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The Bible Breakdown
Ezekiel 37: The Dead Come to Life
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon, Today. Ezekiel, chapter 37, and today's title is the Dead Come to Life. The Dead Come to Life, and this is one of the most famous stories, not just in Ezekiel, but in all of the Bible, and you may or may not have been able to find this in the Bible, but chances are, in some form or fashion. You have probably heard of this or you have seen this in pop culture somewhere, and so we're going to get into this today and really the message behind it is just powerful. Plus, we're going to dispel a couple of we won't call it heresies, but definitely misunderstandings, in just a moment. The first, as always, while you're getting your Bible open and getting your coffee ready and all the different things, make sure you take a moment to go and like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. I'm doing a great work over there. I love to hear what they do with it every single day. They're just getting better and better or, as we say in the deep south, gooder and gooder.
Speaker 1:And I'm telling you something the more we dig, the more we find. Well, don't forget, the overall goal of Ezekiel has been God's promise of renewal. And we've been on a journey, haven't we, for the past several weeks now, of going through Ezekiel, and it hasn't always felt like God's promise of renewal, it's felt like God's promise of destruction, right. But it's all part of the process that we have to sometimes kind of look at what's going on and then repent of what's going on, and then God pulling us up and saying, okay, let's do this. And we're going to see that today, that God is going to be using a wonderful metaphor to talk about what he is able to do in our lives. And before we even get to this, let me kind of dispel a little bit of a kind of a call it what it is. So there are some people out there who have dropped the hint that this might have happened literally, physically, that there was physically a valley full of dry bones and they all got up. Can I tell you if anyone's ever told you that they meant well and all that stuff? But there is absolutely zero evidence that this is anything other than a metaphor. And when you look at the rest of Ezekiel, you see that there's all kinds of metaphors that's going on, where Ezekiel is saying like this is that, and so it's constantly like that. So I hear that from a lot of people. I have a lot of people even had someone recently who said, Pastor, do you think that was literal or metaphorical? And I tell them it most assuredly was metaphorical, because if you've been reading with us throughout this, that's most of what all Ezekiel is talking through is through metaphor, and so I want to look at this as the metaphor that it is, but also celebrate it for what it is. It's just powerful. So if you're ready, here we go.
Speaker 1:Ezekiel 37, verse one, says this the Lord took hold of me and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. Now pause again for a second. Don't let that phrase Spirit of the Lord kind of throw you a little bit. We have people who have asked the question what role did the Holy Spirit play in the Old Testament? And that is the same in the New Testament, except for the fact that the Holy Spirit did not descend and remain. The Holy Spirit would come down upon people from time to time. That's how they would prophesy. The thing is is he would never stay. He'd always then go back to heaven. So the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him. For the sake of giving him this vision, All right, verse 2.
Speaker 1:He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, Son of man, can these bones become living people again? He asked me, Wait, let me say that again, Verse 3. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones become living people again? And then Ezekiel said O sovereign Lord, you alone know the answer to that. Then he said to me speak a prophetic message to these bones and say dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says. Look, I am going to put breath into you and make you live again. I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Speaker 1:So as I spoke this message, just as he told me, suddenly, as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. Just as he to me Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man, Speak a prophetic message and say this is what the sovereign Lord says Come O breath from the four winds, Breathe into these dead bodies that they may live again. So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet, a great army. Then he said to me son of bones, these bones represent the people of Israel. That's where I got, by the way. That this is a metaphor, not literal, is because he says this is a representation of the people of Israel. They are saying we have become old, dry bones and all hope is gone. Our nation is finished. Therefore, prophesy to them this is what the sovereign Lord says oh, my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again, and then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, oh people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my spirit in you and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and that I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken Again. This message came to me from the Lord, Son of man.
Speaker 1:Take a piece of wood and carve it, or carve on it these words this represents Judah and its allied tribes. Take another piece and carve these words on it. This represents Ephraim and the northern tribes of Israel. Now hold them together in your hand as if they were one piece of wood. When your people ask you what these actions mean, say to them this is what the sovereign Lord says I will take Ephraim and the northern cities and join them to Judah, and I will make them one piece of wood in my hand. Then hold out the pieces of wood that you have inscribed so people can see them, and give them this message from the sovereign Lord I will gather my people of Israel from among the nations.
Speaker 1:I will bring them home to their own land from the places where they have been scattered. I will unify them into one nation on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule them all. No longer will they be divided into two nations or into two kingdoms. They will never again pollute themselves with their idols and vile images and rebellion, and for I will save them from their sinful apostasy. I will cleanse them and they will truly be my people and I will be their God. My servant David will be their king and they will have only one shepherd. They will obey my regulations and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren after them will live there forever, generation after generation. My servant David will be their prince forever and I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant, and I will give them their land and increase their numbers, and I will put my temple among them forever. I will make my home among them, I will be their God and they will be my people among them. I will be their God and they will be my people, and when my temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I am the Lord who makes Israel holy. Wow, I mean, come on, Is that not one of the coolest things ever, Despite the fact that I stumbled over the worst because I kept getting.
Speaker 1:I kept getting lost in the metaphor. I mean, imagine Ezekiel goes to this valley of dry bones, metaphorically, and he sees these dry bones and he says they're old and dry. So in my mind it's just a bunch of white, sun-bleached bones. And the Lord says is there any hope? Can these bones live? And Ezekiel's like, oh Lord only you know that's a very nice way of saying uh-uh, you know what I mean. And God's like, okay, let's get to work. And so he lets them come back together again. But then it's just a bunch of skeletons. Well then he puts muscle and flesh on them, but then they're still not alive. And then he says let the wind come back in, symbolizing they don't just look alive, but my spirit will come in and they will be alive for all to see. And then he was saying, just like that, I am going to bring back what was once thought to be dead. My nation, the nation of Israel, that was thought to be dead, is going to come back to life again. And you know there's so many things I love about this, but the number one thing I love about this is that God brings life to any dead thing. Nothing can stay dead when God says it's going to live.
Speaker 1:We see this all throughout the New Testament in the life of Jesus. There's a story in the New Testament where the Bible said that Jesus interrupted a funeral procession. It was a young man who was dead and he's told him to get up. Get up, you can't stay dead. In the presence procession. It was a young man who was dead and he was told to get up. Get up. You can't stay dead in the presence of Jesus. There's a little girl, Jairus' daughter. Get up, you can't stay dead in the presence of Jesus. Lazarus, poor dude, was dead for four days and he couldn't stay there because Jesus said it was time to get back up again.
Speaker 1:And can I tell you, no matter what's going on in your life, it might be dead to you, but if God says it's not over, it's not over and I don't know what that might be for you. And I'm not in any way saying that you know, if you have gone through divorce, God's going to put you back together again. If you're sick, God's going to make you well. He absolutely can. We trust that whatever God decrees is the right thing. But what I'm saying is be so very careful. You don't have a funeral if God's not done. That's why we always be careful to say in the New Testament says, always say if it be the Lord's will, we'll do A, B or C. If it's God's will, we will do X, Y or Z, Because in the end, God's in control. So it doesn't matter what's happened to your relationship. If God says it's not done, it's not done, but we trust in him.
Speaker 1:Therefore, our prayer is this God, I trust you, I don't care how dead something looks, I trust you. Whatever it is that you want to do, you're going to do, and so, therefore, we know that if God's not finished, then it's not dead, and so we trust him. I don't know what that may mean for you today, but you need to trust him. Today, our prayer is going to be God, I am going to give you authority to call life where it needs to be, to let something stay gone. If it needs to be gone, no matter what it is, it's only that way. If you call it that way. Otherwise, if you call it to live, it's going to live. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for all you're doing in our life.
Speaker 1:And, Lord, this is a hard one, because there's a part of us that when we see this, when we read this, we hear whatever I want, God must want, and so, whatever I don't want to be dead, then God can't let it die. That's not true. You want something more for us than just what we want. But that gives us hope to know, no matter what is dead in our life, no matter what seems done, what seems over, it's not over if you don't want it to be over. Therefore, it fills us with trust to know that whatever you want to happen is going to happen. So we trust you. We trust you that whatever season you've taken us on from, it is only over because you called it over and that, Lord, whatever we're in the middle of right now, it will only be over when you say it's over.
Speaker 1:And we trust you with that. We trust you that we don't live by what we see. We live by what we believe and what we trust and what we know to be true, and that's you. We celebrate all you are doing. In Jesus' name. We pray Amen, Amen, what God's Word says in Ezekiel 34, verse 14,. It says I will put my spirit in you and you will live again. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Ezekiel, chapter 38.
