Visions of the Kingdom: Week 40

Ezekiel 37:1-28: Dry Bones, Hear the Word of the Lord!

• 37:1 "brought me out by His Spirit" - this trip seems to be to a virtual reality (a "vision").
• 37:2 "great many bones on the floor of the valley" - not only long dead, but disgraced as the armies of Pharaoh and as in 6:5. "Valley" - the same word translated "plain" in 3:22.
• 37:3 "can these bones live?" - one might hope to rescusitate a recent corpse, but for long dead dry bones there is no hope.
  "O Lord God, only You know." - and yet with God nothing is impossible.
• 37:8 "no breath in them" - the work of revival is a process
• 37:9 "tell the breath" -

  “First, the prophet prophesies to the bones – here is preaching; and next, he prophesies to the four winds – here is praying. The preaching has its share in the work, but it is the praying which achieves the result, for after he had prophesied to the four winds, and not before, the bones began to live.” (Spurgeon)

• 37:10 "a vast army" - saved and born again, ready to carry out the commands of Jehovah!
• 37:11 "whole house of Israel" - not just Judah, but all the tribes, both northern and southern kingdoms.
• 37:12 "bring you back to the Land" - repeating the promise of last time.
• 37:13 "open up your graves" - something tomb robbers did, but God, a tomb robber like no other, brings out living bodies.
• 37:14 "put My Spirit in you" - not only brought back to human life, but "born again".
• 37:16 "stick" - "branch" or "article made of wood"
• 37:22 "one King, never again to be divided" - the sticks are kingdoms, not scrolls.
• 37:25 "My Servant David" - the eternal King is a descendant of David
• 37:28 "then the nations will know" - that Israel is sanctified, set apart for special use, has been difficult for earthly rulers to accept.