Ezekiel chapter 37

Well, after something of a hiatus, it has finally gotten hot enough that I can't sleep past about 6am, so that's a rather engaging way to get back into morning Bible reading.

vs 1

You know, I have never heard a sermon on this passage, or any real explanation. All I have heard is the song they sing at CCC, which basically consists of singing the words "Prophesy, prophesy, prophesy, prophesy, prophesy to the dry bones" ad nauseum.

Anyway, God takes Ezekiel to a valley full of bones.

vs 2

I suppose dry means not with bits of flesh sticking to them. So more skeleton than zombie.

vs 3

This is most likely the most intelligent answer someone can give to any question God poses, especially when in the spirit.

vs 4

No doubt Ezekiel is going to learn something from this.

vs 5

Well, there's not much else you could promise bones - a good burial?

vs 6

So they will come back to life, and not just as skeletons. God is not raising an army of undead.

vs 7

I can imagine this scene, thanks to myriad years of fantasy games, but if it actually happened in real life, I think I'd freak.

vs 8

So instead of skeletons, thy became corpses.

vs 9

Now this story, I don't know if it is told in the dry bones song, I don't remember. But this is a fascinating story to me. Because the word for breath in Hebrew (and Greek) is also used to spirit. So breathing life into these corpses is giving spirit to them. But also, Ezekiel prophesys to the spirit, giving it a command from God, and it enters these bodies. We also learn something about these bones - they were slain, which I would take to differentiate them from those who may be dead from natural causes.

vs 10

Now, I said before that God wasn't raising an undead army, but the word army just happens to be used here. Is it actually an army, or is it just a great throng of people, and an army is a good group descriptor of such a large group of people? Not enough to be a nation, perhaps.

vs 11

I am so glad to read these words. I thought I was going to puzzle over this. But here is God explaining his vision. The bones are Israel (so it is enough for a nation), and Israel is complaining that they have no life, or no hope.

vs 12

Is this where the doctrine of resurrection starts? I mean, no question God can do it, but he never really promised it before. In any case, I don't know that this is what he is promising per se here. It seems to be more metaphorical. God is going to bring back their hope. But then ultimately, without resurrection, is there hope? Ecclesiastes has things to say about that.

vs 13

People will definitely know that God is Lord when that happens. Or has it happened, as reported in Matt 27:51-53? That passage always puzzles me.

vs 14

It's almost as if life not in the land of God's promise isn't really life. But God gives them hope that they will live there again.

vs 15

Ahhh, good old word of the Lord. Let me guess, he said, "Son of Man"?

vs 16

So, two sticks with names on, one for Judah, and one for Ephraim (well, for Joseph, represented by Ephraim).

vs 17

If i were to just say what I thought this meant, without reading on, it seems like a reunification message to me. Which, to me, would be hugely important, because taken at face value, it would be saying something about the future of Israel.

vs 18

As people would, considering all the other things that Ezekiel has done for God so far in this book. I can imagine people coming up and saying, "Ezekiel, what are you doing?" "Err, I'm buying eggs." "What does that mean?" "No, seriously, just buying eggs. But check out these two sticks with names on them."

vs 19

I called it. This to me is really quite important. Has this happened? Will it happen? Or is this a metaphor for the new Israel?

vs 20

Whatever it is, God wants them to see it clearly.

vs 21

As one stick, as it were.

vs 22

As far as I know, they were never divided into kingdoms again. But also as far as I know, we have never really heard of the northern tribes again in history, and what happened to them. I don't know, though. That's just what I've heard.

vs 23

A huge promise here, especially considering how bad the northern kingdom was. But God's promise was still with them, and so he makes it clear that all Israel is his. Does it happen in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah though? I don't think so.

vs 24

This has got to be messianic, since they never again have a davidic king.

vs 25

I was going to say that it's easy to read this as a metaphor for Christian hope, but then I was going to ask, "Okay, but what does that mean for Israel?" But honestly, how is this hope any different from our hope? It's not. It is just as pie-in-the-sky hopeful, just as eschatologically hopeful. They've been waiting just a bit long for this as we have been waiting for Christ to come back.

vs 26

To a Christian, this definitely refers to heaven. But to a Jew, does it refer to another temple being built? I still don't really know much about the eschatological hope for Jews.

vs 27

It's the classic promise of God, and one the Jews will be glad to hear since they're tromping their way into exile for several decades.

vs 28

I can quite confidently say that the nations will know this at the end of time. But will the nations know it beforehand? I'm honestly not so convinced. Or perhaps they did know, because Jesus came from Israel? And in that way, we can see that they're blessed in the same way Mary was blessed to have Jesus as a child. They have him as a national child. They've disowned him, which was a bad decision. But that doesn't stop him being a child of Jerusalem, as it were.