1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” 4 Then 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, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on 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 on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Comment: Ezekiel was a prophet during the Babylonian exile. His ministry was during the captivity and had ended before the time of Ezra and Nehemiah who were commissioned to reopen Judea and Jerusalem as a Jewish state! He was dead probably before they were born and certainly Ezekiel was dead before Cyrus the Persian overthrew the Babylonians (recorded in the book of Daniel) and was favourably inclined to the Jews. Cyrus sent Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem! Does his prophecy primarily refer to the reshaping of Judea as a people of God? Remember that the prophecy stops and then is almost restarted in v 9. After Nehemiah, Ezra and Malachi had prophesied the scripture has no canonical books added until the New Testament was written about 400 years later. Do the first 8 verses above refer to the ‘bones being put together’ in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah? Is Malachi’s prophecy calling for the verse nine onwards portion of Ezekiel’s prophecy to be fulfilled? Was Malachi calling for real muscle power and real life to occur in the people of God?
A Question: Is this referring to Pentecost?
Joel 2: 28&29 – “And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
Prayer: Thank You, Father, that we live in the days when Your Spirit has come to breathe vital life into Your people!
As I read it! 