Ezekiel 37:10, commentary and pictures

In the vision a valley full of scattered bones of the dead is joined into formed bodies, and when the prophet speaks to the wind as commanded the breath enters them and they live and rise as a vast army. No human might or power can give life to the dead, but by the working of God's power no restoration is too hard and none who trust in Him need lose hope. The breath entering them is the Holy Spirit of God breathed upon people to give spiritual life, without whose life-giving moving upon the heart truth remains a dead letter. The dry bones are God's people and church when spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, whom He must fill with His breath so they rise, recover spiritual energy, stand together in unity and cooperation, and advance actively in service. The living and standing as a great army also describes the resurrection of the righteous, when God gives again the breath of life and calls the sleeping saints from their graves to rise in immortal glory as an immense company from every nation.

Vision's Scene and Power

The setting is a vision in the middle of a large valley covered throughout its whole extent with bones of the dead. It is a dismal scene with no hope of life from man. As God works, the scattered bones shake together and are joined and bound with sinews and covered with flesh. When breath is breathed on the formed bodies, they come to life and stand on their feet as a vast army.

Ezekiel prophesies as he is commanded, prophesying to the wind. In answer to his word, life is restored to the slain. They stand up as an exceeding great army.

Human might and power can do nothing to give life to the dead. Life comes only by the working of the power of God. No work of restoration is too hard for God to do. None who trust in Him need ever say their hope is lost, as Israel had said.

Spirit's Revival of Church

The breath entering them is the Holy Spirit of God breathed upon people to give spiritual life, the deep moving of the Spirit on the heart with life-giving influence, without which truth becomes a dead letter. The dry bones are men dead in trespasses and sins who cannot realize anything, and also oppressed people perishing in sins who need God to breathe spiritual life into them so they may live. The dry bones are God's people and church when spiritually dead, whom the Lord cannot use until He breathes life into them, and that breath must fill them so they can rise and live and stand, recover spiritual energy, become active in service, and bring steady advancement. When the breath comes the dead live as by a resurrection, come into action, and stand together in unity and cooperation as a living whole bearing testimony in accordance with the truth.

The dry bones are those who profess the truth but lack experimental knowledge of its vitalizing and sanctifying power, where form and ceremony have taken the place of power and simplicity has been lost in a round of ceremonies. When the breath comes into them they receive experimental knowledge of Christ as Redeemer, are vitalized and sanctified by truth, and Christian love works the grandest of miracles in them. The dry bones are icy hearts whose religion is merely cold and legal, awakened to life by power from God through the life-giving message of sin and atonement in Bible light showing Christ and His righteousness as the better things provided for them. So enlivened, they can give the light to others and work together with God in gathering and bringing home the sheep of His fold.

The verse applies to believers in Melbourne, Australia who know the truth but are spiritually dead, with scarcely any missionaries in a large city that needs a hundred and more, and the breath gives life by waking them to be laborers together with God with a true missionary spirit for the great work to be done. The verse applies to the church in Battle Creek as the valley of dry bones, spiritually dead and needing to be stirred by divine power to give it life by receiving the light and knowledge it needs, which calls for work and prayer and an open hearing rather than closing the door to what would revive it. The verse applies to God's backslidden people as dry bones who need the Lord to breathe upon them now because the end is near, coming stealthily and noiselessly like a thief in the night to surprise sleepers who are off guard and unready. Therefore those at ease must no longer sleep as others but watch and be sober, giving the will as clay into the hands of the potter and cooperating with God to become a vessel molded unto honor, passive and susceptible to divine impressions, standing in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness where no earthly or selfish motive is suffered to live, in order to be renewed in the divine image.

The reviving by the Holy Spirit is needed so that His people will labor with self-denial and self-sacrifice to carry the warning messages and the third angel's message to new fields and to those who have not heard it before Christ's second coming. The breath of life lifts spiritually dead and inactive churches out of the dead level where they have been for years when regular, organized efforts set the principles of health reform before every church and join medical missionary work with the third angel's message, turning them into a living, working army. God breathes His Holy Spirit upon people in answer to earnest prayer for the Spirit to work, giving spiritual life to those who wish to be Christians and lack evidence of their connection with God, producing a solemn season of weeping in which about one hundred people bear testimonies with deep feeling. The standing exceeding great army is God's workers, who under heaven's Leader are to enlist in His service and advance together unitedly to carry the truth to the world, gain victory in every conflict, and conquer the world.

Resurrection and Final Army

The coming to life and standing as a great army pictures the resurrection of the righteous. At that time the voice of the Son of God calls the sleeping saints forth from their graves. They rise in immortal glory as an immense company gathered from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

In His own time God calls forth the dead by giving again the breath of life and bidding the dry bones live. The same form comes forth bearing the same personal identity, character, and individuality of features, so that friend will recognize friend. Yet all come forth free from disease and every defect. The spirit, which is the character of man, is preserved with God and in the resurrection is returned to each person, so that every man receives his own character. This identity does not require the same identical particles of matter that went into the grave, for God gives a body that pleases Him, of much finer material, as a new creation and a new birth.