There’s Hope for the Dried Up
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The children of Israel had begun to lose their hope. The nation had dried up politically, spiritually, and morally. Many had gone into captivity. Despair and pessimism were rampant. Gloom and doom filled the air. They had become a dried up exiled people. The glory they had once enjoyed was gone. They felt as though all hope had abandoned them. God gave Ezekiel a message to the deliver to the despairing exiles of Israel that there was hope for the dried hope. God was and is still in control. He can and will give life to that which appears to have shriveled up and died. This vision of Ezekiel has applications which we can make to our lives today. As in Ezekiel’s day, God is still in the business of giving hope to the dried up.
I. The picture of death – a valley of bones
A. They were dead, dried, and divided
B. No sign of life - they were very dry; through length of time they had lain there, exposed to wind and weather; the flesh being wholly consumed from off of them, and the marrow within quite dried up
C. Jameson Faucet Brown says that the bones were “dry-bleached by long exposure to the atmosphere.”
D. If one looked at these bones they would say that there was no hope of life ever being put back into them.
E. Ezekiel 37:11 “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!'
F. Webster’s defines DESPAIR as the loss of HOPE and a feeling of hopelessness. It’s the idea of giving up hope, feeling discouraged & defeated.
G. Death in God’s Word symbolizes separation as well as the absence of life.
1. For the unbeliever, death means without spiritual life, unregenerate, and without God—separated from relationship with God.
2. For the believer, death is used as a representation or picture of carnality or worldliness, for being out of fellowship with God and therefore separated from Christ as the source of the abundant life.
H. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I. Revelation 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.’’”
J. This was written to true believers who were spiritually carnal and working from the energy of their own resources rather than from His (the Word and the Holy Spirit).
K. Many had soiled their garments (Revelation 3:4) – that is to say they contaminated both their life and witness by either living unseparated lives or going about their worship and service in their own way relying on their own works and feelings.
L. This is a warning. A church is in danger of death when its members fail to live according to the precepts of God’s Word or when it seeks to carry out its ministries without direction from and reliance on the Lord.
M. Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
N. When a believer fails to continue to drink at the Springs of Living Water and to feast on the Manna of God’s Word they become famished and their soul becomes parched as they become spiritually dried up.
O. Perhaps the best picture of this is seen in the story of the prodigal son.
P. Luke 15:16-18 “And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee”
II. The question posed – Can these bones live?
A. There was no probability or hope, humanly speaking, of their being quickened.
B. No created power could restore human bones to life. – Gill
C. Deuteronomy 32:39 “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.”
D. No matter how dead, how dry, how lifeless these bones may look! Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, "...‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’"
E. There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. Clare Boothe Luce.
III. The promise of life – You shall live
A. Proclamation of the Word
1. Verse 4 “O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.”
2. Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
3. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
4. An unknown writer said, "This Book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity. - copied
5. Psalms 119:130 “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.”
6. Psalms 119:50 “This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life.”
B. Breath of the Spirit
1. Ezekiel 37:9-10 “Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”
2. Job 33:4 “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”
3. John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
4. If we do not have the Spirit of God, it were better to shut the churches, to nail up the doors, to put a black cross on them and say, "God, have mercy on us." If you ministers have not the Spirit of God, you had better not preach and you people had better stay at home. I think I speak not too strongly when I say that a church in the land without the Spirit of God is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else's way; you are as a tree bearing no fruit standing where a fruitful tree might grow.—Charles H. Spurgeon.
5. Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit
6. Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
C. Restoration of the Body
1. Ezekiel 37:7 “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.”
2. Christians are called to live a holy life for God. However, when they are disjointed, they struggle to survive. God established the church to strengthen every individual part of the body.
3. Ephesians 4:11-12, 16 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ …from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
4. Membership in a confessing body is fundamental to the faithful Christian life. Failure to do so defies the explicit warning not to forsake "our assembling together." His understanding of this prompted Martin Luther to say, "Apart from the church, salvation is impossible." Not that the church provides salvation; God does. But because the "saved" one can't fulfill what it means to be a Christian apart from the church, membership becomes the indispensable mark of salvation. – Charles W. Colson, The Body, 1992, Word Publishing, p. 70.
5. It is said that many professed Christians are like You heard about the golfer named Jones who was twenty minutes late at the first tee one Sunday morning, and the other three members of the regular four-some were almost ready to drive off without him. "I agreed with my wife," explained Jones, "that this Sunday I'd toss a coin to see whether I played golf or went to church. Heads, I played golf. Tails, I went to church. And you know fellows, I had to toss that coin forty-three times before it came up heads."
6. Hebrews 10:25 “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
