Because of all the idioms we use, the English language can be quite challenging to understand. Take this idiom for example: “Make no bones about it; that was the best hamburger I ever tasted!” Make no bones about it? That means that what you’re about to say is true and therefore your audience can swallow your words without fear of choking on a lie as if it was a sharp bone lurking in a piece of grilled salmon.
Ironically our sermon text on this Pentecost Sunday uses bones, a valley full of dry human bones to teach important truths about the Holy Spirit. What are those truths? Well, make no bones about it; the Holy Spirit grants life. He does so through God’s Word, and he does so to God’s glory.
When I have spoken of the Holy Spirit and his work on past Pentecost Sundays, I think I’ve given the impression that he’s like a spark plug: important but kind of dull. That certainly is not what the prophet Ezekiel thought after what he witnessed. Ezekiel lived about 2500 years ago at a time when the Israelites had been carried off into captivity to Babylon (modern-day Iraq). They ended up in exile because they had rebelled against God. What would become of them? Even worse, what would become of God’s promise that one of their own was to one day give birth to the world’s savior in Bethlehem, which was now 800 km away?
The truth is the Israelites were worse off than they realized. God illustrated this fact when he brought Ezekiel to a valley that was filled, not with waving wheat, bubbling streams, and cows grazing on lush vegetation – an idyllic scene of life; he brought Ezekiel to a veritable death valley – one filled with human bones, a scene more macabre than any mass grave one might discover in the killings fields of Cambodia or Serbia. God made Ezekiel take a tour of the valley. Everywhere the prophet walked – bones. Bones that were very dry and would have perhaps turned to dust should Ezekiel have tried to pick one up. God was driving home the point that, left to themselves, Israel’s hope of going back to their country was as bleak as the hope one of those bleached bones ambulating home.
This vision of a valley filled with bones is not just a curiosity for modern-day students of the Word. It’s an accurate snapshot of our spiritual past. The Apostle Paul once wrote: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3).
With Paul’s words in mind let’s take a look at the valley of bones again. The Hebrew text seems to imply that the bones Ezekiel saw were not neatly laid out like you might find at an ancient burial ground; they were all jumbled together. The skull of the respectable baker was mixed up with the ribs of a prostitute. A priest’s femur was over there with the finger-bones of the town drunk. What’s my point? You may be a respectable member of society but if you don’t have faith in Jesus as your Savior, you’re the same to God as the impenitent wife-beater, or the internet scammer. And don’t think that your worship attendance in and of itself counts for something. The Israelites had offered sacrifices at the temple up to the very day it was destroyed, but for a long time it had been worship without fear in God’s Word and faith in his promises. It was a dead, ritualistic form of worship carried out by spiritually dead people and therefore was offensive to God – as offensive as someone dumping a dead skunk onto your front doorstep and thinking they were doing you a favor.
BUT make no bones about it; God had brought his prophet to this death valley to delight, not to depress. And so God said to Ezekiel: “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” (Ezekiel 37:4-6).
Prophesy to the bones? Speak to them and they would come to life? What would you think if I said that after the service today I was going to a cemetery to preach this sermon so that the corpses buried there might come to life? You would think I was a little crazy. Ezekiel may have felt crazy but he did as he was told. He said what he was supposed to say, not that the bones weren’t really that bad off. No, bones are bones. There would be no life unless God intervened, but that’s what God was up to. He had taken Ezekiel, a man full of human impotence, and turned him into a spokesman of divine omnipotence (Zimerli – adapted). When Ezekiel spoke the Word of the Lord there was a rattling sound as bones all around him came together each to its proper joint. Once the bones had been aligned, then sinews and muscles were attached to them and skin was stretched over that by an unseen hand from above. It was a miracle! But wait. When the sound died away Ezekiel knew that something wasn’t quite right. The breath of life had not yet entered these bodies so instead of dry bones, the valley was now littered with corpses. Was this really an improvement? God told Ezekiel to preach again summoning the Holy Spirit to give life and he did (Ezekiel 37:14). Breath entered the corpses and they came to life – not gasping for air as if they were just barely alive and had to be rushed to hospital. No, they stood up and were described by Ezekiel as an “army” ready for service.
What Ezekiel saw in a vision, Jesus’ disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost. First, the Holy Spirit came upon them with the sound of a rushing wind and in the form of fire. What was interesting about this display, however, was that it didn’t create faith, only curiosity. Crowds gathered to see what was going on but couldn’t make sense of it until the apostles started preaching. Through that message the Holy Spirit went out again, this time into hearts of spiritually dead people bringing them to life so that in one day 3000 people (a veritable army) became believers in Jesus.
Make no bones about it; the Holy Spirit continues to grant life today. He does so through God’s Word whether it is preached by a pastor like me or by a parent, or whether it’s the Word that you read in your private devotions. Since the Holy Spirit comes to us through God’s Word, it’s important for us to stay grounded in that Word or we’ll waste away and become spiritual skeletons again. I wonder if God didn’t make that point in Ezekiel’s vision. Why was it that Ezekiel had to preach twice before the bones came alive? God doesn’t tell us but it did make me think about how when the Word is preached many are impressed by it. They may even change their lives to live in accord with God’s commands to be better parents and children. But they often stop there and think that these actions are what make God happy. These people are like the skeletons that had the skin stretched over them. They looked a lot better but they weren’t alive yet. We only come to life when the Holy Spirit gets us to realize just how bad we are - that there is nothing we can do to impress God. And then the Holy Spirit convinces us that all is not lost because God sent his Son Jesus to win forgiveness. Faith in Jesus equals spiritual life. But if we don’t stay in his Word, if we don’t keep being exposed to the Holy Spirit’s working, we’ll lose that faith and the promised eternal life in heaven.
Make no bones about it; the Holy Spirit grants life through God’s Word, but he also grants life to God’s glory. In the words of our text, the bones that Ezekiel had preached to shaked, rattled, and found a new role for themselves (Thomas Swope). Listen again to what God told Ezekiel was the purpose of bringing those bones to life: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD’” (Ezekiel 37:12-14).
The Holy Spirit had not granted life to those bones so they could run off and do their own thing. He had granted life so that they might bring glory to God. Remember how I said that these former bones stood before Ezekiel as a living army? Likewise the Holy Spirit didn’t bring us to life that we might sit around as if waiting for the bus to heaven. He brought us to life and equips us to be soldiers in God’s army. But who is the enemy? It’s not the member who doesn’t agree with you about the church budget. Nor is it even your atheist neighbor who scoffs at you for going to church every Sunday. The enemy is Satan and his allies including your own sinful nature. Our fight is with them. And our weapon is the same as Ezekiel’s: God’s Word. Speak the Word, study the Word and unleash the Holy Spirit who can blow away Satan and doubt better than a stiff breeze can clear a city of smog. The Holy Spirit does this so that many more may stand with us on Judgment Day and give glory to God for sending his Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins.
It is one of the most curious visions in the Bible. But make no bones about it; this vision reveals a spiritual reality. The Holy Spirit alone can give us life and he does through God’s Word and to God’s glory. Show off that glory as you live for Jesus and share him with others. Amen.
