seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon 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 up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.
15 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions:
17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.
21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
This is from the easy English site.
Ezekiel records what he saw in a vision. God gave him this vision about the future of Israel. In the vision, the Spirit of the Lord brought Ezekiel to a large valley. The Spirit took Ezekiel to see what was in the valley. He saw that the valley was full of bones. The bones were very dry. These people had been dead for a long time.
The situation of these bones was hopeless. They were dead and dry. These dead people could do nothing.
Only God’s power could make them alive again.
Ezekiel spoke the word of God to the bones. As he spoke, there was a strange noise. The bones shook. They began to move. Then bones joined to bones. They joined in the correct order. The bones formed the proper structures for the bodies. Then the Lord covered the bones with muscles. He made the bodies complete with skin. But they were still dead.
In this vision, the dead bodies mean the Jews. They will return to the country called Israel. This is starting to happen even before they believe in Jesus as their Messiah.
Wind, breath and spirit are all one word in the Hebrew language. So, the Lord told the wind, breath or spirit to blow on these dead bodies. It came into them and they became alive. These people stood up. They were a very large army.
God’s power had turned the dry bones into a powerful army. These people were dead to God. In other words, they had no relationship whatever with God. But God has made them alive. And they have become a strong army for him.
The bones in this vision mean the whole nation that is called Israel. The Israelites include the families from both parts of the divided nation, called Israel and Judah. God tells Ezekiel about their sad state:
- They said that they were like dry bones. It was as if they had been dead for a long time. They had lost the life (relationship) that they had with God. In other words, they were dead in their spirits.
- They said that they had no hope. There is no hope for people who have turned away from God. Israel had refused to obey God. They could not expect anything from God. Israel could not hope to become a nation again. Only God can give real hope to people who are in a hopeless situation.
- They said that they had no future. In God alone is there life after death.
The vision then changed. In the first part of the vision, the bones had scattered across a large valley. Here the bones are in graves. God will open the graves. The nation that seemed dead will become alive again. God will bring his people back to their country. Israel will be a nation again. This is what has happened now. The Jews are returning to the nation called Israel.
The exiles asked Ezekiel what the sticks meant. He told them what the Lord would do. The Lord will take the two sticks in his hand. There he will make them to be one stick. The two sticks meant the two nations. The one stick meant the new, united country that the Lord would establish.
The Lord promised to bring the Israelites from all the nations. He will bring them to the country called Israel. There he will make them into one nation called Israel. In our day, there is now that nation called Israel. The Jews are returning to their country.
There will be one king. He will rule over the one nation called Israel. The king has not come yet. The people will turn from their sins. They will not worship false gods. They will turn again to the Lord their God. They will be his people and he will be their God.
This is from bible-studys.org.
The resuscitation of the nation is compared to dry bones coming to life. At this point the Israelites were like dry bones, nationally dead, and with no hope of restoration. Yet God promises that just as the bones came to life in Ezekiel’s vision, so God says: I will “bring you into the land of Israel … and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live”.
Again, this is both a physical regathering to the land and a spiritual regathering to God Himself. The present day existence of the state of Israel may be the initial fulfillment of this prophecy, but it can be completely fulfilled only when Christ returns to establish His kingdom.
Ezekiel is to proclaim God’s pledge to reassemble Israelites from the world and restore the nation of Israel to life (verse 5) and give them His Spirit (verse 14), in true salvation and spiritual life. Clearly, God is promising the resurrection of the nation of Israel and its spiritual regeneration.
The energy that keeps God’s prophetic clock running on schedule is the Jewish nation. The gathering of the Jews to a Palestinian homeland is setting the stage for Christ’s return. God promised Ezekiel to restore Israel by returning the Jews to the land God had given Abraham, and by regeneration that people in the land. Even though many Jews have returned there today, most are still not believers.
Verses 11-13 are the key to the interpretation of the vision. It is the resurrection and salvation of Israel.
Ezekiel was commanded to write the names of Judah and Israel on separate sticks, and then to join them together as one stick (verses 16-17). This action represented the fact that the two nations would be rejoined as one nation at the same time as the national revival just prophesied in the preceding chapter. The kingdom had split (in 931 B.C.), after the death of Solomon, with 10 tribes in the north being known as Israel (or Ephraim), and two tribes in the south, Benjamin and Judah, being known as Judah.
Israel...... the descendants of Jacob..... Abraham's grandson..... will be going "home". I remember Abraham..... he's the one who was willing to give up Isaac as a sacrifice..... luckily God provided a lamb at the last minute. Isaac married a girl named Rebekah. She had a hard time getting pregnant.... and then she was pregnant with twins that fought in the womb. After the twins were born [Esau and Jacob].... they continued to fight..... over their inheritance..... and Esau wound up selling his rights to all the stuff to his brother Jacob for a bowl of beef stew. Then Jacob stole Esau's blessing from Isaac at Isaac's deathbed. He put on a hairy coat and pretended to be Esau.... see Esau was a hairy guy.... and Isaac was dying... his eyes were failing him.... so when Isaac reached out and felt that hairy coat.... he thought he was blessing Esau.... but Jacob was double blessed. Esau and Jacob fought for the rest of their lives..... and their descendants are still fighting.
God said..... everyone will return "home". God said..... everyone would be "family" again.
God created us all..... If anyone can put sinew on dead dry bones and bring them to life.... it would be God. If anyone can bring the dead out of their graves and give them new life..... it would be God. If anyone can heal two sticks into one..... it would be God.
I don't [by the way] believe that the sticks were "grafted". I think they were "healed".
So I think these verses are Ezekiel's way of saying.... God is going to bring the healed family of Jacob home and they will be His humans and He will be their God.... and there will be no doubt.
