September 7: Ezekiel 35-37

September 7, Ezekiel 35-37

Ezekiel continued…

Ezekiel 35 God told Ezekiel to prophesy against Mount Seir. Just for clarity, this is compared to how Judah and Mount Zion are connected… The people of Edom rejoiced in Judah’s fall and they actually hated the people of Judah. God was poised to be against the people of Edom and their land and to make them a waste. They were greedy in their gain. Because they rejoiced in Judah becoming desolate, they too were to become desolate. 

Ezekiel 36 Since Israel was currently desolate, some day it will not be - it will be as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Israel will no longer be the talk of everyones evil gossip. They have suffered and they will be redeemed. God gives them a promise - their mountains will again flourish as will the people of God. All of this will occur for the Glory of God’s name.

God makes a new covenant with His people. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God…” What an amazing promise that God gave to them. God was not going to do this for them - it was for His namesake. They were to remember what they had done and be ashamed of it. When God does this, His people will know that He is the Lord. 

Ezekiel 37 The famous chapter about the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. This chapter comes right off the context of what God just said in chapter 36. God’s hand was upon Ezekiel and God brought him out in the Spirit of the Lord and sat him down in the middle of the valley - a valley full of bones. God asked Ezekiel if he thought the bones could live? Ezekiel’s response was that God knew. God told him to prophesy over the bones to hear God. God was going to bring breath into the death. “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army…” The Israelites once said that there was not hope for them as they were cut off from God because of their sin. Through this vision, God is promising new life to His people. This is meaningful in many directions. This idea of taking the dead and bring them to life, is a very common thought and action of the Lord. We have such an amazing God, that this is a great descriptive physical and spiritual thing that He does for His people throughout all time and into the future. Who is God talking about here? The Lord uses both the analogy of rising the dead from graves, and the literal rising the dead from graves. Well, first off - He is talking about the Jews and that He will raise them up and put them back into the land of Israel, which He did in 1948. As well as spiritually, the Lord will turn the Jews back to Him, at the End of the Age and have the Jews turn to the Lord, rising from the dead - if you will and making dead bones alive, as the Jews turn to Jesus. This also points to the Gentiles, where the Lord will save the Gentiles and make them believers in the Christ and take their dead hearts and make them flesh, as in Ezekiel 11:19. This also points to Jesus, as when Jesus died and rose from the dead, the graves were opened and the dead arose in Matthew 27:52. This also alludes to the idea of the afterlife, where the dead will be raised on the great and glorious day of the Lord, which is talked about in many places, including Romans 8:11. This is what the Lord of all Creation does. He takes the things that are dead, whether physical or spiritual and breathes life into it. Hasn’t He done that for me? Hasn’t He done that for you?  

Then God told Ezekiel to take a stick and write on it the name of Judah, and the people associated with it. Also to write on another stick Joseph, representing Israel and all their people. Join the 2 sticks together so that they become one in his hand. When people ask what he is doing, explain to them that God’s people will be one, united in God’s hand. They shall no longer be 2 nations divided, but one nation under God (sounds familiar with the USA original intent…). God wants them to be done with their idols and abominations - God will cleanse them. How will he do this you may be asking? “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes…” Jesus Christ. This is another of Ezekiel’s Messianic prophecies. God will send Jesus - he is not intended to be a literal David, but figuratively. Jesus will come and give His people the opportunity to return & repent. Then the nations will know that The Lord is God!

To sum it all up: 

• Remember, God does what God wants to do. We cannot be self-centered, rather we are to be God-centered. We live for His Glory, not our own. When God does amazing or harsh things in your life, remember your place and praise God for what He is doing. For example, if you do really well financially - remember that it is from the Lord for the Lord. The opposite is true as well. If you are struggling financially, remember it is from the Lord and for the Lord. He has His purposes and will make them happen. We are only one little piece of the puzzle and God is working all things out for His Glory.
• From the movie, Facing the Giants, “If we win, we will praise Him. If we loose, we will praise Him.” That is the attitude of living for God’s Glory and not our own!
• The Valley of Dry Bones - God brings life to death. In our sins we are dead. In our lives with Christ we are alive and shall live! Choose this day whom you will serve and give your whole lives to it. There is no middle ground. Either you are for Christ or against Him.