Dry Bones Can Live

Father, I thank you that you make dry bones live. I ask that you would, this morning, bring us to hope that as we see these dry bones, it wouldn't just simply be a curiosity or an interesting story, but it would be an argument to our souls that you are powerful and that you work. And through your word and through your spirit, you take that which is beyond hope, and you bring it new and alive and back to life. So be with us. May your spirit speak to our dry bones and our hope. And may you give us life. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, probably all of us at one point or another have done something that was ill-advised, and as a result, we had to face some consequences because of our ill-advised decisions.

I remember for a while I was visiting a young man at the local correctional facility, and it was one of those scenarios where he didn't have to be there if he had just not made the dumb decision. And in the moment where he was confronted with some of the consequences of his choices, instead of choosing the $50 ticket, he managed to talk himself into a year in jail over something incredibly stupid. I remember the first time we met, and we were sitting there talking through the glass, and he was telling his story, and I just looked at him and I meant, "There was only some way you could have avoided all of this." He laughed, I laughed. Sometimes we end up where we are because we made a dumb decision. Not just other people, but us.

A friend and I were talking this week about various ways in which we have injured ourselves, and I had a realization in the midst of that conversation that at least two broken bones and one third degree burn came as a result of my own dumb mistakes. And that ultimately, in those moments, nobody to blame but myself. There was nobody else in the world at fault but me. Now I want you to hold on to that idea as we move into the Psalms for a minute, as we move into Ezekiel 36, and as we move into Ezekiel 37 this morning. That there are situations that we find ourselves in where it is nobody's fault but us. Nobody was out to get us. Nobody was trying to trap us. That we simply, when presented with a good and a bad choice, we chose the bad choice, and not just once, but over and over and over again.

And so I want to begin with a sad song, and this sad song is found in the 137th Psalm. And God's people are the ones singing, maybe not singing, this song anymore. "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion." And heartbreak in these first words, because here's people who are, they're far from home, so they're homesick. They're facing, at this moment, their tears have overwhelmed their ability to sing. They've set down their instruments. In fact, in the very next verse it says, "The trees." Like we were done with music, because there is nothing left to sing about, only tears. You might say, "Well, why are you so sad?" And this verse is just a clue. "By the waters of Babylon." And they're saying, "Well, we miss home." "Well, where are you, Babylon?" "Well, how did you get on?" And this is where the story sort of snaps into focus.

And here's a difficult truth about their grief. It's their own fault. Now, this can minimize the hurt or the grief that they are feeling, but we must not have the responsibility. In fact, let's count it out. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, as these God's people come into the plant, they are giving blessings and curses. And in verse 50, this warning that if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, these curses will be upon you. And one of those curses in verse 25 was that you will be given in the enemies. And so here they are in the hands of their enemies. God warned them generations before, and not just generations before, generation after generation. And they know that these are not empty words because the northern kingdom of Israel destroyed and taken away into captivity because of the same sins they were intentionally doing.

Additionally, God has not been silent. Isaiah, Jeremiah, prophet after prophet, and just ignore the people who opposed them. In fact, here, what chapter 36 says. The lovers sent persistently to them by messengers because he had compassion on his people and in place. And so here is God, messenger after messenger, in compassion, calling them back to the truth. And what is their response? They kept mocking the messengers of God, despite laughing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people and there was no remedy. Their sad songs by the waters in Babylon, as heartbreaking as they are, are a direct consequence of their rejection of God. It goes even deeper than that, because in the beginning of Ezekiel has a vision of the temple. And it's heartbreaking. The glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim.

And so the glory of God begins to leave the temple and it pauses. The very next chapter, the glory of the Lord went from the midst up on the mountain that is on the east side. Of the city. And there is this absolute wreckage. Not just of individual lives, but of families and of towns and of countries. That comes as a direction, turning their back and living in disobedience. This sad song that they're singing ultimately comes as a consequence because they refused to listen to God. God has departed. Now what is so fascinating is in the midst of this darkness and in the midst of this sad song, there is a joyful promise. And we'll go to Ezekiel chapter 36. Listen to what God says, "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act,

but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned, to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them, and the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I've been before their eyes." Now, at first glance, this does not sound like things are getting better, right? God shows up, and He goes, "You're a bunch of rebellious people who have profaned my name across the world, and I am here to vindicate it." And it seems like it's just gone from bad to worse. But listen. The very next verse, beginning in verse 24. "Vindicate His name." "I will take you from the nations and gather your own land, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean.

From your uncleanness and from your idols I will cleanse you, 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, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules, and you shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God." Here is a people who have profaned God's name throughout the nations. They have been warned, they've seen examples after profit, and they persisted in their disobedience, and the promise that God gives them to vindicate His name is that He is going to cleanse them. He's going to give them a new heart and a new spirit.

And this is not for God giving, it is God transforming a sinful and rebellious and broken people who are weeping over the sin and the consequences which they deserve. And He goes, "I'm going to take your heart of stone, and I'm going to make a nation of desire." Not just an obligation to follow God, but a transformation to where you desire it. It's the going from have to to want to. We've all experienced this, things that we have to do. In Frederick County, when your personal property tax comes twice a year and you've got to do this again, grumble, grumble, right? But then show me a leaky canoe on Facebook Marketplace, and I'm like, "Yes! Let's go ahead!" Because one, I desire for the sheer adventure of it, and the other, I resent. And what God says is, "I will take your heart, and I will transform it."

No longer resent, and no longer are my commands a burden, but rather they are that desire that you want to, and you can't wait to, and I will transform you. ...here that's so deeply, deeply wonderful. If you remember in 11, we just read, where God's glory begins to come out of the temple, and it pauses. And then it leaves the temple, and comes out of the sounds, and it pauses, and then it disappears. God's glory leaves His people. Look at what the promise is. I put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules. ...exiles. Someday we'll get to go back, and we'll build a temple, and there'll be glory, and the glory of God says it's more. The glory isn't just going to be there. It's going to be here, as I put my spirit within you.

All right, under the old way, the sin drives out the glory. And instead of the sin of Israel driving the glory of God from the temple, the glory of God drives those sin and our life. Not just replacing something. It's building something brand new. It's a promise for something much more wonderful than anyone could ever imagine. And here's the problem. Yeah, it's a great promise to people who are getting what they deserve. And here comes a promise of restoration and renewal. And what happens when this is? I ask this question almost every time. Too good to be true. We're skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. We're skeptical of things that seem weird or strange. The bigger the goodness is, the more skeptical we are, but also the more hurt we are.

Skeptical we are. I've been burned before. And there's three objections to God's promise that lives down deep in our hearts. And the first objection is where we look inward. In this way, there's nothing left in my life to restore or to renew. Think about plants in this heat and in this drought that we're in the middle of. And we had planted a couple of maple trees in front of the church. Well, by we I mean Rachel. And she has been diligently watering. They'll grow up big and strong and be beautiful. Especially in the fall, turning all different kinds of colors. But you have to water them. And what happens in the midst of a drought when you put a new tree in the ground and you don't water it? I saw it firsthand this week. You know what happens? It dies. It's dead. It's dry.

And no matter how much water you put on a dead tree, a truly dead tree, it doesn't come back. It's just too far gone to save. And there is an objection in our heart to the promises of God where we go, "Is there anything left alive?" "I hear this promise, but I'm too far gone. I can't be saved." And so in addition to looking inward, we also look forward. And we might, maybe not out loud, but we might say, "Hope has died." There's a difference. Going to the airport, right as they're boarding your flight and making it on at the last minute, and standing there at the gate as you watch that plane taxi onto the runway and take off. And having been in both of those situations, right? One, there's hope. I can still make it. And one, it's nothing left I can do.

And there is an objection to the promises of God deep in our heart that says, "Hope is gone." There's no more opportunity. There's nothing left. The third objection is upward. Any chance of chain transformation has been cut off. And this is where we look up to God, and any chance I had of Him saving me has been cut off. I had an old truck. And the starter didn't work very well, and the guy who had given me this old truck said, "Well, here's what I do." I hit it, and if that doesn't work, I try to jumpstart it, and sometimes it'll start well. After I dug into it, it turns out that the starter and the wire from the battery that connects to the starter was not connected very well. And I'll tell you what, if your starter isn't getting any electricity, you can beat on it all you want.

You can jump, but if there's no connection, it will never start. And part of our objection to hearing this promise of God in Ezekiel 36 is that we go, "There's nothing left! You can't jumpstart something that is completely gone!" That there's no connection left. And that's the objection. I've burned that bridge. Maybe more than once. And there is no coming back from where I'm at. And in our brokenness, we hear God's promise and immediately begin to stack up reasons why it's not for us. You don't understand. You don't know how bad it is, or how bad I am. I've gone. I want you to understand these three objections that I just listed are not just some random objections. They're literally verse 11 of Ezekiel 37. "He said to me, 'Son of Mero,' and then listen, God lists the people's objection.

Behold, they say our bones are dried up, right? Dead. No moisture left. Our hope is lost. There is no hope for the future. The plane has departed, and we are indeed cut off. There is no longer a connection." And what we see in the Valley of Dry Bones is not just this intra-skeletons reassembling, flesh being added in, as cinematic as being, is an argument from God against our hearts that say, "Our bones are dried up. Our hope is made. We are cut off." And so God answers in two ways. One, this vision, and that vision begins a terrifying walk.

The Lord was upon me and brought me out in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones, and he led me around them. There were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, it was very dry. This was me. He'd be like, "No, thanks. I'll stay out of Skeleton Valley." And specifically, Ezekiel in the middle of Skeleton Valley. Is that often our response to God is, "You don't know how bad it is." Or, "God, you don't understand the depth of my brokenness." And so notice, by God's direction, by God's power, not observing from the sidelines, you see the depth of hopelessness in this valley. He doesn't just say, "Ezekiel, look out over the valley of bones." He set me down in the middle of the valley, and then He led me around among them, and they were very dry.

And then the valley of dry bones, it was a picture that there's no way to bury the dead. A direct reference of God's people, right? The promise in Deuteronomy chapter 8 is that there's going to be nobody to bury your bones. The birds will pick them up and keep them clean. They would have had to be associated with it. It was conqueror's cruelty to not bury the dead or to drag them out. And God's argument to His people, who says we're dry, is not, first of all, to contradict them. It's to agree with them. And He goes, "You're a valley full of dead bones, and they're dry, and there is no hope anywhere, and I know because I've looked." And then there is this startling, startling question. And He said to me, "Son, can these bones live?"

God knows their hopelessness. He just walked Ezekiel through it all. And there's two ways, I think, to answer this question: "Can these bones live?" And the one that is deep in our heart goes, "No." I see no hope. These bones aren't just bones, they're very dry. It's not like someone who has just fallen down and needs a defibrillator, that these are in the final state. There's nothing left. But then there is a glimmer of hope. Because God is the one who is speaking. And Ezekiel, very humbly says to the question, "Can these dry bones live?" And he says, "Oh Lord." It's humble, from my perspective. But from yours all things are possible. And to the most exhausted, hurting, sinful, broken person. "I can't bend these bones from you, but from God." And it's only when we come to the end of our strength, and we look at it and we say, "I can't."

But God steps in. And there is a glimpse of the question. And in the next, the next verse is our eyes. The first thing that God does is He gives Ezekiel a message, and it's to preach to the dead bones. And we might say, "Well, how can bones hear? How can bones think? There's no pulse." And we feel that frustration, and maybe we feel it in our life because it feels like maybe in our life we've been preaching to dead bones. Jesus, whether it's to our children about the right way to live, house or to a family, and it feels like our words are just coming out. And God's speech prophesied to the dead bones. The problem is the dead bones can't hear, and they can't respect. But here's the wonder: the God who commands is also the God who creates.

As I prophesied, as I was commanded, and there was a sound, and behold, a ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray of ray.

And there's a big lesson here, because bones reassemble, but there's no breath. We can fix everything up. But without the power of the Spirit of God, there is light. So Ezekiel then, following the commands of God, prophesies to the breath or to the wind or to the Spirit. Come from the four winds. Come and breathe on these slain that they may live. And as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet. An exceedingly great army from all directions. Not just dead, but they are slain. They are killed. And look at the parallel. At the beginning it says they were exceedingly dry. Now they are exceedingly great. These dry, hopeless, cut-off bones are a direct consequence of their rebellion against God. And that's the whole point. They are slain because they have disobeyed God.

And in His Spirit those bones come back to life. And I want you to think for a minute. How could God have responded? He would have been justified in doing absolutely nothing. They got this way and they earned it. He could have left the doubters to doubt. I made a promise. Take it or leave it. He could have left a plan to be followed. Pick yourself up and do it. But God responds with His Word and with His Spirit. Everything in this valley is teaching us. The bones are teaching us the brokenness of our condition, and they're right. And then God through His Word and through His Spirit, and it raises the dead. And what I love is God does not just demonstrate, but He explains. I just want you to hear, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

Here's the people's objection. Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost. We are cut off. Thus says the Lord God, "I will open you from your graves, O my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel. You shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. And then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have to do it," declares the Lord. There's so much, but these three objections are dried up. Hope is lost. We are cut off. God demonstrates that that's not the end of the story. And then He takes those three objections and in reverse order addresses them.

So when people say, "We are cut off," God says, "I'll open your graves and I'll raise you from the dead." And He ends it like this, "O my people." There's a tenderness and a relationship that's here. And then He repeats it. And we're hopeless. We say, "There is no future." And God says, "I will bring you to the land of you." We're far away and our connection is broken and no future. And God says, "There is hope and I will bring you to where you need to go." And God says, "I will put my spirit within you and you shall." What I just did to this valley of dead bones, I will do to you. With a word and with a breath. Every objection God answers. Not just with words to life. And we could keep going in Scripture to see God answer objections.

It's our objection after objection to our brokenness. I'm too fine. And God will answer every one of those with grace and directness. That it's not our trying, but His power. And His word and His spirit that brings life to our dead dry bones. So here's the question. How do we live? We have our objections. And God answers it in a vision. We'll take the vision and say, "Well, that's an interesting illustration." And then God answers it directly point for point. The three objections. The inward, the forward, and the upward. And God answers all of them saying, "I will turn it around." And then there comes a point where God answers this objection not in a valley, but on a hill. Can these bones live? Remember the exiles' objection that they were cut off. There comes one who will be cut off from the land of the living.

Remember the objection about the dry bones. There comes one who on a hill and on a cross quotes from the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And then that Psalm continues, "My bones are out of joint. My strength is dried up like a plague me in the dust of death." And then remember the question about is there hope? Two men on a road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. When they're asked about why they're grieving, and they talk about Jesus, and they say, "We had hoped He would be the one to redeem Israel." The answer to the question, "We are hopeless and we are cut off," is not that God shouts encouragement into the valley, but rather that He descends down into it. And no one takes His life, but He lays it down willingly.

And in a moment we'll read, "For the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." On that Sunday morning you see a picture of what happens in Ezekiel in the reality of the resurrection. And not just the resurrection of Jesus. Matthew adds, "The tombs around Jerusalem broke open." The picture of the empty tomb is a down payment on the reality of bones being brought back to life. For us this is not just a vision, it's reality, with a place and a date and an empty grave and its location. The questions our hearts have been asking, can these bones live, is answered in the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. I want you to notice that the bones aren't given an assignment. They're given a promise. That through the Word and through the Spirit the bones are brought back to life. They're given arguments.

In the frustrations and in the promises of God and in the empty tomb. In Acts chapter 3, Peter preaches, "Repent and return so that times of refreshing may flow from the Lord." So I don't know where we all are. Sometimes we're on the mountain top in the valley. It may be a struggle in our families or in our health with our children of faith that feels like it is dry bones. So I encourage you to bring your questions to the one who answers decisively and with promises and with hope, even when it's all your own fault. He still comes, and he still restores, and he still breathes life into your weary bones. In Ezekiel, he ends like that. "I have spoken, and I will do it." Father in heaven, turn our eyes to hope. We come with our brokenness and our hopelessness and our dry bones,

knowing that through your word and through your spirit, you can breathe life into them. Transform us, encourage us, and help us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. We're going to stand and sing "Turn Your Eyes."