No 17

(Prophecies in Ezekiel)

Ezekiel was an exilic prophet; his name means “God strengthens”. There are many prophecies in this book about the apostate condition of Judah and divine judgments that will be sent (chs 4-24), including the departure of the Shekinah Glory of God “Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims.”(10:18). There are also prophecies concerning the future restoration of Israel, its national revival and its spiritual resurrection. I draw your attention to the 37^th chapter of the book where Ezekiel, in a vision, sees a valley of dry bones “ The 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, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.” (vs1,2). It must have been a horrible sight to see, but Ezekiel did as he was told (v4), he preached to the bones and they began to come together (v7) and skin came up over the bones (v8). Something very significant happened to these corpses in verse 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.” We don’t have to search for a hidden meaning or interpretation for this miraculous act by God – verse 11 tells us plainly what this means: “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel…” Wouldn’t it be great if every time a prophecy appears in the Bible, God would give us the interpretation? There is no doubt here, Israel is the army of bones in a resurrected state with the Spirit of God in them (v14). Israel as a nation will, one day, turn to the Lord and recognize He whom they pierced “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zech 12:10). By the way, there ia political column in Israel’s national newpaper “The Jerusalem Post” that is called “Dry Bones”. The Jews also believe that one day Israel will again be the focal point of God’s plan for humanity; so do I.