a sign act (see thematic note for Prophetic Sign Acts at end of chapter) that demonstrated the future reunification of God’s people and the healing of the schism between the northern and southern tribes (see 1 Kgs 12 o).
37:19 p The sovereign Lord would accomplish the reunification of Israel by his own hand.
Summary for Ezek 37:20-25: 37:20-25 q When the kingdoms were reunited, the problems that had led to the schism would also be resolved. In place of the abusive and unfaithful leadership of Rehoboam that had split the nation in two (1 Kgs 12 r), God would supply a single servant leader, a shepherd king. Like David, he would unite the tribes. This restored people would also be renewed and cleansed from their idols and vile images so that the Lord might once again be their God. Thus purified, they would keep the Lord’s decrees and live there forever.
Summary for Ezek 37:25-28: 37:25-28 s The covenant of peace, which is the blessing of covenant obedience, would be everlasting. The people’s earlier defilement had led to the Lord’s destruction of the Temple; now, their new purity would be matched by a renewed sanctuary, a Temple in which God could dwell in their midst forever. This final Temple would be the culmination of the success of God’s sanctifying program and demonstrate that the Lord is the one who makes Israel holy (see chs 40–48 t).
Thematic note: Prophetic Sign Acts
The prophets of Israel occasionally communicated through sign acts, which were dramatic visual aids performed in public to increase the impact of the message and help people feel the truth as much as hear it. Their purpose was to present an unforgettable message. These acts were unusual, even outlandish—and not just from a modern perspective. Unlike modern readers, however (who might think that the prophet was psychologically disturbed), ancient observers understood these sign acts as a regular part of a prophet’s communication style.
Ezekiel was required to act out his message more frequently than any other prophet, perhaps because he was communicating to a particularly hardened audience (Ezek 2:6-7 u). The sign acts reinforced the content of his message and underlined the depth of his personal commitment to it. For example, after he swallowed the word of God (2:8–3:3 v), Ezekiel embodied it for the exiles (3:4-9 w) in a series of judgment scenes (chs 4–6 x). This dramatic form of communication is difficult for even a hostile audience to ignore or forget.
The ultimate sign act was performed by Jesus Christ on the cross (see Matt 27:32-54 y). There God visibly depicted his wrath against sin in the darkness, the earthquake, and the agony of the sinless one who was apparently abandoned by his Father. God also depicted his profound love for the world in that he would rather die than let his people go. The cross is a confrontational message of God’s love and wrath that is hard to ignore or forget.
Passages for Further Study
Jer 13:1-11 z; 19:1-15 aa; 25:15 ab; Ezek 2:6–3:3 ac; 3:4-9 ad; 4:1-17 ae; 5:1–6:14 af; 12:1-28 ag; 21:19-23 ah; 24:1-14 ai, 16-27 aj; 37:15-28 ak; Hos 1:2-9 al; 3:1-3 am; Matt 26:26-28 an; 27:45-54 ao; Mark 6:11 ap; 11:12-21 aq; Luke 22:17-20 ar; Rom 6:3-5 as; 1 Cor 10:16-17 at; 11:23-32 au
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