Ezekiel 37:10

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. 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 - such honour God gives to the divine word, even in the month of a man; how much more when in the mouth of the Son of God! (John 5:25.) Though this chapter does not directly prove the resurrection of the dead, it does so indirectly; for it takes for granted the future fact as one recognized by believing Jews, and so made the image of their national restoration (so ; ;...

1-14 No created power could restore human bones to life. God alone could cause them to live. Skin and flesh covered them, and the wind was then told to blow upon these bodies; and they were restored to life. The wind was an emblem of the Spirit of God, and represented his quickening powers. The vision was to encourage the desponding Jews; to predict both their restoration after the captivity, and also their recovery from their present and long-continued dispersion. It was also a clear intimation of the resurrection of the dead; and it represents the power and grace of God, in the conversion of the most hopeless sinners to himself. Let us look to Him who will at last open our graves, and bring us forth to judgment, that He may now deliver us from sin, and put his Spirit within us, and keep us by his power, through faith, unto salvation....

EXPOSITION This chapter embraces, in its earlier section (Ezekiel 37:1), the concluding portion of the "word of God" begun at Ezekiel 36:16; in its later section (Ezekiel 36:15), an additional "word," to which the former naturally leads. The earlier, under the figure of a resurrection of dry bones, beheld by the prophet in vision, describes the political and religious reawakening of Israel; in the later is depicted, by means of a symbolic action, the reunion of its two branches. The first divides itself into two parts—the vision (Ezekiel 36:1) and its interpretation ...

SO I PROPHESIED AS HE COMMANDED ME,.... The second time he prophesied to the wind, as he had done to the bones, as he was ordered: and the issue of it was, AND BREATH CAME INTO THEM; or, "the spirit"; a spirit of courage in the Jews, to go up to their own land; the Spirit of life from Christ, which will enter into the witnesses slain, and revive them; and into the Jews in the latter day, and convert them; and which enters into dead sinners, and quickens them; and this he does while ministers are preaching the Gospel to them; see Revelation 11:11: AND THEN LIVED; as men do spiritually, when the Spirit of God has produced a principle of spiritual life in them; they live by faith on Christ, in union and fellowship with him; they live in newness of life, and a holy life and conversation; and shall live and reign with Christ upon the first resurrect

Ezekiel 37:1. _The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD,_ God's servants learn nothing until they have an experience similar to that of Ezekiel. They must be led by the Spirit of the Lord, and they must have their eyes and mouths opened by him, and then they can both see the vision, and tell the vision to others. Ezekiel 37:1. _And set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,_ Like a huge grave, or charnel-house, or battle-field where the slain had not been buried. No servant of God would go without being sent to such a place, yet it was needful that Ezekiel should be there in order that he might understand and speak the message of God....

CHAPTER S 37-48 The Future Blessings of Israel, the Nation Regathered, Their Enemies Overthrown, the Millennial Temple, and the Division of the Land _ 1. The vision of the dry bones and Judah and Israel reunited (Ezekiel 37:1) _ 2. Gog and Magog and their destruction (Ezekiel 38:1; Ezekiel 39:1) 3. The millennial temple, its worship, and the division of the land (Ezekiel 40:1; Ezekiel 41:1; Ezekiel 42:1;...

THE RESURRECTION OF THE PEOPLE. Those fair ideals, however, cannot abolish the melancholy reality. The truth is that the exiled people are as good as dead and in their graves (Ezekiel 37:11 f.). Over their despondent words the imagination of Ezekiel broods till once, in an ecstatic mood (Ezekiel 37:1), he seemed to see a valley filled with bones, multitudinous, dry, and loosely scattered for they have not even the coherence of skeletons so that there seemed no promise or possibility of life. He hears a Divine voice it is the voice of his own heart asking, Can these bones live? and gradually it is borne in upon him that the resuscitation of the national life is not beyond the power of God. If the breath of the Divine life be breathed through it, then the people may yet rise to their feet. It is of deep sign

The vision of Israel's resurrection from the dead The vision seems suggested by the saying current among the people, "our bones are dried, our hope is lost; we are wholly cut off." This idea and feeling of the people takes form in the vision which the prophet saw in the valley. The language of the people is figurative: they speak of the nationality, which is no more, it is dead and its bones scattered and dry. And this idea regarding the nationality, figuratively expressed by the people, is embodied to the prophet in a vision. Hence the passage is not a literal prophecy of the resurrection of individual persons of the nation, dead or slain; it is a prophecy of the resurrection of the nation, whose condition is figuratively expressed by the people when they represent its bones as long scattered and dry. Perfect consistency is not maintained by the prophet: in Ezekiel 37:1 the dry bones a...

AN EXCEEDING GREAT ARMY— This vision itself, in the first place, affords a very lively image of the resurrection; next, they who are raised to life again, are said to be an _exceeding great army;_ the Hebrew is still more emphatical, and even labours for expression: מאד מאד _meod meod, A very very great army;_ like that of _all nations and kindreds and people, which no man could number,_ Revelation 7:9. It is yet farther observable, that these dry bones, so miraculously raised to life, are called, Ezekiel 37:11. _The whole house of Israel;_ an expression to which the return from the captivity of Babylon can never wholly answer; for it is most certain, that the whole house of Israel did not return: no, nor yet the whole house of Judah, but only a small remnant of them. If some more gl

II. THE REBIRTH OF THE NATION 37:1-28 Ezekiel had been promising God's people a bright future with new leadership and a new Canaan. However, these promises were met with as much skepticism as his earlier message announcing the 587 B.C. overthrow of Jerusalem. The destruction of their Temple meant the shattering of their faith. They were absolutely convinced that their dead and disjointed nation could never live again. By means of a vision (Ezekiel 37:1-14) and a symbolic action and an oracle (Ezekiel 37:15-28) Ezekiel responded to their despondency. In the vision Ezekiel learns that God's Spirit had the power to turn what looked like a host of skeletons into an effective army. In the oracle and accompanying symbolic act Ezekiel points out that the old divisions between Israel and Judah wou