Echad: Ezekiel 37, part two

a continuación:

And here is where we get into Part II:
Read Ez. 37:15ff

Notice that God’s initiative still stands here: “I will, I will, I will…” He is the one who does these things. But the key word of part 2 is not ruach anymore, it’s echad: one. This is obviously significant to Israel, who has been broken into two kingdoms and further exiled into fragments.

Echad, one, is also the same word as used in the following two verses:*
1. The Shema: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. (Deut 6:4)
2. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Gen 2:24)

There is a whole-ness to this “one.” A completeness. God, in Himself, is echad, one. There is a relationship in the Trinity that is echad. And this is reflected in marriage, where there is a wholeness and completeness in that relationship, when it’s healthy. This is what God will do in Israel: echad. One. The two kingdoms of Israel will be one kingdom that is whole and complete.

The other element of this echad comes at the end of the chapter, where God says, “I will put my sanctuary among them forever” (24). This is the capstone of restoration: the rebuilding of the temple. Chapters 40-48 in Ezekiel are about the new Temple. Not only does God breathe new life into Israel, but He also makes her whole and reestablishes his presence. He makes the renewal complete.

As a sidenote, I would argue that when the New Testament says, “perfect,” like “be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect,” I think it means this kind of echad wholeness. I don’t think it means perfect in our culture’s sense of the word that leads to perfectionism. But this is a tangent and a soapbox and I’m not going to discuss it any further.

Now, when we’re dealing with prophesy, we’ve got to look at what comes to pass and in what time frame. Israel is released and does rebuild a kingdom. Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild the temple. King David does not come back to be a king. There’s a utopian ideal at the end of chapter 37 that reminds me of the book of Revelation. Apocalyptic literature. It’s even stickier than prophecy to figure out. The best we can do here is know that parts of this came true in Israel, and parts of it will wait to become true. Parts were fulfilled in Jesus, and parts will wait until His second coming. There’s a both/and, and now & then paradox in this chapter.

I put Parts I & II of chapter 37 together for a few reasons. One is that there is a physical ascent that happens here: Part I is in a valley, Part II raises Israel to the mountains in verse 22. In Part I, God declares “so that you will know that I am the Lord” to Ezekiel, then to Israel His people, and lastly, at the end of chapter 37, to the nations. So, there are a couple of progressions, here, and a couple of applications.

I think Ezekiel’s message here is to three different people groups: to the individual, to the corporate, and to the nations.

God says this to the Individual—to __(insert your name here)__: “I will breathe into you and make you alive. I will make you whole. I will put my spirit in you.” There is a now and then element to this. We have his breath, his ruach, breathing inside us. His spirit is in us, reviving us, continually making us whole. Now there are elements of this that will not come to pass until the end. But this is his intention: that we are whole in his ruach.

God says this to the corporate: to Israel, and thus—through the metaphor of covenant theology—to the church: “I know you are broken and fragmented, and I will open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” The church will be made whole. And I know that the reason a lot of us are here, at the Open Door, is because we struggle with other parts of the Church. And God’s desire is for the church to be made whole with His presence too.

And God says this to the Nations. To His creation. “So that you will know that I am the Lord.”

When I originally wrote this paper, I entitled it “ruach and echad: resurrection and restoration,” two lovely long R words. But I would retitle it if I could, borrowing words from a theologian, whose name I have not been able to find—and that bugs me as a writer, but I’m stealing his words anyways—I would title this “The gospel according to Ezekiel.” In studying this chapter, we’ve reached from Genesis to Revelation, and we skipped a lot of stuff in the middle. But Ezekiel is in the middle. And Jesus comes shortly afterward and gives His spirit after he ascends to heaven.

This is the miracle Jesus died to restore: the Spirit of God living in us, breathing new life into our dry and weary bones, enabling us to be whole so that the nations may know that He is. that He exists. That He is God.

So I invite you to end in the same way we began. To close your eyes and find your breath. Where do you need his breath? Play with deepening your breath, breathe into your belly. your diaphragm. your heart. Does any piece of your body hurt? Breathe ruach into it. Does any piece of your mind hurt? Breathe ruach into it. Does any piece of your spirit or soul hurt? Breathe ruach into it. And breathe in His intention of making you whole.
As we approach the table soon, I invite you to keep this intention as you physically remember Christ’s presence. His ruach. His echad.



*Credit for connecting these definitions of echad and teaching them to me goes to Ray VanderLaan.