Ezekiel 37:1-14 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 you 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 you shall live; and you 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 you 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 you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, says the Lord.
First, we need to understand that all of the Word is prophetic meaning it is eternal, not that it is just prophesying of something to take place in the future. We misrepresent the word “prophetic” when we assign it to the future only. The Word of God is living and eternal, and that means it is prophetic. We must also understand that everything God is doing has to do with the Body of Christ. Now there are a couple of other scriptures we need to read that will help us to understand Ezekiel 37.
Psalm 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Christ is speaking in this verse saying, “All My bones are out of joint,” meaning, the Body of Christ is disjointed.
Ephesians 5:30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
Christ speaking through the psalmist said that all His bones were out of joint; that is, all the members of His Body were misplaced. Then Paul says that we are the bones of His Body, the mystical Body of Christ.
So, when Ezekiel prophesies this vision of the dry bones, he is speaking prophetically of the members of the Body of Christ. He sees them as dry bones scattered about in a valley. There was no life in them. That is what happened to the church. They were not always lifeless. The church began on the Day of Pentecost, but over the years it degenerated until its lifelessness resulted in the Dark Ages. Even now the bones of the church are scattered, dry, and lifeless.
In verse 9 the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind. The Hebrew word for “wind” is ruwach, which also means “spirit.” God is telling Ezekiel to prophesy Spirit unto the bones. Prophetically this chapter is saying that in the day when the church is like the dry bones in this vision there will be a people, represented by Ezekiel, who will prophesy a Word of Spirit and Spirit will enter them. The emphasis is not on the transference of information, but the impartation of Spirit. The church in the past has been more involved in the giving of information, “Yea, the Lord saith unto thee….” That is the transference of information. Ezekiel chapter 37 is speaking of the prophetic ministry of this day, not the giving of information alone, but the ministry of Life and Spirit. The bones will come alive under that kind of ministry. Thus, the Lord says, O My people, I will open your graves (verse 12). Graves here are typical of their dry-bone spiritual state.
Jesus referred to the scribes and Pharisees as graves. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Matthew 23:27-28. Religiosity is a grave. But the Word of the Lord is going to come and there will be a resurrection of Life within you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live…Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. John 5:25,28. They shall rise up and live! It is a spiritual thing. Paul said, You has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). This is what Ezekiel is prophesying about.
Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the Lord was upon me…
Speaking of His sheep, Jesus said, My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand (John 10:29). If we are in His hand, He has complete control over us. We are under His Lordship. The “hand” also has to do with ministry. In His hand, under His Lordship, is the only place of effective ministry.
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.
Ezekiel doesn’t literally go anywhere, but in vision he is transported to a valley full of bones. The Lord is giving him a picture of the spiritual condition of His people. Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel (verse 11). The valley of bones - dry, lifeless, and divided – was the spiritual condition of Israel at that time. And it is the condition of spiritual Israel at this time.
Ezekiel 37:2 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.
To be dry is to be lifeless. Thus saith the Lord, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. Isaiah 44:3-4. Those bones are dry; they’re lifeless. But the day comes when out of them will flow rivers of living water, because there will be an Ezekiel company to prophesy Spirit to them. We must be able to do more than prophesy information. We must be able to impart divine life to others. There are a lot of dry-bone Christians that need an infusion of Spirit.
Ezekiel 37:3-4 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 you dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.
The first step to life is to hear. A scribe asked Jesus, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord… (Mark 12:28-29). The capacity to hear what the Spirit is speaking is most important. It is one thing to hear the words spoken; it is another thing to be able to hear the voice of the Spirit riding on the words. That is where the life is. There is no life in the information except for the Spirit riding on the information. Every religious organization uses the same Bible, but they are not all receiving life.
God is the Word (John 1:1). The Word is Spirit and Life (John 6:63). I heard someone preaching recently. He kept talking about the Word, but it was obvious that he was referring to the information, the words on the page. We want to know the information, but more importantly we must know the Spirit. His life is the Spirit; that is the Word. God is the Word!
Ezekiel 37:5 Thus says the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
You are not living until the Spirit enters into you. The Lord considers those apart from His life as dead. On one occasion a disciple said he would follow Jesus, but first he wanted to bury his father. Jesus’ response was, Follow Me; and let the dead bury the dead (Matthew 8:22).
Ezekiel 37:6 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 you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.
The sinews, flesh, skin, and breath indicate the complete man. All this is necessary for an individual to function properly, so the Lord is saying that He is going to create that which is needed for the Body of Christ to function as a divine force. You shall live! He is not speaking of normal humanistic life. He means divine Life! “You are going to live! Really live! I am bringing you into Life, not just making you able to function!”
…and you shall know that I am the Lord. Now He is talking about relationship. You don’t really know that He is Lord without a relationship with Him. The Hebrew word for “know” here is yada. The best way to explain what yada means is with Adam and Eve. The Bible says that Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife; and she conceived (Genesis 4:1). They “knew” one another because each one experienced and shared the life of the other. Eve’s life was a part of Adam, and Adam’s life was a part of Eve. Each one is like a world, and the two come together making one world. That is the way we must know the Lord. We must know Him because His life is in us. That is what yada means. When the Lord says, You shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord, He is saying that we won’t just know that He is the Lord, but there will be a mutual dwelling in one another. That is knowing! That is living!
Copyright © 2008 by Henry DuBose