"Dry Bones Live"
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Preached by Sam Williamson on 5th January 2025
Scripture
37:1 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.”
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. 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.
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.”
(ESV)
Generated Transcript
Ezekiel chapter 37, starting at verse 1, till to first 14. It can be found on page 868 of the Hope Church Bibles. 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 to and fro among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the ballet, bones that were very dry.He asked me, son of man, can these bones live? I said, sovereign lord, you alone know. 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. Then you will know that I am the lord. So I prophesized as I was commanded, and as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rumbling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, 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 4 winds and breathe into these lane that they may live. So I prophesized as he commanded me and breath entered them. They came to life and stood up on their feet of vast army. 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. Therefore, prophesyte 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, 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, then you will know that I, the lord have spoken, and I have done it declares the lord. Good. Good morning, everyone. Nice to see you. My name's Sam.
Most of you now have heard that already. I have 4 children, The, the older 2 have sensible names. And then the third, the first boy, is called Zephaniah. We nickname him judgment. And then, once you've gone for Zeph, you've gotta go for something else strange from the Bible.
So, my last born is called ezekiel. You can you can tell me some nickname suggestions after this sermon, if you like. It's great to be here in Tallworth. It's nice to see a few familiar faces and lots that I don't know. It's encouraging to see a plant, in this area and, to see you meeting in this school.
We also have a meet in a in a school hall, and the heating is never on there either. So, that's encouraged me if nothing else. Let me pray before I start, and we'll get into this passage. Heavenly father, thank you for your word. We thank you that through it, you speak, and act, and work, and bring about your love and grace.
So we pray now you'd open our hearts wherever we stand before you, whatever we think of you, whatever stage we're at in life, and we pray that you would do a good work in our hearts for your glory and for our good amen. Well, as Ekyo really is quite an amazing book. There's ups and downs, there's dramatized prophecies, there's tensions, there's cliff hangers, and there's more. But what frames the book as you if you were to read through it are these incredible visions that Eikhael has, through it. Chapter 1 has to be 1 of the most powerful and extraordinary chapters in the Bible that gives us a glimpse into the heavenly throne room of God.
There's power, there's majesty, there's fear, there's glory, there's might. It's all whirring around. Even the original text is confused and dramatic and busy such as the awe before ezekiel. He can't get his head around it. So if you think you can reason or debate or justify yourself before god, have a read of chapter 1.
I think that's what it does for us. It puts us in our place. And that's the wider context when we come to other passages throughout ezekiel like this 1. The god of sovereign power is terrifying when you look upon him. That's how ezekiel opens.
Then today in chapter 37, which most churches across commission are looking at, this I think is intended to be for us. A a 1 off shot in the arm of motivation to reach London for Christ. That's the catchphrase that, commission has to reach London for Christ. Now surely that is too hard. It's too big a name, surely.
There's too many challenges, there's too many competing voices. We could just live our own little individual lives. Talking about Jesus here and there when we can, even join a plant in Tollworth of all places. But can we really reach London for Christ? Well, in a sense, we can't.
But as we're about to see, if god intends to raise the dead to new life, then it will happen. It will be so. So have a look in our passage. I think there's a power point. When I refer to other verses in the bible, they'll be up there so you don't have to flip through, but the rest from our passage you can see in your bibles in front of you.
So ezekiel 37 verse 1. 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. The breath of god, the rak in the original Hebrew, the the lord, the spirit, has taken ezekiel on another 1 of these extraordinary journeys and visions that you see through ezekiel. And we appear with him now in a dry desert valley, in the heat of the day.
It's about as far away as what we're experiencing right now, as you can imagine, hot, dry, desert. Now the shame and the horror of not receiving a proper burial in the Israelite nation and in the near eastern traditions of that time. Now that was bad enough So here are all these bones. That that's bad enough. They haven't been buried properly, but now EZekule has to walk amongst all of these bones.
It's going to make him ceremonially unclean. This is not a good place to be. And the terror of what must have happened must have played on ezekiel's emotions and his mind. Had there been anywhere that wasn't full of bones, perhaps it had sunk to his knees, in fear, and shock, and horror of what was before him. Everyone is long dead.
Maybe if we were in that scene, we'd be a bit numged to the shock of it with all the films and the things that we watch today, but there's nothing for ezekiel to compare this to. Body that have been dead so long that the birds and the wild animals have cleaned them white and the sun has baked them dry. And yet the RuroK, the spirit has brought EZekiel to this place and makes him walk among it. We're meant to absorb that horrific situation. Verse 2, he led me to and fro among them.
And I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. Verse 3, he asked me, son of man, Can these bones live? Well, it gets worse for ezekiel. Have a look down to verse 11. Quickly, we'll we'll go back to the others.
Verse 11, the spirit said to me, son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. These bones are the people of Israel. They say our bones are dried up, and our hope is gone. We are cut off. No, I don't know if ezekiel was surprised, but these bones represented the whole Israelite house.
This is what the continuous rejection of god results in. That is what is before ezekiel. Every 1 of them obliterated in the desert, left to be eaten by animals and baked in the sun. There's been so many warnings through ezekiel, and they still haven't changed as a message. They still haven't repented.
They have not inclined their hearts to god. They have continued to do detestable things before the lord god almighty. As most people in London today have. Despite the warnings of bible teaching churches, most of London rebels against god And as Ezekiel looks out, I imagine his mind went to deuteronomy chapter 28, where there was an ancient covenant made between god and his people. It was a covenant of love and protection from god that was to be responded to by the Israelite people by carefully obeying everything the lord commanded.
But if they didn't, follow him, then the covenant would be broken, and a curse would be put upon the people. Here's deuteronomy 28, verse 25, the lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come, sorry, you will come at them from 1 direction, but flee from them in 7, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there'll be no 1 to frighten them away. The shock and horror of a dishonorable a dishonorable burial.
God's people defeated because they've broken their covenant against them. That is the the warning of not obeying god. And this is surely the promise that Ezekiel now sees before him being fulfilled as the people in ezekiel at this time have not followed the lord. The fall of Jerusalem has already happened earlier on in ezekiel. There's been shocking accusations against the corrupt and selfish shepherds and leaders of Israel in the previous chapters up to us up to up to our 1 today.
And this vision of death valley is confirmation that Israel is dead before god. It has happened, says the lord. I have brought the curse I promised for your rebellion. You see, god will protect his glory. He will protect that glory of chapter 1, and he will ensure that all people know that he is that lord of glory, the god of the universe.
And so reject him and the Israelites are spiritually and ultimately physically finished like dry bones in a desert. Now I don't know about you, but for some inexplicable reason, It's easy to feel sorry for the Israelites, isn't it? And somehow see that god is sort of harsh and overbearing. It's all a bit much, isn't it? Complete judgment because they haven't done everything he said.
But I think we think like that because, those dry bones don't just represent Israel, do they? They actually represent all of humanity. You and I, our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones, London. And at the end of the day, we all want number 1 to get whatever we want rather than acknowledge the truth of a great and glorious god of the universe. How many times this week will we or have we last week thought when life is just unfair?
Isn't that just an ultimate symptom of thinking we deserve better from a sovereign god? He owes me a bit more than this. He's a bit harsh. Now I realize most of us here today, call ourselves Christians, and so we do pray that god's will be done, not us. We do strive to live according to god's good and right way because we know he's our loving heavenly father, who only wants what's best for his people.
But we also should not forget the depths. From which we have been saved. You see, to consider god as overbearing, or even our lives as unfair, is to have missed how sickening our rebellious lives are compared to the glory of god. And if you don't believe in Jesus for your salvation, then you're still in denial about how shocking your rebellion is against god. We're totally and utterly dead chewed, scraped clean, dried in the sun baked, bones in the desert dead.
Not because god is harsh, but because we've chosen that path. And in fact, even this promise of judgment is god calling us back to him in love, isn't it? This is your end if you don't repent. Internal spiritual death and punishment from god almighty. So come back.
Humanity is created by god. He, his breath, ruach, in Genesis, gave you life, but we say it doesn't exist. Or he's no claim on our lives, or or everything's just a bit unfair. This is the state of most of Londoners. From to tower hill, from Worcester Park to woolwich, god gives careful instructions about how we are to live, and yet we live however we see best.
That is London. He asks us to glorify and honor him as maker and sustainer of the universe, reach chapter 1. And yet, we worship ourselves. Paul picks up the same idea in Romans, 1 21. Speaking of humanity, he says this, Romans 1 21.
For although they knew god, they neither glorified him as god nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, god gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to ****** impurity for the degrading of their bodies with 1 another. They exchange the truth of god for a lie and worshiped and serve created things rather than the creator who is ever to be praised. And on to verse 28, still in Romans.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind to do whatever to do or sorry, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness evil, greed, and depravity, they are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice, they are gossips, and slanders, god haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents, they're senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless, suddenly like dry bones to me, although they know god's righteous decrees, and those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. How dry are the bones of humanity?
Can these bones live? Can Barrellains and toleworth and Sabitan live? Can London live? Not by themselves. No possible way.
But by the word of god, by his ruach, his spirit, there is hope. Have a look at verse 4. Back in our passage. 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, 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.
Sounds like a horror film. And the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them but there was no breath in them. Is it possible? Can it be that Israel will live again?
Does humanity have a hope It is London actually able to live again. Yes, lord. The bones rattle they gather together, sinews, and tissues, flesh, and muscle, skin it's happening. Yes. But why no breath?
We all want to know why there's no breath? Well, we know there will be breath. We've been promised that in verse 4. But so that there is no mistake as to who is at work here, there's a gap. There's no breath yet.
And the lord commands ezekiel to speak his word again verse 9. 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 4 winds I breath and breathe into these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as I as he so I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them. They came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army.
The word, Iraq is used 10 times in verses 1 to 14, sometimes meaning the spirit of god, sometimes meaning physical breath in their lungs, sometimes meaning the winds from the 4 corners of the earth, the point being they are all life of any kind is controlled exclusively by god. It waits for him and his ruach. The breath of god, by the word of god, brings new and resurrected The breath of god by the word of god brings new and resurrected life. Can these bones live? Only when god himself is faithful to his own word by his own breath.
Before ezekiel is a scene reminiscent of creation self. That first man, Adam, Genesis 2 verse 7, the lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed Ruck into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living thing, a living being. Why the pause before the breath in ezekiel so we are under no illusions that god is at work by his word and his spirit as he was in creation. This is the vision of a new creation, resurrected life that calls for a new and a living way, and enjoys the perfection of life with god.
Never to be messed up again by humanity, because they didn't bring themselves back to the life. God is in charge by a spirit and word now, because a spirit now lives in them. A harsh god, an overbearing god, a god to complain when life is not unfair, I think not. A spiritually dead and dry bones humanity freely and undeservedly raised back to life to live again in paradise with god. Paul, the New Testament apostle says it better than I do, ephesians 2 verse 1 to 10.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient, All of us also lived among them at 1 time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath, but Because of his great love for us, god, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions, it is by grace, you have been saved. And god raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace.
You have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not by work so that no 1 can boast. We are we are god's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do. For ezekiel, he must have hoped in part for a for a physical restoration of the holy lands of Israel and Jerusalem as these bones receive new life.
And in part, those promises come true. You can read about them and, the rebuilding of the temple in 50 years from his time. In the book of Ezra, but he must have also had this glimpse of an eternal hope for those who are faithful to god by his spirit's resurrection just as the new testament picks up on from the readings we've looked at. I think it's why god changes the image from resurrected dry bones in the desert versus 1 to 12 to verse 13, the opening of graves. Something bigger is going on now.
There is eternal hope, life after death. Our graves will be opened back then and now today. Have a look at verse 13. Then you, my people will know that I am the lord. So all glory goes to God chapter 1, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
I will put my spirit, my breath, my rurak in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the lord has spoken, and I have done it declares the lord. I spoke it, says the lord. My word has gone forth, says the lord. It will be fulfilled, says the lord, and it will be fulfilled by my spirit.
A ruac filled people, a people who live because they have the breath of god, his spirit within us. We can be alive without the spirit of god in us, but we cannot live It's the message of the Bible. Before god, without the spirit of god, we are dead. For the spirit opens the way to live, to be obedient to god, to be god honoring people, to have our hearts inclined to god. To be saved eternally now and forever, as we read in ephesians, all through Christ Jesus, our lord.
Now, of course, the first grave ever to be opened in all of history was the grave of Jesus. He fulfills his prophecy in and of himself, doesn't he? By starting it in history. It's passages like ezekiel 37 that would likely have been on Jesus' mind as he meets his disciples after his resurrection. This is from John chapter 20 verse 19.
On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus, Jesus' men would be dead at this point, came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the lord. Again, Jesus said, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive anyone of his sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive them. They are not forgiven. Jesus breathed on them. They received the spirit of god that gave them and any who receive it forgiveness and life. Before ezekiel is a promise of life in god's word that the new testament applies to us today for all of humanity that has ever walked the earth that if we repent and believe and receive the Holy Spirit, We receive life.
Jesus fulfilled it fully and finally in his death and his resurrection in our place. He became dry bones for us. He took the wrath we were under. He preached to our dead bones, so that we may rise again in response to his word and spirit. He gives the spirit of of of god as a guarantee that all this is possible and will take place.
He, the lord Jesus, by the word of god, through the spirit of god gives us freely, and finally, and fully, and wonderfully life. Life eternal with the glorious god of the universe. Back in Romans 8 11, and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Through his spirit who lives in you. So that, back in ezekiel verse 13, so that my people will know that I am the lord.
That's what it's all about. His people will know who the lord are. 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, then you will know that I, the lord has spoken, and I have done it. I have done it declares the lord. Humanity can live by the word and spirit of god, turning to Jesus.
So what about your loved ones, or your spouse, your sons, or your daughter, a parent, a close friend? What if they're dead to god? What about all of London? Can they live? But we were all once dead, weren't we?
And god can save, can't he? And so we pray. And we pray. And then we prophecy to those bones. We speak god's word to them.
We tell him of Jesus and his breath, his life on offer. It might seem like an overwhelming task, to keep on keeping on in evangelism until we die or Christ returns. Candy's dead bones live. It might seem like an overwhelming task to keep praying, and giving, and sacrificing, and helping so that London might be reached for Christ. But actually none of that is as overwhelming as standing in a desert full of dry bones and being asked, Kenny's bones lives, or maybe it's exactly the same.
Can these bones live? Well, of course not. What what are you talking about? Don't be ridiculous. But Ezekiel didn't say that, did he?
The answer is really very simple. Can these bones live? First 3, sovereign lord. You alone. No.
It's simple for ezekiel, isn't it? It's simple for us, isn't it? Ezekiel is then told to go and proclaim the word of god to these dead bones so that spirit might work. And as god wills, it happens. God can and do whatever he pleases.
He's not harsh, He is gracious and loving, and he loves to bring new life to the spiritually dead. And we can respond in hope, and joy, and obedience to him, and continuing his work as Azikael does here. It's not overwhelming It's actually very, very simple. Can London live? Sovereign lord.
You alone know. Now I'll move on and do your work. Let me pray. Our lord and heavenly father, we recognize that we are people who have rebelled and sinned against you in so many ways. We are dry bones and dead in the desert, and by your grace through the lord Jesus.
In response to your word and the work of your spirit, we can live. If we don't know you, We haven't repented and believed. Do a work in our hearts today by your spirit, bring us to new life. Forgive us of our sins, and give us faith in Christ. And as we look at our loved ones and our neighbors, and toleworth around us, and London afar, and the whole world beyond, and we see dead bones everywhere.
And we ask, can these bones live? We praise you. That you are sovereign, and that you alone know who you will call home to your kingdom. And so we respond by proclaiming your word, praying and trusting in your spirit, because we know you are good and gracious and can bring life to dead bones according to your will. Keep our faith and our service simple, trusting in you and knowing you are good and sovereign.