Ezekiel 37:1-14
When There is No Hope
The prognosis is specific: there is no hope. The relationship is irreparably damaged: there is no hope. The depression wraps around you like a thick blanket of fog: there is no hope. Yet, today’s scripture suggests that, in the most hopeless of cases, God is still at work.
Over a hundred years earlier the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. Now the Babylonians had done the unthinkable and destroyed the southern kingdom of Judah, to include Jerusalem and the beloved Temple, God’s home on earth. Now ten long years had passed, with the survivors living as POWs in a foreign land. No hope. And then God gives Ezekiel a vision.
The scene is a valley where a great battle must have taken place. Bodies lay everywhere. Well, not exactly bodies. Skeletons. Bones. Verse 2 notes that these bones were “very dry.” These folks had been dead a long time. All hope of life was gone. In verse 11 God says the bones represent Israel, who says in their captivity, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” They never expect to see their beloved homeland again. Yet, God says differently. As he brings the bones back to life and fills them with his breath, his spirit, so he says he will surely restore the nation of Israel. Like in the vision, the restoration is two-part: first, the nation is brought back to life; then it is filled with God’s very own breath or spirit.
We have already seen the first part take place in world history. The Persians later would allow the Israelites to return home. And then in modern history, the unthinkable happened on May 14, 1948, when Israel once again became a nation-state. This is probably the only time in history when a nation that had vanished into oblivion later reappeared on the world map. The book of Revelation describes the second part of Ezekiel’s vision, when God’s spirit will fill the nation of Israel once again, as Jews finally turn to their true Messiah in Jesus Christ. It will be a grand sight if we’re still here.
Often in apocalyptic literature, a prophecy will carry multiple levels of meaning. Ezekiel’s vision was first and foremost for the nation of Israel. But it is also for us, for believers everywhere. Every one of us has had moments when we felt all hope was lost. We’ve had a bad day or week or month or year, and we’ve been ready to give up, to throw in the towel, to just not try anymore. And yet, God says, “It’s not over until I say it’s over.” On the outline, I’ve shared some principles with you that jumped out at me from today’s story. The first is,
1. Don’t limit what God can do (v. 3)
So often we feel boxed in by our circumstances, and we see no way out. We may not say it aloud, but we think God is limited the way we are limited. In verse 3, God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I might have responded, “No way! These bones have been dead for many, many years. They are very dry! There is no way they will ever live again!” Yet, Ezekiel is much wiser. He simply says, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” His title for God says it all. “Sovereign” means in control of all things. God is the one in charge, not business as usual. The nature of a miracle is such that it breaks the rules of nature.
When Jesus brought Lazarus out of the grave after four days, the four-day period was important. In Jewish thinking, the spirit might hover around the body for up to four days, with resuscitation possible. Yet, on the fourth day, all hope is gone. Death is final. So, just a week before his own death and resurrection, Jesus said, “Death is not final. Let me give you an illustration.”
Folks, don’t put limits on what God can do! Henry Blackaby illustrates this point in his excellent Bible study book, “Experiencing God.” He talks about the time when the disciples were out on a boat on the Sea of Galilee and a big storm came up. Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat. The disciples all thought they were going to die. When a fisherman believes he’s going to die, you know it’s a bad storm! Well, they brought their impossible circumstances to Jesus, who is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. Blackaby quips that you don’t really know the TRUTH of your circumstances until you bring those circumstances to TRUTH himself. The disciples thought the truth was they were going to die. Yet, when they brought that to “TRUTH” himself, Jesus woke up, said, “Ye of little faith,” and immediately calmed the storm (Matthew 8:23-26, Mark 4:37-39). “No hope” was replaced with “hope.” Don’t ever limit what God can do. Secondly,
2. Speak life into the lives of others (v. 4)
After Ezekiel correctly surmises that God alone knows the answer whether these bones can come back to life, God gets Ezekiel involved personally in the miracle. In verse 4, God says to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” As one commentary put it, this could be “the most unpromising congregation that any preacher ever addressed!” Yet, as Ezekiel begins to prophesy, life starts to return.
As I thought about this story, I wondered if God wants us like Ezekiel to speak life to dry bones. Practically every day we come across people with little to no hope. What if God is whispering to our soul, “Prophesy to them. Tell them all hope is NOT lost. I am NOT done with their situation. As long as they come to me, they will have hope!” What if God chose to draw us—like Ezekiel--into the miracle?
Toby Mac is a popular Christian songwriter/singer/rap artist. He sings a song called, “Speak Life.” I use the music video in some of my VA outpatient groups when we talk about hope. Listen to these lyrics from the song:
We can turn our heart through the words we say
Mountains crumble with every syllable
Hope can live or die
So speak life, speak life
To the deadest darkest night
Speak life, speak life
When the sun won’t shine and you don’t know why
Look into the eyes of the broken hearted
Watch them come alive as soon as you speak hope
You speak love, you speak life.
Don’t underestimate the power of the tongue. God can use your words to speak hope, to speak love, to speak life into the lives of others. Thirdly,
3. Allow God’s Spirit to fill you (v. 9)
The dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision became fully functioning human bodies, with muscles, tendons, and tissue connecting the bones. Yet, it wasn’t enough. They still needed God’s spirit within them. It reminds me of when God fashioned the first human out of the dust of the earth; then he breathed into Adam the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). God says, in verse 9, “Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” As God’s breath comes into them, they fully live.
The Hebrew word for “breath” is “ruah.” Interestingly, in Hebrew it can also mean “wind” or “spirit.” It is the same exact word in verse 9 for breath that it is in verse 14 when God says, “I will put my SPIRIT in you and you will live.” Ezekiel uses a play on words, as he describes this wind that comes in, symbolic of God’s breath, what we would call the Holy Spirit.
Folks, we are nothing without the Holy Spirit. We are like a body that is not really alive. Only when God’s Spirit comes into us do we become fully alive, fully what we were always intended to be. God wants to fill you with his presence. His Spirit will give you hope. His Spirit will give you life. His Spirit will give you purpose. How do you get it? You get it by submitting to God’s will. Like the old hymn says, “Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, mold me. Fill me, use me. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.”
Allow God’s Spirit to fill you. And lastly,
4. Give God the glory. (v. 14)
God tells the people that he will take them home. Then he says, in verse 14, “Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.” When God moves into our circumstances and replaces hopelessness with hopefulness, we need to give God the glory. Because we know he did it. We need to let people around us know that. Don’t be bashful in bragging on God. He gets the glory and we keep from getting a big head. Because God is our hope. I love that verse out of Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” When we remember this verse, we can truthfully say with Charles Stanley, “Disappointments are inevitable; discouragement is a choice.”
In a spiritual sense, you know, we are a lot like these lost Israelites in today’s story. We are refugees, living in a place that is not our home. When you become a Christian, when you invite Jesus in to be the Lord of your life and the forgiver of your sin, you become a member of God’s family, a citizen of heaven. This world, with its school shootings and sicknesses and diseases, is a playground for Satan. Yet, someday God will make all things new, as he ushers in a new heaven and a new earth.
Our ultimate source of hope is to hang onto God who will most certainly bring us home, just as he did the Israelites. May we be able to say like Peter, in 1 Peter 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Let us pray:
To the one who raised Jesus from the dead, we acknowledge that you can bring hope even out of death itself. Help us in our lowest moments of hopelessness to turn to you, to know that your ways are higher than our ways, your thoughts higher than our thoughts. Help us to hold onto you in life’s uncertainties, and to praise your name as you bring us through that valley of the shadow of death. We pray in the name of our living Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
