Ezekiel 37:3-4

How can this happen?

Sometimes, we experience what seems to be a miracle—a baby with a fatal disease recovers, an adult with seemingly stage 4 cancer goes into remission. How can these things be? Medical science has no answers. But these rare occurrences happen.

  1. In a vision, Ezekiel is in a valley of dry bones. God asked, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel was told to prophesy over the bones. Then, they came to life and became an entire army.

What does this mean? Three ideas have been put forth:

  1. God is showing His power to Ezekiel.

Because God is all powerful, He could have caused the dry bones to come to life. God had brought some dead people to life in the Old Testament. Bringing bones to life would surely illustrate God’s power.

  1. This may have been a prophecy about the final resurrection of all mankind. That too, had been prophesied earlier, Isaiah 25:8-9:

“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”

  1. What God said in the remainder of the chapter, makes this prophecy seem to be about restoring Israel from captivity to their homeland of Judah, Ezekiel 37:11:

“Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.”

The physical situation was terrible for the captives in Babylon. Prophets had said that they would be freed to return to Judea in two years. But the destruction of Jerusalem two years later dashed those false prophecies. Because they were slaves, they had no hope. Ezekiel is given this vision of God giving life to dead bones as an encouragement to the captives who felt they were dead in captivity. God is saying that He could do this impossible task and bring them home to Judea.

Ezekiel was then instructed to unite two sticks. The sticks would stand for God’s people scattered in various nations. God would bring them back to Judea and make them into a united nation with one king. This happened in New Testament days when the church was established with Jesus as the head.

  1. The answer to the question posed in the title is that God is powerful enough to give life to a nation in captivity as dead as the bones. God’s power could make it happen, because He is all-powerful.
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