"He's Bringing It All Together" series

"He's Bringing It All Together"  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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The Bible Knowledge Commentary a. The Vision of the Dry Bones Revived (37:1–14)

Most Israelites may have doubted God’s promise of restoration.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary a. The Vision of the Dry Bones Revived (37:1–14)

Their present condition militated against the possibility of that being fulfilled.

The New Bible Commentary 37:1–14 The Valley of Dry Bones

After the fall of Jerusalem the people would have been scattered and dispirited.

a period of resigned despair

Like unburied skeletons, the people were pining away and saw no end to their judgment: Our hope is gone; we are cut off. The surviving Israelites felt their national hopes had been dashed. Israel had “died” in the flames of Babylon’s attack, and had no hope of resurrection.

Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary f. The Spiritual Rebirth of the People (37:1–28)

The bones represent the Israelites in exile. They have been there for more than ten years now, and what glimmerings of hope they had when first they arrived have now been altogether extinguished.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary a. The Vision of the Dry Bones Revived (37:1–14)

So God stressed the fact of His sovereign power and ability to carry out these remarkable promises. Their fulfillment depended on Him, not on circumstances.

God asks Ezekiel about what Ezekiel believes is possible.

The hand of Yahweh has come upon the prophet and has snatched him from the normal sphere of everyday life.

Have the circumstances and the context of 2020 caused us to dry out?
Spiritually, emotionally, relationally, psychologically, physically
Have the constant anxieties, the necessity of changing life caused things to be disjointed, chaotic, and falling apart?
Are things so bad, you don’t know if you can even look forward to a new year?
Are you afraid to be positive?
Can you even BE positive anymore?
Are you afraid to make New Year’s resolutions, plans, expectations, hope?
Or has 2020 robbed you of your hope and positivity?

God asked the prophet a remarkable question: Son of man, can these bones live? Was there potential for life in these lifeless frames?

and asks him a monstrous, one is almost tempted to say ludicrous, question: “will (and that means ‘can’ here) these bones come to life again?”

the bones no longer appear as bearers of the life force, but, rather, it is their lifelessness that is strongly emphasized

Does Ez believe God can only do what is HARD, or does he believe God can do what is IMPOSSIBLE?

God’s question about the reanimation of the bones highlights its improbability

The prophet avoids encroaching on God’s freedom in his deferentially evasive reply

Ezekiel knew that humanly speaking it was impossible, so his answer was somewhat guarded. O Sovereign LORD, You alone know. Only God can accomplish such a feat.

Ezekiel (5) Restoration of National Life for Israel (37:1–28)

The prophet’s answer was restrained and filled with his awareness of human helplessness in the face of death (cf. 24:15–27, the death of his wife) but also respect for the mystery of God’s power.

This has two sides to it: the admission of the powerlessness of man, who, faced with such an irrefutable victory on death’s part, is incapable of saying anything about he possibility of life for these dead bones; at the same time, however, the knowledge that he is replying to the God whose abilities are not curtailed by man’s lack of abilities.

Lk1:37 - For with God nothing will be impossible.
Lk18:27 - But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Mk10:27 - But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
Mk9:23 - Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Thus with the prophet’s reply everything is transferred back from man’s impotence to God’s powerful decision.

Ezekiel (5) Restoration of National Life for Israel (37:1–28)

Thus when God told him to preach to the dead, dry bones, he obeyed despite its apparent absurdity (cf. John 11:43).

God then directed Ezekiel to prophesy to these bones. The content of his message was God’s promised restoration: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.

2 Corinthians 4:13 NKJV
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,
Mt17:20 - you will say to this mountain...

This decision is described in what follows, where the prophet is suddenly transformed from being the spokesman of human impotence into the spokesman of divine omnipotence. He receives the commission to proclaim over the dry bones the prophetic word, which, with the summons to attention, calls the dead to pay attention, and, as authorized messenger, delivers the divine message in which the “God of the spirits of life for all flesh” himself proclaims that he will bring his spirit of life and will make the dead bones come to life.

Ezekiel (5) Restoration of National Life for Israel (37:1–28)

Ezekiel’s obedience produced immediate results.

What “dry bones” do you need to preach to? What dead things in your life need to hear the words of your faith?
Don’t let the dryness of 2020 keep you from telling
Before God can revive dry bones, we have to revive our hopes & faith!

Bringing the Pieces Together

full of bones. Not skeletons, but a sea of disjoined bones each separated from its mates—an extreme of deterioration.

the bones no longer appear as bearers of the life force, but, rather, it is their lifelessness that is strongly emphasized

Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary f. The Spiritual Rebirth of the People (37:1–28)

Now, however, when the prophet prophesied, the bones clicked into place and became living beings: Israel came alive.

Ezekiel (5) Restoration of National Life for Israel (37:1–28)

Ezekiel’s obedience produced immediate results. Even before he had finished (cf. Acts 10:44), he heard the “noise” of the fulfillment of God’s promise (Ezek 37:7). The bones came together

Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary f. The Spiritual Rebirth of the People (37:1–28)

In the vision this happened in two stages.

Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary f. The Spiritual Rebirth of the People (37:1–28)

In the first, Ezekiel is told to prophesy to these bones and to command them to hear the word of the Lord. This results in only a partial restoration: scattered skeletons are transformed into individual corpses, but they are still just as dead.

Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary f. The Spiritual Rebirth of the People (37:1–28)

At the second stage, Ezekiel has to prophesy to the wind (the word is ṛûah, ‘breath’ or ‘spirit’) and appeal to it to come and breathe upon these slain, that they may live (9). This time the corpses come alive and stand on their feet, and the miracle is complete.

As Ezekiel was giving this prophecy, he saw a remarkable thing. The bones came together (Ezek. 37:7),

Reassembling the Scattered v2
The New Bible Commentary 37:1–14 The Valley of Dry Bones

He does so, and while he is prophesying, the bones come together with a rattle.

He made me pass all around them. To impress on me their vast quantity and extreme dryness, indicating that a long time had passed since life had left them.

Restored

Restored to their “place”
bring you back to the land
Exiled (v12)

Revived

Ezekiel (5) Restoration of National Life for Israel (37:1–28)

The bones came together and were clothed with flesh but they still were not alive (v. 8). So God again commanded the prophet to preach to the rûaḥ (“breath,” “wind,” or “spirit”) to fill these corpses (v. 9).

The New Bible Commentary 37:1–14 The Valley of Dry Bones

When he does so, breath enters them and they become alive—an immense army (9–10).

Spiritual empowerment v9
Came to life & stood on their feet v10

What He is out to prove (vv13-14)

The New Bible Commentary 37:1–14 The Valley of Dry Bones

Then you will know that I am the Lord (12–13), I will put my Spirit in you and settle you in your land. Then you will know that I am the Lord, I have said it and will do it’ (14)

The reviving of the dry bones signified Israel’s national restoration.

The New Bible Commentary 37:1–14 The Valley of Dry Bones

a simple message: that the dead nation of Israel would one day be revived and return to their own land.

The New Bible Commentary 37:1–14 The Valley of Dry Bones

The power of God can change even the most hopeless of lives and situations.

The vision showed that Israel’s new life depended on God’s power, not outward circumstances

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