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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7; Ezek. 37:1-14, 26-28; John 20:22; 3:8; Acts 2:2, 4; 2 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 11:11; 2 Thes. 2:8
In the previous chapters we have seen that the Lord is our life supply as water for us to drink and as food for us to eat. We have also seen that the food is in the water. Isaiah 55 tells us that when we come to the waters, we eat. The tree of life as the food grows in the water of life. Thus, if we are going to eat the tree of life, we have to come to the water of life. We must come to the water to get our food. Isaiah 55:1 tells us that when we come to the waters we eat, and we “buy wine and milk without money and without price.” It is hard to say whether milk is water or food because milk is food in water. Wine is the same in principle as milk; it is food in water. Wine is made from grapes, which are food. When the grapes become wine, they are food in water.
The food is in the water, and the water is in the air. When water becomes vapor, it gets into the air. The air sends water to the earth in the form of rain, and the water on the earth vaporizes and goes back to the air. There are devices called vaporizers which convert the water into vapor for inhalation. After a certain time the water in the vaporizer goes into the air. When we stay in a room where a vaporizer is being used, we breathe in the air and get the water because the water is in the air.
Genesis 2:5-6 says, “No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up — for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the ground, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” The mist from the earth is the vapor. Plants grow to produce food by being watered, and the water comes from the air. The air sends the water, and the water issues in the food. In Ezekiel 47 we saw that along with the water are the trees for food. The water heals the Salt Sea and produces many fish. The water also waters the desert, turning it into fountains of kids and of calves. The trees, the fish, and the cattle are for food. This food came from the water, and the water comes from the air.
If we want to get the food, we have to go to the water. If we are going to get the water, we need the air. If we are going to eat, we have to drink. If we are going to drink, we have to breathe. When we breathe in the air, we have the water. Furthermore, in the water we have the food.
Eventually, the air is the breath, and in the Bible the breath is the Spirit. In both the Hebrew and Greek languages, the word for Spirit is the same word for breath. The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, and the Hebrew word for Spirit is ruach. In Ezekiel 37 this Hebrew word is translated into three words: Spirit, breath, and wind. Breath can be translated into “Spirit” (v. 5), wind can be translated into “breath” (v. 9), and breath can be translated into “wind” or “Spirit” (v. 9).
The food is in the water, the water is in the air, the air is the breath, the breath is the Spirit, and the Spirit is God. John 4:24 tells us that God is Spirit. The essence of God is Spirit. Just as wood may be the essence of a table, Spirit is the divine essence. God is Spirit; He is ruach or pneuma. The essence of God is the divine breath. God is breath to us. Man was the only item of God’s creation into whom God breathed the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). This breath of life became man’s human spirit. God made man by forming him out of the dust of the ground and breathing the breath of life into him. Revelation 11:11 also records an instance of the breath of life out of God entering into men. Among God’s creatures, only man has this privilege.
The three main chapters in the book of Ezekiel are chapter 1, chapter 37, and chapter 47. In chapter 1 is the fire, in chapter 37 is the breath, and in chapter 47 is the water. All the worldly and sinful things including Satan and his host are under the burning fire. Eventually, all of these negative things will be put into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10), but we believers will be the constituents of the city of water, the New Jerusalem (22:1). In between the fire and the water is the breath.
In Ezekiel 47 is the house of God, the building of God, but in chapter 37 the Lord’s children are pictured as disjointed, dry bones. None of the bones are joined to one another. The bones are independent and separate. These dry bones are in the midst of a valley. The picture here is similar to that of the children of Israel before their exodus from Egypt. The last verse of Genesis shows that the children of Israel were in a “coffin in Egypt” (50:26). In Ezekiel 37 the children of Israel are depicted as being in graves (vv. 12-13). The dry bones scattered in the midst of the valley are the bones of slain people (v. 9b). Satan is the one who killed and buried them. The dry bones are in need of the air, the breath, to bring them to life.
There is an expanse of air around the earth that life may exist on this earth to serve God’s purpose. As the Spirit, God is the real air, the breath. In the air is the water, and in the water is the food. God as life to us is our air, our water, and our food. When we breathe, we drink, and when we drink, we eat. The eating is in the drinking, and the drinking is in the breathing. Furthermore, the breathing is in the praising. When we say, “O Lord! Amen! Hallelujah!” we breathe. The way to breathe in our wonderful Lord is to say, “O Lord! Amen! Hallelujah!” As we breathe in the Lord in this way, we are watered, and our thirst is quenched. We have the sense that we are filled and satisfied. We can breathe, drink, and eat the Lord by calling, “O Lord! Amen! Hallelujah!” By saying, “O Lord! Amen! Hallelujah!” we get the air, the water, and the food.
Hymns, #255 by A. B. Simpson is a wonderful hymn on breathing. The chorus of this hymn says,
We need to breathe Christ in as our breath. We can receive Christ into our inward parts by breathing Him in.
We need to remember that in Ezekiel 37 the wind is the breath, and the breath is the Spirit. Verse 9 says, “Then He said to me, Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” The Lord told Ezekiel to say to the wind, “O breath.” This means that the wind is the breath. The wind and the breath in this verse are the Hebrew word ruach. Then verse 14 says, “I will put My Spirit in you.” Spirit in this verse is also ruach. Thus, the wind is the breath, and the breath is the Spirit. When the Lord blows, He is the wind. When we breathe Him, He is the breath. When He gets into us, He is the Spirit. The Lord comes as the wind, we receive Him as the breath, He gets into us as the Spirit, and the Spirit is life.
Before the Spirit came, we were dry bones. We were not only slain and dried up, but we were also buried in graves and in the valley. After Ezekiel’s prophesying, “there was a noise, and suddenly, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone” (v. 7). Before Ezekiel’s prophecy the dry bones were quiet and separate. A cemetery full of dried and buried bones is a quiet place. Our meetings, however, should not be like a cemetery. When we come together, there should be “noise and rattling.” When the Spirit as the wind blows upon us, how could we be silent? Our meetings should be full of the proper noise. There should be a proper noise where everyone speaks, everyone prays, everyone praises, and everyone gives thanks. The Psalms tell us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord (66:1; 81:1; 95:1-2; 98:4, 6; 100:1).
After the bones came together, “there were sinews on them, and flesh came back, and skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them” (Ezek. 37:8). After the bones came together, the sinews, flesh, and skin covered them. This covering caused their appearance to be much better. Formerly, they were only dry bones, but now they were a body without breath. It is the marvelous doing of the Lord that the bones could come together without life in them.
We have to interpret Ezekiel 37 in a spiritual way. Before God came in to renew us and regenerate us, we were like dead and dry bones. God’s salvation is not merely for sinful people but for dead people. Because we were dead and dry, we were also scattered. Whether we were unsaved sinners or backslidden believers, our situation was that we were dead and buried in a grave. Many Christians are dead and dry, scattered and disjointed. They are not connected to anyone. The Lord came in to rescue us through the prophesying of His word. As Ezekiel prophesied, the bones came together, and the sinews, the flesh, and the skin covered them.
These bones needed a further prophecy so that the breath of life could come into them. When Ezekiel prophesied again, “the breath came into them; and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army” (v. 10). The bones first became a body. Then the breath came into the bones, and they lived. When they stood up, they became an exceedingly great army to fight the battle for God. The bones become the army fighting the battle, and eventually, they become the habitation for God’s dwelling to express God. The army is for the dominion to deal with God’s enemy, and the dwelling place is for the expression, the image, of God. Through the breathing of the Spirit, God is expressed, and His enemy is dealt with.
Ezekiel prophesies twice in chapter 37. The first time he prophesies to the bones and the second time to the wind. First, he prophesies to the dead ones, and second, he prophesies to the Spirit. The Lord charged Ezekiel to prophesy a second time and say, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live” (v. 9). Then the bones that were formed into a body received the breath of life. They stood up upon their feet and were formed into an army to fight the battle for God. This also gave God the ground to build them together as His habitation. The army and the house fulfill God’s twofold purpose to deal with His enemy and to express Him in His image. Image and dominion are brought in by the breathing of the Spirit.
In the New Testament, the Gospel of John tells us that the Lord Jesus came back on the evening of His resurrection to the disciples (20:19). He breathed into them and told them to receive the holy pneuma (v. 22). Again, the word pneuma may be translated into “Spirit” or “breath.” The Lord breathed into the disciples and told them to receive the holy breath. Today the Lord in His resurrection is the breath of life, the Spirit of life. In John 3 the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that the Spirit is like the wind, which blows where it wills and cannot be seen but can be realized by its sound (v. 8). On the day of Pentecost, “there was a sound out of heaven, as of a rushing violent wind” (Acts 2:2). This rushing violent wind was the blowing of the Spirit, the blowing of the heavenly ruach or pneuma.
Revelation 11:11 tells us that the two witnesses, after being dead for three and a half days, were resurrected by the breath of life out of God entering into them. The breath of life will come into the two witnesses and resurrect them during the time of the great tribulation. Second Thessalonians 2:8 tells us that when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will slay the Antichrist by the breath of His mouth, the Spirit. The breath of life gives life to us but kills the lawless one.
Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed. This indicates that the Scripture, the Word of God, is the breath of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing. God is breath to us. In this breath is the water, and in this water is the food. If we are going to enjoy God as food, we have to drink Him as the water. To drink Him as the water, we have to breathe Him as our breath. By breathing in the Lord, we drink Him and we eat Him. We can drink Him anywhere and eat Him anywhere because we can breathe Him in anywhere. Our spiritual food and drink are available to us at any time and in any place. Physically speaking, we can breathe everywhere, but we cannot drink and eat everywhere. But spiritually speaking, we can eat and drink everywhere because our spiritual eating is in our drinking, and the drinking is in the breathing. When we receive the Lord as the divine air, we enjoy Him as the living water and the heavenly food.
