https://literalword.com/esv?q=Ezekiel+37
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 10 October 2026:
Ezekiel 37:1-3 — The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones…. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.”
Ezekiel is brought by the Spirit of God into a valley filled with dry bones, a picture of complete death and hopelessness. The bones were not merely lifeless; they were very dry, emphasizing that no human effort could restore them. God was showing Ezekiel the condition of Israel after its destruction and exile. The nation had lost its land, its temple, its king, and seemingly its future. Yet God asks Ezekiel whether these bones can live. Ezekiel does not presume to know what God will do, nor does he limit what God can do. His response acknowledges both God’s unlimited power and His sovereign wisdom: “O Lord GOD, you know.”
There is an important lesson here about following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel did not choose the valley or determine the mission; God led him there. We often assume that God’s leading will take us toward fruitful opportunities, receptive people, or favorable circumstances. Yet He may lead us into situations that appear spiritually barren, discouraging, or beyond our ability to change. The question is not whether the circumstances appear promising, but whether we are faithfully following Him. We must also distinguish God’s revealed commands from our assumptions about His guidance. We cannot claim that every difficult situation is a specific assignment from God, but wherever His providence places us, we can trust His presence and obey His Word. Are you allowing the apparent impossibility of a situation to diminish your confidence in God’s power? Are you willing to serve Him faithfully even when you cannot see how anything good could result?
Ezekiel 37:4-6 — Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD…. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
God commands Ezekiel to preach to an audience that cannot hear, respond, or change itself. Humanly speaking, the assignment is absurd. Yet Ezekiel’s responsibility was not to determine whether the audience was receptive, but to faithfully proclaim what God had commanded. The power to bring life belonged entirely to the Lord. Notice that God repeatedly declares what He Himself will do. The prophet delivers the message, but God accomplishes the miracle, and the result reveals His glory.
This provides a powerful picture of the Gospel. Scripture describes humanity as spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, unable to produce spiritual life through human effort (Ephesians 2:1-5). Yet God uses the proclamation of His Word, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, to awaken faith and bring sinners to life in Christ (Romans 10:17; 1 Peter 1:23). Jesus declared that those who hear His Word and believe in the Father who sent Him have passed from death to life (John 5:24-25). Our calling is therefore to proclaim Christ faithfully, regardless of how unlikely someone seems to respond. We cannot convert anyone, but neither should we conclude that anyone is beyond God’s saving power. Have you stopped praying for or speaking God’s truth to someone because you have decided that person will never change? Are you more concerned with how people respond to your witness than with whether you are faithfully obeying Christ?
Ezekiel 37:7-10 — So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone…. But there was no breath in them…. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Ezekiel obeyed, and the bones began coming together. Sinews, flesh, and skin covered them, yet they remained lifeless until God gave them breath. The vision deliberately distinguishes outward restoration from the life that only God’s Spirit can provide. Israel needed more than the rebuilding of its cities and the restoration of its national identity. Without spiritual renewal, the people would remain separated from the life and fellowship God intended for them.
The same distinction applies to us. A person may attend church, understand Scripture, participate in ministry, and display outwardly respectable behavior while lacking a genuine relationship with Christ. Religious activity can imitate the appearance of spiritual life, but it cannot produce that life. Jesus warned that some would profess impressive works in His name while never truly knowing Him (Matthew 7:21-23). The essential question is not simply whether we appear religious, but whether we have been made alive through faith in Christ and are walking in fellowship with Him.
Notice also the relationship between Ezekiel’s obedience and God’s power. Twice the prophet declares that he prophesied as commanded. God could have restored the bones without Ezekiel, yet He chose to involve His servant in accomplishing His purposes. This is the extraordinary privilege of Christian ministry: God uses ordinary people as instruments of His extraordinary grace. Paul described himself and his fellow workers as servants through whom others believed, while insisting that God alone gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:5-7). We must neither become passive because God is sovereign nor prideful because He uses us. Faithful service requires both diligent obedience and complete dependence upon Him. Are you relying upon religious activity rather than a living relationship with Christ? Are you faithfully doing what God has commanded while trusting Him for the results?
Ezekiel 37:11-14 — 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.’… And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”
God now explains the vision. The dry bones represent Israel, a people convinced that their hope was gone. Their circumstances appeared to confirm their despair. Jerusalem had fallen, the temple was destroyed, and the people were scattered among foreign nations. But they had evaluated their future entirely by what they could see, rather than by the character and promises of God. The Lord answers their hopelessness by declaring what He will accomplish through His own power.
This continues the promise of the previous chapter, where God declared that He would give His people a new heart and put His Spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:26-27). National restoration was part of His promise, but the deeper need was spiritual life. Just as dry bones cannot breathe life into themselves, sinners cannot regenerate their own hearts. Spiritual life is God’s gracious gift, made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and imparted by the Holy Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus that a person must be born of the Spirit to enter God’s kingdom (John 3:5-8). Those who belong to Christ have the Spirit dwelling within them, and the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead guarantees their future resurrection (Romans 8:9-11).
This truth also transforms how believers face seemingly hopeless circumstances. We must be careful not to turn Israel’s specific promise of national restoration into a guarantee that God will reverse every personal loss or restore every broken situation in this life. Yet the resurrection of Christ assures us that suffering, failure, and even death cannot defeat God’s ultimate purposes for His people. Our hope rests not in our ability to recover what has been lost, but in the faithfulness of the God who raises the dead. When circumstances appear hopeless, are you measuring what God can do by what you can see? Are you trusting Him to accomplish His purposes, even when those purposes differ from the outcome you desire?
Ezekiel 37:15-22 — The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.”… And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.
God gives Ezekiel another visible demonstration of His promised restoration. The two sticks represent the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel, separated for generations by rebellion, jealousy, political conflict, and idolatry. God promises to gather His scattered people and reunite them under one king. Their restoration would not simply reverse their exile; it would also heal the divisions that had weakened and corrupted them.
The deeper significance becomes clear through Jesus Christ, the promised King who gathers God’s people into one family. Jesus declared that He would bring other sheep into His fold so that there would be one flock under one Shepherd (John 10:16). Through His death, He reconciles Jews and Gentiles to God in one body, breaking down the hostility that separated them (Ephesians 2:14-16). Our union with Christ becomes the foundation of our unity with one another.
This has important implications for the church. We cannot claim to enjoy close fellowship with Christ while comfortably nurturing bitterness, jealousy, pride, or unnecessary division among His people. Jesus prayed that His followers would be one so that the world might believe the Father had sent Him (John 17:20-23). Christian unity does not require abandoning biblical truth or ignoring genuine wrongdoing, but it does require humility, forgiveness, patience, and love. Our differences should not become more important than the Savior who unites us. Are you contributing to the unity of Christ’s church, or allowing personal preferences, wounded pride, or unresolved offenses to create division? Is there someone with whom you need to pursue reconciliation?
Ezekiel 37:23-24 — They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.
God’s promise of restoration includes deliverance from the idolatry that had repeatedly destroyed Israel’s relationship with Him. He will not merely forgive their past rebellion; He will cleanse and transform them so that they increasingly desire to obey Him. This is the work of grace. God does not save us so that we may continue comfortably in sin, but so that we may enjoy restored fellowship with Him and become holy as He is holy (Titus 2:11-14).
The promised Davidic king is Jesus Christ, the Son of David and the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11). Unlike Israel’s unfaithful shepherds, Jesus does not exploit His people or abandon them in danger. He gives His life to rescue them, rises again to secure their salvation, and leads them into a growing relationship with Himself. His sheep hear His voice and follow Him (John 10:27-28). Genuine faith therefore produces a changed relationship with sin and obedience. We may still struggle with temptation, but the Spirit progressively changes what we love, what we pursue, and what we are willing to surrender.
We should examine whether our desire for forgiveness is accompanied by a genuine desire for holiness. It is possible to want relief from guilt and freedom from sin’s consequences without wanting to abandon the sin itself. But the Gospel offers something far greater than pardon alone: a new life in which Christ becomes our greatest treasure and obedience becomes an expression of love. Are you seeking Jesus primarily for what He can do for you, or because you want to know and follow Him? Is there an idol you continue protecting even while asking God to bless your relationship with Him?
Ezekiel 37:25-28 — My servant David shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them…. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.
The chapter concludes with God’s greatest promise: He will dwell among His people forever. The restored land, united nation, everlasting king, and covenant of peace all lead toward this central blessing. God’s purpose has never been merely to improve His people’s circumstances, but to restore them to fellowship with Himself. Sin had separated them from His presence, but He promises an everlasting covenant through which they will belong to Him.
Jesus Christ fulfills this promise as the mediator of the new covenant, establishing peace with God through His blood (Hebrews 9:15; Colossians 1:19-22). Through Him, believers are reconciled to the Father and receive the Holy Spirit. God’s presence is no longer confined to a physical sanctuary. Those who belong to Christ are individually temples of the Holy Spirit, and together they are being built into a dwelling place for God (1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:21-22). We do not need to travel to a sacred building to enter God’s presence; through Christ, we have access to the Father by the Spirit.
This promise will reach its fullness when God dwells with His redeemed people in the new creation, where sin, death, and separation will be no more (Revelation 21:3-4). Until then, we are called to live in the reality of His presence, growing in holiness, enjoying fellowship with Him, and making His character visible to the world. God’s work in us is intended not merely to make our lives better, but to reveal His glory through transformed lives. Are you consciously living in fellowship with the God who dwells within you? Does your daily conduct reflect the holiness, love, and character of Christ?
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 10 October 2026: Today, identify one person who appears spiritually discouraged, distant from God, or resistant to the Gospel. Pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to work in that person’s heart, then contact them and share one Scripture and a personal word of encouragement or Gospel truth. Be faithful to speak God’s Word in love, trusting Him rather than yourself to produce spiritual life.
Pray: “Father, You alone have the power to bring life from death and restore what seems hopeless. Thank You for giving me new life through Jesus Christ and placing Your Spirit within me. Forgive me for relying upon my own strength, doubting Your power, or resisting Your work in my heart. Make me sensitive to Your Spirit, faithful to Your Word, and willing to serve wherever You place me. Continue to cleanse my heart, unite me with Your people, and make me more like Jesus. Use my life to reveal Your glory and draw others to Christ. Amen.”
