"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations" (Ez. 36:25-27).

"The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones … They were scattered everywhere … and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, 'Son of man, can these bones become living people again?' 'O Sovereign Lord,' I replied, 'you alone know the answer to that.'"

"Then he said to me, 'Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, "Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! … Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord."'"

"So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly, as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them."

"Then he said to me, 'Speak a prophetic message to the wind … and say, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "Come, O breath … breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again."' So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet – a great army" (Ez. 37:1-10).

Context is very important in understanding God's Word. The context of the famous "valley of dry bones" vision had never dawned on me until now. But here it is: the New Covenant! The bones represented God's exiled people who were saying "All hope is gone. Our nation is finished". But God was giving them an amazing promise of their return to the Promised Land.

For us, I believe it speaks of the failure of the Old Covenant and the certain victory of the New. Legalism promotes sin, is unable to bring life, and causes a total loss of hope; its product is scattered dry bones. The Word of the Lord resulted in only partial restoration: scattered skeletons were transformed into individual corpses, but they were still just as dead. Ezekiel had then to prophesy to the wind (to the breath of the Spirit of God) to breathe into these corpses that they might live. By the Spirit they came to life, stood tall and became a great united army with tremendous potential!

A dear friend of mine who is a truly radical disciple, deeply in love with Jesus, told me recently that he had written out in longhand the whole of the book of Hebrews!  But he had also written out every word of the Old Covenant referred to in it so he could compare the two all the way through and side by side. He was on fire when he said to me "The two are completely different! I hadn't appreciated this so deeply before. Jesus is superior in every way shape and form! Glory be to Him!"