May 21, Ezekiel 37
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.'" - Ezekiel; 37:11
Some of Jeremiah and Ezekiel's prophetic messages came in the form of funeral songs. A few prophetic episodes inspired some children's songs and spiritual songs. But the only song I can think of that is based on a prophetic vision is “Dem Bones." James Weldon Johnson and his bother Rosamund composed the song in the 1920’s. The Famous Myers Jubilee Singers made the first recording of the song in 1928. Since then, many artists (including the Chipmunks) have recorded their own versions of the now century-old tune.
The Johnson brothers wrote the musical version that we know, but Ezekiel saw the vision and wrote it down in Ezekiel 37. The surviving remnant in captivity was discouraged. They imagined that after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem that their nation was dead, doomed to extinction. Their thinking swung from "It can never happen" to "Our nation is hopeless and doomed" after news of Jerusalem’s fall reached Babylon.
God sent a message to Ezekiel in the form of a vision. Remember how God had transported Ezekiel in a vision to Jerusalem to show him the abominations that the people were practicing in the temple? This time, Ezekiel was vision-transported and set down in a valley full of dry bones. God told Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones, and as he did, the bones began to move and join. They grew muscles and flesh and skin before his eyes and then they stood up on their feet. The bones had morphed into a vast army. God told Ezekiel the bones stood for the nation of Israel. God was going to resurrect the nation they thought was dead by his power. God told his prophet that when he "resurrected" them and settled them back in their own land, they would know he was the Lord, that he had given the vision to Ezekiel and that he had done it.
The other prophecy in Chapter 37 is about the reunification of the nation. Ezekiel took two sticks and wrote “Belonging to Joseph” on one and “Belonging to Judah” on the other. He told him to join the two sticks into one in the presence of the people to show them that God was going to bring the divided nation back together. Joseph (Ephraim, the largest tribe in the north) and Judah (the main tribe of the south) would be brought together as Israel again. But he said it would happen in the times of Messiah.
I believe that reunification took place when descendants of the northern kingdom tribes and the southern kingdom tribes came to Christ and were truly under one king, a prince of David, who would reign forever. No one else in all of history fits this description. That means the Israel they became also included Gentiles and was the kingdom, body or church of Jesus Christ. Paul called the church the “Israel of God” in Galatians. One Shepherd King would reign over them forever in a covenant of peace. Who else in all the history of the world could that be?
God used the miraculous resurrection to describe how he would bring the people in captivity back together and back home. That fits not only their predicament in captivity, but our own bondage and death in sin. God told Ezekiel, "And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people." That reminds me of Paul's description of our salvation by grace: "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." Paul said we who have been buried with Christ in baptism are raised to “walk in newness of life.”
The resurrection language about Israel's revival and our forgiveness and new life in Christ draws its strength from the certainty of the resurrection itself. We believe Jesus' words that he is the “Resurrection and the Life,” and that those who are his will be raised never to die again. The death of a loved one or thoughts of our own death may break our heart and steal our hope. We need to remember that the same power that raised Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, the widow's son at Nain and Jesus himself, will raise us from the dead, too. Don't lose hope, Christian, even looking into the valley of the shadow of death. You've got God's promise that he will bring you back. He is the Lord, he has spoken it, and he will do it.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—May 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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