LIFE-STUDY OF EZEKIEL
Read and pray: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)
WE WERE LIKE DEAD AND DRY BONES
Before God came to renew and regenerate us, we were like dead and dry bones. If we had only Ezekiel 36, we would realize that we were sinful and unclean, but we could not think that we were dead.
Ezekiel 37 reveals that we were not only dead, but that we were also like dry bones. This indicates that God’s salvation is not only for those who are sinful, but also for those who are dead.
In God’s eyes, when we were fallen, whether as a sinner or as a backsliding believer, we were dead and buried in a tomb. We were in the “grave” of various sinful things and worldly entertainments.
Before we were saved or before we were revived, we were all buried in some kind of grave. We were sinners, we were dead, buried, and dry. We had no blood, no flesh, no sinews, no skin ─ only dry bones. This is a picture showing how we were and where we were.
WE WERE SCATTERED
Because we were dead and dry, we were also scattered. According to Ezekiel 37, no bone was joined to another bone. All the bones were disjointed and scattered; there was no unity. Whether we were an unsaved sinner or a backsliding believer, this was our situation.
Today, many Christians are buried in the graves of denominations, divisions, independent groups, and different movements. All denominations, sects, groups, and movements are graves. Many of us can testify that previously we were in such graves, dead, dry, scattered, disjointed, and not connected to anyone.
GOD’S PEOPLE COME OUT OF THEIR GRAVES
Ezekiel 37:11-13 says: “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. 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, O My people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people.”
Not only do unbelieving sinners need to be delivered from their graves, but even many brothers and sisters need to be revived and delivered from death and from their tombs. Some saints have become fallen and desolate and are now trapped in their graves.
I do not know for what reason you are dead or in what kind of grave you are being held. However, I hope that the wind of God will blow upon you, that the light of God will shine on you, that the life of God will operate within you and break your grave, bring you out of it, and that you would be revived.
The Bible reveals that the Lord is the Savior of the dead. In John 5:25 the Lord Jesus said: “An hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
In Ezekiel 37, God is speaking not to the sick, but to the dead. It is a blessing to realize that we are dead and that we need the Lord to make us alive. God’s word in this chapter is not to make a sick person healthy, nor to transform a bad person into a good person; God’s word here is to make a dead person become a living person.
I hope that many will humble themselves before the Lord and pray: “Lord, I confess that I am not only sick and sinful ─ I admit that I am dead. My heart and my spirit are dead. Lord, I am completely dead and dry. I am like a heap of dead and dry bones. O Lord, I need Your life to enter into me. I need You to breathe the breath of life into me so that I may live.”
RESTORES THROUGH PROPHESYING
Praise the Lord, for He did not leave us in our situation, but came to rescue us! However, the Lord did not come directly to be our Shepherd, but, according to Ezekiel 37, He came through the prophesying of His word.
Many Christians have a mistaken understanding of prophesying, thinking that to prophesy is only to predict. But there is no prediction in Ezekiel 37. Rather, the prophesying here is a matter of declaring something or proclaiming something.
This indicates that prophesying in this chapter does not mainly mean predicting, but proclaiming, making some kind of declaration. When the Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy, He meant that Ezekiel should proclaim.
The Lord told Ezekiel that when he prophesied, He would send the breath and the wind. When Ezekiel prophesied, God gave the people the Spirit. From this we can clearly see that the main meaning of prophesying is not to predict, but to speak something for the Lord.
Other Christians think that to prophesy is to teach. But no matter how much one may teach dry bones, they remain dry bones. One may teach dry bones about the need for the wind, the breath, and the Spirit, but nothing happens to those bones.
In this chapter, Ezekiel neither predicted something to the dry bones nor taught them. On the contrary, when Ezekiel prophesied, he spoke something for God, and God followed him. While Ezekiel was prophesying, God was blowing upon the dry bones, sending the wind, the breath, and the Spirit.
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