Ezekiel 37:1

The Bible says in Ezekiel 37:1-11, “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.” The dry bones represent Israel. If you come across a bunch of dry bones scattered around, you know that you are looking at something that has been dead a long time, and the last thing that you think is that the animal would live again. It is dead, even the blood and flesh and sinews and everything is gone but the bones. But what is impossible to man is possible with God. Humanly speaking, it is impossible that the Israelites could ever gain their previous situation. They were scattered to the world, and there are still many more Jews in other countries than in Israel. They land that they currently have is only a small portion of what they used to have. And most importantly of all, they do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. It is humanly impossible that these things be fixed for Israel, but God is going to do it. He has a plan. The Time of Jacob’s Trouble will prepare them. The dry bones will be brought back to life.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 37:12-14, “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.” There are two great promises in these verses. The first is the promise of the resurrection. Those who believe in Jesus will be resurrected, and then they will have all eternity to be a part of God’s plan, and to be a part of all that God is going to do. The second promise is once again the promise that God will restore Israel to its original land its original state. God always keeps His promises. But because human beings tend to forget God’s promises, God gives some of His promises over and over. Can you believe Him now?

The Bible says in Ezekiel 37:15-22, “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:” God makes an important point about the future kingdom of Israel: it will be united. If you remember the history of Israel, it became divided right after King Solomon died, and split into two nations, each with its own king. The northern nation here is called Ephraim, and the other nation was called Judah. They had a civil war and they were never able to get back together. The northern kingdom was conquered first by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom of Judah was finally conquered by the Babylonians. Not only would God regather them, but He would regather them as one nation, which would also take a miracle now that they were so divided. American has in its pledge of allegiance, “one nation under God, indivisible.” When people can be so different from one another, it definitely takes help from God in order for there to be unity. God unites people. We will all, all who are saved, be united in heaven under the leadership of King Jesus.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 37:23-28, “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.” In verse 23 God makes it clear one more time what the problem is and what the solution is. God said, “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.” The problem is the sin problem, and the solution is being cleaned from your sins. God said, “I will save,” and God said that He “will cleanse them.” Jesus is the Savior. Jesus said, “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Once you are saved and cleansed, then and only then will you become one of God’s people, as God said at the end of verse 23, “so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.” God’s people are the ones who have got right with God by putting their faith in the Lord Jesus.

In verse 24 God states a couple of important details about His plan for the future. God says, “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.” When this was written David had already been dead for hundreds of years. God was talking about the Messiah who would come in the lineage of King David. Jesus came in the lineage of David. That is the very first thing that is said about Jesus in the New Testament. It says in Matthew 1:1, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The greatest government that the world will ever see will not be a democracy, but will be a monarchy. But it will be a benevolent monarch, something that human beings are incapable of doing. But Jesus will do it. When Jesus returns, He will have a great golden crown on His head because He will be king. Right now Jesus is called King of kings and Lord of Lords. When John was shown the future, John recorded for us in Revelation 14:14, “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.”

Verse 24 also tells us that the Messiah will be a “shepherd.” A shepherd protects the flock and feeds the flock. Every person needs a shepherd because we are like sheep who have gone astray. The world is a dangerous place, full of sin and evil murderers who will help to destroy your soul. Spiritually speaking, you are in the safest of all places, if you have Jesus as your Shepherd. A shepherd feeds the flock. Our spiritual food is the teachings of the truth of the Bible. We are told as Christians, “As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” Jesus is the greatest of all teachers. It is wonderful to have Jesus to guide, to protect, and to teach. Those who do not have such an aspect to their lives are in a most miserable condition. One of the ways that Jesus teaches us is through other teachers. God uses people for His work. Every Christian has one or more gifts. To some Jesus has given the gift and the calling to teach. It says in Ephesians chapter 4 that Jesus ascended to heaven, and gave gifts unto men. If you are blessed, you will have a teacher who have been gifted to feed you God’s Word. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep.”

Even after God destroyed the nation of Israel, and brought in Babylon to have victory over them, and scattered the rest into other countries, God continued to remind Israel that He was not through with them. God said in verse 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 forever.” Israel will be gathered back into the land that God has given to them. The Messiah will come in the lineage of David, and will rule over them “forever.” No other nation on earth has the promise that they will exist forever.

In order to do this for Israel God had to change the covenant. They were under the covenant of the law: the old covenant, what we call the Old Testament. The word testament means covenant. But the Israelites had broken the old covenant. They failed. They sinned. Instead of destroying them forever, God made a new covenant, so that they could exist forever. The new covenant is directly related to the blood of Christ. It was all planned from the beginning of creation. God has always given symbolism that there needed to be the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. Jesus stood at the last supper before a gathering of twelve Jews, and Jesus took a cup of what they were drinking at that meal, and Jesus said to them in Mark 14:24 the night before He was crucified, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Jesus brought the New Covenant. Of course He did, He is the Messiah. One of the most important truths to understand in order to understand the Bible is the difference between the old testament (old covenant) and the new testament (new covenant.) It says in John 1:17, “For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” What a wonderful God we have and what a wonderful Savior. They designed a new covenant so that we could all be saved and live in heaven with Him forever. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, you can pray to Him today and be saved from your sins.

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