Ezekiel 34 mainly covers outward aspects of the Lord’s recovery. In this chapter God comes as the Shepherd to search and seek for His people and to bring them back to His good land. Ezekiel 36 covers the inward aspect of the Lord’s recovery. In His recovery, the Lord not only brings us back outwardly, but He also inwardly gives us a new heart and a new spirit and puts His Spirit into our spirit. If we see this, we will realize that the Lord’s recovery is not merely a matter of outward position and outward circumstances but also a matter of inward nature and disposition. In the Lord’s recovery, which is something both outward and inward, not only are our position, circumstances, and surroundings changed, but we also have the inward renewing of our heart and our spirit, and we receive the Spirit of God. Outwardly there is a change, and inwardly there is a conversion.
Ezekiel 36, however, does not tell us clearly and thoroughly how we may have a conversion, how we may have a new heart and a new spirit, and how we may obtain God’s Spirit. We are simply told in a general way that the Lord will give us a new heart and a new spirit and put His own Spirit within us. Thus, we need Ezekiel 37 to show us how God renews us and regenerates us.
Before God came in to renew us and regenerate us, we were like dead and dry bones. If we had only Ezekiel 36, we would realize that we were sinful and filthy, but we would not think that we were dead. Ezekiel 37 reveals that we were not only dead but that we were also dry bones. This indicates that God’s salvation is not only for those who are sinful but also for those who are dead.
In the sight of God, when we were fallen, either as a sinner or as a backslidden believer, we were dead and buried in a grave. 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 sinful, dead, buried, and dried up. We had no blood, no flesh, no sinew, no skin—just dry bones. This is a picture showing what we were and where we were.
Because we were dead and dry, we were also scattered. According to Ezekiel 37 not one piece of bone was joined to another piece. All the bones were disjointed and scattered, having no oneness. Whether we were an unsaved sinner or a backslidden 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 formerly we were in such graves, dead, dry, scattered, disjointed, and not connected to anyone.
Ezekiel 37:11-13 says, “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: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And 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.” Not only 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 graves. Some saints have become fallen and desolate and now are bound in their graves. I do not know by what you were slain or in what kind of grave you are being held. But I hope that God’s wind will blow upon you, that God’s light will shine into you, and that God’s life will work within you to tear open your grave and cause you to come up out of this grave and to be revived.
The Bible reveals that the Lord is the Savior of the dead. In John 5:25 the Lord Jesus says, “An hour is coming, and it is now, 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 enliven us. God’s word in this chapter is not to make a sick person well and not to turn an evil person into a good person; God’s word here is to cause a dead person to 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 pile of dead, dry bones. O Lord, I need Your life to come into me. I need You to breathe the breath of life into me so that I may live.”