This extraordinary vision of a valley in which the ground was covered with the dried-up bones of dead people contains an important message of spiritual as well as physical renewal. In the vision, Ezekiel watches the power of God's Spirit recreating living people from the dead bones. The message already given in chapter 36 and 34: 11- 31, that God is going to restore the exiles to their land and renew them so that they would live in peace and prosperity again, is dramatized vividly in this vision, and an important spiritual aspect of this renewal is emphasized. A human being is not just an animated body; he is a spiritual as well as a physical being. Genesis 1 :27 says: 'So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. 'God gave man his life and it is by the power of God's Spirit that man's life is sustained: 'I will give you sinews and muscles and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and bring you back to life' (37: 6). The Hebrew people had a profound understanding of the wholeness of a human being. In Hebrew thought man was a unity of body, mind and spiritual capacity. His life was lived out in the material world and his physical life mattered very much indeed for at the time we are discussing meaningful life came to an end at physical death, according to Hebrew understanding. There was no resurrection hope. But man was understood to be much more than a physical creature, a superior animal, and the Genesis creation accounts show human beings as the climax of God's creation. Man is linked with all the rest of what God has created but God puts in him a portion of his Spirit, distinguishing man from the rest of creation in this way. Man is able to have a personal relationship with God and to know God in a way that even the most intelligent animal cannot. This is the meaning of Genesis 1 : 27.

The vision of Ezekiel 37: 1-14 reveals how God is able to bring about the total renewal of a human being so that he is able to have the wonder¬ful relationship with the God who gave him life. Even if a human being is reduced by his sin to a state like a bundle of dead bones God can restore him and breathe new life into him. This was an astonishing message for Ezekiel to give to his fellow exiles, who appeared to the prophet as no better than dead bones. The total restoration of the people is promised in a most dramatic way.

In the context in which this prophecy is given, we cannot say that it was a prophecy of the resurrection of the dead, but this idea lies in the prophecy, like a seed buried in the ground. If God is the source and giver of all life and if God has the power to create and recreate, then surely God has the power to deal with death which destroys the human body that he has created. This understanding did not come to Jewish thinkers until much later, but the prophecy of Ezekiel in this passage pointed in this direction. Verse 13 says, 'When I open the graves where my people are buried and bring them out, they will know that I am the Lord.'

The last point to notice about this important message is the continued emphasis that God will act so that the people will know that he alone is God, the Lord of life: 'Then they will know that I am the LORD.' The people have done nothing to merit restoration, but God will restore them because this is his will.