Video Transcript: God's Continuing Work with Dry Bones

I've titled this lecture God's continuing work with dry bones. You may recognize  in that title the allusion to Ezekiel 37, which speaks of an important vision  Ezekiel had. But before we get to the vision, a little background, Ezekiel was the son of a priest, and a member of Jerusalem's aristocracy, who lived in a very  turbulent time in Jewish history, namely the time of the exile. When he was 25  years old, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem and took many of the Jewish  people into exile. Ezekiel was one of them. He had to leave his wife behind at  the time, it was a second deportation of Jews into Babylon. The first one had  taken place about seven or eight years before that was a one in which Daniel  and his friends had been taken to Nebuchadnezzar's court. When Ezekiel got to  Babylon and saw the physical, emotional and spiritual condition of his fellow  Jews. Ezekiel 3:15 says he just sat for seven days he was overwhelmed by  what he saw. It was during this time that the Lord called Ezekiel to be a prophet  to the exiles, the Lord one had a two part message for him to give to the people.  The first part was letting the people know that their suffering, their exile, their  subsequent suffering was a judgment of God for their sin in refusing to be the  people he had called them to be. But Part Two was more hopeful. God told them through Ezekiel that after judgment, He would restore his people. But that  restoration was not to come quickly. 10 years after Ezekiel had been taken to  Babylon, the exiles were given the report that that the city of Jerusalem itself  along with the temple had been completely destroyed. And so then, the mood  among the exiles was the discouraged mood and the dejected mood, the  helpless and hopelessness was magnified. That's when God set Ezekiel down in the middle of a graveyard. This wasn't a well treed grassy meadow headstone  marked cemetery but a desolate valley full of the dry bones of the dead. It was a mass grave. The dead lay where they had fallen, their flesh had been eaten by  scavengers and their bones scoured by the wind and rain and bleached by the  hot sun. Ezekiel probably understood right away, at least part of the message  God was giving him this valley of dry bones was a good illustration of a visual  metaphor of the of the condition of the people of God. In fact, God said as much  to Ezekiel, he said, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel, they say our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, we are cut off. Remember, the  people were in a state of spiritual sight, stagnation and even despair. They felt  spiritually and emotionally dry and they doubted that anything would or even  could be done about it. Although they recognize their spiritual need, to this, to a  certain extent, it was as if they were dead to any hope of spiritual vitality. And  they all knew Ezekiel included, they knew there was nothing they could do about it. But that's when God asks Ezekiel an interesting question. Son of Man, can  these bones live? Well, the obvious answer was no. No way. How could these  lifeless these gnawed on these mixed up bones find their mates and reattach  with the vertebrae finding their proper place with the cartilage between and the  ball of the femur not only fitting into the socket of the right pelvis but reattaching 

with limb ligaments and on the other end, matching up with the right tibia and  fibula and growing hamstrings and quadriceps and along with nerves, and with  foods and oxygen supplying but blood vessels they couldn't. More to the point  there's no earthly way that the people of God, either dead or in exile with their  government, their holy city, their temple, their civilization destroyed, no earthly  way they can live again. Except that with God all things are possible. And so  Ezekiel says, in answer to God's question, oh, Sovereign Lord, you alone know.  Who is he to say that the Lord cannot make dry bones live? He's not actually  making a statement of faith that the Lord will do this. But just a cautious I'll be it  reverent confession that only the Lord knows what he's able and willing to do.  And with that comes God's command to Ezekiel, prophesy to these bones,  speak the word of the Lord to these bones, because that's what prophesy  means. Previously, Ezekiel had prophesied to mountains and forests at God's  command, now he prophesied to the dry bones in the valley. He says, dry  bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Sovereign Lord says, I will make breath  enter you and I'm summarizing here and attach tendons and make flesh and  cover you with skin, and you will come to life. Is God's word really that powerful? I suppose it would be one thing if God himself stood in that valley and said, in  sort of a reenactment of the creation story said dry bones come to life. Or  however God says such things but how can a mere mortal like Ezekiel speak  with the same effect. But look, the bones are moving, they're coming together,  they're forming into skeletons. And even now the bones are becoming covered  over with flesh and skin. Yes, the word of God really is that powerful. As yet,  however, the reformed bodies are still corpses. They're lifeless, without the  breath of life. But God continues to imitate his original creation of man when he  first formed man out of the dust of the earth, and then blew into his nostrils the  breath of life. And so God says that the next step for Ezekiel in this recreation is  to prophesy to the breath. And when he does that, the flesh over bones become  alive and recreation is completed. It's a symbolic message from God to illustrate  the word that he's giving you, his desperate people, oh, my people, I'm going to  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, then you will know that I the Lord  have spoken. And I have done it. This prophecy was fulfilled in initial way at  least after 70 years when some of the exiles were allowed to return home.  That's when Israel came back to life as a nation. Some people today think that a similar but more complete fulfillment happened in 1948. After the II World War,  when the nation of Israel was reconstituted again, and people from all around  the world flooded to the promised land. And they think, moreover, that  Revelation predicts an important role for Israel in times that's something about  which other Christians are, including myself are more skeptical. Yet, to this day,  Israel's glory days have not returned. It's possible I suppose that such a day  could still be coming for the nation of Israel. When as God says in verse 23, of 

chapter 37, they will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images  or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,  and I will cleanse them they will be my people, and I will be their God as  possible, but actually the message to Ezekiel has already been fulfilled in a  more complete way, in Jesus Christ. When Christ came, the life and hope of the  Jewish people was fully as dead as it had been in the exile. Nor did many have  an eye for the self sacrificing and humble Messiah that God was sending. That's why they with the help of their Gentile masters ended up killing Jesus on a  cross. But it was that very murder in God's reversal of it on Easter, by which God has given and continues to give life to people who are the spiritual equivalent of  old dried out bones. And it's these people born again Jews and Gentiles alike,  who make up spiritual Israel. Even so, those who have put their trust for life and  death in their savior, Jesus Christ may sometimes still feel like old dried out  bones. We all see a fair amount of suffering close to home personally or those  we care about and that takes its toll. And besides that we live in the information  age, which means that we have more access and we can sometimes handle to  sad stories, featuring one or another variety of suffering, each of which might  remind us of Ezekiel's bone graveyard. People living under strict dictatorships,  especially those who dissent civilly or religiously, people in every country have  become the victims of fraud or violent crime, accident victims. So those who  have become welfare dependent as well as those who can't make ends meet for themselves and their family. Those who have been hurt emotionally by other  people, especially by those they love, through abuse, separation, infidelity,  divorce, and so on. There are lots of people who feel like dried or drying bones.  In some too, though they may not recognize it who have lost their way and who  either can't or don't want to find their way out of the deceit of sin. So what does  all this mean? And where do you find yourself? Where do we find ourselves? In  this story of old bones? Are you more like the pile of old bones Ezekiel saw at  the beginning, or are like the bones put back together and covered with flesh  and made alive by the Spirit of God? Sometimes it's not easy to tell, is it? There  are people who look who are something like corpses, they look right. Kind of but they have no spirit in life, maybe they don't even know they're dead. There are  others who appear to be in worse shape, rather like old piles of bones or are in  worse shape than those with flesh on them. Ironically, however, it's probably the  latter who are the closest to help because they're saying my hope and what I  can do is gone. I've made a mess of things, I need the supernatural help of God  to rebuild my life. Indeed, the end of self reliance is the first step to new life. The  people of Israel had been in terrible shape. Long before Ezekiel was brought by  the Lord into this valley of dry bones. They were spiritually dead a long time  before they actually came to the realization in exile, that their bones were dried  up and their hope gone. But that realization was the context in which God gave  them his message of hope. It's always says, as it always is, God's message of 

hope cannot even be heard by those who are full of themselves, but only by  those who have the honesty to admit that they're dead without him. And then  even a little faith will be enough. Ezekiel didn't give a ringing testimony of faith in God's intentions, he simply acknowledged that the Lord was sovereign and able  to do the impossible. And everyone who hears Ezekiel's message can do the  same. Whether in a troubled marriage or family where hope has died or whether vocationally Frustrated, emotionally depressed, financially exhausted, physically handicapped or politically oppressed. Whatever the problem, the Sovereign  Lord, the one who made heaven and earth can address our needs. In the first  place, God has given us Jesus to answer all our needs, and by that gift, he  teaches us moreover, that his consistent character is to be loving and helpful.  He's always interested in reaffirming his original creative impulse. His spirit is  available and powerful to fix what's wrong, and to restore life. This may not  happen according to our timetable, or in the manner we prefer. But what Ezekiel  did with the bones remember speaking the Word of God to them? What Ezekiel  did to the bones every child of God can do with every need, because God's  Word brings spirit and life. Through His Word, God Himself comes into our  troubled lives to fully revive us, no matter what our needs. Revival is not just  glorious life and hope, but its glorious life and hope against a backdrop of need,  and death and loneliness and poverty and hopelessness. We help keep our faith alive by constantly reviewing the whole story and most notably what God did on  Easter when he made Jesus drying bones alive, and thus opened the door to life for all who are dead in sin. Nor should we forget that all who are so regenerated  and revived are part of one community. God works with a people that's more  than one set of revived bones. As important as individual revival is a much  bigger theme in Ezekiel's experience, and in the whole biblical experience, is the revival of the people of God as a whole. All who have found life by Christ's  sacrificial death, resurrection and ascension are the new house of Israel, in  whom the Spirit lives today. The book of Acts is nothing less than the story of  God putting flesh on dry bones, and then breathing life into them and doing it  again and again all over the then civilized world. And the continuing spread of  the gospel today and to to into new language and people groups is the same  thing. It's a fulfillment of Ezekiel 37. Wherever people come to the end of  themselves, and look to God for help, and receive His spirit is where dry bones  become living souls, and souls and community also with each other. But there is a danger in this beautiful picture. It says some such communities apparently  think that one's dry bones become a living soul so pleasing of their Reviver God  continues automatically. It's not so long before Ezekiel's time God had created  Israel as his special people, he had taken them out of Egyptian slavery and  given them life in the Promised Land. But through their disobedience, they lost  their life and became this pile of dry bones. You see, revival must be ongoing.  Because life is a moment by moment affair. Physically speaking, if our body 

stopped breathing and performing the other functions of life for only a few  moments, they die. Spiritually speaking, if there's any point in which we do not  depend on God's Spirit, we begin to die. Our God is a gracious God, a patient  God, he certainly was with Israel. But what is the point at which we we become  dry bones again, we do believe that God will preserve those who are truly His  and yet there is also the truth that all around us are individuals and churches,  which we thought were alive, and which now seem to be little more than dry  bones, or maybe corpses. But without life. There are churches who meet and  conduct business and everyone thinks they're a success, maybe because of the  money, or no money problems or the number of people meeting there, but  they're never heard talking about what God is doing in the lives of people. That  secularized compromised version of the church is not what God has in mind. He wants His church filled with His Spirit, evidencing the fruit of the Spirit, following  the words inspired by his Spirit, God's Church and all the branches of it is in  need of continuing renewal to sustain and develop the life God has given us.  You can learn a lot in a graveyard, that God can change everything, despair, into hope, doubt into faith, and even spiritual death into spiritual life. That happens  when we reach the end of ourselves, look to God and receive His Spirit all on a  continuing basis. God has made a way to revive us and it should be no surprise  that he wants all his revive people to stay revived. And not to become like dry  bones again. This is a life and death matter for ourselves, but also for our world.  Because right now God is working and he's calling for co workers to transform  the spiritual graveyards of our world into places teeming with life. That's how it  was in the beginning. That's what God tried to do with Israel and wanted to do  with Israel. That's what Jesus did with his life. That's the kind of community God  calls his people to be right now. And one more thing that's how it will be at the  end of time in perfection. How long that will be we have to confess with Ezekiel  only you know, Lord only you know, however long it is, God wants us to work on  it. Let me conclude with a song based on Ezekiel's vision you know, I found I  found a song called Dry Bones with lyrics by Philip Doddridge and revised by  Rev/ Brian Penney that I thought I'd like to use but the more I looked at it the  more I thought I wanted to do some more revising. And so what I'm giving you is this song dry bones with a couple of verses as I found them. One more that I  revised somewhat and three more verses that I added the song can be sung if  desire to the tune of just as I am. It is Ezekiel's vision and the fulfillment of it. In  song. Look down O Lord with gracious eyes see Adam's race in ruin lie. Sin  spreads its misery all around and dead men's bones pollute the ground. Oh can  these dead become alive and can the sun parched bones revive? That  Sovereign Lord to you is known that wonders work is all your own. But by your  words these bones aren't done. You give them flesh and make them one. Dry  Bones obey your mighty voice. They move. They waken. They rejoice. These  bones, they stand for Israel held captive since the nation fell. The Life was hard 

and hope was spent God brought them home with heart's content. But this  return was just a taste of what would come through Jesus grace. His sacrifice  has conquered death and offers all new life and breath. He is our home with him we'll stay and share the news of endless day where he will be by all adored All  Glory to our Sovereign Lord.