Old Testament Survey – Ezekiel (Dive In – Section 3 & 4)

Chuck Swindoll’s Section 3 — “Prophecies Against Foreign Nations,” chapters 25–32 — and Section 4 — “Prophecies of Israel’s Future Restoration,” chapters 33–48

Memory Verse(s)

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (26) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Overview|Background

If Part 1 was the case against Jerusalem, Part 2 widens the courtroom to the whole neighborhood — and then, remarkably, tears the courtroom down to build a temple in its place. Swindoll’s Section 3 (chs. 25–32) shows God settling accounts with Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt — nations that either attacked Israel outright or gloated over her fall. Tyre and Egypt each get an extended, almost poetic takedown, because both had built their identity on being untouchable: Tyre on her sea trade and island fortress, Egypt on her ancient power and the Nile. Both learn the same lesson — pride always eventually meets a bigger God.

Then, at chapter 33, everything turns. A refugee arrives from Jerusalem with the news Ezekiel had been predicting for years: “The city has been taken” (33:21). Judgment has landed. And instead of an ending, that’s exactly where Ezekiel’s message pivots from why the fall happened to what God will do next. Section 4 (chs. 33–48) is fifteen chapters of pure hope — a new shepherd, a new heart, a valley of dead bones brought back to life, and a final vision of a restored temple where God’s glory returns to dwell with His people forever, closing with the book’s last line: “the LORD is there” (48:35).

Key Passage(s)

Ezekiel’s Call — Section 1

The Fall of Pride — Section 3

Ezekiel 28:12-17 (12) “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (13) You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. (14) “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. (15) You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. (16) “By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. (17) “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you.

ILLUSTRATION: The Unsinkable Ship

Tyre was an island fortress built on maritime trade — a city so confident in her walls and her wealth that Ezekiel records her boasting, “I sit as a god in the seat of gods” (28:2). She had every reason, by her own math, to believe she was untouchable. Every empire that had ever tried to take her had failed.

A little over a century ago, a shipping company built a vessel they marketed, almost word for word, the same way — divided into watertight compartments, engineered past the point of reasonable doubt, promoted as a ship that simply could not go down. It went down on its first voyage. Confidence built on your own engineering, your own wealth, or your own track record has a shelf life that always runs out sooner than the confident man expects. Tyre’s fall wasn’t really about ships or trade routes. It was about a heart that had quietly swapped dependence on God for dependence on its own success.

The Valley of Dry Bones — Section 4

Ezekiel 37:1-10 (1) The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. (2) Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. (3) And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” (4) Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! (5) Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. (6) I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live.”‘” (7) So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. (8) Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. (9) Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”‘” (10) So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

ILLUSTRATION: What the Fire Leaves Behind

After a major wildfire tears through a forest, the ground left behind looks like nothing could ever come back from it — blackened, bare, smoking. And yet certain trees, like the lodgepole pine, actually depend on that fire. Their cones are sealed with a resin that only melts at the searing temperatures of a real forest fire; without that heat, the seeds inside never get released at all. The very disaster that looks like the end of the forest is the only thing that unlocks the next one.

That’s the valley Ezekiel stood in. “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off” (37:11) wasn’t dramatic language — it was how the exiles genuinely felt about their nation, their families, their future. God’s answer wasn’t to deny how dead it looked. It was to ask, “Can these bones live?” and then prove the question was never really about the bones at all. Some things in a man’s life — a marriage, a habit, a relationship with a son, a faith gone cold — look like nothing but ash. God specializes in exactly that kind of ground.

Key Facts

Authorship & Time Period

Ezekiel’s oracles against the nations (chs. 25–32) are dated across the same window as his warnings to Jerusalem — most of them clustered right around 587–585 BC, in the immediate wake of the city’s fall, when the surrounding nations were either celebrating Judah’s collapse or about to face Babylon’s advance themselves. His restoration vision in chapters 40–48 is dated to 573 BC (40:1), fourteen years after the fall — making it one of the last and longest visions in the book, delivered to a community that had now lived as exiles for over a decade and needed a reason to keep hoping.

Type of literature

Prophecy, Lament/Dirge (chs. 27–28, 32), and Apocalyptic Vision (chs. 37–48)

Characters

MAJOR CHARACTERS: Ezekiel, Yahweh, the king of Tyre, Pharaoh of Egypt (as representative figures of national pride)

The Story

Summary

Section 3 answers a question every exile in Babylon was quietly asking: does God care what happens to Judah’s enemies, too? Yes — nations that attacked Israel out of malice (Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia) and nations that trusted their own greatness (Tyre, Egypt) both come under the same God’s judgment. Then Section 4 answers the bigger question: is this the end of Israel? No. God appoints Himself the Shepherd His people never had, promises to replace their stone hearts with living ones, resurrects a valley of dead bones into “an exceedingly great army,” defeats the final invading coalition of Gog and Magog, and rebuilds — in vision — a temple where His glory never leaves again.

Major Events

Judgment pronounced on Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia for their hostility toward Israel (ch. 25)
The extended fall of Tyre and its proud king (chs. 26–28)
The extended fall of Egypt and Pharaoh (chs. 29–32)
Ezekiel reinstated as watchman once news of Jerusalem’s fall arrives (ch. 33)
God denounces Israel’s false shepherds and promises to shepherd His people Himself (ch. 34)
The mountains of Israel promised renewal; a new heart and new spirit promised to the people (chs. 35–36)
The vision of the valley of dry bones and the reunited sticks of Israel and Judah (ch. 37)
The invasion and defeat of Gog and Magog (chs. 38–39)
The vision of the new temple, its worship, and the return of God’s glory (chs. 40–46)
The river flowing from the temple and the final redistribution of the land (chs. 47–48)

Themes

Pride precedes a fall — even for nations that seem untouchable
God’s judgment on the nations reveals His sovereignty over all the earth, not just Israel
Restoration is for God’s own name’s sake, not because Israel earned it (36:22)
A changed heart, not just a changed location, is the real promise Resurrection hope for what looks completely dead
God’s glory returning to dwell permanently with His people (Ezekiel 48:35 — “the LORD is there”)

Outline of Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s book can be divided into four sections:

Chapters 1–3: Ezekiel’s Call and Commission
Chapters 4–24: Prophecies Against Judah and Jerusalem
Chapters 25–32: Prophecies Against Foreign Nations(this lesson)
Chapters 33–48: Prophecies of Israel’s Future Restoration(this lesson)

Where Do We See Christ?

Ezekiel 34 records God denouncing Israel’s leaders as false shepherds who fed themselves instead of the flock, then promising, “I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out” (34:11). Jesus takes up that exact title in John 10:11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” — the very Shepherd Ezekiel said Israel had never had.

And the valley of dry bones points forward even more directly. What Ezekiel witnessed as a vision of national restoration, Christ performs as literal, physical fact — walking up to a dead man’s tomb and saying, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43), and promising that everyone who hears His voice will one day do the same (John 5:25). The new heart promised in 36:26 finds its fulfillment in the new covenant Jesus inaugurates at the Last Supper and the Spirit He pours out at Pentecost — the internal transformation Ezekiel could only point toward from seven centuries away.

Point of Application

How can we apply this to our lives today?

Every man carries at least one area of life he privately treats like Tyre treated her walls — a place where success, competence, or plain stubbornness has quietly replaced daily dependence on God. Tyre and Egypt didn’t fall because they were weak; they fell because they were strong enough to stop looking up. It’s worth asking honestly where that’s true for you — career, marriage, finances, even your walk with God itself.

And every man also carries at least one valley he’s privately decided is too dry to ever live again. Ezekiel doesn’t get points for optimism in chapter 37 — when God asks if the bones can live, his honest answer is “You know,” not “Absolutely!” That’s the posture worth imitating: not manufactured hope, but honest surrender to a God who has never once been stopped by something looking dead.

Discussion Questions

Tyre and Egypt’s downfall both trace back to pride born out of real success (28:2, 5; 29:3). Where has your own competence or track record started quietly crowding out your dependence on God?
God judges the nations “that they may know I am the LORD” (25:11, 17; 26:6; 28:22-23) — judgment on outsiders still served to reveal who God is. Does that change how you think about hardship or consequences you’ve watched play out in someone else’s life — or your own?
When God asks, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel answers honestly rather than confidently: “You know” (37:3). What’s the “valley of dry bones” in your own life right now, and can you bring it to God with that same honesty instead of either despair or false optimism?
Ezekiel 36:26 promises a new heart, not just new behavior. Where have you been trying to white-knuckle a change God actually wants to accomplish by replacing the heart underneath it?

Closing Prayer

Father, You brought down every proud city and every proud king who forgot where his strength came from, and we confess the same pride hides in us more often than we’d like to admit. Search out the places where our own success has made us self-reliant instead of God-reliant. And Lord, for whatever in our lives looks like a valley of dry bones — a relationship, a habit, a hope we’ve quietly buried — give us the honesty to say “You know” instead of pretending it’s fine or giving up on it entirely. Thank You that You are still in the business of new hearts, not just new behavior, and that Your glory never intends to leave Your people again. Let that be true of us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Prayer List

Doc – renewed vigor to join us on Saturdays

Richard Brooks – faith and courage during the next stage of his journey in Christ

Bob & Gaynelle – Breast cancer (from Mike Arras)

Julia (Arras) – praise for health

Jim Allen, friend of Daryl, heart issue, praise

Jim Sachs – praise

Darryl’s employee Tara – lung cancer, in US

Darryl’s Son Jonathan and Wife Lizz – spiritual renewal

Tom and Jeanice – praise and prayers for continued recovery

Becky and Lee Davidson, health and healing, difficult situation

Jim & Melissa, father-in-law’s heart condition and spiritual health, marital closeness

Mike Arras’ daughter, praise

Mike Allen – sister Adele and brother

Joe & Deb – continued prayers for Deb’s Dad, travel for Deb

Brian – Job situation

JC – health issues

JC’s granddaughter Kylie, Tiffany, and Tommy

Todd – medical issues (sinuses, hands)

Wisdom about meeting location

Our country & our world

Gayle (Karl’s wife) – wisdom, peace, strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds

Karl’s friend, Jesse – PRAISE! Found a good church body to join

Additional Content

FOR GREATER HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING: DID TYRE ACTUALLY FALL AS PREDICTED?

Ezekiel’s oracle against Tyre (ch. 26) predicted a siege by “many nations” and the city’s stones, timber, and soil being thrown into the sea. History records this playing out in two stages centuries apart. Nebuchadnezzar II besieged mainland Tyre for roughly thirteen years (circa 586–573 BC) and eventually took the city, though its wealthiest citizens had largely relocated to a fortified island just offshore before the siege ended. That island stronghold held out until 332 BC, when Alexander the Great — unable to reach it by sea — built a causeway out into the water using the rubble of the abandoned mainland city, literally scraping its stones, timber, and soil into the sea to reach and conquer the island. Prophecy and history lined up two different ways, three centuries apart, to fulfill the same words.

This kind of layered, long-range fulfillment shows up elsewhere in the book’s judgment oracles and is part of why conservative scholars treat Ezekiel’s predictive material as historically anchored rather than purely symbolic.