Why did Ezekiel describe the bones in the valley as “dry”? In the Bible a Valley can be a literal place; however, spiritually speaking a valley often describes a very low point in a person’s life. In Ezekiel 37, we have a picture of a valley, a very low place, filled with dry bones. The Dry bones are a picture of death. God’s people had made a Covenant with death, preferring to trust in lies rather than the truth. But YHWH says that their Covenant with death will be canceled!
Isaiah 28:15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”Vs. 18: Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol (grave) will not stand.
Water brings life!
Water is a metaphor for YHWH’s Holy Spirit because HE pours out LIFE! The valley of Dry bones paints a picture of a millions of people in a low place, a valley, who are spiritually dead, DRY! No WATER…No LIFE! These are the walking dead. Dry Bones speak of death, which is exactly what happens to people who are cut off from God’s Holy Spirit.
Ezekiel 37:1: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
Prophesy a message of HOPE!
Ezekiel asks, “can these bones live”? I would imagine Ezekiel would have thought..no! How can dry bones come back to life? It’s not possible. Ah, but ALL things are possible with YHWH! Ezekiel was told to prophesy a message of HOPE to the Dry bones.
Ezekiel 37: 4: Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life.
Breathe oh BREATH of GOD!
The Lord PROMISED to cause BREATH to ENTER these DRY BONES! The Hebrew word for “breath” is RUACH , which is also the same word for SPIRIT. The BREATH OF LIFE, as seen in Genesis 2:7, is God’s Holy Spirit, His Ruach Hakodesh. God breathed His own breath, His own LIFE into man. Where have we seen this before?
Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Adam and Eve were given the BREATH of LIFE, but when mankind sinned in the Garden of Eden, we became “naked”. Without God’s Spirit clothing us our bones became “dry”, our flesh, dead. But the LORD told Ezekiel that ONE DAY HE would bring our DRY BONES to LIFE!
The Flesh is DEAD but the SPIRIT is ALIVE!
Genesis 3:7: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden by eating the nasty fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they became afraid and ashamed. They lost the “covering” of light given to them by YHWH. Separated from their Creator by their own sin, YHWH sewed for them a temporary covering of “skins”. There is a “dual meaning” to these “garments of skin”. YHWH did clothe Adam and Eve in animal skins, setting up the substitution principle of the blood of the innocent in exchange for the blood of the guilty. But there may ALSO be a “hidden” meaning in these verses. The word “skin” in Genesis 3:1 can mean either of animal or human.
Genesis 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
When mankind sinned, we lost our covering, and even our flesh (skin) changed. Man was ORIGINALLY made in Elohim’s Image, to be immortal (garden of Eden), but when sin entered the world, so did sickness, pain, suffering and death. The Hebrew word for light and skin are nearly identical. Hebrew reads from right to left.
- אור “Ore” Strong’s 216 – light spelled “aleph vav resh” – rut
- עור “Ore” Strong’s 5785 – skin but is spelled “ayin vav resh” – rug
The phonetic pronunciation of these two words are identical, yet they mean two very different things. In the Hebrew, both words are spelled with a silent first letter (the aleph for “light” and the aiyin for “skin) followed by the resh. The only difference between the Hebrew words for light and skin is one SILENT letter. Many rabbis believe that Adam and Eve, being made in the image of God, went from being clothed in ore (light) to being clothed in ore (skin). Upon sinning they exchanged a nature of light for a nature of flesh. Now, mankind is born in Original Sin; therefore our flesh is “dead”.
Romans 8:10: If Christ is in you, though the body (flesh) is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
But YHWH makes an AMAZING PROMISE to HIS PEOPLE! He promises to BREATH LIFE into our DRY BONES, to bring LIFE back to our DEAD FLESH!
Ezekiel 37:6 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.’”
Ezekiel 37:10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Jesus paid a HIGH PRICE to give us HIS SPIRIT OF LIFE!
YHWH’s HOLY SPIRIT breathes LIFE!! Metaphors in Scripture for the God’s HOLY SPIRIT include WATER, BREATH, WIND, OIL. On the night Jesus was crucified, He shared the Passover meal with His Disciples, and then He went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Jesus understood that He was about to be betrayed by one of His friends, tried in an illegal trial, and crucified. The Bible reports that He literally sweat drops of blood because of the reality of what was very soon to happen to Him. The Garden in which Jesus went to pray, and from which He was later arrested, was an Olive Grove. The Garden’s name “Gethsemane” means “Olive Press”, because Olives are PRESSED to produce OIL. OIL is ANOTHER METAPHOR used for YHWH’s HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus was SEVERELY PRESSED that night and into the morning where He was beaten, scourged, spit upon, and finally nailed to a cross.
John 16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Matthew 27:50: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
In order for mankind to receive the RIVERS OF LIVING WATER that brings LIFE, Jesus had to be pressed (like the olive), beaten, and killed to RELEASE the OIL (Holy Spirit) who could then inhabit ALL who believe in HIM. The Holy Spirit is JESUS’ Holy Spirit, which HE gave up for you and for me! Once we receive His Spirit, our Spirit comes ALIVE. After Jesus’ Resurrection, He breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”.❤
John 20:22: And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Did you know that when Jesus Rose from the Dead, the tombs were literally opened, and the bodies of the Saints who had “fallen asleep” were raised with Jesus? These Saints came out of their tombs and appeared to many in Jerusalem! This really happened! Can you imagine?? It is believed that Jesus went into the belly of the earth to release these dead Saints during the 3 days and 3 nights that His Body lay in the tomb! Did this start the process of the Dry bones coming to life?
Matthew 27:52: The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The Holy Spirit is a DEPOSIT of what is YET TO COME!
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What about us? Christians today have the Holy Spirit. Do we still have dry bones? If you look at the verses below, those who BELIEVE in JESUS the CHRIST have received the Holy Spirit as a DEPOSIT for something that is yet to come, the REDEMPTION of the FLESH. This means that God’s Spirit has quickened our Spirit, and brought us from death to life, but although our spirit has been redeemed, we WAIT for the Redemption of the FLESH. I don’t know about you, but these next series of verses are pretty exciting! Though we contemplate what this may be like, I don’t think any of us can fully grasp the magnitude of these verses (see below). Jesus is going to change our physical bodies into bodies without sin, without sickness, without death! He’s going to QUICKEN (bring to life) our bodies in a flash, in the blink of an eye! Can you imagine what that might be like? No sickness, no death, no aging, no spots or blemishes. I’m imagining being clothed once again in light, as it was in the beginning. Honestly, this is something that is hard to believe, even though we HAVE been told!! (Habakkuk 1:5)! “Look among the nations! Observe!
Be astonished! Wonder! Because I AM doing something in your days—You would not believe if you were told”.
2 Corinthians 1:22: set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a DEPOSIT, guaranteeing WHAT IS TO COME.
Romans 8:10: If Christ is in you, though the BODY IS DEAD (NEKROS) because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:22-23: For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, WAITING eagerly for our adoption as sons, the REDEMPTION of OUR BODY.
1 John 3:2: Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
1 Thessalonians 4:16: For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE FIRST!
The dead IN CHRIST RISE FIRST!
All who believe in Jesus the Messiah have received the Holy Spirit into our hearts as a DEPOSIT or GUARANTEE for what is yet to come. Our Spirits have been redeemed and have gone from DEATH to LIFE! HALLELUJAH! However, there is MORE! The children of YHWH (believers in YESHUA/JESUS) WAIT for the Redemption of the flesh, dry BONES coming to LIFE! I believe that when Jesus says “The dead in Christ rise first”…he’s not speaking about the physically dead (those who have “passed away”) because those who are “in Christ” have not died, but are “asleep”, as evidenced by the use of the word “asleep” to describe the “natural death” of the BELIEVER three separate times in the three previous verses (1st Thess. 4: 13-15). As a matter of fact, the word for “dead” in 1 Thess. 4:16 “the dead (nekros) in Christ rise first” is a totally different Greek word than the word used to describe Jesus’ death on the cross (1st Thess: 4:14) apothnēskō. The word “apothnēskō” IS the word that describes the “natural death of man”. Jesus DIED so that those who BELIEVE IN HIM would never really die! (John 11:26).
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.14 For if we believe that Jesus died (apothnēskō) and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead (nekros) in Christ will rise first.
What I’m trying to say is that the “dead in Christ rising first” is referring to the redemption of the body. Currently, our FLESH is DEAD because of SIN(Romans 8:10)! Our flesh is like a GRAVE that has not yet been opened! Our FLESH has not yet been redeemed! But YHWH IS GOING TO OPEN our GRAVES, He is going to BREATHE the BREATH OF LIFE into our DRY BONES, HE is going to QUICKEN our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11)!! The word for “dead” (nekros) that is used in “The Dead in Christ will RISE first, is the same word for “dead” that is to describe our flesh in Romans 8:10 “The body (flesh) is dead (nekros) because of sin.
This is going to be GLORIOUS!!! ❤ The dead in Christ RISE first when the LAST TRUMP SOUNDS! Those DRY BONES will live again!
Prophesy to the WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL!
But what will happen to the Jews? Has God forgotten them?
Ezekiel 37:11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the WHOLE house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will OPEN your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 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.
14 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.’”
Romans 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;
YHWH says that HE will breathe LIFE into the WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL!! The Jewish people have been partially blinded UNTIL the fullness of the gentiles (melo ha’goyim) have come in (Romans 11:25). For the most part, the Jewish people rejected their Messiah YESHUA (Jesus), and will have to face the Tribulation period in order to bring them through the “final indignation”. But at the end of this period, Jesus will return, He will step His Feet upon the Mt. of Olives when HE goes to BATTLE to save ISRAEL (the Jewish people) from the antichrist and his minions!!! Many Jewish people will RECOGNIZE JESUS on THAT DAY and mourn as one mourns for an only Son (Zechariah 12:10). They will say “Blessed is HE who comes in the NAME of the LORD (Matthew 23:39)! Jesus will BREATHE on them the BREATH OF LIFE! He will POUR OUT HIS SPIRIT over them, as He has already done with Christians (Gentiles /Northern 10 Tribes)!! The “graves” of the Jews will OPEN!! The JEWS will RECOGNIZE THEIR MESSIAH and they will KNOW that YESHUA (JESUS) IS THE LORD! ❤
