Can These Bones Live? Series

Can These Bones Live?

Good morning Maple Grove and welcome to week 13 of our series, ‘Such Things Were Written’

‘Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises. – Romans 15:4

MAN – this has been an incredible time of study.

I MEAN – the truths we have uncovered, the warning we have been given, and the hope and encouragement that has been planted in our hearts and minds have been (many times) the very things that many of us has needed to hear!

AMEN?!

NOW – we are going to be wrapping up this series next Sunday, in a conversation called, “God Is Great And God Is Good” a conversation that will dive deep into these two primary characteristics of God that are first introduced to us in Genesis 1-3. Man, I am soo looking forward to it.

I am also pumped up about the passage of Scripture from Ezekiel chapter 37 that we are going to unpack this morning.

NOW EZEKIEL – is not a book of the bible that many people are not all that familiar with…

BUT PERHAPS – you may have heard about the crazy vision that God one day gave the prophet Ezekiel, of a valley filled with dry bones.

HEY – checkout this video representation I found this week of this passage in Ezekiel 37… AND LISTEN – the words you will are the actual words of Scripture.

'Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises. – Romans 15:4

OKAY…

HERE’S – the deal

HERE’S – what I want us to do today 10/13/2020,

DAY 291 of this crazy, insane, difficult, challenging and like no other year.

I WANT US – to uncover, both the powerful truths and the life giving hope and encouragement that God has placed within these 2600 years old words from the prophet Ezekiel?

AND LISTEN - I want to encourage pray to really lean in closely this morning…

BECAUSE – I am convinced that God that some listening to my voice desperately need to hear.

AND HERE IS HOW – I want to attack this conversation, by unpacking 3 statements…

• The Background

• The Vision

• The So What? (“Such things…”)

Prayer

I. The Background

OKAY SO - let’s do a little background work…

AND LISTEN – it is essential for us to understand the context of this vision…

NOW REMEMBER – after King Solomon (David’s son) dies around the year 932 BC the nation of Israel has a civil war AND - as a result is divided into 2 kingdoms…

• The Northern Kingdom (10 tribes, Israel) and

• the Southern Kingdom (2 tribes, Judah).

And this ‘Divided Period’ in the history of God’s people lasts ~ 200 years.

AND THEN - around 720 BC as we saw last week, the Assyrian Empire destroys the Northern Kingdom, and God (when Assyria tries to destroy Judah) defends the city because of the faith and commitments (to purity, to prayer and to the words of the prophets) of King Hezekiah

AND AFTER THIS - things are pretty chill for over hundred years, between Judah and the nations around them, until around the year 600 BC… when some things start to happen

NOW - at the time Egypt, was the great power in the south, and they had been a dynasty for over 1500 years.

AND IN – the North you have the Babylonian Empire and it is very powerful and very large.

OKAY SO – you have Egypt in the South and Babylon in the North and guess who is sandwiched in between, Judah (the people of God).

NOW JUDAH BACK THEN - decides to practice what we would call today the balance of power diplomacy.

IN OTHER WORDS – they were always trying to play off their powerful neighbors against each other.

WHILE TRYING - to navigate the very complicated geo-political climate in the Middle East at the time (Yeah, some things never change).

AND SO IN 600 BC - the King of Judah allies itself with the nation of Babylon. The strongest power at the time.

WHICH MEANS – they pay (tribute or taxes) to Babylon, nominally it was for protection, and in actuality it was for protection from the Babylonians.

HOWEVER – in 600 BC a very ambitious Pharaoh, Pharaoh Neco takes an army and heads north and reestablishes itself as the dominant power in the Middle East.

AND SO – the king of Judah begins to pay tribute to Egypt instead of to Babylon.

NOW – it does not take very long before the Babylonian billing department notices this and sends out a couple of late notices to Judah.