Season 5 - Episode 15

To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

On Sunday, Elise did a beautiful job of leading us in considering how deep and profound God’s desire is to have a personal, authentic relationship with his people. While many of us like to have clear and obvious answers to questions about God, about the Bible, or about life, her consideration of Ezekiel 37 reminded us that often those kinds of answers aren’t available to us. But what is available to us is that relationship with the God who created the universe, has pursued humanity with patience and grace, and has been revealed as the one who is Love. Thank you, Elise, for leading us, not just into that understanding, but into practicing connecting with God. I’m going to pick up something a little different from the verses Elise led us through on Sunday. I’ll highlight that I’m not picking up on this because I think Elise missed it or anything like that. A speaker on Sundays can only cover a small amount of what could be considered from an ancient text. This is just something in addition to what she shared that I’ve been thinking about. We’re going to talk about re-creation in this Covenant Weekly for December 9, 2025.

On Sunday, Elise made reference to how Ezekiel 37 hints back at the creation narrative where the breath of God comes into humanity, which has already been formed, but doesn’t have the truest essence of life.

One of the interesting things about the texts that describe God breathing life into humanity, whether it be in Genesis or in Ezekiel 37, is the language that is used. You see, the Hebrew words for breath and wind and Spirit are actually all the same word: ruah.

So, in Ezekiel, when the prophet describes being brought out “by the Spirit of the Lord,” that word for Spirit is ruah.

Then, in verse 5, when the prophet is told to say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.”  The word for breath is ruah. In verse six in the same word, ruah, when it says, “I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.”

Every time you read the word “breath” or “spirit” in Ezekiel 37, it is the same word, ruah. But that word is also used a couple of times in verse 9. God tells Ezekiel, ““Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” Both the word “breath” and the word “wind” are the word ruah.

And, just to put a bit of a point on it, in verses 13 and 14, the words of God say, “Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live,...”

That word, “Spirit,” which is capitalized in the NIV, is the exact same word.

This whole passage is about the ruah of Yahweh leading Ezekiel out and having him call on these dry and lifeless bones to reanimate and receive ruah by calling on ruah to come from the four ruah so that these reformed bodies can have ruah. And this vision is offered as a promise to his people that, “I will put my ruah in you and you will live.” The breath, the wind, the spirit of God are all the same, but we miss it when we translate it because it is hard for us to make sense of.

I share that both because it is an interesting language thing, but also because it shows us what is really going on in this vision. This is all about what it means to be truly alive and truly human. The main point wasn’t that these reconstituted bodies of bones and tendons and flesh weren’t breathing from a scientific point of view.

The point is that being truly human, living in a truly human way, comes when we are animated by the breath of God. This is what Genesis 2 describes when humanity is already formed, but doesn’t truly live until the breath of God enters him. The picture here is of people who have the semblance of life, but aren’t truly alive. They need the breath of God, the spirit of Christ, the wind of the divine for them to truly live.

This is, I think, a part of why the New Testament uses some of the language it does. Jesus talks about being “born again.” 2 Corinthians speaks about us being a “new creation.” Romans talks about us being raised to a “new life.” Ephesians says, ““You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

There is re-creation language used regularly to describe the life of someone in Christ. That is, as Elise described, the hope of Ezekiel’s vision.

But there is one more thing I’d like to point out in this. I’m not a huge fan of blood and guts kind of stuff. I’m the kind of person who, while not afraid of blood, will look away in medical dramas when a graphic surgery is happening. So when Ezekiel describes the bones rejoining, and the tendons reforming, and the skin growing back onto these formerly lifeless bodies, I’m kind of grossed out. It is a graphic and messy process.

And that’s something worth considering. We want to be formed by, be reanimated by the life of God. We want to enjoy the peace of Christ - things being right and whole again. But we don’t want it to be messy. In a lot of ways, people tend to want all the good that comes with transformation, but not to go through the hard and difficult realities that bear the good fruit. I don’t blame us! To use the birth analogy, I suspect most women would gladly not have to endure the struggle of pregnancy, the hours, sometimes days, of labour, and the pain of either delivery or surgery in order to bring forth new life. And I know that no men want to go through this! None of us want the struggle that comes with being formed into something new or being a part of shaping something new.

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full!” But this vision reminds us that even the best life, the truest life, the life shaped by the Spirit of God, is a process and an often messy, hard process. And maybe that’s worth remembering in this season of waiting. The hard realities of the process don’t negate the presence of God. They can, if we’ll let them, help increase our awareness of it. And our difficulties don’t prevent the peace of Christ from being born in us. They can, as we partner with God, foster the wholeness and the life Jesus came to give.