The Dry Bones Ezekiel 37:1-14

-In the valley of dry bones, we learn that God turns death into life.

This time two weeks ago, our team was flying over some pretty dry country. There’s a whole desert out West! If you’re like me you think about some of those old Westerns or cartoons where someone lost in the desert would make their way past a pile of bones, white and shining in the sand. When we saw those skeletons, we knew what they meant: death! There was no water there, no hope, no life, no anything! There’s nothing harder to look at than the dry bones, but that’s what we are going to be forced to consider today.

I. God Invites Us to a Resurrection Hope vv. 1-3

In our passage this morning, God speaks again to Ezekiel in the form of a vision, a valley filled with dry bones; the whole thing is going to pull Ezekiel back and forth between two different feelings, despair and hope

In the valley, the Lord makes Ezekiel face the bleak reality of his people’s situation: they are no kind of nation at all. There is no life in those bones; they are not just a little dead, they are completely dead!

However, in the valley, the Lord also issues an invitation to hope: Can these bones live?

This question brings Ezekiel face to face with a troubling question of his own:

He knows that God can make the bones live again.

He does not know if God will make the bones live again

In the valley, God is going to teach Ezekiel something about His character and purpose

God’s purpose is resurrection; making dead things come alive again

He brings hope to hopeless situations and His character is where we find our hope!

II. God Shows Us His Resurrection Power vv. 4-10

God is going to work a miraculous resurrection over these dry bones

How will God do this?

At His own Initiative: God does what God chooses to do and when He chooses to do it and with His own power

With His Servant: God uses Ezekiel as the key piece to complete the work.

Through His Word: God commands Ezekiel to prophecy and make proclamation over the bones.

I think it is interesting to see what God doesn’t instruct Ezekiel to do

Ezekiel is proclaiming truth to the bones, not rearranging them!

By His Spirit: God gives life to the bodies by sending His Spirit into them

Apart from a move of the Spirit, our efforts are in vain

I’m afraid that this is where much of our effort dies; we build attractive, stable systems, but they are lifeless corpses!

For His Purpose: God builds an army out of a graveyard. The language here is very intentional and indicates that these bones have been raised for a purpose!

God is always able to do much more than we could ever imagine is possible and Ezekiel gets a small vision of that grandeur

Job 42:12

[12] And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. (ESV)

Psalm 30:11-12

[11] You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

[12] that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (ESV)

1 Corinthians 15:54–57

[54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

[55] “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Revelation 21:1–4

[1] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. [4] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (ESV)

III. God Gives Us a Resurrection Promise vv. 11-14

This vision has a practical message for Israel

Their current reality is awful and there’s no use in denying it

They are cut off from their identity as a nation and any kind of vibrant life as a people

They are disconnected from each other and they are not at all what God intended for them to be

However, the promise of God is greater!

He opens the graves and the dead live!

This has a future fulfillment, one day in eternity

This has present implications and the God who brings life is bringing life into all sorts of situations

This is fulfilled in Christ: He lives forever and we join Him in that life when we believe in Him!

John 11:25–26

[25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (ESV)

-There is a simple question in front of you today: “Do you believe?” Can your bones live?

Are you ready to trust Him completely?

Years ago, Monroe Parker was traveling through South Alabama on one of those hot, sultry Alabama days. He stopped at a watermelon stand, picked out a watermelon, and asked the proprietor how much it cost. "It's $1.10," he replied. Parker dug into his pocket, found only a bill and said, "All I have is a dollar."

"That's ok," the proprietor said, "I'll trust you for it."

"Well, that's mighty nice of you," Parker responded, and picking up the watermelon, started to leave.

"Hey, where are you going?" the man behind the counter demanded.

"I'm going outside to eat my watermelon." "But you forgot to give me the dollar!"

"You said you would trust me for it," Parker called back.

"Yeah, but I meant I would trust you for the dime!"

"Mack," Parker replied, "You were't going to trust me at all. You were just going to take a ten-cent gamble on my integrity!"