Ezekiel saw Dried-Up Bones comes to Life (Ezekiel 3:1-6)

“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 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’”
(Ezekiel 37:1, 3-6, NIV).

This is one of the creepiest stories in the Bible (according to my imagination when I read it). The prophet Ezekiel found himself in a valley of dry bones. It was a vision, of course, but the effect is still chilling. It’s a picture of just how far gone the people of Israel were. They weren’t spiritually slow or sick or sleepy – they were spiritually dead! Without God, it’s true of all of us.

But the dead can live.

Ezekiel preached to the bones and there “was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.” Then he “looked, and tendons and flesh appeared to them and skin covered them, but there was not breath in them.” So God asked him to preach again. Then breath entered them “they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army” (37:7-10). They were once only dried-up bones but now they became living beings.

The dead can live.

It happens all the time. Someone speaks the Truth, and a spirit as dead as a pile of dried-up bones comes to life. Life out of death. Beauty out of ashes. Abundance out of emptiness. That’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ! And it has the power to transform every aspect of our lives. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

God the Good Shepherd (Bad News for Corrupt Religious Leaders) Ezekiel 34:11-16

“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather then from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land… I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice”

(Ezekiel 34:11-13, 15-16, NIV).

It’s always hurtful when religious leaders let us down. It happens all the time – it’s nothing new. The Bible is full of religious leaders who didn’t take care of their flocks (the people), from Eli and his sons to the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Above, the prophet Ezekiel offered up a special message to religious pretenders – and to the people who have been hurt by them.

Israel’s shepherd had failed them. The priests had not only didn’t kept them from troubles, they had spurred them toward it. Some corrupted their worship with idolatry. Others served only for money, and looked for opportunities to cheat the people.

Only in the text quoted above, God already said “I will” ten times. There are more. God promised to destroy “the fat and the strong” (34:16, NKJV) – to feed them with justice. But the other side of that promise was a promise to the sheep who had been left to fend for themselves. God promised to be the Good Shepherd: He would seek out those who had been scattered for want of a shepherd’s care.

Ultimately, God is our Shepherd, not our human leaders. Our hope is that our leaders will serve us well, but whether they do or they don’t, God is our Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. Remember what the Lord Jesus said when He declared: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:11, 14-15). He is indeed the Good Shepherd. Amen!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Ezekiel on Prophets Who Give False Prophesies, Visions and Divinations (Ezekiel 13:1-6, 10-12)

“The word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins… Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled… They lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash… When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, ‘Where is the whitewash you covered it with?’”
(Ezekiel 13:1-6, 10-12, NIV).

From his vantage point in Babylon, the prophet Ezekiel could see that everything was decidedly not all right.  Back in Judah, there were so-called prophets who kept telling the people everything was going to be okay. They said things were going to get better, there would be peace instead of war (If today, it would sound like this: “I declare prosperity and health are coming your way…”).

Ezekiel knew better; the Lord told him greater judgment was coming. The false prophets’ message didn’t match with what the Lord had already said, that the people would be punished for their (conscious) rebellion against Him. The people hadn’t repented, so why should things change?

It’s easy to say, “Thus says the Lord…” It’s even easy to convince yourself that something is truth when you’ve just wished it or made it up. Ezekiel marveled at the prophets who prophesied out of their own spirit and imagination, and then expected their words to be fulfilled. As yesterday, even today, there are false prophets who want to “lead [God’s] people astray.” Be careful what you hear and read today. In the end, the Word of God is the only reliable basis for what is true and what is not. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Ezekiel prophesies that God will Give New Hearts for Old (Ezekiel 11:16-20)

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the counties where they have gone… I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God”
(Ezekiel 11:16-20, NIV).

The people of Israel had a long history of rejecting the Lord. God sent judges and prophets to warn them and foreign kings to punish them. And they reformed… for a while. When the threat was gone, Israel always fell back into their old patterns of sin.

Now in exile, the people finally understood what they had done. But could they ever get back again? Could they reform themselves enough that God would have them again?

The answer, of course, was no. Sinful people cannot improve or clean themselves up well enough to be received by God. But as God revealed thru the prophet Ezekiel, it doesn’t start with us. Even when His people were under punishment, God was “a sanctuary for them.” He will gathered up the scattered and brought them home again. Most important, He will changed them from the inside. He will gave them undivided hearts of flesh to replace their cold, dead hearts of stone. God, do this to us.

We can’t reform ourselves either. We don’t have to. God gives us new hearts in Christ, calls us His children, and brings us home. God, do this to me. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Ezekiel saw Visions of God during the Exiles (Ezekiel 1:1-4)

“In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month of the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month – it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin – the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was on him. I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north – an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light”
(Ezekiel 1:1-4, NIV).

The prophet Ezekiel was among the first of the exiles, carried off to Babylon more than ten years before the final siege and fall of Jerusalem. He had been taken away with the King Jehoiachin, the royal family, and the leading men of the land. They were alive and maintained some status. But they were captives in a foreign land (*thank you Bible handbook).

I imagined, what a joy and relief it must have been to Ezekiel to see visions from God. As a priest, he would have been spiritually sensitive to the reasons the Jews had been exiled. He would have understood that their punishment was a direct result of God’s anger (after many warnings) with them. As far as Ezekiel knew, God might never talk to them again. But then came God’s visions to him. God appeared in awesome power, with a windstorm, a flashing lightning and brilliant light.

We all go through spiritual valleys and dark places, sometimes because of our sins, sometimes for reasons we do not understand. Sometimes because we walk away from God. But He is there, even when we don’t see Him. And every now and then – by God’s grace – He gives us a little glimpse of Himself. At that time, listen to Him.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.