Ezekiel gives us images of God’s transcendent power which we know well from spirituals—dry bones that rise again, the wheels that move by the grace of God. Ezekiel speaks for the God of Israel but he lives in exile in Babylon—modern-day Iraq. He is among those the Babylonians take captive in 598 B.C., ten years before they finally level the city of Jerusalem and its temple. The temple vanishes with its priests and festivals that once assured the people of God’s presence with them.
What God gives Ezekiel in exile are visions, dreams of new birth in the midst of the dry and scattered bones of his people. Israel doesn’t become an independent nation again until modern times. But out of Israel’s relationship with God come two world religions—Judaism and Christianity. Ezekiel’s vision is without earthly foundations; it is sheer faith in God’s life-giving power.
These bones will rise.
Thus says the Holy One: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am God, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am God. I have promised, and I will do it, says God.
Ezekiel 37.12-14
- What speaks to you in Ezekiel’s vision?
- What speaks to you in the artist’s portrait of Ezekiel?