Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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PRAY
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
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
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
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
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,
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