It swept over the Arabian peninsula. In the Bible, the wind represents the power of the Lord working on us through the heavens. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind; ministers must not only preach, but they must pray for the Spirit to accompany the word with his power, and make it the savour of life unto life: thus saith the Lord, come from the four winds, O breath; or "spirit": because the Jews were to be brought from each of the parts where they were, as they will be at their conversion in the latter day; and so the Lord has a people in each of the parts of the world, that lie dead in sin, and must be quickened by the Spirit: and breathe upon these slain, that they may live; though not slain with the sword, yet being as dead men, who are slain by death, are so called: so in a spiritual sense men are slain by sin, and are slain by the words of the Lord's mouth; killed with the law, the killing letter; and it is only the Spirit of God that can give them life; and the breath or spirit here is applied to the Spirit of the Messiah by the ancient Jews (y). The winds are subject to the divine power ( Psalms 18:10 ; 135:7 ). This explanation would be admissible, if only it had been indicated or expressed in any way whatever, that the bones of the dead which Ezekiel saw lying about in the represented all the dead of the whole earth. When a moderate south wind came up, supposing that they had attained their purpose, they weighed anchor and began sailing along Crete, close inshore. The subject to is neither the bones nor the dead of Israel (Hitzig), but the already named, which is also addressed in Ezekiel 37:12. When, therefore, Kliefoth explains these verses as signifying that for the consolation of Israel, which is mourning hopelessly in its existing state of death, "God directs the prophet to say - (1) That at some future time it will experience a resurrection in the literal sense, that its graves will be opened, and that all its dead, those deceased with those still alive, will be raised up out of their graves; (2) that God will place them in their own land; and (3) that when He has so placed them in their land, He will put His Spirit within them that they may live: in the first point the idea of the future resurrection, both of those deceased and of those still living, is interpolated into the text; and in the third point, placing them in their land before they are brought to life by the Spirit of God, would be at variance with the text, according to which the giving of the Spirit precedes the removal to their own land. A person cannot see it move or work. The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. blowing from the four quarters of heaven ( Jeremiah 49:36 ; Ezek. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going." You cannot see the wind. Wind as Symbol But the obvious announcement of this dogma in Daniel 12:2 belongs to a later period than our vision; and even Daniel does not speak of it as a belief that prevailed throughout the nation, but simply communicates it as a consolation offered by the angel of the Lord in anticipation of the times of severe calamity awaiting the people of God. These certainly represent four destructive powers which are held back for a time from the land, the sea . All rights reserved. Your IP: The implication is that God is the Judge who provides the wind. "A stormy wind shall rend it" (Ezekiel 13:11; compare 5:2; 12:14; 17:21; Hosea 4:19; 8:7; Jeremiah 49:36; Matthew 7:25). In a little while the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. The people do things. If, therefore, the dead bodies become living, receive life through the blowing of the into them, what enters into them by the blowing cannot be a symbol of the breath of life, but must be the breath of life itself - namely, that divine breath of life which pervades all nature, giving and sustaining the life of all creatures (cf. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. He is the author of all the teachings here, and all materials are available free of charge! New American Standard Bible Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. "When ye see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat; and it cometh to pass" (Luke 12:55). In whirlwind and storm is His way Nahum 1:3 NASB). It is the destructive "wind of the wilderness" (Job 1:19; Jeremiah 4:11; 13:24): "Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night" (Exodus 14:21) for the children of Israel to pass; the "rough blast in the day of the east wind" (Isaiah 27:8). Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.. Will it not. Ezekiel 19:5). . And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush, be still. And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. Yet we cannot agree with Kliefoth, that by we are to understand the trumpet-blast, or voice of God, that wakes the dead from their graves, according to those passages of the New Testament which treat of the resurrection, and by the earthquake which opens the graves. Proud member The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,And your lovers will go into captivity;Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliatedBecause of all your wickedness. Remember that my life is but breath;My eye will not again see good. God will put on them (clothe them with) sinews, flesh, and skin, and then put in them. Unpredictable ways; we cant control or manipulate him to do our bidding, nor can we anticipate what he will do next. The repetition of in Ezekiel 37:12 and Ezekiel 37:13 is also worthy of notice: you who are my people, which bases the comforting promise upon the fact that Israel is the people of Jehovah. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. (Note: No conclusive evidence can be adduced that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was not only known to Ezekiel, but was regarded by the people as indisputably sure, as both Hengstenberg (Christology, vol. The persons noticed by Jerome, who supported the view that in Ezekiel 37:4-10 it is the general resurrection that is spoken of, sought to remove the difficulties to which this explanation is exposed, by taking the words, "these bones are the whole house of Israel," as referring to the resurrection of the saints, and connecting them with the first resurrection in Revelation 20:5, and by interpreting the leading of Israel back to their own land as equivalent to the inheriting of the earth mentioned in Matthew 5:5. When the Bible talks about the four Winds it is usually about a great event that covers the whole earth! To be caught up, carried away by the winds of the spirit, into new dimensions of relationship- with Him. He also assumes that the raising of the dead is represented in the vision, "because God would have this representation exhibited for a figure and confirmation of the restitution of the people." Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. A person cannot see it move or work. However, one can see the effect of what the Spirit does. The temperature in a given place often rises 15 or 20 degrees within a few hours, bringing thermometer to the highest readings of the year. . Those who live by His teaching will be like a man who has built a house on a foundation of rock. He said to them, Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Other verses show the apostles giving praise, glory, and honor to the Father and Son without mentioning the Spirit (Romans 1:7; I Corinthians 1:1-4; Galatians 1:1-5; and so on through the epistles). Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,But He will rebuke them and they will flee far away,And be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind,Or like whirling dust before a gale. But their views differ widely as to the strict meaning and design of the vision itself; inasmuch as some regard the vision as a direct and immediate prophecy of the general resurrection of the dead at the last day, whilst others take the raising of the dead to life shown to the prophet in the vision to be merely a figure or type of the waking up to new life of the Israel which is now dead in its captivity. A constant dripping on a day of steady rainAnd a contentious woman are alike; He who would restrain her restrains the wind,And grasps oil with his right hand. It is true that the further explanation in Ezekiel 37:12. of what is described in Ezekiel 37:5-10 as happening to the dead bones is not given in the form of an exposition of the separate details of that occurrence, but is summed up in the announcement that God will open their graves, bring them out of their graves, and transport them to their own land. The length of a human life is frequently imagined as a whisper in the wind (Ps 39:5, 11; 62:9; 78:33). The rush of invaders is figuratively spoken of as a whirlwind ( Isaiah 21:1 ); a commotion among the nations of the world as a striving of the four winds ( Daniel 7:2 ). Then said he to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. ), has observed, and serves plainly to depict the creative revivification here, like the first creation there, as a work of the almighty God. And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord."And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. The east wind or sirocco (from Arabic shark= "east") is the "scorching wind" (James 1:11) from the desert. III p. 51, transl.) The coming together of the bones was followed by their being clothed with sinews, flesh, and skin; but there was not yet any breath in them (Ezekiel 37:8). When two currents of air of different directions meet, a spiral motion sometimes results. "Entry for 'WIND'". Salem Media Group. And even in the case of , the reference to Ezekiel 38:19 does not prove that the word must mean earthquake in this passage also, since Ezekiel uses the word in a different sense in Ezekiel 12:18 and Ezekiel 3:12. And they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices. This is borne out by the explanation of the vision which God gives to the prophet in Ezekiel 37:1-14, and directs him to repeat to the people. The Bible tells us that we are all born of God. It is they who speak in Ezekiel 37:11. God (Father, Son, and Spirit) are ontologically holy. The Four Winds is also an ode to the strength and ferocity of mothers, and a declaration that sometimes, love is the only thing that holds us together. This is yet another proof of his identity as the Son of God. When it was reported to the house of David, saying, The Arameans have camped in Ephraim, his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind. Just as we cannot see wind but notice its sometimes very powerful effects, so it is with the Holy Spirit. 72.10.35.84 When Jerome says that Ezekiel "is prophesying of the restoration of Israel through the parable of the resurrection," and in order to defend himself from the charge of denying the dogma of the resurrection of the dead, adds that "the similitude of a resurrection would never have been employed to exhibit the restoration of the Israelitish people, if that resurrection had been a delusion, and it had not been believed that it would really take place; because no one confirms uncertain things by means of things which have no existence;" - Hvernick very justly replies, that the resurrection of the dead is not to be so absolutely regarded as a dogma already completed and defined, or as one universally known and having its roots in the national belief; though Hvernick is wrong in affirming in support of this that the despair of the people described in Ezekiel 37:11 plainly shows that so general a belief cannot possibly be presupposed. ), In that case, however, the vision was not merely a parable, but a symbolical representation of a real fact, which was to serve as a pledge to the nation of its restoration to life. The south wind was a hot wind (Job 37:17; Luke 12:55). The Bible encourages us to " meet together " to study God's Word. In proof of this, we will not lay any stress upon the circumstance that Ezekiel sees the resurrection of the dead within certain limits; that it is only the dead men's bones lying about in one particular valley, and not the dead of the whole earth, though a very great army, that he sees come to life again; but, on the other hand, we must press the fact that in Ezekiel 37:9 those who are to be raised to life are called , a word which does not signify the dead of all kinds, but simply those who have been slain, or have perished by the sword, by famine, or by other violent deaths, and which indisputably proves that Ezekiel was not shown the resurrection of all the dead, but simply the raising to life of Israel, which had been swept away by a violent death. This is also the word for spirit and breath. And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. How can I understand the Book of Revelation? The south wind is frequent in Palestine. #2 "blows wherever it pleases. Revelation 7:1 pictures the angels holding back the four winds of the earth. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus demonstrates control over the wind (Matt 8:26; Mark 4:39-41). The wind is said to blow from the 4 quarters of heaven (east, west, north and south) (Jeremiah 49:36; Ezek. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;Who makes lightnings for the rain,Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries. The Scriptural references to wind show many illustrative and figurative uses: (1) Power of God (1Kings 19:11; Job 27:21; 38:24; Psalms 107:25; 135:7; 147:18; 148:8; Proverbs 30:4; Jeremiah 10:13; Hosea 4:19; Luke 8:25): "He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; and by his power he guided the south wind" (Psalms 78:26).