"I Will Bring You Back"
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Fifth Sunday of Lent; 3/9/08
Introduction: There is a quote from Dwight Eisenhower that says: “A people that values its privileges, above its principles, soon loses both.” In our society, there are so many who feel that they are privileged. But not just privileged for what they have available to them, but they feel they deserve this privilege. Consequently, many have taken the privileges they have for granted. And in doing so, they have put themselves in a dangerous place. What often ends up happening is that when we get spoiled we forget to live as we are called to live by God.
This is what happened to the Israelites in Ezekiel’s time. They had received some great benefits from God, the greatest being that they were considered God’s people. But they became blind to the principles by which God was calling them to live, and thus they strayed away from God. Consequently, God no longer called them “His people,” and God turned away from them.
I. Can These Bones Live?- (Ezekiel 37:1-6; Genesis 2:7)
a. Lifelessness- As God takes Ezekiel out into the middle of a valley,
God shows him a land scattered with bones. I’m sure this picture shocked Ezekiel. I’m sure this was difficult for Ezekiel to see. And God meant it to be shocking. God wanted to wake Ezekiel up to what was going on around him.
So God asks Ezekiel a question: “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel doesn’t know if this is a trick question. He knew that God was capable of doing anything. So Ezekiel answers: “O Lord God, only you know.”/ This was Ezekiel’s attempt at answering a question in a way that wasn’t really an answer. But God lets him get away with this answer, because God responds to Ezekiel in verses 4-6: “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 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.'”
God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones: “Hear the word of the Lord.” The power of God’s word is being spoken to these bones. The purpose of this is to make the bones come to life. It is the same idea as what happened in the beginning of time. The earth was formless and void, and God spoke. And with God’s spoken word, the world came into being. And when it was time to create man, we are told in Genesis 2:7, “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The Hebrew word for “breathed” here is the word “ruach.” It is the word that is also used to describe the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit of life is breathed into man, and he comes to life.
Why is God talking to Ezekiel about this? Because God sees His people as being lifeless. The Israelites are like dry bones. They have no significant life to them. God has created them to worship Him, and to do the works He created them to do, but they have gone their own way. They have left the purposes for which they were created. They no longer have any interest in seeking God, and knowing God, and serving God. They are wanting to only serve their own interests.
In this way, God sees them as good as dead; lifeless, like bones on the ground.
b. Bringing them to life- This same word, “ruach,” is used in Ezekiel
37:5. God is going to create tendons and flesh, and skin onto these bones, and breathe His breath of life to create a new people for Himself. The God who can create from nothing, can create new life from dry bones.
What God is trying to help Ezekiel see, is that if God can’t have His people follow Him, and serve Him, and worship Him, then He will create others who will. It is not new for God to be angry at His people for their disobedience. And God is trying to help Ezekiel see the extent to which He will go, to have a people that will follow Him. The Israelites will be left out of the equation.
Illustration: “Catching Pigs.” I don’t know if you know how to catch wild pigs, but this is the formula: You find a suitable place in the woods and put corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down on one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and then you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn.
This is what really has gone on with the Israelites. They have been slowly led into the captivity of being like the world around them. They have lost the sense of the importance of cultivating their relationship with God. They look at what the world offers to them as “free corn,” and choose it over the freedom of being a people of God. They have been drawn away from the lifestyle that was given to them.
In John 6:33, we are told by Jesus: “The words I speak to you are words of Spirit and of life.” God’s words are to bring life to our minds, our bodies, our spirits. But at this time, God’s word is doing nothing in the lives of the Israelites.
II. Commanded to Prophesy- (Ezekiel 37:7-10; 1 Cor. 1:25; Isaiah 55:8)
a. Ezekiel Prophesies- Ezekiel is obedient to God, and prophesies as
he is told. And to his surprise, he hears a sound; the sound of bones rattling. Now, I don’t know about you, but I bet Ezekiel was a little scared when he saw something actually happening. Ezekiel saw that the bones were coming together, and sinews were on them, and flesh began to cover them, but there was no breath yet. So Ezekiel is no longer looking at dead bones, he is looking at dead bodies.
I bet if you were to really analyze people’s expectations, there are a lot of people who pray without any expectation of something happening. They pray with doubt, not expecting that God will answer. Especially when it comes to prayers of great miracles. A lot of people pray, wanting an answer, but not really believing that God is capable of doing what they ask, or not interested in answering them. I know that there are a lot of times that people ask me to pray, in essence instead of them, because they believe my prayers will be heard by God more than their prayers!! And if God does answer, then they are a little surprised. Wow, God really heard me. Wow, God really answered.
Story: There is a wonderful story about a man who asked God for a flower and a butterfly. But instead, God gave him a cactus and a caterpillar. The man was sad at God for not answering his prayer, and thought that God just had too many other people to care for. After some time, the man came across this caterpillar on the cactus. To his surprise from the thorny and ugly cactus a beautiful flower had grown. A little more time went by, and when he visited the cactus again, he saw that the unsightly caterpillar had become a beautiful butterfly!
As Ezekiel watched what was going on, I’m sure he was questioning God. This was not making sense to Ezekiel. Why would God be doing something so bizarre? Why was God going to this extreme? Why was God giving up on His people?
God doesn’t always do things the way we expect. God doesn’t always do things in a way that makes sense to us. As we are told in 1 Corinthians 1:25, “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” Or Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
b. The Breath- But God continues in verse 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 from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'”/ Now you need to understand that the word ‘ruach’ also means wind. And so the breath of God is being called upon from the wind. And the wind comes, and blows over the dead bodies, and THEY COME TO LIFE! And when they stood, Ezekiel saw a “vast multitude of people.”
I wonder if God did it this way so that Ezekiel could feel the presence of the wind. And as he felt the presence, he experienced the power of God in a very present form. It was no longer just words. It was God utilizing another part of His creation to create life. And now Ezekiel is staring at living people. Ezekiel has witnessed dry bones coming alive. I’m sure Ezekiel’s mind went back to God’s initial question: “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel was definitely experiencing being a mortal.
And this is often the problem, we forget that God is God, and we are mortals. We forget that God is the creator, and we are the creation. We forget that God has a call and a purpose on our life, and we are to follow this calling. We get to that place where we think we are in control of our own lives, and that God is no longer needed. I think we start to get mixed up about the story; kind of like this explanation from a child. Maybe you have heard it before, but if you have, you will appreciate it again.
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one,' but I think
He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did. Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve.
Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors
hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something. One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check. Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then He gave them His top ten commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's bottom (the Bible uses a bad word for bottom that I'm not supposed to say). Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother. One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua, who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me….After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.') During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him. Jesus was a great man He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven, but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution. There! Now you understand it.
The problem is, all too often, that is how people understand it. They lose track of what life is about, and who God is. They lose focus on what is the truth!
III. Hope Lost/Hope Restored- (Ezekiel 37:11-14; Romans 5:8)
a. Hope lost- Now, one thing that is easy to lose when you are reading
this passage, is that this is a vision of Ezekiel’s. This isn’t really happening. And in verse 11, the Lord starts to explain the vision to Ezekiel: “Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.'” Ezekiel sees now that these bones represent the “whole house of Israel.” If they were to be cut off from God, they would lose all hope.
And that is what God wants them to understand. God wants them to understand that they need to stay connected with God. They cannot continue to wander away from God, living however they want to live, and still expect to feel alive and fruitful. Without God, they will lose all hope.
So, the next step is to step out of their deadness, and again seek the Lord. It is only in the Lord that there is hope.
DEMOCRACY: About the time our original 13 states adopted a new constitution,
Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up
until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous
gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always
votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due
to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
It usually happens with the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage. "
b. Hope restored- The Israelites were at the place of apathy. They
had lost the fire in their relationship with God. They needed to get that fire back. This vision was meant to jump start their emotion. So God tells Ezekiel, in verses 11-14, “Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O 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.'”
Ezekiel is to go to his people, and prophesy to them. And the message he is to prophesy are words of truth; that God wants to restore them into a right relationship with God. God wants them to know that there is hope for restoration. Part of this restoration is that they will get to go back to their own land. This is a promise of God, and how they will know that God has spoken all of this. It is a way that they can ultimately test the prophesy of Ezekiel.
In this prophesy, we also see that God is a merciful God, in that He comes to Israel in the midst of their unfaithfulness, and is faithful to them. As Romans 5:8 tells us: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We see this to be true in the Old Testament as well. God helps Ezekiel and Israel to see that there is always hope, because God will never leave them or forsake them. God is a God of faithfulness, and is always true to His word; true to His people.
posted by Logan's Blog at 1:45 PM
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