It is strange sometimes how a sermon topic or idea will present itself. Today’s sermon came to me as a result of listening to a new, well new-to-me, all female bluegrass infused heavy metal band that is “Christian” based. One song led to another and another and I came across this one song this group does titled “Rattle The Bones.” It inspired me to do some research, and I discovered the song was based on the Old Testament book of Ezekial and chapter 37, verses 1-14. And so, today’s lesson is based on that text. If you’ve never read it before or if you have and you’ve forgot the story we’re going to read it in a few minutes.
Before we do though, let me say this - there are moments in life when everything feels dry.
Not just tired or discouraging. But dry.
Dry marriages. Dry faith and churches. Dry hearts and hope.
There are people who sit in church pews every Sunday with smiles on their faces while inside they feel like a valley of bones.
Some are carrying guilt from years ago. Some are exhausted from grief. Others are possibly overwhelmed by fear about the future, or it could be they have prayed so long for something to change that they have quietly stopped expecting anything to change at all.
And perhaps the saddest thing of all is this: sometimes we become so surrounded by spiritual dryness that we begin to believe that is the norm.
And that is exactly the world Ezekiel walked into. You see, at the time of Ezekia,l Israel had been shattered and Jerusalem fallen. The temple destroyed and families ripped apart when they were taken into captivity and held in Babylon.
And in that dark moment, God gave Ezekiel a vision. It wasn’t a vision of grandeur either. Not of a thriving city or a victorious army and certainly not of a golden throne.
God showed Ezekial a graveyard.
I. GOD WILL SOMETIMES MAKE US LOOK AT THE VALLEY
“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.”
Ezekiel 37:1
Notice something important: God did not place Ezekiel on a mountain first. He placed him in the valley. Not just any valley either. It was a valley full of death.
You see, Israel wanted comfort. But God first showed them their condition. The bones Ezekial saw represented hopelessness.
And in his vision the Spirit of the Lord led Ezekial around and among the bones it wasn’t just a few bones was it. Let’s read verse 2 again and picture in your mind the scene:
“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.”
Ezekial 37:2
Just picture that. Everywhere Ezekial looked and walked were bones. Human bones. Dry, bleached by the sun and heat and weather. In my mind I picture a large valley that from a distance would look like it was light gray and no ground to see because the ground is covered in these many bones. These very dry, bleached human bones.
These were not recently dead either. They had long been dead. These bones had baked under the sun. Bleached, scattered. Hopeless.
Anecdote — The Abandoned Church Building
Several years ago, a man was driving through a tiny rural town he had visited decades before. And he passed an old church building sitting abandoned beside the road.
The windows were broken, the paint peeling away from the siding and falling to the ground. The weeds had overtaken the walkway to the building steps. The sign out front was leaning over sideways.
He said what struck him most was not the condition of the building. It was remembering that decades earlier the place had been alive.
Children had filled the classrooms for Sunday school. Hymns had filled the auditorium and could be heard a block away by passerby’s. Prayers had risen from that place Sunday after Sunday, week after week.
Now though it stood silent. He could not help but think:
“That building is what happens when spiritual fire dies slowly.”
Sometimes people become like that church building.
Outwardly they are standing, while inwardly they are empty.
And sometimes congregations can become valleys of dry bones: going through the motions, keeping traditions, but lacking spiritual life.
II. GOD ASKS THE IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION
So, Ezekial is standing and walking there in the middle of these bones and the Lord asks Ezekial a question.
“3 And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ ”
Ezekiel 37:3
What a question. Can bones live? Humanly speaking - No.
Of course not.
But Ezekiel didn’t say that did he? Instead, he gives the Lord a wise answer. He says “O Lord God, thou knowest.”
In other words: Lord, this is beyond me. It’s not in my realm of knowledge or experience or understanding to be able to answer such a question with authority.
One of the greatest moments in faith is when a person stops pretending that they have all the answers and simply places impossible things into God’s hands.
Because Christianity has always been built on impossible things.
• Seas do not part.
• Giants don’t fall because a boy hurls a small stone.
• Virgins don’t conceive a child.
• And dead men certainly don’t rise up from the grave.
But with God, impossibility is not an obstacle. With Jehovah God, impossibility is an opportunity. With God the seas can part and divide long enough for Moses to lead the Israelites to safety on the other side.
With God, David as a young boy took on the giant Goliath and felled him with a single stone. With God, Mary, a virgin, gave birth to Jesus.
And with God, the dead son of God overcame death over 2000 years ago and still lives today.
Anecdote — The Alcoholic Father
Imagine a father who has spent nearly twenty years enslaved to alcohol. His home is in chaos. His promises he constantly breaks. His house is ruled by fear.
His wife prayed for years. Not days and not months but years. Then finally one Sunday, the father unexpectedly attended worship. He sat in the back with his arms crossed and the expression on his face was hard. But during the invitation song, something inside him broke.
He walked forward weeping openly and was baptized.
Years later his son said “I honestly thought my dad was beyond saving. But my mother never believed the bones were too dry for God.”
That is Ezekiel 37.
God specializes in hopeless situations.
III. THE WORD OF GOD MUST BE PREACHED TO THE BONES
Hopeless situations. That is what Ezekiel saw in that valley. Hopelessness. But listen again to what the Lord tells Ezekiel.
“4 Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy upon these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord’ ”
Ezekiel 37:4
This may be the most astonishing part of the chapter.
God tells Ezekiel to preach… to dead bones.
Now I’ve heard jokes about preachers delivering a sermon to a congregation that is asleep… but to preach to dead bones? That sounds pretty ridiculous doesn’t it? But that is exactly what God told Ezekiel to do – prophesy, or preach, to the scattered, dry, bleached, dead bones.
Bones can’t hear. They can’t respond, and bones certainly cannot obey.
Yet God’s power worked through His spoken word. Never underestimate the power of God’s word.
People sometimes say: “Preaching doesn’t change anything anymore.” But, God says otherwise.
His word still convicts, and softens hearts. It still restores a dying soul, revives it, and saves it.
Hebrews 4:12 says:
“12a For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit…”
Hebrews 4:12a
The word of God is POWERFUL! Powerful enough to raise an army from dead bones and powerful enough to, as Romans 1:16 tells us
“16b …for it (meaning the gospel or the Word of God) is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”
Romans 1:16
Not entertainment, or gimmicks. And certainly not emotional manipulation. The power is in the Word.
Anecdote — The Old Bible
A woman once found an old Bible that belonged to her late grandmother. Inside were hundreds of handwritten notes beside dozens of verses which were either underlined or highlighted. There were important dates for baptisms and weddings and deaths. There were prayers for children and men fighting wars in far off lands. And there were stains where tears had fallen onto certain pages.
The granddaughter saw one prayer her grandmother had made for her to return to the Lord from the life she was leading. She herself knew she had drifted far from God and had spent years away from worship. Years away from prayer.
And as she began reading the prayer and the verses her grandmother had marked, one by one the Scriptures worked on her heart. She later said: “It felt like God was speaking directly to me through pages written before I was even born.”
That is the power of God’s word.
Dead things begin to stir when God speaks.
IV. THERE WAS MOTION BEFORE THERE WAS LIFE
And that is exactly what happens in Ezekiels vision.
“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.”
Ezekiel 37:7
Picture that! The bones began moving and whole skeletons were formed.
and verse 8 continues on
“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.
Ezekiel 37:8
“there was no breath in them.”
Everything looked alive! Sinews or what we would call tendons and muscles formed and they were all covered with flesh - but they weren’t alive – not yet.
You know, that can describe many people spiritually. Outwardly they are all there. They are flesh and bone. But no inward life, no spiritual awareness. They have outward form but no inward life.
They attend services. Know Bible vocabulary. And they understand church doctrine.
But there is no passion. No conviction. No transformation.
Christianity was never intended to be a practice in empty mechanics. Or to use a sports analogy – Christianity wasn’t meant to be lived on the practice field, it was meant to be lived at game time.
God wants more than just simple assembled bodies. What He wants is living souls.
V. GOD BREATHES LIFE INTO THE HOPELESS
So the Lord instructed Ezekiel exactly what to say, what to prophesy
“9b …Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”
Ezekiel 37:9
And Ezekiel did just that. Verse 10.
“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.”
Ezekiel 37:10
The breath entered them and suddenly the valley that was covered in dry, sun-bleached bones was now a standing army:
“they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
What a transformation. A valley of death became an army of life. Only God can do that.
And perhaps somebody here today or possibly watching this lesson on YouTube has heard this message and they need to hear this:
You are not too far gone. Your faith may feel weak. Your heart may feel cold. Your hope may feel buried.
But God still raises dry bones.
Anecdote — The Burned Forest
Back in November 2016 wildfires ravaged the mountainous wilderness in east Tennessee, the same fire which spread and destroyed a good bit of Gatlinburg. Afterwards photographers captured miles of blackened forest. Everything appeared dead. Charred tree trunks. The ground covered in ash. Nothing to hear in the wilderness area but silence. Everywhere.
Yet months later tiny green shoots began pushing through the burned earth. Life had survived beneath the ashes.
Sometimes people feel spiritually burned down and destroyed by sin. They experience true emotional pain, regret or failure. But God can still bring life to where everything looks ruined.
VI. THE REAL PROBLEM WAS LOST HOPE
In our scripture we read in verse 11:
“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’ ” Ezekiel 37:11
“Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost” - that is the true tragedy isn’t it? I don’t believe Jehovah could have painted a clearer picture of just what lost hope looks like. Not just dead bones, but lost hope.
Satan works hard to convince people that they’ll never change, never overcome the lows they are experiencing. Satan wants us to believe God is done with us, wants us to believe that it’s too late, that there is no hope for us.
But the Lord tells us otherwise doesn’t He. In the very next verse Jehovah God tells Ezekial to tell the people, the Israelites:
“12b Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your gaves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.”
Ezekial 37:12b
That my friends is HOPE! Hope for the Israelites. To hear that their creator has not forgotten them. To know that He will return them back to their home in Israel.
Because as long as God exists and as long as we breath, hopelessness is never the final word. The resurrection of Jesus Christ forever proved that God writes endings nobody expects.
Friday looked final.
Death looked final.
The tomb looked final.
But that Sunday morning, that beautiful Sunday morning changed EVERYTHING! Didn’t it?!
Conclusion
Imagine standing in that valley with Ezekiel.
Bones scattered everywhere you looked. The silence.
Death, the Despair.
Then suddenly a rattling sound. There’s movement, breath, LIFE!
And God says in verse 14:
“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.”
Ezekiel 37:14
What a declaration! What a defining statement of the power of Jehovah God. He doesn’t just say He will do something – He WILL do it!
That same God that can bring life to dead dry bones, that same God that can give an entire nation hope – He is still working today.
He still restores broken people, revives the weak of faith.
He still forgives sinners who repent and He still breathes life into hopeless hearts.
The question is not whether God can raise dry bones.
The question is:
Will we trust Him enough to let Him?
Invitation
Perhaps today someone feels like those bones.
Dry – Empty - Hopeless.
But Jesus Christ came so dead souls could live again.
Through faith and repentance, confession and baptism -
God still brings people from death into life.
And for Christians who have grown spiritually dry: God hasn’t abandoned you. The valley is not the end of your story. Hope is not lost.
The God of Ezekiel 37 still brings life to dry bones. He brings hope to a people filled with hopelessness.
Today you, we, all of us have hope. But to have hope requires something on our part. We have to trust in Jehovah God, we have to turn our lives over to Him in baptism if we haven’t already. And as we live our Christian lives and stumble along the way – we must always turn to God for forgiveness, for help and He will restore that Hope to us.
If anyone has any spiritual need that we can help with, just let us know. The baptistry is ready to bury you into Christ if that is your need. We are ready to offer up prayers to the Lord on your behalf to help you get through, overcome or defeat something you may have amiss in your life.
Whatever your need, you have only to ask.
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