Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
Ezekiel 37:12-14 NIV
This chapter began with God bringing Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry human bones. And God told Ezekiel to prophesy to these bones, telling them to be joined back together, covered with flesh, and come to life. Ezekiel did as he was told. And when he did, a vast, living army was assembled from the bones and stood on their feet.
Then God told Ezekiel that these bones represented the people of Israel. A people who were living in exile, far from home, and seemingly abandoned by their God. They were dead. But just like these bones returned to life, God would restore his people, bringing them out of their graves (Babylonian captivity) and returning them to their own land. This was fulfilled, at least in part, a few years later when the Persians conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return home.
But a greater fulfillment of this vision is ongoing, even to this day. While I had physical life, I was just as spiritually dead as those in that valley of dry bones. But God breathed new life into me, gave me his Spirit, and brought me into his kingdom. And now I stand before him, a part of a great host of those who once were dead but have now been made alive in Christ.
Praise God that the words he spoke through his prophets find their fulfillment in the lives of his people.
