EZEKIEL SHOWS, BY SIGNS, THAT THE PEOPLE IN JERUSALEM SHALL BE TAKEN CAPTIVE. GOD TELLS HIM THE DAY WHEN THE CITY IS BESIEGED. THE VISION OF THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES. GOD PROMISES THAT THE JEWS SHALL RETURN TO THEIR OWN LAND AND STAY THERE ALWAYS.
AND the Lord commanded Ezekiel to make ready the things that were in his house, and to carry some of them out of his door to another place, like a person who is moving. He was to do this in the day time. But when the evening should come, he was to dig an opening through the wall of his house, and was to go out through the opening, carrying more of his things upon his shoulder. At the same time he was to cover his face as if he were in trouble, and did not wish other persons to know him.
And Ezekiel did as the Lord commanded; he made his things ready and carried a part of them out of the door of his house in the day time, and took them and left them in another place. And in the evening he digged through the wall and brought out more of them, through an opening in the wall, carrying them upon his shoulder; and he covered his face like a person in trouble who did not wish others to know him. The people who were captives with him, saw him doing all this, and they came to him and asked him what it meant.
The next morning the Lord spoke to him, saying, Do they ask thee what these things mean? Tell them they are to show what will happen to king Zedekiah and all the people who are still living in Jerusalem. As thou hast taken the things out of thy house and moved them to another place, so the people in Jerusalem shall be taken out of the city and carried away captive to another land. And king Zedekiah shall go also. His servants shall break through the wall, and he shall flee out of the city in the evening, carrying a burden upon his shoulder, and he shall cover his face to keep the Chaldeans from knowing him. Yet he shall not escape, for I will give him into their hands and they shall take him to Babylon. But although he shall go into that land, and die there, he shall not see it. The Lord meant that Zedekiah would not be able to see the land into which he was taken, because king Nebuchadnezzar would put out his eyes before he should go there.
And the Lord commanded Ezekiel, when he should eat bread and drink water, to tremble, like a person who was afraid that his enemies were coming to take it from him. When the people should ask him what this meant, Ezekiel was to tell them, that so the Jews in Jerusalem, and in the land of Judah, would tremble and be afraid, when their enemies should come to fight against them. Because their enemies should come, the Lord said, to destroy their cities and carry away the people and leave the whole land lonely and desolate.
And in the ninth year, in the tenth month and on the tenth day of the month, the Lord told Ezekiel to write down the day, so that it might be remembered; for on that day, he said, the king of Babylon had gone up against Jerusalem and besieged it.
After these things some of the captives to whom Ezekiel was speaking, came to him and said, If we must be punished for all the sins we have done, and if the Lord is determined to destroy us for them, what can we do, and who can save us? Ezekiel answered them, This you can do: Repent of your sins and cease doing evil. For thus saith the Lord: As truly as I live, I have no pleasure in punishing the wicked man, or in putting him to death for his sin; but would rather he should turn from his wickedness and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O ye children of Israel?
And in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, and on the fifth day of the month, a man who had escaped out of Jerusalem, came to Ezekiel at the river Chebar, and said that the city was taken. Then when the captives heard this, they knew that Ezekiel had told them only those words that the Lord had spoken to him, but that the false prophets had deceived them when they said, that the men of Israel should not be punished for their sins, and that Jerusalem should not be taken by the king of Babylon. For now all Ezekiel's words had come true. The king of Babylon had taken Jerusalem, and had broken down the walls of the city, and burned the houses and the king's palace and the temple with fire. He had taken king Zedekiah also and put out his eyes, and carried him and the people away to Babylon; and the whole land was left lonely and desolate.
And yet, although the Lord had sent all these troubles upon the children of Israel, he did not mean wholly to destroy them, but only to punish them for a time, and until they should repent; then he intended to bless them and take them for his people again. And he commanded Ezekiel to tell them, that the day was coming when he would seek for them in all the lands where they were carried away captive, as a shepherd seeks for his sheep that are lost, and that he would bring them back to their own land.
And again the Lord showed Ezekiel a vision. Ezekiel thought that he was carried out into a valley where the ground was covered with dead men's bones. And he walked about among the bones and looked on them and saw they had no flesh on them, but were very dry. And the Lord spoke to him and asked him, saying, Can these bones be made alive again? Ezekiel answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. The Lord said to him, Speak to them and say, O ye dry bones, listen to the command of the Lord; for he says that flesh shall come upon you, and breath shall come into you, and you shall live.
So Ezekiel spoke the words that the Lord commanded. After he had spoken, he heard a noise among the bones, and saw a shaking among them; they began to move and come together, each bone to the one it belonged to. And as soon as they had come together, flesh grew upon them, and skin, until the bones all became bodies again. But there was no breath in them, they were still dead.
Then the Lord spoke to Ezekiel and commanded him to speak to the winds, and say, Come ye winds and blow upon these dead bodies that they may have breath and live. And Ezekiel spoke to the winds, and the winds blew upon the dead bodies and breath came into them, and they breathed and were alive; and they all stood up on their feet like a very great army.
Then the Lord explained to Ezekiel why he had shown him this vision, and what it meant. He told him that all the people of Israel complained because of their punishment and their trouble; they said they were like bones that were dry and dead, and that they had lost all hope of ever being happy, or of seeing their own land again. But the Lord said he would raise them up out of their troubles, as he had raised those dry bones to life, and that he would bring them back to their own land. And when he should have saved them from their troubles and put his Spirit in their hearts, and brought them back to their own land, then the children of Israel would know that it was the Lord who had spoken these words to them, and that he had made his words come true.
And the Lord commanded Ezekiel to take two sticks and give each of them a name; one was to be named for the kingdom of Israel, and the other for the kingdom of Judah. And Ezekiel was to write its name upon each stick. Then he was to hold the two sticks close together; and while he was holding them, the Lord said, they would grow into one stick in his hand.
When the people should see this and ask him what it meant, Ezekiel was to answer them, Thus saith the Lord, I will take the children of Israel away from the nations where they have gone captive, and will bring them back to the land of Canaan. And after they come there, they shall not be divided into two nations any more, but I will make them one nation. Neither shall they worship idols nor do wickedly; for I will put my Spirit into their hearts and make them holy, and they shall be my people and I will be their God. They shall live in the land where their fathers lived, and their children and their children's children shall live there always. And I will be kind to them and will give them a king who shall rule over them for ever.
We have read, before this, that the prophet Jeremiah told the people they should stay in Babylon seventy years, and then go back to Jerusalem. And what Jeremiah told them came true; when the seventy years were ended, the Jews did go back to Jerusalem and to Canaan, and lived in their own country, but this was not the going back that Ezekiel meant. For after they had gone back they sinned yet more than they had ever sinned, and made God more angry with them than he ever had been, because they crucified his Son. Therefore he sent them out of Canaan again, and scattered them among all nations, as they are scattered at this day. But Ezekiel tells us, in the words we have just read, that the Lord means to bring them back into Canaan once more, and that when he shall do so, they will stay there always. For then they will not sin any more, but will repent of their wickedness In crucifying God's Son, and will believe on him, and obey him, and take him for their Saviour.
The time for this to happen to the Jews has not come yet, and we cannot tell when it may come. But we are sure that it will come, because God, by his holy prophet, has told us so.