Ezekiel 37:9, commentary and pictures

God bids the prophet call for breath to come from the four winds upon the slain, and breath enters them so they live and stand up as an exceeding great army. No human might or power can give life to the dead, but no work of restoration is too hard for God to do. That breath is the Holy Spirit of God, whom the Lord alone can breathe upon the dead so they have life. The slain are men dead in trespasses and sins, backslidden people and lifeless churches as dry bones needing to be revived that they may live. They live only when God breathes life into them, for without the Spirit's life-giving influence truth is a dead letter, and that breath is given in answer to prayer.

Vision of Restored Life

The command is to prophesy to the wind, calling for breath to come from the four winds and breathe upon the slain that they may live. In answer to that prophetic word breath comes into them, life is restored, and they live and stand up upon their feet as an exceeding great army. No might or power of man can impart life to the dead, and for the dry bones scattered through the valley there is no human hope. Yet no work of restoration is too hard for God to do. Even amid apparent disaster and defeat His providence works out His purposes, so none who trust in Him need ever say that hope is lost.

God's power works when the scattered bones are shaken together bone to his bone, bound together by sinews and covered with flesh, and the Lord breathes upon the bodies thus formed. It is then that the breath enters and the army stands.

The vision illustrates that God will call the dead to life by giving them the breath of life and bidding the dry bones live. In that resurrection each person retains character and individuality. Each comes forth in the same recognizable form, but free from disease and defects. The body is not made from the identical particles that composed it before death, for God gives the righteous a new body suited to him, raised a spiritual body.

Spirit Revives Spiritual Death

The breath commanded to come from the four winds upon the slain is the Holy Spirit of God, and the Lord alone can breathe upon dead bodies so that they shall have life. His breathing turns spiritual death into life and power for work, energizing the dead dry bones of the house of Israel when He breathes upon His people. The dry bones live only when God breathes life into them, and people and the church cannot advance or serve God effectively until the Spirit moves deeply upon the heart. Without the Spirit's life-giving influence truth is a dead letter.

The slain are present men as dry bones dead in trespasses and sins who cannot realize anything. They include oppressed, beaten, bruised, and spiritually ignorant people who need the breath of spiritual life so they may live rather than perish in their sins. The verse depicts the Lord breathing upon His backslidden people who are as dry bones that they may live, with reviving power given in answer to prayer for those spiritually dead through backsliding. That revival is urgently needed because the end is near and steals upon sleepers stealthily, imperceptibly and noiselessly like the muffled tread of a thief in the night to suddenly surprise those off guard and unready.

The image applies to churches that need the Spirit and breath of God to revive them from spiritual deadness so they can stand and live. The breath of life coming into churches lifts them out of the dead level in which they have been for years. It pictures the church in Battle Creek as the valley of dry bones, spiritually dead and needing to be stirred with some power to give it life, or many souls will be lost.

Those described as dry bones are people who profess the truth but lack an inward, living, experimental knowledge of its vitalizing, sanctifying power to give life and make holy. They have icy hearts and only a legal religion. They are in darkness where form has taken the place of power and simplicity is lost in a round of ceremonies that cannot replace that power.

Means and Fruit of Revival

The breath of life comes in answer to prayer, even united prayer for the Spirit to work. God's people are to pray for the spiritually dead, and for the Holy Spirit to empower messengers working among them, for oppressed, beaten, bruised and spiritually ignorant people need the breath of spiritual life so they may live rather than perish in their sins. The Lord breathes upon His backslidden people who are as dry bones that they may live, and that reviving power is urgently needed because the end is near, stealing upon sleepers stealthily, imperceptibly and noiselessly like the muffled tread of a thief in the night to suddenly surprise those off guard and unready.

The spiritually lifeless are given life by a life-giving message presenting sin and atonement in Bible light with power from God. That message presents Christ and His righteousness to those whose religion is merely legal and whose hearts are icy, causing them to see the better things provided for them, so that instructed they can give the light to others and work together with God in gathering in and bringing home the sheep of His fold. The breathing means giving a true missionary spirit to those who know the truth, waking them to be laborers together with God to meet the great lack of workers, as in Australia and in the Melbourne church in a large city with scarcely any missionaries. That revival turns spiritual death into life and power for work, enabling God's people to stop smothering the warning and to carry the third angel's message to new fields and to those who have never heard it before Christ's second coming.

Spiritual revival for lifeless churches comes through regular, organized work that sends workers into the churches. They set the principles of health reform before them combined with the proclamation of the third angel's message, and engage church members in serving others, and the breath of life coming in thus lifts them out of the dead level in which they have been for years. Those breathed upon are made to live as by a resurrection from the dead, though dead in trespasses and sins and able to realize nothing, and are brought into action as a living whole united in cooperation to bear testimony in accordance with the truth believed. They are made strong to help those in need, and if what God waits to give is received they put on joy and gladness as a garment.

God uses believing ones as His instrumentalities to minister to souls fainting for the bread of life. Those who have received the grace of Christ and keep in the current of life that comes from Christ help rouse the lifeless to action and kindle life in other souls, with words of hope and cheer falling from lips touched with a live coal from God's altar to revive and comfort the weary and distressed, producing healthy, happy action in the church, for many have lost vital energy and are sluggish, dead as it were. The Spirit's work produces a solemn season in which those without evidence of connection with God come forward to become Christians, many weep under conviction, and about one hundred bear deep, feeling testimonies.