St. Augustine wrote a book entitled the City of God, in which he discussed our identity with the holy city.(1) Throughout the Old and New Testaments, both Jews and Christians identified themselves with Jerusalem. Wherever they journeyed or resided, they did not consider themselves citizens of that place. They always considered themselves citizens of the holy city of Jerusalem, and subjects only to the laws of Jerusalem.
By considering themselves citizens of the holy city of Jerusalem, God’s people could refrain from falling into the sins of the land in which they resided. It also gave them strength to live in their sometimes hostile and cruel environments. They were strangers in a foreign land; sojourners who would one day reside in that “city whose architect and builder is God.”(2)
This evening we are going to look at an example in which God’s people, Israel, were forced to look to that “other city,” and this message can be applied to Christians who dwell in a foreign land today, as this world is not our true home. We’re going to see that when we fail to recall our true citizenship, we wither away into a pile of dry bones. But when we regain our focus, we are infused with new life and passion.
Valley of Dry Bones (vv. 1-14)
1 The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD’! 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD’.”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. 9 Also 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 breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. 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!’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. 14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it, says the LORD’.”
What is going on here? Well, in verse 11 we read that this valley of dry bones represents the “whole house of Israel.” Now, the question is what does a valley usually represent? It represents a low point in one’s existence, a time I which things are not going well. So, what is this valley that Israel has gotten themselves into?
The nation of Israel had been divided into north and south (Israel and Judah) since 930 B.C.,(3) and they had many civil battles between the two nations. Around 586 B.C. the king of Judah and a small garrison of Babylonians who were stationed in Judah were murdered. The Baylonians feared an uprising, so they came in and deported many of the Judaeans to Babylon.(4)
These Judaeans were forced to live the rest of their lives in Babylon, away from their homeland, and they wondered how they would ever be able to live and worship the Lord in that foreign land. Psalm 137:1-4 portrays their desperate cry:
1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. 2We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. 3For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?
Did you hear that question? “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” As God’s people, they needed to keep their focus on the holy city of Jerusalem. Part of their problem, however, is that they lost their vision of that holy city.
When the Lord looked down on His people, He saw them as dry bones. They were lifeless, dead, and in sin. They had lost their focus and started adopting the practices of Babylon. So, the Lord asked Ezekiel in verse 3, “Can these bones live?”
God revealed the answer to Ezekiel in verse 9, when He said, “Prophesy to the breath.” In Hebrew the word “breath” means, “spirit.” The only way that these dry bones would ever have life again is if the Holy Spirit blew upon them, and rekindled a fire and zeal for the Almighty God.
Would this initial group of exiles ever live in Jerusalem again? Would they ever have life there? The answer is no. Verse 12 says, “Prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel’.” First it is saying that the initial exiles would die in Babylon. The prophecy is really two-fold.
Let’s take a look at this first aspect. The initial exiles would never see the earthly Jerusalem again, but they would one day rise from their graves into that Holy City of Zion. Ezekiel’s prophecy was meant to refocus the exile’s attention to the heavenly, “New Jerusalem.” Why? Because the exile resulted in losing hope and detaching themselves from Jerusalem; and thus, they began losing their identity. As they lost their identity as God’s people, they lost their faith values and began adopting the customs and practices of the Babylonians.
The second aspect of our two-fold prophecy applies to the children of the initial exiles. They would literally enter into Jerusalem – the physical, earthly city – after the exile was completed and over. This hope resulted in spiritual life and vitality for the people; and just as with the initial group of exiles, the hope of returning to Jerusalem was intended to remind them and keep them focused on their true identity as the people of God.
Let’s apply this information. Christians live in a foreign land this very day, just like the exiles. We are scattered across the earth in various countries, and each of these places have their own forms of persecution and hardships. The question we must consider is this: Are we keeping our focus on the New Jerusalem, that heavenly city, or are we crying out and saying, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
Are we becoming down when we look out at the fallen state of our country and its decaying morals? Instead of pressing on, are we lowering our standards, and the morals, values and beliefs associated with the Lord’s City?
Many Christians today are acting like the exiles in Babylon. They see the rise of sin in our nation, but turn the other cheek. When confronted with immorally and sin, they keep their mouths shut because they do not want to feel out of place in this society and be made fun of. They reason that it is not socially or politically correct to talk about one’s faith in public.
Many churches feel defeated because numbers are dwindling, and many young people are departing from the church. But guess what! In a time when we live in land whose God is not the God of Israel, is when we will truly understand how to live as God’s people. History has shown that only in persecution can our light shine forth. We, as believers, are eventually becoming the minority again, like in the time of the New Testament church.
We are only God’s people if we abide by the laws of another city; the New Jerusalem. If we fail to focus on God’s kingdom, and fail to live by kingdom laws, we will loose our faith and our identity as the people of God. Ezekiel’s message is intended for us this very day.
Two Sticks (vv. 15-20)
15 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 16 “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.
18 And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’— 19 say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.’ 20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.”
Ezekiel was to proclaim these verses to the Exiles. Two sticks were to be joined in his hand, and they represented Israel and Judah. This is a message of hope that one day Judah and Israel would be reunited into one nation. The problem is that the initial exiles would never see this happen in their lifetime. They would only be reunited with their homeland in the hereafter.
We, as Christians, need to keep this in mind. One day in the future we will be united in that heavenly city. Times may seem tough now, but the Lord has promised that all Christians will unite into a holy nation in the New Jerusalem.
We see two sticks in these verses, but a third stick is to come onto the scene. According to the New Bible Dictionary, the number three “is associated with certain mighty acts of God.”(5) What mighty act of God is going to happen? What other stick is required in the reuniting of Judah and Israel? How are the Exiles to be resurrected into a New Jerusalem one day? And how are we to become citizens of the heavenly kingdom?
A Third Stick (vv. 21-28)
21 “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
24 David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. 25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore’.”
In verse 21 the Lord said, “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land.” All who are filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and all who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are of Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. The Lord will one day gather Israel, including Christians, from all corners of the earth to abide in the New Jerusalem; that other city.
Verse 22 tells us that there will be one king to rule over us there. This King is Jesus Christ. He is the third stick, for Isaiah 11:1 says in reference to the Messiah, “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”
Verse 24 refers to the Messiah as “my servant David,” for the Messiah was expected to rule with the justice of David, and come forth from his lineage. In verse 25, we read, “My servant David shall be their prince forever.” The Lord Jesus Christ will be our King to reign over us in heaven forevermore. And from verses 23 and 26 we see that in the New Jerusalem the Lord will be our God, and we shall be His people, and He will place His tabernacle in our midst.
A new era of persecution is arising for Christians. We are crying out for our churches to be united and for the morals of this country to be reestablished, but if we focus on that city which we once had, the good old days when everybody attended church, then we will lose heart; and when we see people turning away from Christianity we may, out of fear, even succumb to their ways and join them.
But if we realize that our true city and place of citizenship is not of this earth, then we will be reminded that we are strangers in a foreign land. We are citizens of the saints, and we must live our lives each and every day as though we are living in the New Jerusalem. We must abide by the statutes of God, and not the by the eroded morals of this sinful nation, or city in which we presently abide.
When we uphold the laws of the Holy City, and worship the King of Kings, people will understand that we are different. Barry Harvey says, “The mission of the church in [persecution] is therfore not simply to survive in a sometimes hostile world, rather it takes its cue from Jeremiah’s admonition to the Jewish exiles in Babylon ‘To seek the welfare of that city’ to which God had sent them (Jer. 29:7).”(6)
Time of Reflection
Our message this evening is intended to bring a word of hope to those who struggle with the moral decay of our country. It is intended to remind us that we are not to conform to the world, but rather we are to stand firm in the laws and statutes which the Lord has set for us. If we do succumb to this world then our identity as God’s children will be lost, and we will become as dead, dry bones.
All who have lost their focus on the Lord are dead; especially if they have never accepted Christ as Savior. Do you wish to rise from your grave into eternal life in that heavenly city? The only way you can do so is to know the King of that city. His name is Jesus, and He will be your King if you will trust Him to resurrect you into that city when time comes to completion.
If you choose to trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He will prophesy unto the wind, and the Holy Spirit will come and transform your life and make you totally new. If you are a Christian, and you have gone astray in your relationship with the Lord, and you now feel spiritually dry, then ask God to forgive you, and He will make your dry bones live again.
NOTES
(1) Barry Harvey, Another City (Harrisburg: Trinity Press, 1999), 15.
(2) Ibid., 18.
(3) Walter Kaiser, Jr., A History of Israel (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1998), 289.
(4) Ibid., 409-411.
(5) R.A.H. Gunner, “Number,” New Bible Dictionary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1982), 845.
(6) Harvey, 150-151.
