Can these bones live?

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SUNDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2021

EZEKIEL 37 VERSES 1 - 14

We have been following through thinking about the situation in Babylon with the captives from Israel.  They were carried away because of their disobedience and rejection of God.  God allowed the king of Babylon to carry them away into captivity for 70 years.  They were now about to return to their own land.  Think of the situation in Babylon and the revival God was about to send to his people.  God has done an amazing thing in oUr lives today.  Maybe there is a coldness in your heart today.  Your heart is in a back slidden state.  God wants to bring you into a place with himself again.  Ezekiel 37 shows us what God will do with the nation of Israel.  Like the bones scattered in this valley, he will one day bring them together and set them on their feet.  We thought of Jeremiah who wrote to the people in Babylon, assuring them of God's presence, power and plan.  Then Daniel comes on the scene and realised the 70 years were almost up so begins to seek the face of God.  Cyrus was the man God raised up to make it possible for the captives to return to Jerusalem.  Ezekiel now shows the people what they will become.  Ezekiel was a young man, a priest, a man of about 30 years of age, married.  God would start to use him mightily.  This man first got an overwhelming vision.  Ezekiel was shown this vision when the captives were living by Kebar.  He was given this vision, lifted and taken out, set down in the midst of a valley full of bones.  The valley represented Israel.  God was showing his own people that he still loved them, his heart and his passion was for this nation.  He saw them now as downtrodden, defeated.  Their hopelessness broke his heart but Ezekiel was to see what could arise from the dust in which these bones lay upon.  The Lord's hand was upon Ezekiel.  He was led to this place by the Spirit of God.  Is God showing us something?  Is he revealing something to us over the past number of weeks?  As we look at this situation maybe we see the hopelessness of our lives, the barreness and the helplessness of our lives.  As we come into this world we come in as sinners, have taken on the nature of Adam when he fell in the Garden of Eden.  It is a nature that will take us out into a lost and helpless eternity in hell.  We will be condemned for turning our back on God and his precious word.  As Jesus hung on the cross he was giving his life a ransom for you.  Maybe you realise you  don't have that hope in you because you know not the Saviour for yourself.  Here was  a man God was speaking to.  This was a man of God, raised up to stand in the gap.  His very name means 'God strengthens'.  If God is showing you something he wants you to do he will strengthen you for the purpose.  Sometimes we think we are doing OK.  Ezekiel was living among the captives, trying to help where possible.  One day God lifts and takes hm to this barren place.  All he could see was bones lying in the valley.  I am sure Ezekiel thought 'what am I doing here, what am I supposed to be doing?'.  Maybe he felt useless, that there was nothing he could do about this barrennes.  Perhaps that is the same for you - as you look into the family circle there are people you have prayed for day after day but you don't see any difference.  God does answer prayer. Maybe God is using you in a ministry that feels barren and like a wilderness, doing it for a number of years but there is nothing to show for it.  You are asking yourself 'what am I doing here?'.  God knows why you are here and in that situation.  He knows what you need.  He knows and he will reveal it to you.  Don't give up on God today, don't turn your back on the promises of God.  Paul when he came to Corinth, he was working in the secular sense and preaching the gospel on the Sabbath.  In Acts 18 verse 6 we read "I have preached to you but you would not listen to me.  I am now walking away from you and will preach to the Gentiles."  Just as he feels there is no hope he received the vision in the night.  God stepped into his life "fear not for I am with thee."  The Lord is with you in whatever situation you find yourself in.  An overwhelming vision.  Maybe you are overwhelmed, there is a great need all around you and it seems there is nothing you can do about it.

An obscure question - verse 3 "can these bones live?"  In verse 2 we see these are very dry bones.  These bones had been lying in this valley for a long time, in the scorching, bleaching sun for a considerable time.  It was a test for Ezekiel's faith.  Maybe you are thinking of someone who you have prayed for for some time and are asking "will they ever be saved?"  Maybe you are feeling they are too far gone.  The bones are too dry.  Listening to the gospel day in and day out.  Perhaps you feel that your life is now dry and barren, that there is no hope for you.  Jesus died for you.  He was unwilling that any should perish but that all should come to repentence.  Even as you sit where you are if you acknowledge sin, acknowledge that you have come short of the glory of God, plead with God to come into your life.  He is waiting for you to turn to him.  The credentials of this man God now tests in his faith.  He doesn't test us in a backslidden state.  It is when a man or woman is standing strong for the Lord that he comes and tests us even more.  Can you ever see these bones standing up right in this valley?  Ezekiel if he was honest would have said 'no'.  Sometimes God has to give us a little jolt as the people of God.  Remember the disciples in the boat one day.  Jesus said to them "lets go to the other side."  The disciples got into the boat with the Lord.  TheLord leaves them to go down into the lower part of the boat and falls asleep.  The winds and the waves started to rise up until water filled the boat.  They tried everything they could but eventually they went to the Lord and asked him "do you not care that we perish?"  When in a storm it is good to know the Lord is there with us.  We are told to "cast our cares on the Lord for he careth for us."  The Lord rose to his feet, spoke to the wind and the waves and everything became calm.  He turned to the disciples and asked them "where is your faith?"  As we come to the car park and see the devastation around us, the backslidden state of the church, the coldness of the church, the lukewarmness of the church, the Lord asks us "where is your faith?"  Will you open your heart to him today?  Return to him.  Remember the feeding of the five thousand.  The disciples told him to send the people away.  Jesus told the disciples to give the people bread but Philip told him they couldn't afford to feed the people, it would cost too much. Ezekiel could see only dry bones.  He was asked "can these bones live?"  Ezekiel relied "only thou knowest."   Can we really believe what God can do today?  The church at Ephesus was going through the motions at their worship and praise services.  They were a good congregation, probably had a good bank balance and some of the best preachers but the Lord told them "you have left your first love".  The Laodicean church stood in need of nothing but Jesus was standing at the door knocking to come in.   

An outstanding response.  Ezekiel begins to hear the noise, the rattle of the bones coming together.  Ezekiel had to go through many things before he could see the vision come to pass.  He was told in verse 4 to prophesy unto these bones.  God wants us to come to him afresh today, to place our faith and trust in him, to see the impossible happen but will we?