Hope for Your Dry Bones Ezekiel 37:1-10 At this point in Ezekiel, Jerusalem was an empty city in ruins whose brightest and most capable citizens had been kidnapped by Babylon. Picture of Tel Abib - Ezekiel and his wife lived on the Chebar River, in Tel Abib in Babylon (modern Iraq) with the other exiles from Judah. God s people knew His promises but this made life in Jerusalem or Babylon all the worse. Where was God? As such, the people struggled to sing of Zion in a strange land. Psalm 137:1-4 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, Sing us one of the songs of Zion! 4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? To what foreign land has God exiled you? Some of you won t consider these foreign lands because that is where you live. Babylon was not a foreign land to Babylonians. But like Israel in Babylon, others of you hope to be only visiting these life situations and for you, it s like being divinely exiled. *singleness *childlessness *prodigal children *unemployment *poor health *new location, school or job Babylon seemed like a black hole that caused a crisis of faith. Many Israelites assumed their god had been defeated by a stronger Babylonian deity. The key symbols of Judah s faith and success the city and the temple had been destroyed. What are your key indicators of happiness? *Friends who know me and with whom I can hang out *People do what I tell them to do (Employer and employee) *Every day is the same *No crisis This chapter has two parts: 1 Communal Lament v 11 v 11 - Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off. 1
The reference to "bones" here is an colloquial way of referring to one's deepest self, or, in the case of "our bones," a way for the community to refer to its most essential self. Genesis 2:23 - This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh ILL You cut me to the bone. When Israel says, Our bones are dried up they are implying the life is gone out of them. And it isn t like Lazarus who was only in the grave 4 days. These bones are dry implying they have been dead a long time. Bones are living tissues. In humid conditions, it can take a decade for bones to decompose. But in a dry climate it could take thousands of years. The Egyptians used drying salts to clear the body of liquids preventing bacteria and fungus from starting the decomposition process. Sealed in linen and a sarcophagus, the lack of moisture and oxygen also prevented the breakdown of tissue and bone. These bones were dry implying they comprised bodies long dead. That s why the Israelites equate dry bones with no hope and being cut off. Ezekiel says the bones are very dry (v 2) So the chapter has a communal lament Our bones are dried up But the chapter also has a prophetic tone 2 Prophetic Deliverance 12b-14a 12b-14a - Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. This is a revival text. In it, God promises to revive an exiled Israel and restore them to the Promised Land. First: The Valley of Dry Bones 1-2 Picture of Dry Bones in Valley The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 2
God warned Israel that disobedience would send them into captivity T - 2 Kings 17:7-20 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, 12 and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, You shall not do this. 13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. 19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 2 Kings 25:10-12 - And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. 11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. 12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen. 1 This is where Samaritans originated. Babylon exiled the best of Israel and Judah and exiled other nations into the Promised Land. The Jews who remained intermarried creating the Samaritans. 2 Israel was in captivity for 70 years because they violated the Sabbath year covenant. Every 7 years Israel was supposed to let the land rest (Leviticus 25:1-5) so that it could be revived. They gathered grain, etc, for 6 years to sustain them in the 7 th year. It proved their trust in God and demonstrated God s grace and faithfulness. But Israel opted to trust in their own wisdom and labor rather than God s plan. They lived in the Promised Land for 490 years before the Babylonian captivity. That s 70, 7s and that s why they were out of the land for 70 years. 3
Leviticus 26:34-35 - Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. Jeremiah 25:8-12 - 8 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, 9 behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. 10 Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. Look closely at v 12 - Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste. God sinlessly uses sinners and sin to his glory Some people don t like that. We often want to argue against God using sinners or sin. In Isaiah, God prophesied that he would use an ungodly king, Cyrus, to free Israel from captivity. Isaiah 45:9-13 - Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, What are you doing? Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him.will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? 12 I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. 13 I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free Until you let God be God, you will never experience the joy of Christianity in a valley of dry bones. Our only hope is a God who is bigger than the Egyptian or Babylonian gods. Second: The Promise of God 3-6 3 And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, you know. 4 Then he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon 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. 4
In the New Testament, Jesus brought Jairus daughter and Lazarus back to life. When Jesus died, hundreds of people were resurrected from their graves. Jesus could do this because God had already brought an entire valley of bones back to life. Third: The Power of God 7-10 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, [c] and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then 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 the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Conclusion: Feel the weight of your sin. Feel the weight of your life s sorrow. Don t deny it. Don t excuse it. Feel it. God gave Ezekiel a vision in which he saw a valley of dry bones. It was a picture that fitted the mood of God s people who were saying Our bones are dried up and our hope in gone, we are cut off. Ezekiel spoke God s Word to the bones, and as He did, the bones came together. Then they were covered with tendons, flesh and skin. Then God breathed life into the corpses, just as He had breathed life into Adam. God brought life from a cemetery of dry bones. The question, Can God revive me or my church? is answered in the revival of Israel s dry bones. It also proves the power of God. Jeremiah 32:17 - Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20 - For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. All of God s promises are sealed with His own Yes in Christ Jesus, to which you can add your Amen with the full confidence that everything God has promised is yours in Him. What dry bones do you have and why are they dry? What parts of your life feel very dry, without hope and cut off? 5
There is hope for your dry bones. Just because your life has gone haywire, and even if it is God s judgement, it doesn t mean God hasn t ordained it and isn t in control of it. As such, he can rescue you from it. Community Groups: 1 Can you relate to Psalm 137:1-4? What circumstances make you lose your song? 2 Have you been cut to the bone? Did it make you gain or lose hope? 3 How does disobedience send us into captivity? 4 What did letting the land rest every 7 years mean or prove? 5 Why didn t Israel let the land rest? 6 Are there areas of your life in which you are not trusting God? 7 Give examples of God sinlessly using sinners and sin. (Consider one example: Joseph) *He used Joseph s brothers to get Joseph into Egypt *He used Potiphar s wife to get Joseph into prison *He used Pharaoh s cruelty to stir Israel to want to leave Egypt *He used Pharaoh s stubbornness to defeat Egypt s gods *He used the Egyptian army to demonstrate his power at the Red Sea 8 What does this mean? It means sinners don t get away with sin. It means the devil never wins. It means God takes all things and uses them for his glory and our good. It means we can rest and hope even when it looks like sin has won (think of the cross). 9 How could you apply Jeremiah 32:17 to your life? 6