Dry Bones Series

Pastor and author, Robert Morgan, talks about a businessman whose route to work every day took him through the city park, where every day he saw an old fellow sitting on a park bench. The businessman thought the old guy was homeless since he always looked dejected. So, one day, feeling a surge of compassion, the businessman handed the old man an envelope containing ten dollars and a note saying, “Never Despair.”

When the businessman came through the park the next day, the old man handed him an envelope with sixty dollars in it. The old codger explained, “Never Despair was in the money paying six to one in the second race.” As it turns out, the old fellow was an illegal bookie.

Do you find yourself on the brink of despair? Then this message is for you—"never despair, because you never know what good God can bring out of your situation.”

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel 37, where God speaks to those beyond the brink of despair.

Ezekiel 37:1-2 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. 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 (ESV).

God took Ezekiel out to an old battlefield with the bones of the defeated army bleached and unburied. It was a picture of utter defeat. Babylon had decimated the Jews, leaving most of them dead on the battlefield and taking just a few prisoners with them back to Babylon. So God asks Ezekiel a question.

Ezekiel 37:3-10 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 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.” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 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. 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.” 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 (ESV).

What seemed to be impossible, God did, raising this dead army back to life. So what does it mean?

Ezekiel 37:11-14 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, 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. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD” (ESV).

Though the nation of Israel is dead from all outward appearances, God will bring the nation of back to life. First, He will physically restore them to their land. Then He will put His Spirit in them and revive them spiritually.

To be sure, God physically restored Israel to their land twice—The first time was in 536 B.C. when King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to their land after 70 years of captivity. The second time was on May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel 2,000 years after Rome destroyed the nation and scattered the Jews all over the world.

God has physically restored Israel to her land, but her spiritual restoration awaits the coming of her Messiah, Jesus.