CHAPTER 37

(587 B.C.)

VISION OF THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES

¹The Hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones (as the last Chapter graphically spoke of Israels coming Restoration, Chapter 37 graphically portrays the Spiritual manner of that Restoration),

²And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. (The repetition of behold fastens the attention upon the two facts that the bones were very many and very dry. Very dry, speaks of a total absence of spirituality.)

³And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, You know. (Ezekiels answer to the question of the Lord, O Lord GOD, You know, signifies that within the realm of human endeavor the task was impossible!)

PROPHECY AND THE RESULTS

⁴Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O you dry bones, hear the Word of the LORD. (The Prophet is told to Prophesy upon these bones, meaning that the Lord will give a Word which will guarantee their Restoration and Revival; however, such could only be done according to the Word of the LORD.)

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live (the breath spoken of is the same breath as when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, respecting Adam, and he became a living soul [Gen. 2:7]. The life that is spoken of in this Passage is national life and Spiritual Life. National life of the nation has already begun, having its beginning in 1948 and continuing. However, Spiritual Life will begin in the coming Great Tribulation, when 144,000 Jews will accept Christ as their Saviour. But the fullness of Spiritual Life will not come until the Second Coming [Zech. 13:1, 9]):

⁶And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (You shall live, i.e., you shall come to life again, so shall you get to know that I am Jehovah. God demonstrates His Existence and Power by raising the dead [Jn. 5:21; Rom. 1:3-4; 4:17; II Cor. 1:9].)

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. (There was a noise, in the Hebrew actually says, a voice.)

⁸And 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. (As stated, national Israel began in 1948; however, the phrase, But there was no breath in them, signifies the fact that national Israel presently has no spiritual life.)

⁹Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. (Prophesy unto the wind, actually says in the Hebrew, Prophesy unto the Spirit. Come from the four winds, actually says in the Hebrew, Come from the four breaths.

The number four is symbolic of fourfold, denoting an absolute, total, and complete Restoration.)

¹⁰So 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. (As the preceding Verses spoke of Israels national identity, now this Verse speaks of Israels Spiritual Identity, signifying their Spiritual Revival, which will take place at the Second Coming.

The phrase, And stood upon their feet, speaks of Spiritual Life enabling such. For a long time, even over 2,000 years, Israel has not stood upon their feet spiritually. But in that coming Glad Day, they shall! Then they shall be an exceeding great army, but an exceeding great army for the Lord.)

THE WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL TO BE REGATHERED

¹¹Then He said unto me, 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 for our parts. (The whole House of Israel, speaks of the entirety of the thirteen Tribes. The latter part of this Verse, behold, they say, refers to the latter half of the coming Great Tribulation. At that time, it will look like the entirety of their nation will be totally destroyed, with hope lost and cut off for our parts. This has reference to Zechariahs Prophecy, when he said, two parts therein shall be cut off and die [Zech. 13:8].)

¹²Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, O My People, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the Land of Israel. (As Prophecy sometimes does, the previous Verse spoke of the last few months or even weeks before the Coming of the Lord and, therefore, the relief of Israel, whereas this Verse goes back even to World War II and forward.)

¹³And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My People, and brought you up out of your graves (And brought you up out of your graves, has reference in totality to the fact that Israel, and for all practical purposes, in the Battle of Armageddon is all but totally destroyed; actually, there is no Earthly way they can be salvaged. However, there is a Heavenly Way! And that Heavenly Way is Christ),

¹⁴And shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, says the LORD. (This Passage signals the great Revival that will take place in Israel at the Coming of the Lord. Zechariah gave in greater detail the happening of this great moving of the Holy Spirit [Zech. 12:10-14; 13:1, 9].)

THE SIGN OF TWO STICKS: ISRAEL AND JUDAH REJOINED

¹⁵The Word of the LORD came again unto me, saying (now begins the second Prophecy predicting the unity of the nation, and its happy settlement under the Government of the Messiah),

¹⁶Moreover, you son of man, take you one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the Children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the House of Israel his companions (the two sticks represent the two Houses of Israel, the Northern Confederation of Israel, sometimes called Ephraim or Samaria, and the Southern Kingdom known as Judah. His companions, refers to Benjamin and Levi, and also possibly Simeon, being joined with Judah. The other Tribes pertained to Ephraim):

¹⁷And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in your hand. (This Verse predicts that both Kingdoms will now become one Kingdom, signifying one people, which can only be brought about by the Hand of the Lord, which means that they will never again be divided.)

¹⁸And when the children of your people shall speak unto you, saying, Will you not show us what you mean by these? (This Prophecy, which incorporates the balance of the Chapter, predicts the future union of the Tribes, their Restoration to the Land of Israel, and their settlement there under One Shepherd, and teaches that a Divinely wrought union is real and enduring, and brings its subjects into fellowship with God, and disposes them around a Divine center.)

RESTORATION OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH UNDER MESSIAH AND DAVID

¹⁹Say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the Tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My Hand. (When God takes groups of His Servants and unites them, they actually become one in His Hand. This means that not only is the old division gone, but the cause of division has also been erased.)

²⁰And the sticks whereon you write shall be in your hand before their eyes. (It is amazing that the Lord would take something that simple, such as sticks, to express and portray something of such vital consequence [I Cor. 1:27].)

²¹And say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the Children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land (the total fulfillment of this will take place in the coming Kingdom Age):

²²And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be King to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all (in the Land, refers to the Land of Israel, as promised to Abraham [Gen. 12:7]; its boundary on the west is the Mediterranean; on the south, the Suez Canal, which includes the Arabian Peninsula; on the east, the Euphrates River; on the north, Lebanon):

²³Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My People, and I will be their God. (This will take place almost immediately after the Second Coming of Christ.)

²⁴And David My Servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have One Shepherd: they shall also walk in My Judgments, and observe My Statutes, and do them. (David was ever looked at as the example for all the kings of Israel, and will consequently serve in this capacity under Christ forever.)

²⁵And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My Servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their childrens children for ever: and My Servant David shall be their prince for ever. (This Passage goes back to the Messianic Promise of II Sam. 7:12-16. Some have concluded that the name David refers to the Messiah; however, the Holy Spirit uses the phrase, My Servant David, but never once is Christ called My Servant David. So it is obvious that king David is the one predicted here to be their prince forever.)

A NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT

²⁶Moreover I will make a Covenant of Peace with them; it shall be an Everlasting Covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My Sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. (The setting of the Divine Sanctuary in Jerusalem will cause the heathen to know that God has especially chosen Israel for His Peculiar Treasure. This Sanctuary is described in Chapters 40 through 48.)

²⁷My Tabernacle also shall be with them: yes, I will be their God, and they shall be My People. (This Tabernacle refers to an ozone type of covering, much greater than presently, which will be during the Millennium, when the light of the sun will be increased sevenfold and the light of the moon will be as the present light of the Sun [Isa. 4:5].)

²⁸And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when My Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. (Gods Presence with Israel is the sign that He is with them and that the world must, and in fact will, recognize this approval.)