Dem Bones

In the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel watched as scattered bones rattled and reformed themselves into skeletons.  Then, before his very eyes, muscles and flesh formed over the bones.  Skin formed to cover their bodies, but still those bodies lay prone on the ground–lifeless.  From the four winds, God called the breath of life to be breathed into them once more, and an army stood to its feet (Ez. 37:7-10).

What would it have been like to watch a sight like that?  I’m torn between thinking I would have been horrified and wanting to ask to see God’s home movies.

Several things jumped out at me today:

• God didn’t speak to the bones directly.  He instructed Ezekiel to prophecy over them.  The bones represent the apostate northern and southern tribes of Israel.  God speaks to individuals sometimes, but rarely to groups except through a prophet or priest of some sort.  Ezekiel didn’t do any miracles that day, but was allowed to participate simply by announcing what God had to say.  (Notable exceptions to the group announcement thing would be when He first spoke to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai and when He said of Jesus, “This is my Son, in Whom I am well pleased,” (Mt. 3:17).)
• God infused the Jews with His Spirit BEFORE returning them to the land.  This was a new thought for me.  The picture I had in my mind before this was that they would return to the Promised Land then be filled with God’s Spirit.  God says, “I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!” (Ez. 37:14)
• Don’t shoot me, but the army was naked and not ashamed.  I can’t help but read that into this.  Nothing is said about clothing being formed over them.  God raised up an army in the valley of dry bones, filled them with the breath of life, but didn’t cover them with clothing.  I’m not reading into that that the restored Jews will run around naked, but that the conditions of Eden may be restored–”Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame,” (Gen. 2:25).  This one’s a stretch, I know, but something to think about, because the first thing we learn about Jesus, after His birth, is that He was wrapped in swaddling cloths.  God doesn’t accidentally leave things out.
• The divided kingdom will be one again–in God’s hand.  I found it interesting that the God who could knit dry bones back together DIDN’T miraculously make those two pieces of wood one.  The God who made Moses’ staff into a snake, then back into a stick of wood DIDN’T tell Ezekiel to open his hand and display that the two pieces of wood were now one.  He said, “I will make them one piece of wood in my hand,” (Ez. 37:19).  God will hold them together–personally.
• They will be ruled by God’s servant David.  We know that in Ezekiel’s day, David had been dead a long time–this is referring to the Messiah, whom we know as Jesus.  The Messiah will personally reign on the throne of Israel–in the flesh.
• “They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after generation. And my servant David will be their prince forever,” (Ez. 37:25).  Now that staggers my understanding of the end times.  The children of Israel, with their hearts knit to God, will populate the Promised Land forever, under the rule of the Messiah.

Lots to think about today.  Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

If you’re reading through the Daily Walk Bible, today’s passage is Ezekiel 37-39.