To those who study them bones tell stories. Anthropologists who study the history of animal life read stories in the bones they find. They may find evidence of some species that has long since become extinct and look at their bones for the story behind why they died out. Human bones may also have a story to tell. If a human skeleton is discovered police investigators will study the bones to find out if there was a crime committed that caused the death of the person to whom the bones belonged. Historians sometimes study the bones of ancient peoples to see what humans ate at a particular time in a particular place. From a skeleton they may also be able to determine what type of health care an ancient civilization had or what activities were common among its people. From bones archeologists have uncovered information about everything from ancient battles to lost farming practices. A person’s bones may reveal to a researcher his or her sex, age, and even race..
In the Word of God for our sermon this morning there is a message in the bones that Ezekiel saw. The LORD delivered a message to the people of Judah and also made a promise through the vision of dry bones that were brought to life. The dry bones in the valley were a picture of the spiritual condition of God’s people. They were those skeletons. They were spiritually dead and unable to serve God in any way. The story their bones told was a record of their sinful rebellion against God and their disregard for his Word. Sin had killed them—their sins had sucked the spiritual life out of them. The second message in the bones that Ezekiel saw came from the miracle that gave them new life. That was a graphic picture of what God would do among his people through his powerful Word and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Although we are separated from Ezekiel by at least 2500 years the message that the LORD gave to him in the bones that he saw applies to us. The prophet calls out to us:
“DRY BONES, HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD!”
I. Let Him show you that sin steals your spiritual life
II. Let Him give you the Holy Spirit as the source of new life
One significant event divided the prophetic work of Ezekiel. It was the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. Up to that point Ezekiel forcefully proclaimed God’s judgment on sin and he called his fellow countrymen to repentance. However, once Jerusalem had fallen and the Temple was destroyed, Ezekiel’s mission became one of consolation and hope. The spiritual danger after the fall of Jerusalem was not stubborn and proud rebellion but utter hopelessness and despair. Under those circumstances Ezekiel was directed to proclaim the hope of God’s forgiving grace and his promise of salvation.
I.
The bones that Ezekiel saw in his vision didn’t have a pleasant story to tell. Let’s just suppose that Ezekiel called in a coroner to determine the cause of death of the people to whom the bones in the valley belonged. What would he have found out? What story would they have told? From those bones he would have discovered that their diet, lifestyle, and environment led to the spiritual death of God’s people. Instead of the milk and meat of God’s Word the Israelites fed on the junk food of human ideas and pagan philosophies. They starved themselves of the truth that God had revealed to them and wouldn’t drink from the water of life that he offered. They chose to listen to the lying tongues of the false prophets and so were spiritually malnourished. And instead of living their lives according to God’s will they flocked to sin like moths to a bright light. Their love for sinful thoughts, words, and actions sucked the spiritual life out of them. They lived like their pagan neighbors for so long that in time they became just like them—a lifeless pile of dry bones.
Once God’s people became set in their rebellious ways and showed no signs of spiritual life God unleashed his judgment on them. He allowed the Babylonians to come in and destroy Jerusalem and even the Temple. Ezekiel’s vision of a once great army reduced to dry bones was not far from what had actually happened to Judah. They had been soundly defeated and taken into captivity. That is why they were saying, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” Although they could ignore God when everything was going well they couldn’t ignore him when their nation was in ruin and their lives were threatened. They needed to see what they had become. They were dry bones.
That was the message in the dry bones that Ezekiel saw. They told the story of God’s people. They had been great in number and strong in faith. They were useful to God and served him faithfully. But in time they let sin steal their spiritual life and they became nothing more than a pile of bones. As dry bones they needed to hear the word of the LORD declare that truth to them.
Does the message in the bones that was addressed to Israel apply to us? We aren’t like them, are we? It has been said that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. I don’t think any of us would argue with the fact that we are by nature dead in sin and therefore dry bones. Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” Jesus said in John 3:6, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” In Romans 8:6-8 the Apostle Paul declared, “The mind of sinful man is death…the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Although we were born with a body that was alive we were spiritually as dead as the bones in Ezekiel’s vision.
But by God’s grace we were made alive. Perhaps in infancy we were given spiritual life through Holy Baptism. Maybe it was through a friend or relative who brought us to the life-giving Word of God that we were made alive.
But how are we doing right now? As God looks at our lives this morning is he looking at a bunch of dry bones or an army of faithful soldiers? Is our congregation like Israel when Ezekiel saw his vision? The fact that we are here this morning receiving God’s Word and responding to it tells us that we are not completely dead. But we may have one foot in the grave. Before God calls in a coroner let’s take an honest look at our spiritual diet, lifestyle, and environment. Do we no longer hunger for God’s Word? Are we giving our soul the junk food of human ideas and philosophies? Do we receive our recommended daily allowance of God’s law and gospel? Are we living our life in such a way that we are killing our soul? Think of the poison that we ingest through television programs, movies, and the radio. Humanism tells us that we should listen to ourselves. Materialism tells us we need more money and more things. Existentialism tells us that there is no right and wrong. If we are listening to those philosophies they will steal our spiritual life and send us to the bone pile. That is the word of warning that the LORD is sending to us through Ezekiel’s prophecy.
And then let’s consider how our own sins make us dry bones in God’s sight. God gives us his name as a blessing and we use it to curse or swear falsely. We leave his powerful Word unread and unapplied. He places authorities in our lives to bless us but we rebel against them and end up robbing ourselves of those blessings. We ruin our health by what we eat and drink and how we live. We violate God’s plan for marriage and his will for us as a husband or a wife. Instead of being content with the material blessings he gives us we let the those things lead us astray. Yes, our sins make us lifeless, useless, and miserable. By our actions we make ourselves just like the dry bones that Ezekiel saw. We let our sins steal our spiritual life.
And what is the result? Our worship of God becomes half-hearted at best. Our daily walk with God turns into a struggle. Our service to God becomes motivated by guilt. We must be prodded and pushed to give back to God from what he has given us. Yes, sin makes us dry bones! That is a fact we need to hear from the word of the LORD.
II.
“Can these bones live?” That was the question posed to Ezekiel by the LORD. He answered in the only way he could. He said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” If the dry bones were going to come back to life only God could make it happen. As we look at each other this morning how would we answer that question? Can these dry bones of ours live? If we are going to come back to life it will only be by God’s power.
The vision that Ezekiel saw points that truth out to us. “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 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.’” The results of God’s Word being preached to the dry bones would be miraculous. Ezekiel goes on to tell us what happened, “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.” To further make the point that any spiritual life must come from God the vision continued. “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet -- a vast army.”
God made his point through the vision he gave to Ezekiel. Dry bones can live! Because God is the giver of life he can give life to dry bones. But that fact wasn’t as important as the means by which the LORD gave life to the dry bones. It was through his Word. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that he sent into them.
This is what God had been saying all along to the people of Israel through his prophets. A spiritual revival in Israel would only happen when the people opened their ears to what God had to say. In his Word he would convict them of their sins and convince them that a Savior was coming who would remove their sins. Just before this vision of dry bones the LORD had said to his people through the prophet Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) It would take a miracle for the spiritually dead Israelites to come back to life and God was ready to make that miracle happen.
Again and again the LORD was calling out to his people. “Dry bones, hear the Word of the LORD!” But God’s people chose to remain dry bones. There were some who listened to the LORD but by and large the remnant of the Israelites who came back from Babylon never received the spiritual life God wanted to give them. Even when Jesus came and offered his people new life through God’s powerful Word they rejected him. Jesus said in John 5:39-40, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” Although dry bones can’t give themselves life—only God can do that—they can choose to remain in their condition of spiritual deadness.
“Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!” God is calling out to us just as he once called out to his Old Testament people. Let’s not reject his Word and remain in spiritual deadness. May we say with a sincere heart what King David said in Psalm 51, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” God will do that for us if we don’t harden our hearts to his Word.
Perhaps some of you remember the television commercials from a few years ago for Coast deodorant soap. It pictured a person stumbling to the shower half asleep. The man or woman would sniff the bar of soap and slowly open his or her eyes. By the end of the shower that same person would be wide awake and ready to go. The catchy phrase that they used in those commercials was, “Coast deodorant soap, it brings you back to life!” We may be living our Christian life like those people as they first appeared in the commercial. Perhaps we are half asleep and stumbling along. We need something to bring us back to life. God’s Word is the answer. Earlier we read Romans 8:11 in our second Scripture lesson, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
We will remain dry bones if we don’t hear the Word of the LORD. It creates what it commands. It does what it says. It produces what it proclaims. It brings the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives. Some Sundays we may slide into our seats as nothing more than dry bones. But the Word of God in the liturgy, hymns, Scripture lessons, and sermon gives us life. Our pulse may be quickly fading in our life of service to God. But even just a spiritual snack in the form of a short devotion or one chapter from God’s Word can put the spring back in our steps as we follow Jesus. 1 Peter 2:2-3 reminds us of the nourishment that we can have in God’s Word, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
“Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.” Only God’s Word can give life to dry bones. We have that assurance through these words that Ezekiel recorded, “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. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…” Unless we refuse to listen to the word of the LORD we have his promise to give us the Holy Spirit as the source of new life. He will bring us back from spiritual death and put the Holy Spirit in us.
In a variety of situations bones can tell stories. They may reveal clues about animal life in the past. Sometimes bones fill in missing parts of history. After a person has died their bones may hold information about how they lived and why they died. The bones in the vision that Ezekiel saw also tell a story. They show how sin steals spiritual life. They point to the Holy Spirit as the source of new life. Let’s take to heart the message in these dry bones. Being like those dry bones in so many ways let’s hear the word of the LORD as Ezekiel commanded them to hear it. That word of the LORD will show us the deadly nature of sin and give us the new life we need. Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Amen.
