VALLEY OF DRY BONES
“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones. (2)They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. (3)hen He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones come to life?” “O Lord GOD,” I replied, “only You know.” (4) And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!” (Isaiah 37:1-4, BSB)
Ezekiel was known as one of the major prophets of Israel, along with contemporaries such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. He was born into a priestly family in Jerusalem in c 623BC. Ezekiel was born during the reign of Josiah who was the king responsible for the tearing down of false images, high altars and structures of false gods. Josiah purposed in his heart to bring about a godly reform in the kingdom during the time when Hilkiah the priest found the lost book of the Law amongst the rubble of the second temple. In 597 BC, Israel under slavery to the Babylonian Empire in their own land, formed a rebellion against their captors. It was this event that led Babylon to remove the Israelites to Babylon under forced labour. Ezekiel, a young man was amongst the exiles taken to Babylon. At around 30 years of age it is thought that he received his prophetic call in Babylon.
A Vanquished Army
In a vision, Ezekiel is carried away to a valley by the Spirit of God and placed amongst a great many dry bones. It was the remains of a mighty army of fallen warriors. Their bones left scattered, sun-bleached and dried out under climatic exposure. It was no doubt an exceedingly moving scene, as the Lord brings context to reveal the spiritual state of Israel, His people. Ezekiel is asked if it is possible that the bones could be regenerated to life. He directs his response back to God acknowledging the Sovereign power and authority of our Lord as the Giver of Life. ‘You alone knows, Lord.’ What is in the dark belongs to God because He has the conclusion on the whole matter of life. In His summation, the final state of the bones of the House of Israel was not to be strewed across a figurative valley ground. God knows the intentions He has towards His people. “For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place. (11) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.“ (Jeremiah 29:10-11, BSB).
In the eyes of a loving Father, the future state of a rebellious wayward nation is His eternal promise of restoration and healing. The vanquished army was reminiscent of the spiritual death of the people having been taken captive to foreign lands and exposed to idolatry. He commanded His servant Ezekiel to prophesy into the ruinous state of His people and by eyes of faith they would once again be restored back to His eternal will..
Prophesy To The Dry Bones
It would be the enlivening Spirit of God that would breathe the life sustaining breath into parched dislocated bones under the harsh variables of the elements. The Hebrew word ‘Yabesh’ (H30020 gives a meaning of ‘dried up’ ‘dry’, ‘withered.’ The scene presented in the vision to Ezekiel was one of utter decay and death as the bones of the warriors lay strewed across a great stretch of the valley floor. All substance of life goes out of the being leaving an emaciated shell of what was once vibrant, alive and promising. The spiritual significance of what God is conveying cannot be overstated. Israel was likened to dry bones or sometimes referenced as spiritual eunuchs. They were impotently dried out without strength in the Spirit.
‘Chet’, also known as Heth, Het’ is the 8th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and gives us, ‘life’, ‘spirit of life.’. Chet has a numerical value of 8 that gives us ‘supernatural occurrence’ and the ’state of holiness’. If we break up the number 8 into the units 1 and 7, it can provide a deeper understanding of what I am trying to bring across.
Firstly, the number 1 denotes the Godhead. A presence of eternal Oneness exists in the Godhead. This union consists of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The number 8 is symbolic of Jesus our Sabbatical Rest in the Godhead and in Hebrew meaning is also a new beginning. In the passage of time Jesus established the New Covenant Order, it marked a new beginning of the eternal Sabbatical Rest through His plan of salvation to mankind. This being the beginning of the dispensation of grace by the law of the Spirit. It made obsolete the Old Mosaic Order of the written law of works. The number 7 is a number of completion, fullness and perfection. It is a sabbatical number symbolising ‘rest’ as in Creation, God completed His work to perfection and rested on the 7th day of Creation. “And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.” (Genesis 2:2, BSB)
The idea of ‘rest’ as a metaphor of Jesus is scriptural. In Creation we see God establishing an eternal order that would continue as a generational passing. “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” (Exodus 20:11, BSB). The setting apart of the 7th day as holy unto God is a veiled reference to Jesus. The chosen people of Israel would in time become custodians of the written law that would come through God’s servant Moses on Mount Sinai.. Matthew 28:18 announces that all power has been conferred upon our Lord our eternal Rest “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me”. Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy and His mantle of authority and sovereign rule is powerful and forceful to change a dead situation back to life.
A Rush Of The Spirit
Prophecy is the revelation of God and the absolute authority of the Word to bring into being that which did not exist. His potent Word to give life is final, ‘Thou shalt live’. Jesus represented the new beginning of grace and just as the Father is the sustainer of life so Jesus is the Giver of Life. The same Spirit of Life that burst from the tomb is the same Spirit that Ezekiel is instructed to prophesy under. On the utterance of the word of faith the bones reassembled. Yet it would take the Spirit of Ruach Hakodesh to give new life. A violent exhalation or a rush of the Spirit took place as the Ruach winds moved over the wretch state of fallen warriors. The Release mantle will stir in the deepest places revealing the seat of Satan’s set up and the establishment of evil residency in the hidden chambers, crypts and corridors of life where souls are held captive.
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that can cause men to burst forth from the graves of life. The breath of Ruach Hakodesh will come from the four corners of the globe and rush upon the situations of life to give breath to that which is dead. “Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!” (Ezekiel 37:8, BSB) As in Creation, the Wind of the Spirit in this Season of Release will forcibly move amongst the debris of life and stir up that which is dead. “…And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2, KJV)
I prophesy healing under the 7-fold anointing to call forth all things from impotency to power and from a dead state to a living breathing being.
Releasing Others
“At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from you; but your forefathers did not obey Me or incline their ear to Me.” (Jeremiah 34:14, )
When God looks on the state of His people today I believe He is seeing His global church as a littered landscape of dry carcass bones, A remnant of a mighty fallen army. In apostle John’s vision in Revelation 1, Jesus instructed him to write to the seven churches of Asia Minor to draw attention to the ancient spirits that could destroy these entities. That Word given to John would transcend time, being relevant and applicable to the global church community throughout the 7-fold Church Age. The seven sins, namely heresy, idolatry, apostasy, whoredom, unbelief, rebellion and hypocrisy are the perfect cohort of evil. The 7-fold sins of the Church would be the universal categories of foundational sins that could undermine the integrity of the Body of Christ. Like the desert church under Moses’ leadership, the Body of Christ today is plagued by the same ancient spirits of discordance, characterised by our human tendency to disobey God’s laws. Even under the New Covenant of grace we are inherent lawbreakers. “For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.” (2 Timothy 4:3, BSB). It is in order that we repent and confess our wretched, poor, spiritually sick, dying and dead states.
It is also in order that the spirit of love and forgiveness is exemplified amongst us. As the Spirit of Release brings about the higher works of grace let us be obedient to forgive others as God requires of His people. “Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you.” (Jeremiah 15:9, )
“And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” (Romans 8:11, BSB)
GWENDOLYN SMITH. #NEWPENTECOST. 17th SEPTEMBER 2020