Reading: Ezekiel 37-39, Psalm 42
Yesterday Ezekiel made this wild promise to the people of Israel, who have just suffered the final catastrophe in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple: God will rescue and shepherd his people personally. He will give them new hearts. A particular emphasis was put on giving them his own Spirit. He recalls the enmity of Jacob and Esau in their respective descendant nations, and says he will put an end to it. When that happens God’s people will return to their land, a place of bounty, ease, and joy. A place like the Garden, where this whole story started. What will take them there? How will this happen? Let’s answer that question.
Some confusion can be caused by the fact that the word “Spirit,” so prominent in the preceding passage, is here read as “breath.” It’s not so much that it’s a bad translation as it is that we don’t realize it is the same word as Spirit. Let’s try reading it this way: Ezekiel is taken to by God’s Spirit to a valley, somewhere in Babylon. There are a bunch of bones there. Ezekiel is told to tell the bones this message from God: I will cause spirit to enter you, and I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put spirit in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. When he is finished speaking, this happens: 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 spirit in them. Noting this situation, God give Ezekiel one more word to speak: Prophesy to the spirit; prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe (spirit) on these slain, that they may live. So Ezekiel does, with the result that the spirit came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Does this remind you of anything? God makes humans, maybe one from a bone. Then he breathes into them, putting spirit in them, and they live. This is the origin story of humans in Genesis 2. God is making a point to Ezekiel and the people he spoke to: God makes all things new. Israel is at it’s lowest point, and God here makes his greatest promise. Though they are dead, they will be part of a new creation. The promise of a restored Garden of Eden will be accomplished by the Spirit. There is really no other means available to the people of Israel at this point. They are dead bones in Babylon.
But God isn’t done yet. Once they have been brought to life, he will get to work on the results of the human problem. The house of Israel, divided into two kingdoms led by Judah and Ephraim, are the latest in a long, long series of brothers who couldn’t get along. Ezekiel’s little theater with the sticks demonstrates God’s intention to unwork this family curse that began with Cain and Abel.
Not everyone will accept the family reunion, as we turn to a prophecy against Gog and Magog, images from earlier in the story of people and kings who prey on the weak. Opportunists who have no respect for a peaceful land, and come to despoil it. Like so many of his stories of deliverance in earlier parts of the story, God does not make use a his glorious army of resurrected bones to fight these enemies- every sword will be against his brother. They will destroy themselves. The curse of enmity between brothers, which they refused to be delivered from, will be their doom. Then God’s people will come out and burn all their weapons. God’s people will be left as a glorious picture of God’s restored creation.
How will this happen? We know that God’s Spirit will be the means of resurrection for God’s people. What will unite the human family from the curse? Their prince, my Servant David. God will set the Good Shepherd, the Prince, the Servant of the Lord, the descendant of David, over his people, and he will bring them together, in a new world, a new city, and a new Temple.