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Valley of Dry Bones and Two Sticks
Valley of Dry Bones and Two Sticks
The 37th chapter of Ezekiel gives us two visions. These are both symbolic visions of what God was planning on doing for the captives of Judah. They had been taken into Babylonian captivity while their homeland was demolished by the Babylonian army. Their cities were destroyed, their government dismantled, the land decimated. No nation can recover from such devastation - or can it? With God it is possible.
Hence the first vision is about 'resurrecting' a whole valley of dried bones. They are raised, given flesh, and given life. "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 is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel" (Ezekiel 37:11-12).
Judah as a nation was like this valley of dry bones yet God brought them 'back to life'. He resurrected their nation and country. He brought them back from captivity and they rebuilt their cities and land. They rebuilt the temple and reinstituted the religion of their covenant.
The second vision saw two sticks. God identifies these for us. They are NOT the book of Mormon and the Bible! The one stick is Israel (the northern 10 tribes, called Joseph, Ephraim) and the other stick is Judah. That is God's say so on what these are (vs. 16, 19). God was going to take these two kingdoms (sticks) and make ONE kingdom (stick) out of them (vs. 19, 22).
In making this new kingdom God would appoint David as their leader, make them a new covenant (vs. 26), provide peace for them, and set his sanctuary in their midst (vs. 24, 26). As we have seen elsewhere, such reference to 'David' as their coming king point to Jesus, the son of David. Jesus IS the mediator of this new covenant (Heb. 9:15; 12:24) and in Him we have peace (John 16:33; Eph. 2:14). Together we are built as the temple of the LORD, the 'sanctuary' of God (Eph. 2:21-22).
The only real debate on this seems to be the mentioning of the land. What we have under Christ is a better land promise. Where ever His people live, they live with HIM. Our kingdom is not of this world and our home awaits us. Here we are pilgrims and strangers (1Pet. 2:11) having our citizenship in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Now we serve God together - Israel, Judah, and the gentiles all ONE BODY in the LORD. Together he has made us into 'one new man' (Eph. 2 ). Now there is one LORD and ONE BODY (Eph. 4:4-6). Let us praise God for this salvation and learn to live in peace with each other as God's redeemed people.
Hugh DeLong
