Dry Bones: For The 5th Sunday In Lent

Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1–14 NKJV

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

Also 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 breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”

We now come to the 5th Sunday in Lent as we prepare for Holy Week and Easter Sunday. This is a season of reflection and repentance. It is a time where we as individuals and as local churches and larger groupings of churches take time to consider how faithful we have been to Jesus and to seek to remedy the faults we find. One of the things we consider is our sins and remember that it is our faith in Jesus which provides the basis of our hope. We also reflect that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. We reflect that all the evils which currently beset us shall end. We know with certainty that the day our faith shall be sight and we will live with Him forever. So how does this text from Ezekiel help us in our reflection?

Ezekiel the Prophet lived in difficult times for the Jewish nation. He was personally taken captive and removed to Babylon in probably was the first of three deportations which occurred between 606 BC and 586 BC. His first vision occurred in Babylon while the Temple still existed in Jerusalem. So, he sadly experienced the escalating catastrophe to his people from the outside, whereas Jeremiah records the sad end of Jerusalem from within. By the time of the third and last deportation, Jerusalem and Judaea appeared to be dead and without any hope. This does not mean that they were dead. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesy that there would be a return from exile. This passage from 37 speaks of this restoration.

Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones is well-known. There have been songs and poems about the experience. I can remember as a boy watching a TV show called the Munster’s that Herman took up playing the guitar “My toe bone is connected to my foot bone...” Somehow the recording of the song got to the studio and became a hit. The fame led to a change for the worse in Herman as fame got to his head. I suppose the moral to be learned by this fictional account is that pride and fame can be destructive, We can think of the Bible telling us that pride comes before a fall. But that is another sermon which has nothing to do with the text here.