Ezekiel 37:9

THE BREATH OF LIFE

‘Come from the four winds, O breath!’

Ezekiel 37:9

This majestic vision prefigured the restoration of the national life of Israel, the return from captivity, the revival of true and spiritual religion. Yet it serves also as the symbol of all real revival of individual and of social life, and of the Divine power and agency by which spiritual requickening is ever effected.

I. A picture of spiritual death.—This consists in, (1) Indifference to religion. (2) The substitution of formalism for vital piety. (3) The coldness and selfishness which accompany the loss of genuine piety, and (4) the prevalence of sin, error, and folly.

II. A symbol of the means of revival.—(1) The human means, i.e. prophecy, or the free and fearless publication of the words of the Eternal. The voice of the preacher is human, but the substance of his message is Divine and heavenly truth. (2) The Divine energy. The breath of God, the four winds of heaven, alone could make the dry bones live. This energy is (1) supernatural, (2) invisible and intangible, (3) Divine, and (4) powerful, as is manifest from its marvellous effects.

III. An illustration of the mighty effects of the reviving Spirit.—(1) These may be felt individually and experimentally, in the renewing of the Holy Ghost. (2) They may be traced historically, e.g. in the events of the day of Pentecost, in the first progress of the Gospel, in periods of reformation and revival. (3) They may be foreseen in the anticipations of faith. The world has yet to feel, and it will yet feel, the amazing power of the renewing and reviving grace of a merciful and mighty God!

Illustrations

(1) ‘The life of God can only come from God, it must be inbreathed by His Blessed Spirit, and anything short of this is failure. If you can do nothing else, prophesy to the Spirit, cry to the four winds, because He may come in the icy north wind of tribulation, or the warm west wind of prosperity; but speak with the certain assurance of, “Thus saith the Lord God, Come.” There is a sense in which the believer has the privilege of commanding the Spirit of God. “Concerning the works of my hands, command ye Me.” Even when you are speaking, let your heart be in the attitude of expectancy, and according to your faith it shall be done unto you.’

(2) ‘The state of sinners may well be described in the moving terms of the first of these visions. It seems as though the condition of many souls, and neighbourhoods, is comparable to the bleaching skeletons of a great battlefield. We may preach to them and effect an outward reformation, as when bone came to bone; but there will be no life until the Divine breath passes over them. Let us never hesitate to preach the Word, even to those dead in trespasses and sins; but let this be the prayer: “Breathe on these slain, Thou Spirit of the Living God, that they may live!” ’