Raising Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14                                   Raising Dry Bones

8/2/15              D. Marion Clark

Introduction

When Jewel Morrison sang the song “Dem Bones” a couple of months ago, I was so impressed with the song that I promised to preach on the story of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel. So, thank you, Jewel, for singing the song again today in preparation of the sermon.

Text

Verses 1-6 set the stage.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ² And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

“The hand of the Lord was upon me,” is Ezekiel’s way of saying that he was taken into a vision by the Holy Spirit. This happens seven times in his book. He sees in this valley thousands of skeletons, indicating that the bodies had been dead for a long time, enough to be reduced to bones parched in the sun. These are not bodies that can merely be resuscitated. They are but bones, dry bones, no longer even connected together.

Can they live? Ezekiel gives a wise reply: (v 3) “O Lord God, you know.” If anyone else asked, the answer is obvious – of course not! But when the Lord God asks…well, as Jesus once said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27).

Now, what is going to be significant is not only what God is about to do, but how he does it. Ezekiel is to prophesy; he is to proclaim the word of the Lord. That is what it means to prophesy. He is to prophesy to the bones, as though they are able to hear, and indeed, they are commanded to hear the word of the Lord. So Ezekiel follows orders.

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them.

Ezekiel prophesies and power goes forth, first to connect the bones and then, step by step, cover them with sinews, then flesh, then skin. There is now a valley of bodies but still no life.

 But there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

The Hebrew word for breath is ruah. It is the same word for spirit and for wind. The word first appears in Genesis 1:2: The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit (ruah) of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The translators translate ruah as breath because the passage is about giving life, which we associate with breathing. No breath, then no life. And yet, Scripture teaches that it is the Spirit of God who gives life, the Spirit who is like the wind. Recall Jesus’ words to Nicodemus:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

To be born again – to be given life – requires the work of the Holy Spirit who is like the wind. So, Ezekiel prophesies again, this time to the breath. Breath comes into the bodies of flesh, and they rise to life, “an exceedingly great army.” Who is this army? What does this vision mean? Our third section explains.

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

The valley of bones is how the people of Israel describe themselves. It is the valley of despair, of hopelessness. They believe that there can be no redemption. “Our bones are dried up.” We are too far gone. “Our hope is lost.” There is no redeemer to look to. “We are indeed cut off.” The curse pronounced on us if we broke our vow has come upon us.

These are not empty words, mere exaggerated moaning while feeling down. They know the warning delivered by Moses when he mediated the covenant between them and God. Here are excerpts from that warning:

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies... And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away…³⁶ “The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known…³⁷ And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away…⁴⁵ “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you… (Deuteronomy 28:25-26, 36-37, 45).

They had been warned again and again by the prophets, even by Ezekiel. They had not listened, and now final judgment has been carried out. There is nothing left but bones, which themselves are but symbols that the people of Israel are dead in their graves.

The people are right in their analysis of their plight…almost. They did bring God’s curse upon themselves for violating his covenant. They have been cut off. That is what the exile is – being cut off from their inheritance of the Promised Land. Furthermore, they are dead, so dead that they are nothing more than dry bones. They are in their graves.

That part of their analysis is correct. What they have misjudged, however, is the intent and power of Yahweh, the Lord God. In regard to intent, they have thought that they actually could foil God’s purpose for them. He wanted to establish an everlasting kingdom with Israel, but because of Israel’s rebellion, his intent was spoiled. Poor God; he tried his best. Israel was just too tough for him. That actually is what Israel’s neighbors were concluding. Look back in chapter 36.

I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. ²⁰ But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ ²¹ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came (36:19-21).

It is true that Israel had failed, but what was not true was that God had given up on them. He had promised that even when they were sent into exile, he would bring them back and even do greater things, such as we read about two Sundays ago in the latter half of chapter 36. He will redeem Israel yet again as he did in Egypt, and he will be glorified so that Israel and her neighbors will know that he is the Lord. God’s intent will not be frustrated.

Furthermore, God will redeem through power. He will speak, and dry bones will come together, and come to life. He will speak, and graves will be opened, and bodies be raised to new life. Yes, Israel, your predicament is as dire as you diagnose it. You are not sick; you are not lost; you are not injured. You are dead; you are nothing but bones; you are dead in your graves. But God…but the Lord God has the intent and the power to raise you back to life and bring you home.

And so, in a sense, the prophecy was fulfilled. It would take seventy years, but the Jews would return home, settle back into their land, and be a covenant people serving and worshiping God at his temple in Jerusalem. Yes, it was fulfilled but only partially. A greater fulfillment was still to come.

It would come by God’s Redeemer through a strange means of redemption. This Redeemer would himself face death. We read a description of it in our responsive reading:

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
    it is melted within my breast;
¹⁵ my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
    you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶ For dogs encompass me;
    a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
¹⁷ I can count all my bones— (Psalm 22:14-17).

This Redeemer was laid in a grave. This Redeemer’s grave was opened and raised from the dead. And, as was later said about him,

…Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

Our Redeemer has come. He has died for us; he was buried; he has risen, and we too shall be raised. He will return for us. This is God’s purpose for us. He will fulfill his purpose, and we and all persons will know that he is the Lord.

Lessons

Two lessons for us to consider. One is that sometimes we forget that we once were dead, that our plight was the same as the house of Israel. We give that attitude away whenever we judge those outside the covenant of Christ. “How can they not believe?” we wonder. “How can they act that way?” as though we came about our faith naturally and easily. We forget that we too were once dead. Listen again to Scripture’s description of us and what we needed:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:1-8).

The wonder is not why people will not believe the gospel but why anyone who is dead is able to believe. It is by the power of God that the work of redemption was accomplished, and it is by the power of God that the dead are given the power to believe and be saved. This, again, is why Jesus said that a person must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God.

Now let me conclude with the most important lesson. It may well be that some here have concluded that your plight is too far gone. You are nothing more than dry bones. You have no hope of redemption, no hope of being raised to new life. It may be because you believe you are too hardened of a sinner, that you have committed too many or too grievous of sins. It may be that you have long worshiped the idols of this world.  It may be that you had once followed the Lord but have fallen away and so have brought his curse upon you. Perhaps you have tried to change your life and have failed, not merely once, but over and over. How could God still redeem you, still give you yet another chance? Why would God still redeem you?

Good questions. Israel asked the same ones. And yet God redeemed. If he has resolved to save you, do you really think you are too tough of a case for him? If he has resolved to transform you, do you believe you cannot be changed? Listen to the words he spoke and fulfilled for Israel, whom God described as unclean, stubborn, and with a heart of stone.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:25-26).

While you are alive, you have hope. There is no sin you have committed that you cannot be cleansed from. There are no failures that God cannot raise you from. You cannot be too far gone that God cannot raise you from the dead. The words of our Redeemer are true for us, true for you if you will but believe:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26).