Ezekiel Chapter 37 verses 1-14
Ezekiel 37:1–14
Ezekiel was a prophet and a priest, but exiled due to Babylon's victories over Judah and Jerusalem, geographically and practically separated from his usual responsibilities with God in the sense that his home/job was no longer accessible, so he has "skin in the game" and isn't just an outsider being sent to give a message to God's people. He has been displaced by the same things that are causing the Israelites to feel dry and dead, and without hope. He is intimately aware and connected to the situation at hand.
God says the bones represent Israel, that His people are dried up and dead. There is no hope amongst them, and they feel cut off from God by being driven from their lands, homes, and temples. This is presented as a real and intense cultural stance, where the imagery of dry bones is used to instill the idea that this isn't a fresh death. The Babylonians had sacked Judah and Jerusalem, so morale, faith, direction, and purpose were all scattered amongst the nations the people fled to in their defeat.
God is teaching Ezekiel and telling him to share this lesson, message, and promise: God will restore His people, He will lift them up, and bring them home. I think there is an important distinction that it's not just about literally putting Israelites back in the land of Israel, but that even when we die, or choose sin, disconnect from God, and won't let Jesus carry us through these low points, God will always restore if we seek Him out, and His promise is a reminder that we can and should continuously seek Him out.
Verse 8: this verse shows an important distinction. Though the bones become corporeal and ambulatory, with flesh, organs, muscles, and tissue, Ezekiel makes note, "there was no breath in them." This touches on an often reused piece of imagery/symbolism and theme in the Bible, that the winds or breath of life are part of, or synonymous with, the Spirit of the Lord. This type of reference to winds and life leads me to conclude that this verse is a way to convey that, like Israel, we are all dead without the Spirit of the Lord, symbolically, but also literally in that death is the wage of sin. It would be accurate to describe a life of sin and turning our attention or focus away from God as indeed a dead life with no "breath" in it.
— Having a body is not the same thing as having life —
The Hebrew word RUACH can be translated as breath, wind, or spirit, as in the wind comes to the bodies made from dry bones, then the breath enters the bodies, and finally they live. This is powerful, and the Hebrew word ruach definitely adds to and enhances the message of this chapter of Ezekiel.
The reconstruction of life to bones through physical and mortal imagery feels twofold to me. On one hand, it drives the visual narrative of restoration from rock bottom, or something a human would consider impossible, but on the other hand, it depicts a clear division between existing and living. As a bonus, the bones come together and accept the breath of life, showing it is God's will and word that returns them to life. Ezekiel is really just proclaiming what God is saying He will do, and God fulfills the restoration because He wants to, and He says He will, reinforcing my idea of this passage dealing with God promising things to His followers and following through, which helps reinforce His inherent truth.
The metaphorical meaning seems to be centered on the effects of Babylon's victories and a restoration of God's people to the literal nation of Israel, and not a true focus on the physical resurrections enacted on the dry bones in the valley, as the reader is expected to see and feel the power of the act, but contextually compare it to the current historical plight of the Israelites.
The second metaphor and most overarching lesson to me feel like it isn't so much about material restoration; that it's about—God is not primarily saying, "My people, I love you and will give you your things back!" It's more about saying, "I see and feel your pain. I will breathe life back into my people so that they may live again." It's about restoring faith, belief, and purpose through reversing their misfortunes and undoing the bad leadership that led the Israelites from God and their faith and resulted in their military losses. It's more of a reminder of that promise, that fact we can rely on, that if we choose Him, believe Him, and trust in Him, we will still fail, fall short, sin, and let worldly things move us in ways that the Spirit should be moving instead, but He will still restore us. He will take our dry bones and make us whole, and then breathe life into us again. He will always give us life even at our worst and our most defiant.
This reminds me of something I feel in retrospect. In my darkest, most lonely periods of life, I felt alone and empty, and I hurt and experienced despair. But in my faith today, restoration in progress, I have found that when I look back on all those dark periods, I recognize that I wasn't alone. I was being carried, held, and comforted. I was just pulling away, looking away, and ignoring that breath of God. I was not alone, and I'm here today because, in my darkness, God wanted to restore my dry bones and restore my life with His winds.
Another lesson could be in self-control and discernment. Ezekiel even answers God's question with no assumptions. He replies, "You know, Lord." He knows that whether the bones could live again was outside his realm of skill, understanding, and comprehension, and gives the most true answer: only God knows. He doesn't assume that since God is speaking, the answer should be yes, or from his mortal perspective that it couldn't not be done. He doesn't tell Ezekiel to pick up or touch or do anything to the bones, just to tell them God's truth, to proclaim God's promise. While this is a more overt calling for Ezekiel, it gives a lesson on being aware of what you know and don't know, as well as trusting that what you are asked to do, or be, or say is righteous because of the source.
Interestingly, though not particularly the main focus of the Scripture, the bones are essentially dead and forgotten, scattered across the valley, but the bones aren't seeking God, or life. They aren't repenting, praying, or asking for help. They are just... dead. Which is where I find the "promise" of God, because this chapter specifically is highlighting God's faithfulness to us. He is saying, I am not here to restore a person, but a people, to reunite a divided nation, the house of Israel, and it is showing that He is with us even when we aren't choosing to be with Him. God is coming to them to restore His people, promising real life to the dead. And that promise which God is giving us is what allows us to be able to return to Him from our trials and our dead periods, to ask for forgiveness and restoration of spirit, and gives us faith and trust that we will be restored in His will.
For me, the overall take is: God hasn't told me I'm worthless, hopeless, or a pile of sun-dried bones. I have given myself those false attributes, and He won't give me all the answers or clarity I ask for every time I face struggles because I don't necessarily need them all, but He will still give me wholeness, lessons in obedience, and He will allow me to know and understand what I need to be able to take the next step in His plans for me in His own time. Sometimes that means we need to hold back and focus on taking just one single faithful step at a time, even if the next step is to stand still and wait, and then we can take a deep breath of the "RUACH" and choose to live with the Spirit of the Lord.