Hope Born into Hopelessness

Ezekiel 37:1-14

¹The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ² And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” ⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on 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 on their feet, an exceedingly great army. ¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

This week we march with Christ into Jerusalem. He steadfastly set His feet in the direction of Jerusalem knowing full well this would be His last journey into the city. He didn’t go to Jerusalem wondering what would happen to Him or guessing at the events that would lead to His death. None of the tragic events of the His Passion would come as a surprise. But He faithfully goes anyway, because we were in need of His Saving Sacrifice. This is the beginning of the end and He embraces His work.

The social/political atmosphere that God chooses for The Crucifixion is interesting. Jesus arrived in Bethlehem as an infant after what is now known as “the 400 years of silence.” God has not spoken through a prophet since the time of Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets. Judaism has become almost cultic in practice and is fraught with a punishing hierarchy and set of regulations that is designed to intimidate. The people were confused and the ruling class was arrogant. God’s people are enslaved by the Romans and one can only assume that hopelessness ruled the day. Into this situation arrives Jesus with His power over the demons, sickness, nature, and even death. He begins to shine hope into a dark world.

The prophet Ezekiel had a vision during his time of ministry that is now famous. God shows him a field of dead and decayed human bodies. All that remains are the sun-dried bones of once vital people. In this vision, Ezekiel is instructed to speak flesh and skin back onto those bones. The passage transports the reader into the vision and one can almost hear the sound of those bones coming together in a mighty cacophony of rattling reassembly. That was only step one. Ezekiel acknowledges that without the breath of life, these bones are still dead. But God tells him to prophesy breath coming back into those bodies and life is born in them again.

 

This is a picture of Israel at the time that Jesus comes to the earth. He brings life back into a people who have become like those dead bones – lifeless and without hope. Jesus is the hope of the world and remains so today. In our sin, we are just like those dead bones. We are hopeless and destined for decay. But the blood of Jesus bring life to that which was dead. Paul speaks to this idea in Romans.

Romans 4:16–17

¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, ¹⁷ as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Deuteronomy 32:39

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Even as far back as Moses God’s people understood that He had the power of life in His hands. Jesus is that life and we are the recipients of His hope. As Jesus returns to Jerusalem, He brings with Him the fulfillment of God’s promise to Adam and Eve to send a Savior. God brings hope into the world and we embrace it with joy.