“He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, You know.’ Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones and say to them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD’”’” (Ezek 37:3–6).
Ezekiel 37 is one of the most remarkable chapters in all of Scripture. In this passage, God resurrects a valley filled with hopeless, lifeless bones, transforming them into a mighty army (vv. 1–14). It likely was this very chapter that persuaded Saul of Tarsus to be a Pharisee rather than a Sadducee (see Acts 23:8). It is also from this same chapter that the Apostle Paul drew inspiration to describe the power of God’s unmerited grace in bringing the spiritually dead to life in Ephesians 2 (vv. 1–10).
“O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.”
(Ezek. 37:4)
For this reason, Ezekiel 37 is to the Hebrew Bible what Ephesians 2 is to the New Testament: the gospel of a gracious God who raises those who are dead in their sins back to life. And just as followers of Yeshua return to Ephesians 2 again and again as a blessed reminder that salvation is entirely by grace and not by works, so too Ezekiel 37 stands as an eternal witness to the church of God that Israel’s election, being entirely by grace and not by works (Rom 9:11; 11:5–6, 28–29), guarantees her future resurrection from the dead. All this is to the glory of God alone!
“‘Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,’ declares the LORD'” (Ezek 37:13-14).
“For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Rom 11:15).
