Dem Bones - Listen To Them Speak Series

Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14

THEME: Ultimate Victory

God speaks to Ezekiel in this vision. Let’s walk with him as he learns what it means to be regenerated, renewed and refreshed in God’s Word and in the power and presence of God’s Holy Spirit.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Have you ever had a strange dream?

You’ve had a slice of pizza that day or perhaps a spicy meal and then you had a rather unusual dream that night.

Have you ever had a vision flash before your eyes?

This morning, our scripture takes us to a time when the Prophet Ezekiel had a rather odd vision. God used to share not only with him but with everyone that would listen some amazing truths that can help all of us understand God better and live a more victorious life here on God’s Good Earth.

Ezekiel’s writings are very interesting. I mean where else can you read about all kinds of interesting angels (Ch. 1,9), a wheel that’s in a wheel (Ch.1), what the throne of God looks like (Ch. 1, 10) and all the other strange things that Ezekiel mentions.

The Prophet himself was a very colorful character and had a rather unique way of sharing his message with others.

+There was this time that he cut off his hair (Ch. 5), divided it into three parts to symbolized northern Israel, the Judeans left in Jerusalem, and those in captivity in Babylon.

+There was the time he rationed his food (Ch. 4), carried all the furniture out of his house (Ch. 12), and did various other things to represent the disaster that would soon overtake the city of Jerusalem.

Most of what we read about in the book of Ezekiel occurred while he was in Babylon. He and thousands of others had all had been taken captive by the Babylonians and transferred to live out the rest of their lives in Babylon.

Ezekiel found himself living among the Jewish colonies that were settled near the Kebar River which was around 50 miles north of the city of Babylon. It was there that Ezekiel did most of his preaching and teaching.

In chapter 37, Ezekiel is shown a vision. It is a rather strange vision. It is the vision that we know as the Valley of the Dry Bones.

Let’s take a few minutes and see what we can glean from this vision:

1. The Facts of the Vision:

First, we need to get a hold of what is going on in the vision.

+Ezekiel sees himself in a valley, a place that is low and dark and surrounded by mountains.

+All around him are hundreds of human bones.

+Bones that are completely dry, signifying that they have been there for a very long time.

+Bones that were scattered meaning that they have lost their unity and identity. At first glance, you couldn’t tell which bones belonged to one another. Here was a scattered pile of tibias, over there were some flanges, past them were some rib bones and vertebras and a pile of skulls. All the bones were scattered without any rhyme or reason.

+Bones that symbolized hopelessness and helplessness.

+Bones that symbolized that there was no longer any life or seemingly any possibility of life.

I am sure that when Ezekiel saw all those bones, he had to feel like that was his life and the lives of all the Jews he knew both in Babylon and those that had been left behind in Israel. Their nation, their way of life and the Temple had all been either destroyed or uprooted and so many of them had been brought here to Babylon some 900 miles away.

All their dreams and their hopes were like these bones.

Once they had been a unified people; a people that could quickly tell you if they were of the tribe of Judah, Dan, Benjamin etc…

+Now, how would they keep their identity?

+How would they remain Jewish?

+How would they worship without the Temple?

+How would they stay together without their own government and their own rulers?

I am sure he thought about his own life. By the time we get to chapter 37 Ezekiel had not only lost his homeland and his occupation, but he had also lost his wife and from what we can understand he had no children which to a Jewish man meant there was no future.

I am sure as he looked around, he felt like he was seeing himself and his nation. Dry, scattered, without an identity, disconnected, helpless and hopeless. I am sure that he thought what he was seeing was a future picture of the nation of Israel.

That is where we first find Ezekiel.

But that is not where he stays.