New Life When We Need It

NEW LIFE WHEN WE NEED IT

Ezekiel 37:1–14

Introduction

A few weeks ago, we began a trio of lessons from the Major Prophets. All who are Thirsty, Come - a message from Isaiah encouraging a turn to God. Hope where we least expected it - a message from Jeremiah to those exiled. Today, we will turn to Ezekiel’s best-known text, New Life When We Need It - Ezekiel 37.

Ezekiel was a priest and a prophet exiled to Babylon in 597 BC during Nebuchadnezzar's deportation of Judean elites, where he ministered to fellow exiles through dramatic visions and symbolic acts. He was called to be a prophet at age 30. His cinematic visions stir the imagination, beginning with a throne-chariot and four living creatures. His life as a prophet was not easy. God asked him to vividly portray the judgment of God’s people with acts like lying on his side for 430 days; shaving and burning his hair, and not mourning the death of his wife - all to dramatize the consequences of rebellion for a spiritually numb audience. Earlier prophecies targeted Israel’s sins, but later they shifted to hope - a renewed heart and spirit. When we get to chapter 37, Ezekiel is taken to a valley of bones with a different story, a story of God’s people who had lost their way, lost their hope, lost their spiritual breath.

In Ezekiel 37 we find ourselves. From times of spiritual dryness and death, God desires to breathe new life just when we need it.

1. The Vision of The Valley of Dry Bones (37:1-2)

37:1-2 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.

Ezekiel is set in the middle of a valley of dry bones.

-As a priest and a Jew, he would have found this repulsive - it would have caused him to be unclean.

-These bones were dry - they have been there a long time and nature has taken its course.

-These bones were in a multitude, not just a few bones here and there.

-These bones indicate not only death but humiliation - the body of a dead Jew was to be washed, wrapped, and buried with dignity in a grave or tomb.

This was a vision of life without God - a result that God had warned them of many times.

The same is true today - even if we cannot see the valley of bones. When spiritual life is ignored and we wander from God we begin to feel that life without the source.

-Prayer feels too difficult, so it ceases to be a vital part of life.

-Faith feels useless, so we give up. We do not live by the truth we know. 

-Sin feels powerful, so we give in.

-Spiritual passion has evaporated. We happily adjust to the world's lifestyle and the slightest excuse seems sufficient to keep you from spiritual duty / opportunity.

Ezekiel 37:11b “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.”

Rick Warren wrote, “Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”

But God isn’t through. He asks a significant question: Ezekiel 37:3 “Son of man, can these bones live?” Humanly speaking, we know they cannot. Romans 4:17 says that Abraham believed in “the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” Ezekiel wisely answered, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

2. The Message of Restoration (Ezekiel 37:4-8)

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Ezekiel had prophesied to the mountains and to the forests, and now to the valley of dead bones. He preaches to the bones, and unexpectedly, they began to come together “bone to bone." It is hard to imagine that scene, but there was a valley of bones that had come together and skin covered them. Wiersbe wrote, “...What was lying there in the valley looked like a sleeping army. The bodies lacked only one thing…”