Ezekiel 37:1-14
37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 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.’” 7 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. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.9 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, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 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
When I was a child, one of my favorite toys was Legos, I liked to be able to build, if I could not build with legos I would figure out something else I could use to build. I had an active imagination, was always looking at the bigger picture and I liked to see things built, and rebuilt. One of my favorite YouTube channels to watch is a channel called Odd Tinkering. On the Odd Tinkering channel, there is rarely anyone speaking, only a pair of hands-on cameras restoring things people thought were junk. They will take an old video game system, a rusted-out fan or some other item people thought were junk and restore it good as new. I like to see how things are connected. I think many of us like to see how things are connected, millions of dollars of Legos are sold every year, Odd Tinkering has millions of views. We like to see how things come together.
WE
This Ezekiel 37 passage is very popular, there are over 80,000 references to this passage in music and pop culture, there are paintings and drawings about this passage of scripture as far back as the 3rd Century. We can relate to the passage, we can relate to the reconnection, the resurrection, but we can also relate to the times when we are disconnected. There is resurrection in the text because there is something that needs to be resurrected.
Most of us can point to periods when doubts, hopelessness, depression, fear, and anxiety were prominent in our daily living. We can remember times when we had more month than money, times when we could not get ends to turn around and face one another let alone meet. Trouble on the job, trouble in the home, things not going the way we planned. Certainly, hopelessness and despair were a communal experience for the people of Israel at the time of Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones.
Ezekiel was a priest and prophet around the time Babylon defeated Israel. The text was written around the time of Exile, Ezekiel had been in Babylon for about 5 years at the time of the text and was walking around an irrigation canal when he felt the pressure of the lord and caught up in a vision.
The people of God had been defeated and lost access to the temple, the people of God were marched against their will to Babylon. The Israelites are in a theological crisis because they can't go to church anymore. The primary focus of their worship centered around being able to go to the temple, they were blocked from going to church. This theological crisis caused a political, social, and economic crisis.
Ezekiel is talking to people who have lost heart, who are suffering a death of the spirit, a living death in exile in a foreign land. Their temple has been destroyed, their holy city plundered, their leaders maimed and put in chains, their soldiers put to the sword, their young men and women either killed or dragged off into a foreign land. Ezekiel witnesses the soul of his people gradually wither and die, becoming as lifeless as a valley of dry bones. Can these bones live? That is what God asks.
GOD
God asks the question, but he knows the answer already, God asks Ezekiel because God wants Ezekiel and the people of God to know that he has not abandoned the exiles. No matter how dead and dry your situation is, God can resurrect it.
a. The miracle of the dead bones (37:1-10):
Restoring the connection
An amazed Ezekiel sees dry bones in a valley suddenly reassemble themselves and then become covered with muscles, flesh, and skin! Things that were separated are coming back together. Just like all the bones will be connected, God is going to restore and reconnect his people. I like that God is explicit with the explanation of how the bones and sinews will reconnect.
Restoring breath/spirit
God breathed life into the bodies after the connections were together. God put the bodies back together, then he put the breath in the body, then he put the spirit in the bodies. That is going to give the people the power to come back again to put one foot in front of the other.
b. The meaning of the dead bones (37:11-14):
God explains that he will someday do a similar thing for the nation of Israel! The situation may be messed up right now, but this is not the end of the story. Can these bones live? Can this dead situation be resurrected? Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of man what God can do for you. The bones of your life are dead and disconnected now but God says they won't be that way much longer.
YOU
God is in control, but that doesn’t mean you lean on a shovel and pray for God to give you a whole. Ezekiel was not just an observer but an active participant in the move of God. You want God to bless you, you must be willing to give him something to bless. Want God to bless your relationship, spend some time working on it yourself and let God provide the increase. Want God to bless your finances, spend some time learning about finances, and let God provide the increase. God has the power to revive the bones on his own without any help, yet God still asked Ezekiel to participate in the process.
WE
Death is not the end, God revived bones, not people that had recently died, to show God's resurrection power.
I'm too old to go back to school. Can these bones live?
It’s too late to start the business. Can these bones live?
It’s too late to reconnect with those loved ones. Can these bones live?
I've been unhealthy for too long. Can these bones live?
Can these bones live? Yes Lord, definitely yes, absolutely yes.
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