Ezekiel: The History of Hope
Holy History • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Why should I believe holy history when my present life is far from holy?
Option A: Everything is fine.
Option B: Everything is terrible.
Option C: Hope.
The Fall of Jerusalem
586 BC
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
Their home was in ruins.
Their temple was destroyed.
Their God had been defeated by the Gentiles.
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin),
the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.
While standing by the waters of Babylon, Ezekiel still saw God.
Yes, but how could God help people all the way in Babylon?
Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.
As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.
When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went.
And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.
And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
God can get to Babylon. God has wheels.
God is not tied to anyone one place or circumstance.
Okay, but what about the temple? Wasn’t God’s house destroyed?
Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.
And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Chebar canal; and I knew that they were cherubim.
God had not been defeated in His temple.
God had left his temple.
Sure, but what about our nation? What hope is there for Judah after it had been completely destroyed?
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.
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.
And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.’
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.
And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.
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.”
Nothing is truly dead if God says it will live.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
There is a way of life with hope.
There is a way of life without hope.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
If we remain self-absorbed people, we are truly hopeless.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The gospel does not deny our dead state.
It gives hope.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
The God who raised Jesus is on our side. We will never be without hope.