Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Ezekiel was a priest who was called by God to be His prophet while he lived in exile in Babylon.

Babylon was located in Mesopotamia (the land between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates (sometimes called “the Great River” in the Bible)), in what we know today as Iraq.

King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem three times before finally overthrowing it (587/586 BC), and each time he took back with him exiles.

Among those exiles in the first deportation (ca.

605 BC) were Daniel, Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), Azariah (Abed-nego).

records the vision that God gave to the prophet Ezekiel.

This passage is commonly known as “The Valley of the Dry Bones.”

Ezekiel was exiled in the second of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasions and deportations, in about 597 B.C.

In 587/586 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the southern kingdom of Judah for the third time and succeed in besieging Jerusalem and he destroyed the temple built by King Solomon, son of King David.

Ezekiel was exiled in the second of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasions and deportations, in about 597 B.C.

records the vision that God gave to the prophet Ezekiel.

This passage is commonly known as “The Valley of the Dry Bones.”

Our passage for today is perhaps a well-known one – certainly one of the best known passages from the book of Ezekiel, the prophet and priest of God.

Before we get there, a little background is needed.

In about 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded Jerusalem for the first time and took the best of those in Jerusalem back to Babylon in exile.

It was at this time that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah–those last three known better to us as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

King Nebuchadnezzar came again to Jerusalem in about 597 BC and took more exiles.

One of those taken this time to Babylon in exile was the prophet Ezekiel, who was also a priest.

And so Ezekiel lived in Babylon and ministered as a prophet of God to the Jewish exiles there.

King Nebuchadnezzar came back a final time in 587/586 BC and destroyed Jerusalem, taking more captives and leaving the people of Israel landless and destitute.

God had warned the people of Israel back when they were about to enter the promised land that if they departed from the covenant that he established with them at Sinai the land would vomit them out just as it was about to do with the current inhabitants at the time.

God removed the people living in the land of Canaan as judgment upon them for their sin and wickedness and he had warned the Israelites that the same would happen with them if they forsook God’s ways and commandments.

And that is exactly what happened.

Israel was repeatedly disobedient to God and broke faith with him numerous times.

As a result God often sent disaster their way and they would repent for a time and God would grant them relief and then they would again go and break faith with God.

This went on for years and years.

The Exodus from Egypt was in the year 1446 BC and Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC…860 years.

God was patient with his rebellious people and often sent his prophets to point out their sins and call them back to God in repentance and faith.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was a wicked kingdom and God brought their end in 722 BC by the hand of the Assyrians.

In his grace and in faithfulness to his promise, God preserved the Southern Kingdom of Judah for a while longer and gave them some faithful kings who feared God.

But eventually because of continued disobedience God brought an end to that kingdom as well and allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple in Jerusalem and take the Jewish people into exile in Babylon.

God’s warning of judgment came to pass.

The people of Israel were vomited out of the land just as the people they had dispossessed were before them.

Israel was in shambles.

Broken and beaten down.

Their land laid waste; their temple destroyed, and they no longer lived in the land that God had given to them.

It looked to all the world that Israel was done and gone.

Defeated.

All of its former glory gone and done away with.

Just one more nation among countless that fell to a stronger nation.

Yet even in what seems to be defeat, God is still God and he is still working out his redemptive plan for fallen humanity.

He had not forgotten the promises he gave to Adam and Eve of the seed who would crush the serpent’s head.

He had not forgotten the promises given to Abraham concerning the coming Messiah.

Though Israel was defeated, God certainly was not.

: The Valley of the Dry Bones

Ezekiel

This vision is received by Ezekiel sometime after 586/585 BC (after the fall of Jerusalem to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

Even in exile, God was working and sent his prophets to the people of Israel – sometimes with a message to point out their sin and call them to repentance and faith in the one true God and other times with messages of comfort and reassurance that God had not abandoned or forgotten them and that a remnant would still return to Jerusalem and that his Messiah would come to save fallen humanity from their sins.

This passage in Ezekiel is one of those passages of comfort and reassurance to the exiles.

It is one that speaks of the power of God to raise the dead and bring a nation back from exile…to bring them out once again from the midst of another people as he had through the Exodus from Egypt.

Ezekiel receives a vision from God.

He says that the hand of Yahweh, the Lord, was upon him and he was brought out in the Spirit of Yahweh and set down in the middle of the valley…and this valley was full of bones.

God led Ezekiel around among the bones and Ezekiel comments on how there were very many on the surface of the valley and they were very dry.

This is an interesting detail that Ezekiel includes.

The bones are very dry.

Let’s think about that for a minute.

When a person dies, their flesh is still on their bones.

After some time passes, their flesh will decay and fall off the bones and dry up and rot away.

Yet there is still moisture in the bones themselves…they are still “wet.”

After a long time passes, even that moisture will evaporate and the bones will be very dry.

This is what Ezekiel sees.

He sees bones of corpses that had been dead for so long the bones were very dry.

God asks Ezekiel if these dry bones can live.

Ezekiel’s answer is one of simple deference to one more knowledgeable than himself.

He says, “O Lord Yahweh, you know.”

This is very similar to what the Apostle John does in Revelation when he is asked by God what some of those visions mean.

This is not a cop out.

Certainly Ezekiel doesn’t know the answer to the question.

Had it been another human being asking the question, it would have been a ridiculous question.

But since God is the questioner all Ezekiel can do is defer and plead human ignorance.

Only God knows if dead, dry bones can live.

It is important to note here that the concept of the resurrection of the body makes an appearance.

It is unclear how much Ezekiel or believing Israel knew at this time about the resurrection of the body.

But Ezekiel certainly does not dismiss the idea.

It is clearly set forth in the Old Testament that God, the Creator of life is also the Lord of death, even though nothing explicit is mentioned about how one is related to the other.

Though it is unclear how much Ezekiel would have known about this, we can certainly note and observe that the concept of the resurrection of the body shows up here in the Old Testament and would be further explained and demonstrated in the New Testament.

But for now Ezekiel simply directs the question back to God.

Ezekiel is then instructed to prophesy to the dry bones.

Most often when we hear the word “prophesy,” we think of telling future events before they happen.

That’s what we think of primarily when we hear about “prophets.”

This is certainly the view of those who style themselves as prophets of God in our day.

They claim to be speaking new things of God and predicting events that will come to pass in the future.

And they show themselves to be frauds simply because they aren’t 100% correct in their predictions of the future and the prophet of God, as God said in Deuteronomy, who predicts the future is never wrong because he actually did receive a revelation from God and God brings to pass the things he says will happen.

The self-styled prophets of our day also miss the fact, it seems, that the primary sense of the word prophesy is to speak the word or message that the Lord has given to that person…they become the Lord’s mouthpiece.

And that is what Ezekiel is doing here with the dry bones.

He speaks the word that God gave to him, at the command of God.

God speaks to Ezekiel and says,

Ezekiel 37:

Ezekiel does as he was commanded and the bones came together and formed complete skeletons.

And not only that but sinews came back on them and flesh as well and skin covered the bones once again.

It is important for us to notice that Ezekiel was to speak to these bones the word of the Lord as if he was speaking to a living audience.

Though it may seem silly to do so, it is through the power of the word of God that life is brought where there is death.

And so at the word of God, these bones came together and sinews and flesh on them.

But there was not yet breath in them.

They were still corpses.

Ezekiel is then instructed to prophesy again.

This time to the wind.

“Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of man and say to the wind, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

Ezekiel does so and breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.