Introduction: I was reading Outdoor life the other day while waiting to get my allergy shot and came across an interesting story. It was in a section entitled, “This happened to me.” A turkey hunter had successfully called in a big gobbler within shooting range and shot the turkey. He picked up his trophy and walked over to his 4 wheeler. He laid the turkey on the back of the 4 wheeler and took his turkey tag out of his pocket and attached it to the turkey’s leg. Then He unloaded his gun and put it on the front of the 4 wheeler. Then the hunter decided he better tie the turkey to the back of the 4 wheeler so it wouldn’t fall off. He found some rope but just as he started to tie it down, the turkey got up and ran off taking his turkey tag with it.
Usually if something is dead it stays dead. But in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel there is an interesting passage of scripture that mentions a bunch of dead bones coming back to life. I want use that passage of Scripture for our text today, but before we begin reading it let me give you a little background information.
Ezekiel lived and prophesied during a difficult period of time. The Nation of Israel had turned its back on God and as a result He had the task of prophesying about the Judgment of God that was going to come upon them for their disobedience.
In 597 B.C. the Babylonians successfully captured the city of Jerusalem. At that particular time the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar decided not to completely destroy the city but did take about 10,000 Jews including Ezekiel back Babylon to serve as slaves.
Although Ezekeil lived with his fellow exiles in Babylon, and even though His desire to return to Jerusalem was just as great as theirs. His Divine calling and insight required that He prophecy instead about the destruction of Jerusalem. For the first 7 years they were in Exile, Ezekiel faithfully proclaimed God’s Judgment upon His people, and that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed.
After conquering the nation of Israel King Nebuchadnezzer placed a man named Zedekiah, on the throne in Jerusalem. A few years later Zedekiah tried unsuccessfully to lead a rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. That’s when Nebuchadnezzar ordered his army to completely destroy the city of Jerusalem including the temple.
Ezekiel was the son of Buzi, a priest who served in some capacity in the Temple in Jerusalem. Many Biblical scholars also believe that Ezekiel himself served as one of the Temple priests before being exiled to Babylon.
The two greatest personal tragedies for Ezekiel occurred at the same time; the death of his wife and the destruction of Jerusalem. God instructed Ezekiel to set an example for the Jews by not mourning for his wife. In the same way He told Ezekiel that the Jews should not mourn the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem.
Ezekiel was not only a priest and prophet. But He was also a pastor to the exiles. He truly loved his people, and did his best to minister to them while they were in exile.
Now I want to stop for a minute to make sure you understand the importance of these events. The fact that the Nation of Israel had been defeated and that many of the Jews had been taken into captivity is important for a couple of reasons.
First of all, The Jews believed that God would always protect them and keep them from being defeated. So in one sense the Jews felt God himself had been defeated.
A second and perhaps even more difficult blow came when the Jews in Exile found out that the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed and that the city itself had been burned.
This was very discouraging and disheartening for the Jews in Exile because they never thought God would ever allow anything to happen to Jerusalem and especially the Temple. Despite the fact that Ezekiel had been telling them for several years that it was going to happen, they refused to believe it.
But it did, and when it did many of the Jews in captivity gave up any hope of ever returning to Jerusalem.
The main theme that is constant throughout the book of Ezekiel is The Sovereignty of God. That He and He Alone is in control of everything that takes place. Keep that in mind as we read this passage of Scripture today.
Read verses 1-3.
“The LORD took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the LORD to a valley filled with bones.” 37:1
“He led me around among the old, dry bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground.” 37:2
Then he asked me, "Son of man, can these bones become living people again?""O Sovereign LORD," I replied, "you alone know the answer to that." 37:3
I believe there are a couple of important things that I need to mention here.
1. First of all, (This is a vision that the prophet Ezekiel had and is now describing it to us as it happened.)
In the first verse he says, the Lord took hold of him and carried him to this valley of dry bones. Which is significant, because it tells us that Ezekeil didn’t just go out for a walk one afternoon and come upon this valley of dry bones by accident. Instead the Spirit of the Lord took him there and more importantly took him there for a specific reason.
Now in my opinion this is significant because it tells us that Ezekiel had an intimate relationship with the Lord. He heard God’s voice, and responded obediently by following the Spirit, even though He probably didn’t know where the Spirit was leading Him. We are not sure if the Sprit actually physically took him to this valley, or if He simply saw it in his mind. But regardless Ezekiel painted a very detailed picture of what He saw.
2. A Second thing I don’t want to overlook here is that God often asks difficult questions; not because He doesn’t know the answers, but because He wants to know if we are aware of the circumstances around us. In verse 3, God asked the Prophet Ezekiel a crucial question. He asked, "Can these bones become living people again?”
Ezekiel was a pretty smart guy. He didn’t bother giving God His opinion, or speculating about it one way or the other. He simply said, "Lord, you alone know the answer to that question.”
Now lets Read verses 4-8. Stop.
(37:4) Then he said to me, "Speak to these bones and say, ’Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD!
37:5. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look! I am going to breathe into you and make you live again!
37:6. I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’"
37:7. So I spoke these words, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as they had been before.
37:8. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.
The Lord told Ezekeil what He wanted Him to say, and He said it. As He was saying it the bones began coming together, and right there before Ezekiel’s eyes, skin and flesh covered those dry bones. But there was still something wrong. Even though the bones were covered with flesh, they were still dead.
illustration: My uncle is a very talented taxidermist, and has mounted or stuffed thousands of animals, birds, and fish in his career. A few years ago, my grandfather killed a nice Whitetail buck, and my uncle mounted the deer whole. He did an exceptionally good job, and the deer really looked lifelike.
In fact some game wardens have started using stuffed deer like that one to catch would be poachers. They stand the stuffed deer in a field and hide out of sight and wait for the poachers to come by and shoot at it. It’s proven very successful in many states. But my point is that no matter how realistic that deer looks, it is still dead!
In the same way, even though those dry bones now had skin on them, they were still dead, they were still lifeless.
Read verses 9-10. Stop.
37:9. “Then he said to me, "Speak to the winds and say: ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so that they may live again.’"
37:10. So I spoke as he commanded me, and the wind entered the bodies, and they began to breathe. They all came to life and stood up on their feet – a great army of them.
Again the Lord told Ezekiel what to do, and He did it. He didn’t ask any questions. He didn’t argue with God. He didn’t say, "Lord, what’s the point don’t you think it’s kind of foolish for me to stand here and preach to a bunch of dead people.”
He didn’t say anything like that. He simply heard what God told him to do, and He did it!
This time as Ezekiel prophesied, as He proclaimed the Word of God, God breathed the breath of life into these lifeless bodies, and they stood up and formed a vast army.
Of course God did this for a reason? But what was it? I believe it was a huge object lesson for Ezekiel.
As I mentioned earlier Israel had been conquered by the Babylonians and many of the Israelites, including Ezekiel had been taken to Babylon as slaves. Then a few years later they find out that Jerusalem had been burned and that the Temple of God had been completely destroyed.
Now we don’t know exactly how long Ezekiel and the Israelites had been in captivity when this particular event took place. But we do know that the Exiles were depressed and unhappy in captivity. Perhaps they even felt like God had abandoned them. With that in mind, God began to Ezekiel some words of hope to share with His people.
Read verses 11-14.
37:11. Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ’We have become old, dry bones – all hope is gone.’
37:12. Now give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
37:13-14. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live and return home to your own land.
37:14. Then you will know that I am the LORD. You will see that I have done everything just as I promised. I, the LORD, have spoken!"
Now in order to understand what this passage of Scripture means to us, we first have to understand what it meant to Ezekiel. The dry bones represented the Entire Nation of Israel. Both the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
The Israelites who were in captivity in Babylon were saying, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off."
Let me paraphrase that for you. "Things are really bad here in Babylon, everyone is tired and worn out. No one believes we will ever be allowed to go home. We are convinced that we will all die in this God forsaken land."
God responded to the cries of his people by telling Ezekeil that He would "Breath life back into the Israelites," He told him, that they would not die in captivity, but instead that the Lord would deliver them and restore them to their own land.
And when He did, He says that then they would know that He was God, and that He was in Control of the situation.
Serving the Lord isn’t always easy. In fact there are times when we all get a little down or a little discouraged. Things don’t always go the way we want them to.
Sometimes our Attendance is lower than we would like for it to be. And unfortunately there are times when our finances are not quite as good as we would like for them to be. Then we find out that so and so is going to another church. It can all be pretty depressing. Satan would like nothing better than for us to give up, just like the Israelites did.
They had lost all hope of ever returning to Jerusalem. They saw no physical way for them to ever be able to return home. But they were being influenced more by their circumstances than they were by their faith.
God had not forgotten or forsaken them. He was simply preparing them to return to Him. Once they had done that then and only then would He restore them to their homeland.
The dry bones that Ezekiel saw represented the Nation of Israel, but unfortunately they could also represent many churches around the United States today. According to Ed Stetzer the author of the book “Comeback Churches” for the past several years between 3,500 and 4,000 churches in America have closed their doors and no longer exist. If something doesn’t change we have at least 3 Southern Baptist Churches here in Simpson County that may very well close their doors in the next 5 years.
But that doesn’t have to happen. I assure you if God can breathe the breath of life into an entire nation and restore them to their homeland, He can also breathe the Breath of Life into the churches of America and "Revive" us to the point that we will once again be able to make a significant impact on our communities and upon our nation.
And that’s exactly what I believe He wants to do. But He won’t do that until we’re ready. He won’t revive us until we get return to Him.
How do you know if your bones are getting dry?
1. When you have no desire to study the Bible or pray.
2. When you would rather go anywhere than go to church.
3. When you rationalize or make excuses for you sins.
4. When you can quote scripture and attend service, but it doesn’t make a difference in your life.
5. When all that matters to you are money and material possessions.
6. When it no longer bothers you that the people you come into contact with every day are lost and on their way to Hell.
7. When you no longer get excited about worship or serving the Lord in any way.
How can we be revived? How can our dry bones live again?
Ezekiel preached to the dry bones and the Breath of God entered them and they came back to Life. We will be revived when we allow the Word of God to do the same for us. We need to read it, study it, listen to it, and allow it to penetrate our hearts! If you aren’t spending time reading the Bible every day then you are in danger of drying up spiritually.
