God Gives New Life

KEY VERSE: “[I] shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land.” —Ezekiel 37:14

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 37:3-14

THIS chapter of Ezekiel is a prophecy assuring us of the restoration of natural Israel. The house of Israel is depicted as a valley of dry bones. In this vision Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy, and as he did so, “there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 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. Then he said 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. 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.”—vss. 7-10

In Ezekiel’s picture of gradual restoration, from the first rustling of the ‘bones’ until there is ‘flesh’ and ‘skin’ on them, and a life-giving ‘breath’ is provided, we are told of a ‘noise’, a ‘shaking’, and the ‘blowing’ of ‘four winds’. This seems again to suggest that the restoration of Israel takes place during a time of great disturbance in the earth, a time of trouble which is climaxed by four winds. The life-giving breath is said to come from the four winds. As this time of trouble is now upon us, we have witnessed two world wars which have been the catalyst for first, the coming together of the bones and then, the putting of sinews upon those bones. This was the impact of two world wars upon that people: first opening up the way for Jews to return to their historic land, and second, their emergence as a nation.

To Ezekiel God said, “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 from our parts.” The fact that the bones say this indicates that it is a picture of the withered hopes of Israel. However, the Lord promised that this condition would be changed. “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”—vss. 11,12

The graves in which Israel had been buried during the centuries of the Dispersion are evidently the different countries, or nations, in which they have been domiciled. “We are cut off from our parts,” they say, which has been true. Some have been in one grave, and some in another, but all have been dead insofar as their national hopes were concerned.

But already most of the national graves have been opened, and the Israelites have poured forth from them to the number of over three million, and have been brought into the land of Israel. As yet, however, very few of them realize the significance of what is taking place. They do not know that this has been done for them by the Lord, nor will they know this until the last phase of the restoration is accomplished; that is, until they receive breath from the four winds, or, as explained in verse 14, the Lord puts his Spirit in them and they live.

This third phase is still future, though we believe very near. Another prophecy in the 38th chapter of Ezekiel describes the four winds as the Armageddon feature of the time of trouble, out of which God will be revealed to them, and they will return back into covenant relationship with him, under a covenant that will, this time, bring them life.

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