Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Valley of Dry Bones
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.’”
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe)
Father, you are good. I need help. They need help.
Thank you that we may stand before you in the name of Jesus. May we see Jesus and only Jesus. Amen.
So last week I made a little mistake. I said we're starting a new series today. I actually meant after Pentecost.
Today is Pentecost and then next week we'll start a new series. It's going to be fun. The series is called At the Right Time and we're going to talk a little bit about the life of a man called Joseph and see what God says to our lives about that.
But today is the day of Pentecost where we celebrate the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now I don't know if you have ever noticed as you read scripture that it does not only have God's answers to many of our life questions that we have. Many of the things that we go through in life that God gives us answers to those where we ask for that.
But it also has God's questions. Questions that God asks us about our lives, about who we are, about how we live, about how life around us looks like. Let me give you a few examples because these questions are meant for us to stop, take stock, look at our own lives.
Ask, what is God asking of me? Way back when in the garden when Adam and Eve messed up and God came looking for them, they went and they hid. And what was God's question? Where are you? Having them think for a moment, why are we hiding? What did we do? And God asks, where are you? And often he asks us, where are you? When Moses was reluctant when God called him to go and free his people from Egypt and Moses had all of these excuses one after the other, God asked him a question. What was the question? What do you have in your hand? There was only a staff, but that staff became a snake.
That staff became that which changed the Nile into blood. That staff became that which parted the sea. That staff became that which hit the rock and the water came from the rock.
And often God asks us, what do you have in your hand? There was this guy called Jacob, the heel grabber, the deceiver. When he came back to the land and there at the Jabbok, he wrestled with God and God asked him a question. Can you remember what the question was? What is your name? And he had to say the name out loud, Jacob, deceiver, the one who deceived my father, my brother, my father-in-law, who deceived them all.
I am Jacob and now you will be Isaac. No, Israel. You will be Israel, the one that I have called.
And then there was this man called Peter. Peter, the old loud mouth. Peter said, Lord, they'll all deceive you and they'll all turn their backs on you and all.
I'll never do that. Peter stands there at the fire and they said, ah, you were one of them. And he said, I don't know who you're talking about.
I don't know this man. And then Jesus meets up with him, John 21, at the sea of Galilee and Jesus asks him a question. Can you remember the question? Do you love me? Often God will ask.
One more and then we'll go to our question of the day. There was this man, Paul. He was on his way to Damascus on this road and the Lord stopped him and he asked him a question.
Why are you persecuting me? The questions God asks us. They're meant to stop me in my tracks and let me look at myself and say, why are you asking me the question, Lord? What do you mean by asking me the question? It makes me embark on that journey to look at my relationship with God and ask, when am I with you, Lord? It takes me on another journey where it asks me to look at this relationship with these loved ones that God puts all around me. How are you doing with them? What is your relationship? The questions God asks us.
So on this Pentecost Sunday, there is a question for us and what better place to go than the book of Ezekiel chapter 37. I'm going to read verses 1 to 14. 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. 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. He asked me, and here is the question for today.
Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know. And then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones.
I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. 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.
And then you will know that I am the Lord. 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.
And I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them. But, there's the but, but there was no breath in them. 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.
Can I just stop there for one second? The one thing that we miss when we read English and not Hebrew is that sometimes there are words that are used that have more meaning. The word spirit, the word breath, and the word wind in Hebrew are all exactly the same word. It's difficult for Canadian tongue to say because there's a rrr in there and there's a rrr in there.
Ruach, the spirit, the breath, the wind of the Lord. So look how the Lord uses those. The spirit brings him, then he prays for the breath to the wind and the wind brings the breath.
Verse 10, so I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life, stood up on their feet, a vast army. And 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 and we're cut off.
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 and then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
And I will put my spirit, my wind, my breath in you and you will live. And I will settle you in your own land and then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord. So God takes Ezekiel, and this is in a time when God's people are in Babylonian exile, when they've lost everything.
God takes Ezekiel and he puts him in this dry valley through the spirit, looks at the valley and there's the skeleton bones of people lying there, dead, dried out, and it represents how God's people feel about themselves. Dry, hopeless, dead, just there's nothing left. They're sitting in this situation and they're going nowhere.
And in this moment, God asks the question, can these bones live? What a profoundly poignant question, not just for people who are in exile and have lost everything, but a question for today and for each one of us. Can these bones live? Because so many of us struggle with the dry bones syndrome in this world. People struggling with their lives, people struggling with things around them.
This world's struggling with itself right now. It is quite dry and dead and desolate despite the fact that we have AI and all kinds of other jazz going on. So many people struggle with a dry bone syndrome, but also in our faith walk, many folks struggle with dry bones.
They go through the motions. We read, we pray, we sing, but it's dry and it's empty and there's nothing. And the question is, can these bones live? Let me try three answers.
Two of those, I think, will lead us down a path that's a cul-de-sac. And then one of those, I think, is one that will lead us on a path of life. And these are not answers that I thought out.
These are the answers that we see. Answer number one. Can these bones live? Lord, step back.
Let me do this. I'll show you how it's done. I'll show you how we get these bones going again.
Answer number one. And then we do it. And it's the I thing.
I'm going to study more. I'll learn about the word more. I'll pray more.
I'll go for more studies. I'll get the Bible and I'll read it from front to back and from back to front. Watch me, Lord.
And then these bones will live. Here's the problem. It's the Pharisee problem when we do that.
Because those Pharisees, they knew the first five books, the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, knew them off by heart. They could recite them word by Hebrew word. They knew the Ten Commandments.
They lived by them. They actually made 613 laws from those first five books. Do's and don'ts.
365 of those were don'ts. One for each day of the year. They had it all.
Stand back, Lord. We can do it. And they could tick them off.
I did that one. I did that one. I did that one.
I'm okay. The bones are alive. Remember what Jesus said to them? Matthew 23, 27.
He said, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. On the outside, you look like beautiful whitewashed graves. But on the inside, you're filled with dead bones.
The dry bone syndrome. We cannot solve that by saying, step back. I'll do it.
I'm gonna do more. It's not about more. Oh, I'll do new resolutions.
I'll go pray earlier in the morning. I'll get up four o'clock. Can I tell you something? I never pray four o'clock in the morning because even God does not want to deal with me four o'clock in the morning.
Way too grumpy. And then we do that. And then the poor family gets up.
And then I'm grumpy with them. And the rest of the day is grumpy. And instead of getting closer to the Lord, I'm actually getting further away.
And the bones are just getting drier and drier and drier. Sometimes there's a second answer. Can these bones live? I don't think so.
The answer. I don't think so. That's the answer of despair, of disappointment, of discouragement, of a life that's kind of going nowhere.
And I'm thinking when I look at what God's expectations are, I don't think I have it. I don't think I can do it. I don't think I'll ever live up to that.
I don't think so. The problem with the first two is what you know me by now. I've said it a million times.
It's the I trouble. I trouble. Where we think I can do it.
Leave it to me. I'm sorry to say it, my friends, but none of us can make those dry bones live again. Not on our own.
We can't. Maybe the third answer is the one that we need to think about for a second. Ezekiel, can these bones live? What was his answer? Sovereign Lord, you alone know.
The question about life for dry bones is a question that only the living God can answer. Because it is only the living God that can give his living spirit, wind, breath, and blow that into our lives. It is only when God pours out that amazing gift of his Holy Spirit that those dry bones become life in all of its fullness and all of its abundance again.
Because hear me, the Holy Spirit of God is not a ghost. The Holy Spirit of God is not some kind of it or power. The Holy Spirit of God is God in the present.
It is God in his presence in my life and in your life that breathes the breath in us. Think about it. Genesis 1, when this world was formless and dark and it was nothing, who was the one that changed that? And the breath of God came over this formless thing and the breath of God breathed and it changed into the most beautiful creature.
God made two little clay people and God breathed and the breath of God went into them and they became the most beautiful living images of the living. Oh the breath of God. When those disciples were so afraid after Jesus died on the cross, they locked themselves up in that upper room and they sat there like chickens on a perch on a day when there's thunder and lightning and they're so scared sitting in there.
All of a sudden the Lord Jesus stands there and what does he do? He breathes on them and he says, receive the Spirit, the promise that was made. You will be my witnesses when the Spirit of God comes upon you. Just in that moment happens and after that breath, that man called Peter who denied and who was so scared, he would stand out there and he would preach and thousands would hear the word of the Lord.
That same man, Paul, when the breath of God breathed on him, became a man who would go to the ends of the earth to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ despite the fact that his life was dry. He lived in prison for most of his life. How many times did he receive those 40 lashes on his back? How many times did he go without food and yet Paul always rejoiced in the Lord.
Always, he said, rejoice. Why? Because that is what happens when the breath of God comes upon you and God breathes that breath. Oh Spirit of God, breathe on this church, Lord.
Breathe on each one of us, Lord. Breathe that breath. Breathe it in and live the way that you would want us to live.
How do we do that? How do we allow that? Maybe it starts by acknowledging that I need the breath of God. Anyone here need the breath of God? I'll put both my hands up. There's a beautiful story in the Jewish Talmud that tells about a young man who comes to the city gates because the wise men would always sit there.
The elders of the community sit there and the young people would come ask them questions. This young man comes to this old man and he says to him, how can I have more of God in my life? The old man says, come with me and he takes him down to the river. When they get to the river, he asked the young man to kneel.
As the young man kneeled, the old man comes from the back and he pushes his head into the water and he keeps his head down under the water. He holds him and he holds him until this young man starts kicking. Then he takes him out and as he takes his breath, the old man says to him, the day you need God as much as you needed this breath is when the breath of God will come into you.
Maybe we need to learn how to breathe and acknowledge the breath of God. Lord, I need you is a song that we sing. Lord, I need you every hour.
I need you by one defence, my righteousness. Oh, how I need you. Maybe we need to accept the promise of God.
Verse 5, verse 6, verse 10, verse 14. This is what the sovereign Lord says, I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. Verse 6, I will put breath in you and you will come to life.
Verse 10, so I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life. Verse 14, but I want to start a little earlier with verse 12 and listen to the eyes, God's eyes. My people, says the Lord, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.
I will bring you back to the land. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord. When I open your graves and bring you up from them, I will put my spirit in you and you will live.
And I will settle you in your own land. And then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord. Eleven eyes in these few verses.
That is the promise of God. I will breathe on you. I will breathe my breath on you.
If only you will receive and breathe in. Where we can say, breathe on me, breath of God, until I am holy time. That's what we sing.
Breathe on me, breath of God, and fill me with your fullness. Breathe on me, breath of God, when I am empty and lonely and stuck. Breathe on me, breath of God, when I am so dry that I'm just lying like bones in a valley.
Breathe on me, breath of God, even when I don't understand. Breathe on me, fill me with the breath, with the wind, with the fire of your spirit. Be quiet for a moment.
Let's allow the breath of God to breathe, will we? Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Breathe, oh spirit of God in this place. Breathe your breath, your life, on each one of us.
Thank you for the breath that breathes when we are broken and hurt. Thank you for the breath that breathes when we are filled with joy and happy. Thank you for the breath that breathes when we stand breathless before our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Thank you for the breath that gives life in all of its fullness. Thank you for your work, Holy Spirit, our comforter, our friend, our helper, the breath of God in us. Breathe, spirit, breathe.
We pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.