Ezekiel 37

Assyria had a habit of capturing city/states and moving the population to a new location. So when they captured the Northern Kingdom, Israel, they took them to all corners of their kingdom. Assyria covered half of modern day Turkey, well into Iran, down to the border of modern day Saudi Arabia, to all of Egypt. Thus, Israel was scattered to the “four corners of the (known) earth.”

Babylon was not quite so ambitious (nor as large), but they did move some population around and, of course, took captives home as slaves to their various cities.


1 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,

I believe this was a vision Ezekiel was having when he was praying.

2 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.

3 And He said unto me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.”

4 Again He said unto me, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, ‘O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

6 “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” ‘ “

In his vision, God commands Ezekiel to speak to a bunch of dried up bones; to tell them they will live; certainly something that no human could cause to happen. Now, remember, Israel was carried away into captivity during the time of the Assyrian Empire (722 BC), Judea has been carried away into captivity (597 BC), and Jerusalem has just been totally destroyed by Babylonians (586 BC). The nation of Israel is dead. It is the dried out bones. Can they ever live again? It certainly doesn’t look like it to the human eye, but God says here they will.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said He unto me, “Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

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.

11 Then 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 for our parts.’

The captives had probably just heard of the destruction of Jerusalem. They viewed themselves as totally destroyed beyond hope of ever being a nation again, just like a valley of dried bones would be beyond ever living again.

12 “Therefore prophesy and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13 “ ‘And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14 “ ‘And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.’ “

This scripture was fulfilled in the time of Cyrus the Great (536 BC). Cyrus gave the command for all people displaced by the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires to go back to their homelands. Though not all captives returned home, the Bible records (Ezra 6:17, Act 26:7(notice Paul speaking in the present tense), James 1:1) references to the entire nation of Israel- in their homeland- after the time of Cyrus. In addition, history records Ptolemy of Egypt wanting to have the Hebrew Scriptures translated into Greek for his library. He sends for six scholars of each tribe to do the work. History tells us that seventy-two men showed up and translated what we now call the Septuagint Bible. (Septuagint means seventy. Septuagint is easier to say than Septuagint-beth so they rounded it).

6 men from each tribe X 12 tribes = 72. All twelve tribes were home.

15 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

16 “Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions:

17 “And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

God preformed a miracle in Ezekiel’s hand by uniting two sticks into one. From the time of Rehoboam until the carrying away into Babylon, the nation Israel had been divided into two pieces that warred with each other. The hatred was so heavy that they could never be one nation again….or could they?

18 “And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, ‘Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?’

19 “Say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.”’

God says Israel (Ephraim) and Judah (Israel and his fellows) WILL be united into one nation in His hand.

20 “And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

21 “And say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone (“Where they ARE gone, right now,” This is speaking of the exile Ezekiel is a member of, not a later one), and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

22 “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel;…

Members of all twelve tribes returned to Israel after the call of Cyrus to do so. They gathered as one nation, one people, with no difference between those from the Northern Kingdom and those from the Southern Kingdom. In fact there was no more mention of either kingdom separately in the Bible or in history and the terms “Israel,” “Jew,” and “Judah” are used interchangeably. In addition, the members of all the tribes all agreed to divorce their none-Israelite wives.

…and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

23 “Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their 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.

There is no record anywhere of Israel as a whole serving idols again. Oh, some individuals did, to be sure. But the nation as a whole no longer committed idolatry. Their formal religion was Judaism for the rest of their existence. With the records in the Maccabees we see that many had a dedication to God sufficient for salvation (not just a religious show). Many of the common people in Israel accepted Christ. History tells us the church in Jerusalem alone had a membership of over 50,000 people and that was with danger of persecution from the officials of Israel. These people really did turn their hearts to God.

Now the officials (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.) had fallen into humanism (the belief that good works will save you). But they did not worship idols.

24 “And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

Jesus is “David.” He is King, today, of all who accept Him. Paul tells us in Romans 11 that all who accept Christ are true Jews, while those who don’t are not, no matter what their blood lines. So Jesus is today King of the true Jews.

25 “And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

When Christ returns, we true Jews will all live in the New Jerusalem, the land Abraham was searching for and was promised (Hebrews 11:10- God gave him Palestine as a temporary home until he moved to heaven, the “city with foundations whose builder and maker is God.”). We will dwell there for all of eternity.

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.

There was once an art contest to depict “perfect peace.” There were many submissions of landscapes, mother/child scenes and so on. The winning picture, however, was of horrible storm. You could almost hear the thunder and the wind! But in the corner in a small cave was a mamma bird sitting snug on her nest sound asleep.

Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is contentment and security in the midst of the storm.

God has made a covenant of peace with all true Jews.

27 “My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

We are the temple of the Lord. He dwells in the midst of us.

28 “And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”’”

“Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
The unsaved can tell there is a difference about us. They can see that God sanctifies us.