Ezekiel 37:1-14
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.
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