Dry Bones Live
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PRAY
1 - Breath
1 - Breath
The ‘Breath’ of God,
the ‘Ruah’ in original Hebrew,
of the Lord, the Spirit,
has taken Ezekiel on another journey.
We appear with him in a dry dessert valley in the heat of the day.
The shame and horror of not receiving a proper burial in Israelite
and Near Eastern traditions was bad enough.
To have to walk among a dessert of bones would then make Ezekiel ceremonially unclean.
The terror of what must have happened must have played on Ezekiel’s emotions.
Had there been anywhere free from bones,
then perhaps Ezekiel would have sunk to his knees in fear, shock and horror.
Maybe we’re numbed to the shock becasue of the films we watch today,
but there is nothing to compare this too for Ezekiel.
Bodies that have been dead so long
that the birds and wild animals have cleaned them white.
The sun has baked them dry.
What ever happend here happend along time ago - and not a single person escaped to raise the alarm, no-one found them to start burying them, no-one saw this coming.
And yet the ‘Ruah’, the Spirit,
has brought Ezekiel here and made him walk among it.
Adsorb the horrific situation
37v3
He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
eze 37 3
I don’t know if Ezekiel was surprised,
but I doubt we are when we find out in v11
that these represent the bones of the whole house of Israel.
THIS is what the continuous rejection of the Lord as God results in.
Everyone of them obliterated in the dessert,
left to be eaten by animals and their bones to dry in the sun.
All those warnings we have read and heard through the book of Ezekiel
and they still haven’t changed,
they still haven’t repented,
inclined their hearts to God,
they have continued to do detestable things before God.
No doubt came to Ezekiel’s mind, Where an ancient covenant was made between God and His people.
No doubt Ezekiel’s study of the OT Law would have come to mind, Where in an ancient covenant was made between God and His people the Isrealites.
A covenant of love demonstrated in careful obedience to everything the Lord commanded.
But if they didn’t, then the covenant would be broken and a cruse would be upon the people,
Here is the curse…deut 28v25-26
The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no-one to frighten them away.
d
This is a promise Ezekiel surely hoped he’d never see come true -
but surely with the fall of Jerusalem that we considered 2 weeks ago,
and with the shocking accusations against the corrupt and selfish shepherd leaders of Israel last week,
this vision of death valley,
is confirmation that Israel is dead before God.
It has happened says the Lord God,
I have brought the curse I promised for rebelion -
God will protect his glory and
ensure all people know that he is the Lord,
the God of the universe.
The Israelites are spiritually (and for the most part physically) finished.
Like dry bones in a dessert.
It’s easy to feel sorry for Israel.
“And For some inexplicable reason”,
it’s easy for you and me to feel sorry for Israel
- and somehow see God as harsh and overbearing.
But the only reason I can think of for why we are tempted to think like that
is becasue those dry bones represent not just Israel,
those dry bones represent not just Israel, but all of humanity.
but all of humanity.
And at the end of the day,
we want number one to get whatever we want,
rather than acknowledge the truth of a great and glorious God of the universe.
I realise most of us here today call ourselves Christians
- and we pray that God’s will be done, not ours.
We strive to live according to God’s good and right way
- becasue we know he is our loving Father -
who only wants what is best for His people.
But we also should not forget the depths
from which we have been saved.
To consider God is overbearing is to
have missed how sickening our rebellious lives,
before becoming Christians, really were.
And if you don’t believe in Jesus for your salvation,
then you are still in denial
about how shocking your rebellion against God is.
We are totally and utterly dead,
chewed,
scraped clean and dried in the sun,
bones in the dessert dead!
Not becasue God is harsh,
but becasue we have chosen that path!
Humanity is created by God -
His breath ‘ruah’ gave you life - but we say he doesn't exist, or has no claim on our lives.
He gives careful instructions about how to live -
and yet we live however we see best.
He asks us to glorify and honour Him as maker and sustainer of the universe -
-
and we glorify ourselves and man made things.
Speaking of humanity, Paul writes this in Romans 1v21-25, 28-32
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is for ever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is for ever praised. Amen.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.
rom 1 28-
How dry are the bone of humanity, can these bones live? Not by themsleves, no possible way.
But by the Word of God, by His Ruah, His Spirit, there is hope...
eze37v4-8
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.’ ”
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.
eze 37 4-
Is it possible - can it be - will Israel live again.
Does humanity have hope!
Yes, Lord God,
the bones rattle and gather together,
sinues and tissue,
flesh and muscle,
it’s happening, yes Lord -
but Why no breath we’re all crying, why no breath....
Oh there will be breath,
for it’s been promised already in v4,
but so that there is no mistake who is at work here,
The Lord commands Ezekiel to speak His WORD again.
37v9-10
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.
eze 37 9-
The word Ruah is used 10 times in verses 1-14
- sometimes meaning the Spirit of God,
sometimes meaning physical breath in the lungs,
sometimes meaning the winds from the 4 corners of the earth.
The point being they are all controlled exclusively by God.
The Breath of God - by the word of God - brings a new and resurrected life.
Can those bones live - only when God himself is faithful to His own Word by His own breath.
Before Ezekiel is a scene reminiscent of Adam, the first man being created:
gen2v7
the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Why the pause before the breath in Ezekiel?
the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and
the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Gen 2v7b - but now he needs....
and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Why the pause before the breath in Ezekiel?
So we are under no illusion that God is at work by his word and Spirit, as he was in Creation -
This is a vision of a NEW CREATION
- resurrected life that calls for a new and living way
- that enjoys the perfection of life with God,
Never to be messed up again by humanity
becasue God’s Spirit now lives in us!
A harsh God?
I think not!
A spiritually dead and dry bones humanity
- freely and undeservedly raised back to life to live again in paradise with God.
eph2v1-10
BUT WAIT -they will live non the less!
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
But finally, which Israel? There was one tragic historical fact that stood in the way of full covenantal renewal. The covenant nation had split in two after the reign of Solomon—half a millennium ago, from the standpoint of the exiles. It was an ancient and apparently irreversible cleavage. The northern kingdom of Israel had been wiped off the face of the map in any case, 150 years before the present destruction of the kingdom of Judah. And in spite of some attempts by godly kings like Hezekiah and Josiah to bring about some reunification of the remnants of the north with the people of Judah, it really had not worked out. But Yahweh is not only the God of life; he is also the God of unity. If death can be reversed, so can division. So Ezekiel’s final acted prophecy portrays a future unification of the people of God. There will ultimately be one people of the one God.
For Ezekiel he must have hoped in part for a physical restoration of the Holy land of Israel and Jerusalem -as these bones received new life.
And in part those promises come true, you can read about the rebuilding of the temple in 50 years from now in the book of Ezra.
But he must have also had a glimpse of eternal hope for those who were faithful to God by his Spirit’s resurrection.
Just as the NT picks up on as we’ve read.
I think it is why God changes the image from resurrected dry bone in the dessert,
to the opening of graves...
There is eternal hope - life after death. our graves will be opened! Back then , and now today!
eze37v13-14
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, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”
I spoke it Says the Lord - My Word has gone forth - It will be fulfilled - and it will be fulfilled by my Spirit!
A Ruah-filled people, a people who live becasue they have the breath, ruah of God in them!
Of course people have a physical life
without the Spirit of God in them
you may be one of them here today
- but physical is all you are - before God, anyone without the Spirit of God is dead!
For the Spirit opens the way to an obedient
God honouring people
who have hearts inclined to God’s,
who are saved eternally, now and forever -
as we read in Ephesians through Christ Jesus our Lord!
The first grave to be opened eternally in History, is of course the grave of Jesus.
Jesus also back from the grave....
He fulfills this prophesy firstly in himself - so that we may follow suit:
Jesus’s Grave that is opened, and do you remember one of the first things he did:
was likely on Jesus’ mind as he meets his disciples after his resurection:
joh20v19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
john 20 19-
Jesus ‘breathed on them’ they received the ‘Spirit’ of God that gave them and any they forgave LIFE!
And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
john
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
luke 24 19
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
luke
“ ‘After this I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
that the remnant of men may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’
acts 15
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.
Before Ezekiel is a promise in God’s Word that the NT applies to us today and for all humanity that has ever walked the earth, all in Jesus:
He fulfilled it fully and finally in his death and resurrection ,
in our place - he became dry bones for us.
He took the wrath we were under.
He preached to our dead bones.
He rose again by the Spirit of God
He gives the Spirit of God as a garuntee that all this is possible and will take place
He, the Lord Jesus, by the Word of God, through the Spirit of God, gives us, freely and finally, fully and wonderfully, LIFE ETERNAL with the glorious God of the universe.
rom8v11
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.
so that...
eze37v13-14
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, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”
I have done it declares the LORD!
If you are dry bones in the dessert, then can you live?
Yes, by the word and spirit of God. - Turn to Jesus.
What about your loved one, a spouce, a son or daughter, a parent or close friend who is dead to God? Can they live?
Yes, they can - for we were all once dead,
but God can save -
so pray and pray -
prophesy to those bones -
tell them of Jesus and His breath of life on offer..
The second part of is a vision of what this new ‘land’ will look like
for all those the Lord saves.
And much like the word ‘breath’ Spirit’ is emphasised in v1-14, the word ‘one’ is emphasied in v15-28.
2 - One
2 - One
If you know your biblical history,
then you will know that Israel after the death of Kong Solomon divided into 2 nations,
the north kept the name Israel and the south was called Judah or Ephraim.
This happened around 4-500 years before Ezekiel’s time.
It’s an embarrassment for the Israelite people who are supposed to worship the One true God!
And so it’s this imagery that
Ezekeile is to use to show just how wonderful the new ‘land’ will be.
being pictured for God’s poeple will be.
He is to take 2 sticks - or more likely wooded tablets would be a better understanding, which were used at the time as we would use a notebook.
They had hardened wax on them so messages could be scraped into them.
eze37v15-17
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Ephraim’s stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.
A bit like taking 2 bits of paper - writing the name of each divided nations on each and glueing them together to show there will be a time when they will be united eternally!
Throughout Ezekiel, there is call for all nations to know God.
- all people of all time
- Israelites and us today,
will one day be united as one, through the work of the Spirit.
This promise, as I’ve said already is partially full-filled in Ezra in History
- but something much bigger is being promised here.
Something you and I are part of if we have accepted the Spirit, the Ruah of God:
eze 37v25b to 26 - emphasise EVER
The Holy Bible: New International Version—Anglicised (1984) One Nation under One King
They and their children and their children’s children will live there for ever, and David my servant will be their prince for ever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them for ever.
The Holy Bible: New International Version—Anglicised (1984) One Nation under One King
They and their children and their children’s children will live there for ever, and David my servant will be their prince for ever
eze 37 24-
“ ‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there for ever, and David my servant will be their prince for ever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them for ever. My dwelling-place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
This is the Good News of the BIBLE.
We are dead in Sin - But God saves us for eternirty through Jesus, as promised in His word and made effective in our lives by His Spirit!
And the word ‘ONE’ is how we are to remember this promise in Eze 37.
v27
Honestly - this is a
On one
It occurs eleven times between verses 16 and 24. Often translated as ‘a’, or ‘another’ or ‘together’.
But the repetition is striking in Hebrew.
And it summarises the great message of chapters 34-37
The reader is thus well prepared for the final theological thrust of the great panoramic vision with which the chapter concludes, and with it the whole grand message of chapters 34–37.
God himself will create for himself
ONE nation (22a),
under ONE king (22b) (A decentdant of David - our Lord Jesus),
who will reign as ONE shepherd (24). providing all we ever need.
Promised in His Word
Yes, by the word and spirit of God. - Turn to Jesus.
Fulfilled in His Son
Enabled by His Breath - His Spirit
What about your loved one, a spouce, a son or daughter, a parent or close friend who is dead to God? Can they live?
One Nation
One King
Yes, they can - for we were all once dead,
but God can save -
so pray and pray -
prophesy to those bones -
tell them of Jesus and His breath of life on offer,
One Shepherd
Speak of the one nation, one king and one shepherd we all look forward to.
That’s Good News to live for.
For this is why God gave us His word and Spirit and fulfilled all things in Christ Jesus.
eze37v27-28
My dwelling-place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them for ever.’ ”
Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them for ever.’ ”
27
eze 37v28
PRAY
Wright, C. J. H. (2001). The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit. (A. Motyer & D. Tidball, Eds.) (pp. 311–312). Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.
The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit 5. From Enmity to Unity (37:15–28)
These were flat pieces of wood, smoothed with hardened wax, on which rough messages could be written. They were the ancient equivalent of a notepad. This interpretation (cf. REB, ‘wooden tablet’) makes more sense of the fact that Ezekiel was to write a number of words on each piece of wood. Also, it was common practice to bind or hinge several single tablets together in a kind of double or triple folder—which again, is exactly what Ezekiel was commanded to do—in such a way that the tablets when folded would lie flat on top of each other and could be held in one hand (17). This scenario would seem preferable to imagining Ezekiel writing on thin sticks which were then either spliced end to end or bound side by side. A dynamic-equivalence translation might say, ‘Take a single sheet of notepaper and write this on it … Then take another single sheet of notepaper and write this on it … Now glue them together down the middle to make the two sheets into one new single sheet.’
The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit 5. From Enmity to Unity (37:15–28)
The word ’eḥāḏ (one) occurs eleven times between verses 16 and 24. Often it is simply translated as ‘a’, or ‘another’ or ‘together’. But the repetition is emphatic in Hebrew. Verse 17, for example, reads (lit.), ‘Combine them one to one into one wood so that they become one in your hand.’ The reader is thus well prepared for the final theological thrust of the great panoramic vision with which the chapter concludes, and with it the whole grand message of chapters 34–37.
Yahweh will create for himself one nation (22a), under one king (22b), who will reign as one shepherd (24). And, with a passion that comes close to saying, ‘all lived happily ever after’, the oracle piles up together in a grand climax all the themes we have heard already: cleansing from all idolatry (23); righteous rule through the Davidic king (24a); perfect obedience (24b); security in God’s land (25); an everlasting covenant of peace (26a); growth (26b); the permanent presence of God in the midst of his people (27); and the perfection of covenant relationship between God and people (23b, 27b). And, as we have now come to expect (for Ezekiel is not one ever to let us forget), the ultimate goal to be achieved is that the nations will know the truth about who is really God and what he has done for his people (28).
The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit 5. From Enmity to Unity (37:15–28)
Likewise, in anticipating the spread of his ingathering and unifying work beyond the ‘flock’ of Israel, he uttered the words that undoubtedly also echo Ezekiel 37:24: I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
