Ezekiel 37
COMMENTARY:
: 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, you know. (6106 “bones” [‘etsem] means selfsame, body, life, strength, essence, substance, external body, self, or vigor.)
DEVOTION: The LORD is asking Ezekiel a question that he can’t answer. It is a question regarding life. Can something that is dead come back to life? We know from the Old Testament that there were a few people who were raised from the dead by the prophets. They were few and far between.
However, this is a whole valley full of dead bones. Is it possible that that many people who were dead could come to life again? The New Testament in I Corinthians 15 explains that there is resurrection from the dead of those who believe. They are raised to newness of life. They were corrupted but then they will be uncorrupted.
It is hard to understand that there is life after death. Many people believe that once you die that is it. It is all over. There is no afterlife. The Bible disagrees with this group of people. Many of them don’t want a life after death because if and it is the Bible is true they will have to face God for judgment.
Everyone wants to avoid judgment. But judgment is coming. Christians will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive their rewards for their actions here on this earth. Those who outside of Christ will stand before the Great White Throne Judgment to face the LORD regarding their relationship to HIS Son Jesus Christ. They have none and therefore will spend eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels.
This passage is not talking about life after death for individuals it is giving Ezekiel a vision of the nation of Israel being restored to a place of promise again. God is giving a vision of future hope for Israel.
They are presently dead as a nation. God can breathe new life into their dead bones. HE can open the grave and give them breathe as a nation again. They are going to be restored to the Promised Land during the reign of the Medo-Persians. They will rebuild the Temple again. They will live in Jerusalem again.
The LORD warns the churches in the book of Revelation that some of them seem dead. HE informs them that HE can come and take their candlestick or life from them if they don’t repent.
The church of Sardis thinks it is alive but the LORD informs them that they are dead. Their works were not perfect before the LORD. What do they need to do? REPENT!! Repentance is necessary for any church that has drifted from the Word of God and is only preaching to “itching ears.” The message is plain: REPENT!!
CHALLENGE: Remember that nothing is impossible with God. HE can even restore the church with a revival even now. It may seem dead but the LORD can give it life. That should be our prayer.
: 10 So I prophesied as HE commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army. (7307 “breath” [ruwach] means air, vivacity, wind, intellectual frame of mind, spirit, courage, or air.)
DEVOTION: This verse is talking about the nation of Israel coming back to life. They were in captivity and though they had no hope for the future. They wanted to hear a message from the LORD.
Ezekiel brought the message of a valley full of dead bones and was asked if they could come back to life. The answer was that with the LORD all things are possible. The nation could come back from captivity.
To bring it to a personal level we can have what seems like a dead faith. Our Bible is not controlling our life. The church is not helping us in our growth. It seems like for all practical purposes we are going nowhere in our walk with the LORD.
What do we need? We need a fresh moving of the Holy Spirit in our life. How does this happen? It only happens through our prayer life. If we go to God honestly and ask HIM for help – HE will send it.
We then need to open our Bible and start reading and ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Bible and HE will do it.
If enough believers do this they can form an army of fresh witnesses for the LORD. There is nothing like a young believer telling others about the LORD working in their life.
Freshness is important to those who are trying to keep up with their world. We want fresh food. We want a new outlook on life. We want to have hope in a world that seems to lack hope.
Our future might look dim at the present moment but we know that the LORD can help us with a fresh understanding of the life we can have in Christ. We sometimes get in a rut and it is hard to get out of it.
The Word of God can give us a breath of fresh air. It can recharge our batteries. It can give us hope. This should be our prayer each day that we can have a fresh breath from the LORD through HIS Word the Bible.
CHALLENGE: Keep your faith fresh. Don’t let it get stale.
: 23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with the detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be MY people, and I will be their God. (2930 “defile” [tame’] means to make morally or ritually impure, to become ceremonially unclean, desecrate, pollute oneself, dishonor, impure, or make unclean.)
DEVOTION: God wants us all to be individuals who keep short accounts with HIM regarding our sins. HE wants us to confess our sins, so that, HE can cleanse us for HIS use while we are here on this earth.
Too often even those who claim to be believers are not confessing their sins and allowing the LORD to cleanse them for use in HIS service. HE wants us to have a daily walk with HIM and that can only happen when we are willing to recognize our sins and confess genuinely to HIM that we are sorry for our sins and want HIM to cleanse us for HIS use in our world.
The children of Israel were trying to serve the LORD without confessing their sins and that was not the way that the LORD worked. HE wants to use clean vessels for HIS service and that only happens when we recognize that daily confession is necessary for proper fellowship with HIM.
We don’t usually have idols that we set up in our houses but sometimes some people can use the television to be their idol that keeps them for having a good relationship with the LORD. If we find this happening; we need to turn it off and open our Bible to use our time studying HIS word for our personal growth each day.
CHALLENGE: Only you can answer the question regarding whether you are keeping short accounts with God. The confession of our sins daily is necessary for a proper walk with HIM.
: 26 Moreover 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. (1285 “covenant” [b@riyth] means alliance, pledge, treaty, league, or agreement.)
DEVOTION: Hope is important. Here we find the LORD giving a second vision to Ezekiel in this chapter. He is to take two sticks and call one of them Judah and the other Israel. These two sticks are to be joined together in his hand. In his hand they become one. The two nations that were scattered are going to be brought back together to serve the LORD again in the future
The LORD says that HE is going to bring the nations from captivity. HE wants Israel and the nations to realize that HE is LORD. HE is sovereign over creation. HE is sovereign over all nations. HE is the ONLY ONE who can bring true hope to a nation in captivity.
HE is also going to reunite the two kingdoms into one kingdom. The two will become one again. There is going to be ONE KING over this kingdom. There is going to be ONE SHEPHERD over this nation. The one king and one shepherd is the Messiah. The time period is the Millennium.
How long is this kingdom going to last?
Our verse tells us that the LORD is going to make a league of peace with the children of Israel. It is not only going to be a pledge of peace but an everlasting pledge of peace. HE is going to dwell with them. HE is going to sanctify Israel. How does HE sanctify Israel? HIS presence is going to be with them.
Do we believe the LORD knows the future?” If the answer is “yes” then we have to realize that Ezekiel was written after the children of Israel were in captivity. It was written after King David reigned over the children of Israel as one nation. This chapter must be talking about a future reign of David, the LORD’S servant.
Who is this David? When is the sanctuary going to be in the midst of Israel forever? Has it happened yet? The future shepherd that is going to reign over the united Israel is going to be a descendant of David. Who is a future descendant of David that is going to reign over a united Israel? Could it be the Messiah or Jesus Christ during a future time?
It is going to be a time of peace. Are we having peace in Israel today? It is going to be an everlasting covenant. How long is everlasting? The LORD has a plan for the future and HE is going to work HIS plan. What an awesome GOD we serve!!! AMEN!!! God says that the dead bones of Israel will rise again.
It is a belief of this ministry that churches that are dying can come back to life with a fresh vision of the faithfulness of God. This promise is to Israel in the future but we can have hope in the present because our God can do the impossible. Let us continue to pray for revival in our churches!
Unity is important to the LORD. This unity has to be based on the teachings of the Word of God alone. Our worship has to be placed on Jesus Christ alone.
Today we have a divided church. There seems to be no peace even in our churches. We are observing churches that are voting to allow people in the pulpit who are disobedient to the teachings of the Word of God.
CHALLENGE: We need to base our peace on our faithful preaching of the Word of God. We need to have faithful leaders who will not give in to society. We need to be Biblically correct to have Biblical peace. God promises those who are faithful that they can have a peace that passes all understanding.
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