God's Promise through Ezekiel

Ezekiel 37 The Message (TM)

 1-2 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.

 3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

    I said, "Master God, only you know that."

 4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"

 5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"

 7-8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.

 9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'"

 10 So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.

 11 Then God said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.'

 12-14 "Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I am God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. God's Decree.'"

Bible study with a group is one of my favorite things to do. Coming out of study methods learned and enjoyed in EfM, it’s more critical than devotional, where “critical” does not mean throwing stones, but digging-into. For example, the second thing anyone in my study group would notice in the above passage is its colloquialism, that there’s no way to read it piously. Everyone in the group would already know the story and uneasily sense its disconnect with what they already knew; some would scowl and open their King James Bible or New Revised Standard Version (which is in the King James tradition) before smiling contentedly.

The first thing folks would have noticed, though, is that the deity is called “God” in the story. Sensing something odd, smelling a dead raccoon in the attic, they would ask me what the original says, the Hebrew. No Hebrew scholar, I would have to look it up. Which is why I try always to have an on-line laptop on the table in our conference room. Here’s the first verse:

הָיְתָה עָלַי, יַד-יְהוָה, וַיּוֹצִאֵנִי בְרוּחַ יְהוָה, וַיְנִיחֵנִי בְּתוֹךְ הַבִּקְעָה; וְהִיא, מְלֵאָה עֲצָמוֹת.

So, in the original, the deity is called יְהוָה which is not properly read or translated “God” but YHWH or Yahweh or most often The Lord and in translating aloud (because the Name is too sacred to speak) Adonai. The group would wander off discussing the lack of precision and accuracy in TM version in this case, and conclude that care should be exercised in using it in critical Bible study.

The story itself is the thing, though, isn’t it, what’s going on in the story? Well, most everyone in the study group would know well the story of Ezekiel, that he wrote his prophecy on the banks of the River Chebar during the Babylonian Exile. The people of Israel had been evil and unfaithful, and a brokenhearted God had punished them by calling in the armies of Babylon to crush them, destroy everything, and carry their leaders off into exile. But poor Yahweh, he’s such a Lamb, after a while he begins to feel sorry for them, and promises to start over with them and restore them in their holy land. The story of Ezekiel and the Dry Bones is God’s metaphor with Ezekiel, in which God says that He is able to rebuild His people Israel from practically nothing, and will do so. And that’s what happens in Israel’s Heilsgeschichte with YHWH.

   

From a devotional point of view, the story tells us that God is able to work wonders with us no matter how bad things may be at the moment. If we are dying, there is promise of salvation into eternal life with those we love who have gone before. If we are grieving, we must live through our sadness and pain into a time when God will surely bring something wonderful out of it for us, a blessing, new life in some way. It will not be the same as the old life, but we know in faith that it will be good, because God is faithful.   

Eventually someone in the study group would insist we read it all over again, this time from the “real Bible.”     

Ezekiel 37:1-14 King James Version (KJV)

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, 2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

And then, claiming God’s promise through Ezekiel, we pray and name those who are in our hearts and minds. From me, you know who you are this morning. 

In the Name of the Father, and of + the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

TW+