Resurrection of the Dry Bones

Verse: 

"And said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."  Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.  Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  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."

Ezekiel 37:3-6

Thoughts: 

Today, I moved on to Ezekiel 37.  Over the past couple of days, I've come across versus and stories in Ezekiel that could translate into practical application for life.  Ezekiel 37 was a little harder in that regard.  The chapter deals with a prophecy in the valley of the dry bones and then the prophecy of God reconnecting Judah and Israel and the people of Israel returning to their homeland and abolishing the practice of overt idolatry.  Consequently, they did return to Israel and never again built the altars to other gods...even when Rome occupied them and pressed for it.

The most interesting piece to me in this chapter though was the Valley of the Dry Bones.  I remember in the New Testament, Jesus was questioned by some of the Sadducees about resurrection.  They did not believe in resurrection, so Jesus used a discussion God was having with Moses to demonstrate that resurrection actually does / will occur (Mark 12:26-27).  The Sadducees also only believed in and studied the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible), so Jesus had to organize his argument / defense around those.  This stands out to me because Ezekiel 37 gives a clear example of God's ability to raise the dead; however, Jesus couldn't use this example in the Sadducees situation.

Ezekiel 37 can be read as an illustration describing the recreation of Israel.  In its greater context of where it is found in Ezekiel, Israel has been punished along with the neighboring nations and now God has begun talking about a future date when he will recollect them and rebuild Israel.  Therefore, it is logical to make the connection that the "dry bones" is the current death of Israel as a nation and the "raising of the body and breath of life" is God returning Israel to its former glory.  

However, taken in a literal sense, the passage also clearly shows God's ability to raise the dead.  More so, again in the literal sense, God specifically says "And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people (v. 13).  A prior passage also describes that act saying, "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" (v. 10).  If you read this and take it in its literal sense, this seems to possibly foreshadow Revelation 20:4-5 where the dead are resurrected and rule with Christ.

So is resurrection possible?  Absolutely...Christ proved that.  However, finding some of these passages throughout the Old Testament just help reassure the supreme control God has over the universe and how constant of a stalwart he is.