8.27 Ezekiel 37-39

Alex Bryant

8.27.2020

Ezekiel 37-39

This section begins with Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones. God asks him if he thinks these bones can live, to which Ezekiel replies “O Lord God, you know”. Then God breathes life into the bones and flesh forms around them. He tells Ezekiel that these bones represent the House of Israel, that though they believe they are dried up, cut off, and have no hope, God will raise them from their graves and restore them to the land of Israel.

He then has Ezekiel hold two sticks together to represent the reunification of Israel and Judah, who will again have one king over them from the line of David and no longer worship idols.

Ezekiel then prophesies to Gog and Magog, that they will come against Israel with their great numbers, and that through them God’s holiness will be vindicated before Israel’s eyes, because at the time when they would destroy Israel, God will instead destroy them, and that God’s name will no longer be profaned, and the nations will know that He is God.

After that, Israel will burn their weapons. For seven years they won’t need to gather wood because they’ll be burning their weapons instead. Then for seven months they will go throughout Israel marking the bodies of Gog’s armies and burying them in the “Valley of the Travelers” which will be renamed the Valley of Hamon-gog.

Then, in the key verse it says,

“And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.

“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations.

Ezekiel 39:23-27

Many times through this section in Ezekiel God mentions that his name will no longer be profaned, and that his holiness will be vindicated, and the nations will know that He is God. Israel was punished and sent into captivity because they failed to represent who God is to the nations around them. We have this same responsibility today as Christians, and God is still not about letting his name be profaned or his holiness called into question.

We need to make sure we are doing the best we can to represent the character of God to the world around us!

An action step I see that I could take is writing out a list of God’s qualities, and reading and praying through them daily to remind myself of the character of the God I serve and the attributes of His that I am trying to imitate in my life.

Jesus represented God perfectly, and yet he took the punishment for our iniquity.  This demonstrates the sacrificial quality of God’s love for us and shows how earnestly he desires us to be reconciled to him.Attachments area