And 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!
The vision of the dry bones comes with its own explanation, and this verse is it. God names the bones. Then He lets them speak, and we hear the words of a people who have given up on themselves.
The chapter explains itself, so no one has to guess what the valley pictures.
In Ezekiel 37 the figure of resurrection is certainly meant this way. We have the vision, and we also have the inspired interpretation. So we are not free to explain the vision by our own thoughts. The explanation given by the Holy Spirit is clear and final.
One detail settles the sense of the vision: these bones complain. Corpses do not describe their own condition.
In this vision of the dry bones, physical resurrection pictures the national restoration of Israel... When we read here of graves, do not take them to mean literal graves. The graves stand for the nation buried among the Gentiles. If these dry bones meant the nation's physically dead, how can they speak and say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost"? The New Testament uses the same figure of speech. Of the prodigal son we read, "For this my son was dead, and is alive again" (Luke 15:24). Yet he did not die physically, and he was not made alive physically.
If the bones are living people, the graves must be something other than burial plots.
The graves out of which these dried bones are raised are clearly the places or countries from which the Israelites are gathered. If the dry bones stand for living Israelites — dead as a nation, but alive as people — their graves must stand for the countries where they have been buried, as far as national existence goes. And we are told in plain words that they are brought into their own land, when they are raised as a nation from their graves.
The phrase reaches wider than Judah. It rules out limiting the prophecy to the small group that came back from Babylon.
It is impossible to fit a statement like this to the return of fewer than 43,000 from Babylon. The armies of old were far larger than those usual in modern times, and that returning remnant was a very small army even beside Judah's alone under their kings. We shall also find later that Ephraim as well as Judah is in view. It is implied at once in the words "the whole house of Israel." So the past return from captivity is out of the question.
Being raised together is not the whole promise. An old split must also end.
Even if all Israel came up out of their graves, the twelve tribes might still have formed two separate parties, as in earlier days. So a new condition now comes in. It shows that when Israel's reviving takes place, their once-divided interests will come together.
God's answer to these words does two things at once.
Whatever use we may make of the vision, its direct and express meaning is God's revival of His ancient people Israel. They were then completely destroyed, dead and buried. Yet they are to leave their graves according to the word of the Lord: "These bones are the whole house of Israel." God would comfort His people as well as rebuke the unbelief that said, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off." His own faithful grace will do what is plainly beyond the power of man.
The complaint did not stop with Ezekiel's hearers.
This is what they are saying today: we are cast off, we are rejected of the Lord.
The bones cannot organise their own recovery, and neither can the nation they picture.
They will not become all that the prophets have declared by their own efforts or achievements, though that is what they are thinking and planning now. Nothing but the quickening breath of God can do it for them. For this they have yet to be brought down into the dust, even after all they have suffered for these centuries. This is so that they may learn their needed lesson of humbling, and may learn the grace to which, as they will at last own, they owe everything.
Preachers have long used this chapter to picture a person without spiritual life. Commentators allow that use but guard the meaning.
Dry — that is exactly what the sinner is. You are very dry; you have not got a bit of life or sap in you... I have no objection at all to drawing the gospel out of this passage... But the application and the interpretation of a scripture are two totally different things.
- Complaint. The bones speak, so they are not literal corpses; a nation says its hope is gone.
- Correction. God names them "the whole house of Israel." Those words fix the meaning of the vision, and we are not free to reinterpret it.
- Graves. The graves are the countries where the people lie scattered, with no national life.
- Grace. One reply rebukes their unbelief and comforts them. God does what human power cannot, by His breath and not by their planning.
- Land. The end is not a grave but their own land, with the divided tribes joined as one. The promise rests on God's word, not on their hope holding out.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and bring you into the land of Israel.
God explains His own vision here. He names the dry bones of verse 11 as the whole house of Israel, and He opens the graves Himself. So what are these graves, and where does He take the people He raises?
Commentators read the graves in line with the bones. The bones are people who are still alive but finished as a nation. So the graves must be the lands they are scattered in.
Here is figurative language; plainly so. The Lord Himself explains that the dry bones are living people, the whole house of Israel, who say, Our bones are dried, and so on. The graves these dried bones rise out of are clearly the places or countries the Israelites are gathered from. If the dry bones stand for living Israelites — dead as a nation, but alive as people — then their graves must stand for the countries where they have been buried as a nation.
Read this as the raising of dead bodies, and it ends in the wrong place. Those who rise from the dead are not promised the land of Israel.
The figure of resurrection is used here to show the gathering of the nation, long apparently lost among the nations of the world, into their land. It applies only to this. It does not describe the actual resurrection of the saints who have died in the Lord. God would not bring them "in the land," but to heaven.
Calling something a figure does not empty it. Ezekiel uses symbol, figure and plain speech in one chapter. Each one reports something that will really happen.
Again, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost. … I will open your graves," are figurative expressions. But they still point to real facts. Finally, verses 21-28 of the same chapter give many plain literal statements. Some of them explain the symbols and figures that went before. Prophecy is future history; and God may, and does, communicate it in the forms which seem good to Him.
God speaks these words to people who had just written themselves off. He still calls them "my people" while they lie in the graves, and His answer does two things at once.
Whatever use or application we may make of the vision, its direct and express meaning is God's revival of His ancient people Israel. At that time they were completely destroyed, dead and buried. Yet they would leave their graves, as the word of the Lord says: "These bones are the whole house of Israel." And God would comfort His people as well as rebuke the unbelief which said, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off." His own faithful grace will undertake to do what man simply cannot do.
Ezekiel 37 follows Ezekiel 36, and the order matters. God gives them life first. Only then does He settle them in the land.
This sets out the death towards God in which Israel lies as a nation. It also prophesies about God's work of quickening, which must touch them before they enter into millennial blessing. They will be brought up by Him out of the graves among the nations where they lie. There will be a national resurrection. The Lord says, "you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it" (verse 14).
The scale of the vision rules out the small return from Babylon. Ezekiel saw a huge army, drawn from more than Judah alone.
You cannot reasonably apply a statement like this to the return of fewer than 43,000 from Babylon. Armies in those days were far larger than armies today. The returning remnant was a very small army compared with that of Judah alone under their kings. And we shall find later on that Ephraim as well as Judah are expressly in view.
Preachers have long used this chapter to describe a person without God. One writer allows that use, but guards the meaning.
Dry — that is exactly what the sinner is. You have not got a bit of life or sap in you. Dry bones may very well describe your spiritual state if you are an unconverted sinner, no matter what your profession may be. … I have no objection at all to drawing the gospel out of this passage. I know a preacher who gave lovely sermons from this chapter and saw many conversions through it too. But you see, applying a Scripture and interpreting it are two completely different things.
- Graves. The graves are the nations where Israel has lain buried as a people — alive as individuals, finished as a nation.
- Grace. God makes this promise to the very people who said their hope was lost. He comforts them and rebukes their unbelief at once.
- Power. He opens the graves Himself and raises the nation, doing what man simply cannot do.
- Land. The journey ends in the land of Israel. That is why commentators say this is not the resurrection of dead bodies; that hope leads to heaven.
- Certainty. Figures still report real facts. The return from Babylon was far too small to fulfil this promise, so it still stands, waiting and sure.