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Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he
brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me
down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all
round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.
3He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I
answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ 4Then
he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry
bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says
the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath
to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and
will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath
in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ 7 So I
prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a
noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I
looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin
had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said
to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:
Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds,
O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ 10I prophesied
as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 Then he said to me,
‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of I don’t
know about you, but there are few things I enjoy more than a really good
story. I love to read stories
– I love to think about them, whether they be old favorites or new ones
I create in my head.
There’s a kind of magic in a story, something that transcends
the simple combination of words or even they events they portray. Stories speak to us about life and
about ourselves. Stories remind
us of where we’ve been and they can hint about the possibilities of
where we might go. Stories are
powerful. Today
I’ve read for you just such a story and I invite you, for a few
moments, to escape with me into the magic, the power of this story. Put yourself in the place of Ezekiel. You’re a Jew, with a good Hebrew
name that means “God Strengthens”. You’ve grown up in As I understand
it, speaking in terms of dreams and visions was very common during this time
and region – Ezekiel’s audience would not have found anything out
of the ordinary for him to begin one of his messages with the description of
a vision. They would have known that
from the images and details Ezekiel describes, an underlying story could be
found – a story to communicate meaning and truth – and we can do
the same. And so I ask you to
continue this challenge of imagining yourself there, as Ezekiel was. God’s
Spirit comes upon you and you realize you’re experiencing a vision, as
suddenly you find yourself in this valley, standing in the middle of many,
very dry bones. (expound on the
description here – emphasize the state of the bones) And then, all of a sudden, God asks
you, “Mortal, can these bones live?” On the surface, this almost strikes me
as one of those “duh!” kind of questions – how can a bunch
of dry bones have life? – and whether in the midst of difficult times
or a vision from God we’re often tempted to look at the questions
before us as those obvious, “duh” kind of questions. But I think we can learn something
from Ezekiel’s response.
“Oh Lord God, you know.” This is an answer of faith. Notice that his answer was not, “God, these bones can live
if you bring them to life”.
Faith does not assume anything about the answer to the question
– either what the answer is or what it signifies. Rather faith simply affirms that God
knows the answer, regardless of what that answer actually is. Because it isn’t the answer that
really matters – what matters is that the God who knows is the God who can be trusted. And in the end, when the story finally
plays out, we can have peace in the assurance that when God acts, things are
as they should be. The answer of
faith says “God, you know”. And notice,
once Ezekiel responds with his answer of faith, that’s when the story
gets really interesting. God
begins this little conversation with Ezekiel. Specifically, he gives Ezekiel some
instructions. (Read v. 4-6 again.) Now, we know that Ezekiel was a
prophet. Prophesying is what he does. And we also know this is a
vision, and often in visions things are a little bit out of the
ordinary. Still, do you suppose it
seemed the least bit odd that God would tell Ezekiel, preach to these dead,
dry bones? Could the thought have
passed his mind, even for a second, that this was just weird? But this is the same man who had just
replied with an answer of faith: “God, you know.” And look at his response now. (Read v. 7a.) Ezekiel obeys. The one who can answer God in faith
can also step out in obedience.
And because of this obedience, look at what happened next. (Read v. 7b-8 – expound on the
aspects of noise and the bones coming together – make point of God is a
God of order.) But still, the
bodies are lifeless – there is no breath in them. So God gives Ezekiel an additional
command. (Read v. 9) And again Ezekiel responds
obediently. (Read v. 10) It strikes me
that God could have given this particular message to Ezekiel by any means he
chose. He even could have worked
the vision in any way whatsoever that suited his purpose. God could have taken Ezekiel in this
vision to a valley of these dry bones and simply raised them to life again
without all this giving of commands to prophesy and such. Clearly, in this story, it is God who
is the source of life for these dry
bones. But that’s not how
it worked. This isn’t the
first time in scripture that God has incorporated the obedience of man into
the design of his plan. In fact,
from what I’ve learned in scripture, more often than not God tends to
require the obedience of man in his plans. Now can God achieve his plans without
our obedience? Of course. And yet, he’s chosen to let
mankind – people like you and me – be a part of the plan. Imagine that – the Creator of
the Universe has chosen to allow his creation to “help out” in
the task of achieving his holy purposes. So what was
God’s purpose in this instance?
Let’s look again.
(Read v. 11-14) So these
bones represent the whole house of Israel at that time. God has promised to restore them
– to restore their life and to restore them as a nation. And he will do this in order to bring
glory to himself – so that they will know that the Lord is God. Remember the situation – Judah
has been in Babylonian captivity for several years now. The 10 tribes of northern Israel had
been in captivity for even longer.
Sometimes it’s difficult for us to fully comprehend how
devastating this was for the Jews.
Those of us who live in this area, we have a pretty strong sense of
community – our ties to this place, to the families and the history,
it’s all significant. And
as I attempted to explain it to the kids in children’s church a few
weeks ago when we began discussing the Babylonian captivity, I asked them to
try to imagine that one day a military leader and his armies came, rounded us
all up, and carried us hundreds of miles away to live as little more than
slaves in another country. Those
who resist are killed, our homes and our community is destroyed in the
process – and oh yeah, don’t forget that they desecrate and burn
all the local churches too.
Imagine how you might feel, then compound that exponentially and you
might begin to get a grasp of how the Israelites felt being driven from their
home – a people whose very existence and identity is tied to the land
that God had promised them. Their
own description, as expressed by God in this vision, sums it up pretty
well. (Read v. 11b) Dried up
– dead – without any hope whatsoever – completely cut
off. The Israelites are not the
only ones who’ve ever felt that way. Sometimes we feel that way. And even if, by God’s grace, we
can honestly admit that we’ve never gotten to that extreme of despair,
the danger of going there always exists.
With every trial and difficulty that comes our way, the temptation is
to give in to hopelessness, to allow ourselves to feel cut off from everyone
and everything – or worse yet, to actually cut ourselves off from
everyone and everything.
Sometimes we’re even tempted to just dry up and spiritually
die. But we don’t have to
accept that option. I know a little
what it feels like to be taken to a valley full of dry bones. For me it was a hospital bed, existing
somewhere between life and death, and in my mind’s eye looking out over
this vast field full expectations, anticipations, all the plans, hopes and
dreams that come with parenthood, now just lying there like so many dead, dry
bones. Was I tempted to feel
hopeless? Did the thought ever
cross my mind to simply give up, to be taken by the despair that was so
readily available? Oh yes –
and more often than I care to admit.
But, by the grace of God, I continually returned to the same answer,
over and over and over: Lord God, you
know. However it works out in
the end, doesn’t matter – because you know, God, and I trust
you. And there is peace in the
assurance that with God, things are as they should be. Many of you
also have your own valley-of-dry-bones account. In some instances its memories and
lessons learned from past experiences – in other instances it’s
where you’re walking right now.
I encourage you, I challenge you to consider the response of
faith. There is no doubt that
this response comes only by God’s grace. You cannot do it in your own strength,
and if you try you’ll ultimately fail. But if you turn to him, ask him to
help you trust him, he will enable you to stand firm in faith. And then, regardless of the situation,
as you watch the rest of your particular story unfold, you will find hope and
peace. This God of order, this
source of life, can speak with the power of his word into your very soul
– he can breathe anew his Spirit within you. All because you respond with the
simple answer of “Lord God, you know”. The God who knows is the same God you
loves you with an everlasting love, and he’s the same God who can be
trusted. |