Shining a light on the weekly Bible Lessons published in the Christian Science Quarterly®

Spirit

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: . . . So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: . . . Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; . . . Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. 

Ezekiel was called by God to prophesy during the Babylonian exile. He spent the first years of his ministry preparing his fellow Jews for continuing adversity, including the fall of Jerusalem. By the time of his oracle in chapter 37, the city had been destroyed. Ezekiel turns to words of comfort, employing a graphic image of God’s power in a valley of bones.

Though stories of Hebrew prophets raising the dead (see I Kings 17:17–24; II Kings 4:18–37) were well known, most of Ezekiel’s listeners would not have accepted the concept of widespread physical resurrection. And because the Israelites demanded respectful burial of the dead, they would likely have been horrified by the mention of exposed bones. Yet they were meant to identify with this metaphor, representing the hopelessness, exhaustion, and apparent finality of their long captivity. Ezekiel’s vision of resuscitation gives the Hebrew people reason to hope: God will surely revive their nation in its extreme need.

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Resources cited in this issue

RR: Radmacher, Earl D., Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House. The NKJV Study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007.

Cit. 5: Keck, Leander E., et al., eds. The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 4, Ezra, Nehemiah, Introduction to Prophetic Literature, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Lamentations. Nashville: Abingdon, 2015.

Cit. 11: Mays, James Luther, et al., eds. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Vol. 29, Luke. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1982–.

Cits. 11, 16: Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1955. Revised and updated by Saint Andrew, 2001. Reprinted as The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001–04.

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