WHEN DRY BONES CAN LIVE AGAIN
Text: Ezekiel 37:1 - 14
Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. (2) And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. (3) And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” (4) Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. (5) Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. (6) And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” (7) So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. (8) And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. (9) Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” (10) So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (11) Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ (12) Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. (13) And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. (14) And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”
“Dr. Edward Bauman tells about some Boy Scouts who were learning first aid. Three of them, who were to pretend that they needed medical attention, were stationed along the trail. As they came to each of these, the others were to administer the necessary aid. The third scout was to pretend to have a sever cut with much bleeding. But the boys took so long in ministering to the first two that the third one got tired of waiting. When the other scouts arrived at the place where he was stationed, they found a note that said, “I have bled to death, and gone home.” (Clarence W. Crawford. Cups of Light. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Judson Press, 1988, p. 124). What Ezekiel saw in his third vision in this thirty-seventh chapter, was not a drill. Those dry bones had been there a while! Those dry bones were a symbol of hopelessness.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death! God’s people at that time had been defeated, divided and exiled as a judgement upon their sinfulness as a nation. Only God could bring them back! This passage of scripture speaks of a time when God’s divided people will be united.
Symbolically, this vision is about the resurrection of Israel as a nation. The dry and disconnected bones represent how God’s people had been defeated, divided and scattered in exile. Only God can reconnect their bones, unite them and bring them back together as a country!
The Corona Virus reminds us that people are divided and disconnected world wide. We are all in this crisis together. Satan would like to use this crisis to tear us further apart. God wants to use this crisis to help us reconnect to Him and unify us as His people. This virus seems to be something that God is using to show us our true colors.
Our three points are hope, obedience and belief.
HOPE
What would you do if God gave you a vision placing you in a valley of dry bones telling you to prophesy to those bones? 1) Hesitant: Would we say it was hopeless to do that? Charles R. Allen once said, “When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God”. (Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 199). 2) Not Impossible: Luke 1:37 “ … with God nothing shall be impossible” (MKJV). Example of God’s work
?God created the world out of nothing.
?God parted the Red Sea so that His people could cross on dry ground as the Pharoah’s army pursued them.
?God brought Jesus to us through a virgin birth.
?God brought Jesus back from the dead through the resurrection.
Have you ever been hopeless? Haven’t we all seen people on the threshold of hopelessness? How many do we know who are on the threshold of hopelessness right now In the midst of this quarantine? Two years ago one of my former members was training a horse that got spooked. It kicked him in the lower jaw with its hind leg. His jaw got broken into three pieces. One or more of his teeth went into one of his lungs. They airlifted him to the hospital where he coded twice on the way. They had to wire his jaw shut so that the three pieces of his lower jaw could grow back together. He lived on a feeding tube for over six weeks. He made a full recovery. Our God is an awesome God!
Why is it that we as Christians have hope? How many people do we know who would argue against hope?
1) Naysayers: C. S. Lewis once said, “If Satan’s arsenal of weapons were restricted to on single one, it would be discouragement”. (Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 121). We can always tell who those naysayers are in a crowd, they are the one’s who look at the clouds instead of the silver lining.
2) The resurrection: God has given to us the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to bolster our faith and strengthen our courage not only for ourselves but for those around us.
3) New life: Through the resurrection we have a new way of living. John 3:16 says it all!
OBEDIENCE
Is obedience important to our every day living? Obviously, the answer is an emphatic yes! But, let’s explain why.
1) Perspective: I am gong to use a golfing metaphor to make a spiritual point. I heard of a guy who always had the score card of a golfing pro. He probably borrowed the idea from fisherman who magnify results. Anyway, one of his friends who knew him well asked him how he always had such great golfing scores. “That’s easy,” he said, “I just don’t record the bad strokes.” This guy takes lots of mulligans (do overs) which are not legal according to the true rules of golfing. (https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-a-mulligan-in-golf-1560451). What does that have to do with the Ezekiel 37: 1 - 14? The answer is that there were things that led up to the valley of the dry bones.
2) Bad Shepherds: How in the world do shepherds have anything to do with Ezekiel 37? Ezekiel 34:1 -5 will help us get an answer that reflects where we are now!
Ezekiel 34:1-5 The word of the LORD came to me: (2) “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? (3) You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. (4) The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. (5) So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; (ESV). We already know they abused mulligans! Does any of Ezekiel 34: 1 - 5 remind you of current events?
Is that not a mirror reflection of the world we live in?
1) History repeats itself: Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has attributed the fall of the Empire to:
1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion—faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.
Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. Source unknown[] Idolatry is the practice of having other gods in the place that only the one true God should have! Are you starting to see why idolatry is a bad thing?
2) Good and Obedient Shepherd: Consider Ezekiel 34:11: “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out” (ESV). Remember John 3:16? Listen to some of the things that Jesus tells us in John 10:(9,11,14, 16). John 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. … 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. … 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (ESV). Jesus is the Good Shepherd who humbled Himself in obedience even to the point of death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). Philippians 2:8 “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (ESV).
BELIEF
Everything that we as Christians believe is based on the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which is why we worship on Sunday!
?Resurrection means rising from death to life for believers.
Romans 6:4 says it best: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (ESV).
?That means that those who believe in Jesus Christ are living as citizens of God’s Kingdom in the world. We are in the world but not of the world! That means we gather weekly with other believers for worship in God’s holy Church every Sunday because Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead!
?As we use the internet through FaceBook and other internet channels, I am reminded of American Vietnam POWs who held church every Sunday. They used tapping on the walls in Morse code to communicate through the walls even though their captors had forbidden it. They used coughs and fake sneezes in the rhythm of Morse code when guards were close enough to hear them to avoid being discovered. Being POWs did not stop them from worship, and we will not let this Corona Virus stop us from worship!
?For those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Resurrection also means that one day we will live with the Lord in Heaven. Until that time comes As Jesus said, “We must work to gather the lost sheep that are not of this fold while it is day” (See John 9:4, 10:16).
?The best way to describe the indescribable is to see how it is worded in I John 3:1-3: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (2) Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (3) And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (ESV). .
Is there such a thing as an unbeliever’s paradise?
1) Rebuilding Babylon: How many people do you know who have successfully rebuilt Babylon? In Genesis 11:4, we read about a tower that people built because they wanted to make a name for themselves. Does that story have an echo in the New Testament? Consider what Matthew 16:26 says “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (ESV). Is seeking to gain the whole world akin to someone trying to make a name for himself or herself? How many are trying to make a name for themselves today as they rebel against God’s love?
2) Control: United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson shares this insight:
“Go down to the fish market and look into the crab barrel. They never have to put a lid on it because if one crab starts to crawl out, the others will grab onto him and pull him back down. That’s what negative peer pressure does. And that’s what you must fight against”. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. Ben Carson, MD, Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon who grew up on the streets of Detroit[]
What Dr. Ben Carson says about Negative peer pressure is also true for selfish ambition. In Philippians 2:3 the Apostle Paul says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (ESV). Doesn’t selfish ambition lead to dry bones?
What does God want us to do to help people avoid death? We need to remember how blessed we really are.
1) Blessed: We are far better blessed than we could ever imagine or deserve! Because we are not of this world, others cannot control, dominate or manipulate us because this world is not our home!
2) Blessing: God wants us to be obedient and share the Gospel with others. God wants the lost to have a resurrection in their relationship with Him because God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all come to repentance (II Peter 3:9)!
3) Lifestyle evangelism: God wants us to be humble, obedient, encouraging and live out what we believe.
Again, the Corona Virus reminds us that people are divided and disconnected world wide. We are all in this crisis together. Satan would like to use this crisis to tear us further apart. God wants to use this crisis to open our eyes and get our attention in order to help us reconnect to Him. God not only wants to unite His people world wide, God also wants to reach out to the lost.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
