3/9/08 - Lent 5 - Ezekiel 37:1-14

DRY BONES RESTORED
- We worry about our physical restoration
- The Lord cares about our spiritual restoration

It was starting to sink in. The initial shock had worn off and the Israelites began to realize that it wasn’t going to change. They began to understand that they were not going to wake up from this nightmare they had been living. Only a short time ago they had been enjoying a nice life as citizens in the Promised Land, and now they were transported foreigners in a strange country among a strange people. Because Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian armies had invaded the land of Israel, placed the city of Jerusalem under siege, captured the city of Jerusalem, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, burned the great and glorious temple of the Lord to the ground, plundered everything they could get their hands on, and exiled the people of Israel to Babylon. And it was finally starting to sink in. God’s people began to accept the fact that this was now the place where they were going to live. They were never going back.
This is the situation the Israelites were in as we come across Ezekiel 37, in which we hear their mournful lament: “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” The Israelites had certainly been cut off. They had been cut off from their homes, cut off from their families, and cut off from their lives. Their hope certainly was gone. There was no hope of returning. There was no way to get back and their conquerors would not let them. Their bones certainly were dry. They were as dry as the bones of ancient skeletons - brittle and completely void of life. They would never get back the life they had once enjoyed. The Israelites lament is understandable.
But I still have a hard time putting myself in their place. I can’t even imagine a foreign power invading our land, completely wiping out every major city, burning to the ground the only church building I ever knew, killing my countrymen, destroying everything I ever had, and then shipping me along with almost every person in this country to a land I didn’t know among a people I couldn’t understand. I’m sure it was devastating. And disheartening. I probably would have said the same thing that the Israelites said. I would feel cut off. I would probably lose hope. I would probably describe my future as bright as pile of dried up bones - as good as dead with no chance of returning to the life I once enjoyed.
The Israelites had a difficult reality to deal with. But that wasn’t even their main problem. Their main problem wasn’t that they would never get back home. Their main problem wasn’t that they had been cut off from their country or their countrymen or their livelihoods. Their main problem was that they had cut themselves off from the Lord. That’s why they were in exile in the first place! That’s why the Lord had allowed the Babylonians to invade the country and devastate his own people! Because they had sinned! Because they had fallen away from the Lord and had refused to listen to his Word! That was their problem! That is what they should have been concerned about. But they still didn’t see it. They were so worried about their physical restoration that their spiritual restoration didn’t even cross their minds.
I see that in my own life. And I see it in yours. Sometimes we are so concerned about what we want and need in this life that our spiritual wellbeing is almost an afterthought, isn’t it? Look at the things you work for: cars, bills, vacations, trips, grandchildren, all sorts of things… And there’s nothing wrong with buying things or enjoying the blessings the Lord has allowed you to acquire, but when they become the reason you work and live, and the motivation and the top priority, where does that leave the Lord and his work? We are so concerned about the physical that we forget about the spiritual. Look at your own prayer life. What kind of requests occupy your prayers? How many times do you pray for spiritual restoration: faith, strength, guidance; and then compare those requests to how many times you pray for this earthly blessing… that earthly blessing… I want this please… I need this please… I want you to do this please… And again, it’s not bad to pray for those things, but when they become the priority, when they begin to outweigh the prayers for your spiritual life, what does that say about where your real concern lies?
What runs through your mind when you wake up in the morning? What you have to do, where you have to be, the people you have to see, you schedule… And then what runs through your might as you lay your head down on your pillow at night? What you got done, what you didn’t get done, what has to be done tomorrow. The earthly tasks and wants in this life occupy our thoughts to such an extent that our spiritual needs take a distant second place!
And I think we look past our spiritual concerns at times because we don’t realize the seriousness of the situation! The Israelites didn’t. They didn’t quite understand that their real problem did not have to do with the exile from their homeland, but with the exile of their hearts from the Lord. Their bones were certainly dry, but it wasn’t because their hope for home was gone, it was because their hope in the Lord was gone. And we have to be aware of that as well. Now I’m not saying that any of us have completely lost hope in the Lord, but we have to be continually conscious of that pitfall. Because the battle for our faith never ends. While we’re sleeping, Satan is at work. While we’re taking time off from our spiritual lives, the corrupt world is in full swing. While we look past the needs of our faith to concentrate on the wants of our body for a time, our sinful nature is doing everything it can to trip us up. We cannot slack off. We cannot get caught up in the problems and the pains and the needs of this life while forgetting about the needs that pertain to the life to come. Because when we do, where are our hearts? What are we really concerned with? What do we really care about? What do we really consider important? How painful it is to our Lord when he sees his children so worried about the minuscule details of the few years on this earth, when the monumental matters of eternity aren’t even on the agenda!
This lack of spiritual concern was exactly what the prophet Ezekiel had to constantly deal with as he lived among the people of Israel. And, of course, the Lord then had to deal with it as well. And in chapter 37 of this prophet’s book, the Lord deals with his people’s spiritual deficiencies in a unique and very gracious way. In response to their dirge of “our bones are dried up,” he sends Ezekiel a vision of dry bones. And as Ezekiel prophesies the words the Lord told him to say, God raises this army of dry bones to life, clothes them with flesh, and breathes into them the breath of life. And the reason the Lord gave this tremendous vision to Ezekiel is because he wanted to show his people his love. “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel… I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” The Lord didn’t condemn them. The Lord didn’t turn his back on them and leave them wallowing in self-pity and spiritual ignorance. Rather he came to their aid. And he fixed what happened to be the real problem. “I will put my Spirit in you,” he promised. He would bring them back to his side. He would once again fill them with love and faith and hope for his name through the Word of God. His plan was not to instantly restore them physically, but his plan was to bring them back to their spiritual fatherland. To restore their souls. To forgive them. And, in fact, he already had. He had forgiven them before they ever fell. He had forgiven them before they repented. He had forgiven them when they didn’t even know there was anything to forgive! That’s the way the Lord’s love works. And that’s the way the Lord’s love works for you.
He forgave you long before you ever sinned! He forgave you for putting your spiritual life on hold well before you ever did it. He even forgave you for those sins you have yet to commit. The Lord loves you and forgives you without your asking, without your cooperation, and usually without you even knowing about it. He takes care of the real problem without you. He makes a conscious effort to bring you back to him through his Word, to correct you through his Word, to comfort you through his Word, and to give you that sure hope in your salvation through his Word. The Lord is always concerned about your spiritual restoration. It is always at the top of his agenda. And he will never let it go unresolved.
The Israelites were given that same hope. They would be spiritually restored. Their bones would no longer be dry. But on top of that wonderful blessing, the Lord promised to physically restore them as well. “I will settle you in your own land.” And he did! He led the majority of the people back to the Promised Land after 70 years. He allowed them to repair the city of Jerusalem. He blessed their efforts at rebuilding the temple of the Lord. He restored those next generations to their land and families and lives once again. He gave the life back to those dry bones that they had once lost. When he didn’t really have to. He didn’t have to bless them with those physical gifts, just like he doesn’t have to bless us with ours. He has given us forgiveness, life, and salvation for eternity. What more does he need to give us! And yet he does! He blesses us with hundreds of thousands of different gifts. He listens to our requests, he grants us what we really don’t need, and he continually supplies us with an abundance of wealth in many different facets of life. The graciousness and the patience of our Lord - that he would continually reassure our straying hearts with all those blessings that we really don’t need!
But he doesn’t want you to get too caught up in those “extras.” He wants you to remember that he has spiritually restored your dry bones with forgiveness, and he will continue to restore you in that way as long as you live on this earth. That is what matters to the Lord. That is the Lord’s main concern. And so it is ours. And we will close today with a prayer to the Lord from Psalm 51, asking him to continue to restore our souls with his never ending love and precious salvation. We pray. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Ps. 51:10-12).
Amen.

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Thess. 5:23