Ezek. 37:1-10 How to Get Back Up on Your Feet or A Dry Spell

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-10

Title: How to Get Back Up on Your Feet

A commercial that comes on t.v. quite often is one where an older lady has fallen down some stairs and she says in a faint voice, “Help, I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.” Well, the situation in the text today is much worse!

Introduction: Hope had become a rare commodity in Ezekiel's day.

Try and remember for a moment, what it was like when you visited the graveyard of someone you loved. Why did you go there? Who were you visiting? What happened, or did not happen? What did you remember about them?

A graveyard is where we go to remember the flesh that once clung to the bones of our loved ones who have died. Sometimes I think it’s easy for us to read a passage like this and think that this valley is just a valley of dry bones. But you have to understand that these bones had names, faces. They were once dynamic, joyful loving people, the fellows that Ezekiel had known and grown up with. One of them was Ezekiel’s own wife, as we read in chapter 24. Ezekiel had to face the death of his own career as a priest. His temple is laid to waste. What is a priest supposed to do in a foreign land when he’s taken into exile?

More importantly, there was great trauma that accompanied this exile. The Babylonians tortured the inhabitants of Jerusalem with siege warfare that lasted almost two years, leading to famine, disease, and despair. They destroyed the city of Jerusalem, razed the temple to the ground, killed many of its inhabitants, and forced the rest to migrate to Babylon.

So, looking at these bones, with this history, how would you answer God when he asked you: “Can these bones live?” We would stammer, and we would punt the question. “Oh Lord, y-y-y-you know.”

Dryness & Distance due to their Disobedience!

Ezekiel centered his message around three spiritual realities. These may be summarized as follows:

The Reality of God (1:1–3:27). These introductory chapters on Ezekiel’s call center on a fresh vision of the character of God.

The Reality of Judgment (4:1–32:32). The first two-thirds of the book contains judgment messages that announce the fall of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem (4:1–24:27). Ezekiel’s prophecies against the nations follow (25:1–32:32), which show God’s demands for righteousness to be universally applicable.

The Reality of Restoration (33:1–46:24). With the judgment messages as a background, Ezekiel turned to the theme of restoration. He presented the promise of restoration (33:1–37:28), the power of restoration (38:1–39:29), and the prospect of restoration (40:1–46:24).

The shepherd’s care for his flock is demonstrated yet again in chapter 37. Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones is a remarkable story. But the story is only meant, as are all the visions, to convey a truth from God. This is made clear in verse 11: ‘These bones are the whole house of Israel.’ Here, God is reminding us that he sees the true spiritual condition of the people and does not minimize it, yet still there is hope in the message that the prophet is to bring to them.

The Condition (1-2)

(1a) Valley – a low place

(1b-2) Bones (very dry) - The valley floor is covered with a deep layer of bones — as though an army has been massacred there.

It is a picture of Israel — dead and dismembered by defeat(ed) and dispersion/dispersed. The valley of dry bones speaks of the spiritual condition of the nation.

Israel had no PULSE!

The Cause (cp. 2:2-8 [turn there])

2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. (RAISED me up)

transgression (v3b), stubbornness/stiff-neckedness (v4), rebellious (3a,5-8)

Rebellion is opposition to authority and always begins in the heart;

it always manifests as disobedience, choosing not to go the way directed or not doing what one is told to do.

Rebellious human nature rejects authority, desiring freedom from any restrictions and accountability.

With an arrogant and defiant attitude it says, ‘I don’t need rules or anyone telling me what to do, I’ll do things my way’.

Rebelling against God has a high price tag

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a REBELLIOUS nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed (TRANSGRESSION) against me, even unto this very day.

4 For they are impudent children and STIFF HEARTED/STIFFNECKED. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a REBELLIOUS house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.

6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a REBELLIOUS house.

7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most REBELLIOUS.

8 But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.

The Cure (3-10): Faith & Obedience

God asked his servant a crucial question: ‘Can these bones live?’ (v. 3)

(3) Live - (ḥā∙yā(h)) – to restore, revive, recover - IS THERE ANY HOPE!!!!

Rhetorical Question – God knew the answer. The purpose of the question was to ascertain the prophet’s reaction to the situation and to see whether he had faith in God.

(4-8) Prophesy to (over) the bones – declare the word of God.

(4-6) Directive from God

(7-8) Faith and obedience; things happened; but no breath/life in them.

(9-10) Prophesy to the wind/breath – Keep preaching.

(9) Directive from God

(10) Faith & Obedience

(7b-8, 10b) Produce a rattling and a clattering and a shaking of bones IN the valley.

Common Name

Scientific Name

skull

cranium

jawbone

mandible

collarbone

clavicle

shoulder blade

scapula

breast bone

sternum

funny bone

humerus

spine

vertebrae

hips

pelvis

wrist

carpals

hip

pelvis

thigh bone

femur

kneecap

patella

shin bone

tibia

ankle

tarsals

Conclusion (The Power of the Spirit cp. Zech. , “Not by power, not by might…”) – There was a “Shaking, Rattling, and Rolling in the Valley. There was also another shaking, rattling and rolling; yea, a rumbling somewhere else.

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