Ezekiel - Lesson 39

Lesson 39 Can These Bones Live? The Resurrection of Yahweh's People Ezekiel 37 1-14 I begin again with a few comments about Ezekiel, the prophet of the Spirit. The text we are studying in this session illustrates better than any text in the book what I have said about Ezekiel many times. This exiled prophet was the prophet of the Spirit. Not only do we find more references to the Spirit of God in this book than in any of the other prophets, or any book in the first testament for that matter. But we also find the word ruach scattered throughout the prophet's judgment speeches in chapters 1-24 and the restoration oracles in chapters 33-48. Therefore we may say with tongue in cheek that he was the most spiritual prophet of the first testament.2-5 Earlier I have noted in passing that theologians and New Testament scholars tend to expand the gulf between the two testaments by homogenizing the work of the Spirit in each, and in so doing, draw sharp contrasts between the operations of the Spirit in the two parts of scripture. A common view is that whereas in the first testament the Holy Spirit came upon people, in the New Testament he indwelt them. However, if we read the book of Ezekiel carefully, we will see that these generalizations do not hold. The operations and functions of the Spirit of Yahweh are as varied in the first testament as they are in the New. In Ezekiel 37, 1-14 alone, this prophet uses the word ruach in four different senses. Ruach is the wind of Yahweh, usually translated Spirit of Yahweh, but it is the wind of Yahweh that picked him up like a tornado and wafted him away to a valley filled with dry bones. Was this a spiritual journey, or did this involve a wind that Yahweh employed to transport him? While we had witnessed this phenomenon several times in the early chapters of the book, 3-12, 3-14, 8-1, 8-3, 11-1, 11-24, elsewhere Ezekiel used ruach in its mundane sense as the east wind, ruach ha-kadim, 2-26 in 1710, and he spoke about a stormy wind in 1-4 and 13-11-13. Ruach means wind. Here it's the wind of Yahweh. Second, ruach functions as animating breath. In verses 5-8, Yahweh announced to the dry bones, I will cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life. Verse 9 is even more emphatic. Yahweh said, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, human, declare to the breath. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, O breath, blow, from naphah here to breathe, into these corpses so they may come to life. Third, the word ruach functions as the four compass points, that is, four directions. Come from the four winds, verse 9. This compares with 10-12, where Ezekiel scattered his hair to every wind. That means in every direction. Indeed, in 42-16, the prophet used the word for the four sides of the sanctuary, four sides. And fourth, thus ruach functions as Yahweh's own animating spirit, with capital S. In 36-14, Yahweh said, I will put my spirit within you, and you will live, and I will place you in your own land. The first-person pronominal suffix on my spirit, ruach, confirms that Yahweh wasn't talking about ordinary breath, or even the breath that comes from the four winds, but of the Holy Spirit, the Divine Spirit, which we normally render with uppercase first letters. This was not the first time Ezekiel had spoken about the animating force of the divine ruach, that is, the spirit, whether it's lowercase or uppercase, who brings otherwise inanimate objects to life. Recall the creatures that supported the throne chariot and the wheels of the throne chariot. According to 10-17, the spirit of life was in them, the wheels, animating and energizing them so they could move up and down and in any direction effortlessly. In 2-1-2 and 3-23-24, we witness the animating and energizing work of the spirit of Yahweh. In Ezekiel himself, the spirit entered him and set him up on his feet. Well, the animating power of the spirit that we saw in the wheels and in the creatures dominates 36-1-14. But our text also builds on 36-27-28, where ruach refers on the one hand to the mind, seat of emotions and thought, and source of speech and actions, but on the other hand to Yahweh's spirit that he puts inside persons and that animates and energizes them to walk in his ways. While in chapter 36 Yahweh had mentioned the involvement of his mouth, the animating work of the spirit, breath of God, may solve the riddle of Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 3, whatever comes out of the mouth of Yahweh. People do not live by bread alone, but by live whatever comes out of the mouth of Yahweh. Our translations often interpret that as whatever commands come out of the mouth. You live by the commands. No, no, no, it doesn't say that. There is no subject here. It's whatever comes out of the mouth of Yahweh, and I think it's actually the breath. It's the life-giving breath of God. In fact, in Ezekiel, in chapter 16, Ezekiel had seen this poor foundling, and he had said, in your blood live. Well, often the words that come out of Yahweh's mouth are the breath that comes out, and it could in fact mean here live, be energized, and animated by this breath. As we see in Genesis 2-7, it is the life-giving breath that animates. However, the Scriptures offer significant evidence that sometimes that breath is virtually equated with Yahweh's speech, breath, and words. We notice this when we place an excerpt from Yahweh's comments on the renewed covenant or new covenant in Jeremiah 31-33 next to Ezekiel 36-27-28. In Jeremiah 31-33, we read, I will have put my Torah within them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Ezekiel 36-27-28, and my spirit I will put within you, and you shall be my God, and I will be your people. So, Torah, spirit. There is a sort of equation here. Indeed, according to the covenant rituals underlying the book of Deuteronomy, Moses' proclamation of the Torah played a vital role in the new generation becoming the people of Yahweh in 27-9-10. He will announce, Today you have become the people of Yahweh. While the variations in Ezekiel's usage of ruach, spirit, wind, breath, could engage us for hours, our concern in 37-14 is the role of the spirit in renewal and revival. We are indeed Trinitarian in our theology. God is three in one, and each of the three persons of the Trinity is equally divine. But our theology often blinds us to what is actually happening in the texts of Scripture. My charge in this session is not to provide a complete analysis of the biblical teaching of the Holy Spirit, but to focus more narrowly on the work of the Spirit of God in Ezekiel 37-14. So, let's enter the text. The historical and theological context of Ezekiel 37, it's important for us to reflect on this. The prophet Ezekiel ministered to a people whose world had come crashing down and whose confidence in Yahweh had been completely shattered. What originally got me interested in this book was the realization that Ezekiel was the only biblical prophet who lived outside the land of Israel and whose entire ministry was set in a foreign context. He was in Babylon. According to the preamble of the book, his call to ministry occurred in July 31, 593, five years after he and along with 10,000 people from Jerusalem's upper classes, including King Jehoiakim and his family, they had come. They had been removed from Jerusalem and deported to Babylon, far removed from the temple and the sacrifices. On this date, he was called to priestly ministry among his fellow exiles. But Ezekiel's charge was difficult, for he lived among a people who had been deported because of persistent rebellion against Yahweh, a problem the book shows no evidence of having been resolved in his lifetime. His people were not only thoroughly paganized in their own outlook on life, they were also cynical and angry with Yahweh for having failed them at a critical moment. They had relied on this doctrine of Israel's eternal security that rested on God's four covenantal pillars. He had entered into an eternal covenant with them. He had given the land of Israel to them eternally. He had chosen Jerusalem as his eternal residence, and he had set David on the throne with an eternal titlement to the throne. Now in the first half of the book, Ezekiel's agenda had been to demolish these pillars of their false security and to declare that apart from fidelity to the covenant that Yahweh had established with them and their acceptance of the mission to which he had called them, there was no security, no claim to his favor, no claim to the land, no claim to his presence among them or of a Davidic ruler on the throne. After Ezekiel heard that Jerusalem had fallen, 33-21, the tone of his message changed. In fulfillment of Yahweh's own promises in Leviticus 40-45, in Deuteronomy 4, 28-31, and 31-10, and the anthem of Israel in chapter 32, 34-43, the judgment would not be the last word. The promises of God were indeed eternal. He would renew his covenant with Israel, bring them back to the land promised to the ancestors, return to the people, and install a descendant of David over them to govern them in righteousness and truth. Our text, 37-14, occurs within the context of these restoration oracles, offering the prophet and his people concrete and dramatic proof that Yahweh would resurrect his people, who at the moment seemed moribund in exile. With reference to structure and style of Ezekiel 37-14, we could say the boundaries of this literary unit are clearly marked. The concluding recognition formula in 36-38, then they will know that I am Yahweh, followed by the initializing construction, the hand of Yahweh was on me in 37-1, sigla transition, the beginning of a new oracle. The unit concludes in verse 14 with a recognition formula, a divine declaration of Yahweh's commitment to his word, and the signatory formula, the declaration of Yahweh. However, this does not mean the text between these frames flows seamlessly, as the syntactical discourse linguistic diagram shows. On the contrary, and he said to me in verse 11 introduces a new speech whose content seems to contradict verses 1-10. An image of innumerable, very dry bones, obviously the remains of an unburied host of corpses, had dominated verses 1-10, which links directly to the people's response in verse 11.Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are extinguished. It's over. But surprisingly, after verse 11, Yahweh responded with images of proper burials and graves, and he spoke of the resurrection of those whose remains had been out of sight in their graves for a long time. The shift in prophetic genre from a private visionary experience involving only Yahweh and his prophet, verses 1-10, to a typical disputation speech in which Yahweh responds to a statement reflecting the popular disposition circulating among the exiles in the second half of verse 11 reinforces the distinction, the tension. To the people's thesis, apparently, Yahweh responded with a counter-thesis answering and intending to turn despair into hope. Whoever put this written version of this text together has reversed the logical order. The text begins with a refutation of the thesis in a visionary form, verses 1-10, and only after that do we learn what the prophet was actually refuting, verses 11-14. By prefacing the oracle with the vision, it looks like Yahweh gave the prophet the answer to the disputation in advance. However, Yahweh's reference to putting his Spirit in you in Israel and predicting their coming to life ties in with the theme question, can these bones live, in verse 3. And a refrainer heard five times Yahweh's declaration, I will put my Spirit, Ruach, in you, verse 14. Well, five times, 5b, 6d, 9h, and 10d, can these bones live. Yahweh's declaration, I will put my Spirit in you, verse 14, obviously recalls his earlier statement in 36-27.But it also links this statement with verse 6 above. However, as long as the text was talking about bones and sinews and flesh and skin, I have translated Ruach as breath. Indeed, the lexim Ruach is probably the key to the entire text. Some interpreters and translators argue that within a given context, repeated words must be translated consistently so that English hearers grasp the lexemic coherence. However, Ezekiel was a master of using words with more than one sense in his oracles, and his shifts in meaning are often the keys to his rhetorical intent. This text provides a supreme example of this strategy. Well, I propose to examine this text by asking two questions. What do these bones mean? And two, what do these bones need? Thereafter, we shall reflect on their significance for us. What do these bones mean? The text obviously deals with a subject of death and afterlife. Here Ezekiel offered us one of the most fascinating texts in all of Scripture on the subject. One day the prophet suddenly felt the power of God seize him again. In visionary form, he was transported by the Spirit of God far away to a valley full of bones, human bones, white bones, dry bones, very dry bones. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but bones. But what did these bones mean? Have you any idea? Well, the account of the vision in verses 1 to 10 does not declare the significance explicitly, but it offers a few important clues. First, the last sentence in verse 1 declares that an entire valley was full of bones. This is reiterated in verse 2. And look, they were exceedingly many. Now, the significance of this will not become apparent until verse 10. But for the moment, we may say that some catastrophe of immeasurable proportion has occurred. These bones are the remains of bodies that have been left out in the open, exposed to scavenging buzzards and jackals, which had devoured their flesh and left the bones scattered about. Third, the bones were very, very dry. This means that the people whose remains they represented had been dead for a long, long time. Fourth, they were the bones of victims of some huge slaughter. Verse 9 refers to them as the slain. So they didn't die of disease. But who or what was slain? Are they actually human bones? For all we know, they could have been the bones of cattle or sheep at some grand sacrificial site, or horses slaughtered in battle, or wild animals hunted down for their meat, as used to happen with buffalo on the Canadian prairies. For those who have watched The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies, even this last phrase could represent animals in military combat. By the time the first and longest phase of this article ends, though, we will be scratching our heads concerning its meaning. And if Ezekiel recounted this vision to his exiled compatriots independently, they too could have speculated about the significance, if he gave this part to them first. But what Ezekiel painted was a picture of death in all its horror, intensity, and finality. Whoever these bones represented, they had been dead for a long time. Obviously, this was no Arlington National Cemetery in Washington or Flanders Fields in Belgium, where human rows are properly interred, with the crosses all in perfect rows, as is remembered in the poem. In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row, that mark our place. And in the sky, the larks, still bravely singing, fly, scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead, short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders Fields, kick up our quarrel with the foe. To you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields. Well, the visionary scene Ezekiel described was nothing like this. No heroes are remembered here. On the contrary, the scene is as hopeless and depressing as it can be. Yahweh had cast the answer to the people's despair in verse 11 in the form of the riddle. We could have guessed this not only from the opening question, Can these bones live? verse 3b, but also from other unanswered questions in the opening vision of the dry bones. 1. Where was this valley? 2. What sort of bones were they? 3. How did they get there? 4. Whom did they represent? 5. And why were they left unburied? Ezekiel and his audience would most naturally have imagined the slaughter of their own people on that fateful day in 586 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar's forces had stormed the city of Jerusalem, razed it to the ground, and slaughtered everybody. But why would the victims of this holocaust not have been buried? Were there no survivors to take care of them? Perhaps Ezekiel interpreted this scene in fulfillment of Jeremiah 8.12. Were they ashamed when they committed abominations? No, they were not ashamed. They did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen when I punish them. They shall be overthrown, says the Lord. Perhaps this was the just punishment for the long-standing idolatry of Israel. But that still doesn't answer the question, why they have not been buried properly, and what was the significance of all of this? For the answers we must turn again to the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28. Throughout the ancient Near East, leaving dead bodies out in the open to be devoured by animals was the worst kind of curse one could experience. One of the curses in Azarhaddon's treaty with Ramataiah of Urakazabanu reads, May Nenerta, foremost of the gods, fill you with his ferocious arrow. May he fill the step with your blood. May he feed your flesh to the eagle and the vulture. This sounds a lot like the warning Yahweh had given to Israel centuries ago, but which this generation had long since forgotten, obviously. Deuteronomy 28, 25 to 26. Yahweh will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, and you will become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, and your carcasses will become food for all the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth. And there will be no one to frighten them off. Ezekiel’s prophetic contemporary seems to have had been familiar with this curse. Therefore, thus says the Lord, you have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty everyone to his brother and to his neighbor. Look, I hereby proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to the pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. I will make you a horror of all the kingdoms of the earth. And the men who transgressed my covenant and didn't keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut into and pass between its parts. The officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of a calf. This is a reference to a ceremony of passing between the calves and hereby declaring by this, may my life be cut up like this calf if I fail. But then verse 20, verse 20, and I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. Jeremiah 34, 17 to 20. Based on verses 11 to 14, it is clear that for Ezekiel, these bones represented the nation of Israel, defeated and destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586. While we do not know the timing of this vision, presumably that event must have happened at least 10 years ago. They would be very dry. This meant that Israel was indeed very, very dead. Yahweh had poured out on them the full force of his fury and his curse as he had predicted and as he predicted and documented in the covenant documents. Israel’s condition was hopeless. So when Yahweh asked Ezekiel, can these bones live? Ezekiel knew it would have to take a miracle of major proportions to bring the nation back to life. Which raises the second question, what do these bones need to come back to life? When God asked his prophet, can these bones live? He was obviously serious, but Ezekiel may well have taken this as a cruel joke, especially if in his private summoning of Ezekiel, in this instance, he had not begun with the people's despairing comments in verse 11 and Yahweh's promises in verses 12 to 14.So what would it take to bring these bones to life? Our text offers several clues. First, it would take a new infusion of the Spirit of God. This was what it took in the first place to create the human species as living creatures. According to Genesis 2, God took a piece of clay and molded it into the shape of a human being, but not until he had breathed into it his breath did it come to life. Ezekiel had alluded to this process in chapter 36, verse 27, where Yahweh had promised that he would put his Spirit into his people and they would be restored to full and vital relationship with him. Actually, we may interpret this prophetic moment as an exposition of that single idea. What you have here is an illustration of what Ezekiel had meant in 36, 27. After Ezekiel has told God that he alone knew whether the bones could live, the Lord charged him to prophesy over the bones, prophesy, that he would breathe into them his breath and they would come to life, verses 5 to 6. When Ezekiel complied, he heard a mighty sound of rattling as the bones come together. But then muscles tied them together, flesh grew on them, and the skin covered them. But there was still one problem. The bones had been reconstituted as human bodies, but they were still dead. Because they had no breath, they had no life. So the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, to the Spirit, to the wind. The word is ruach. Come from all directions, oh ruach, breathe on these slain so they may come to life. And voila! When Ezekiel called for the breath, immediately these mannequins came to life. They stood up on their feet, a vast army. Through this phase of the vision Yahweh had answered the question, how can these bones live? But this vision was not ultimately about the valley of dry bones. It was about the future of Israel in God's economy and her status as the people of God. Nothing more nor less than a new moving of the Spirit of God could accomplish their return to the divine agenda. Yahweh expanded on the answer provided by the vision in verses 11 to 14, though he changed the metaphor significantly. Then he said to me, Human, as for these bones, they represent the entire house of Israel. Look, they are saying, our bones are dried up, our hope has vanished, we are doomed. Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, look, I will open your graves and I will raise you up from your graves, oh my people, oh my people. I love that expression, oh my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel and you will know that I am Yahweh when I have opened up your graves and raised you up from your graves, oh my people. Then I will cause my Spirit to enter you and you will come to life. I will set you down on your own land and you will know that I am Yahweh. I have spoken, I will act the declaration of Yahweh. This was Moses' expressed hope as he neared the end of his life in Deuteronomy 30, 1 to 10.He, too, looked forward to the time in the distant future after Israel's judgment and exile for their anticipated history of rebellion against Yahweh, that's Deuteronomy chapter 29, when Yahweh would restore his people and they would flourish again within the context of the restored triadic covenant relationship. He predicted that in exile the people of Israel would turn from their wicked ways and experience divine circumcision in their hearts. This was also Jeremiah's hope when, in the face of his people's judgment, he looked forward to the day when not just a small remnant, as had been the case throughout most of Israel's history, but all Israel would be the covenant people of God from the inside out. They would experience the joys of sins forgiven. They would know Yahweh and they would have his Torah written on their hearts, Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. There have always been people who met these qualifications. They knew Yahweh. They were his people. They had his Torah on their hearts and they experienced forgiveness of sins, but they're always just only a little proportion. And this was Paul's hope in Romans 9 to 11, where he expressed his confidence in the power of God by declaring that one day all Israel will be saved, Romans 11, 26. And this remains my hope too, one day all Israel will be saved. But what relevance does a text like this have for us today? To grasp its enduring significance, we need to look to link Ezekiel's message with that of the New Testament responsibly. But what does this mean? Well, first, we need to recognize the main thing as the main thing. First, in determining its relevance, we need to keep the main thing the main thing. Ezekiel's primary point was not to teach the Israelites the doctrine of individual eschatological resurrection, let alone the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. His primary goal was to reassure his people that Yahweh's ancient, eternal, and irrevocable promises to the descendants of Abraham had survived the 586 BC. Yahweh ended his interpretation of the vision with a recognition formula, followed by commentary, followed by the signatory formula. Then you will know that I am Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act the declaration of Yahweh. Almost by definition, the God who goes by the name Yahweh keeps his word. Whether the word that he performs was a threat of punishment 2214, or a promise of restoration after the judgment 1724, 3636, 3714. In Ezekiel, when God said, I have spoken, and I will act, the reference was generally not primarily to the present oracle, though it was that, but it was primarily to the ancient promises. The promissory and covenantal pillars that the people of Ezekiel's day had grounded their security on were indeed eternal. While subjectively access to the covenantal benefactions is always conditional on the people's response, objectively their response would not jeopardize the status of the covenant itself. The present oracle affirms that Yahweh is always true to his word, including the eternality of his covenant with Israel. In proclaiming Ezekiel's primary point in 33.1-14, we must avoid two extremes. First, we must stay clear of supersessionism, which sadly often morphs into anti-Semitism. Proponents of this ideology argue that in the light of Christ's work, God's covenant promises to Abraham and his physical descendants have been transformed into Platonic or spiritual ideals, and new covenant believers in Christ. The spiritual seed of Abraham replaced the physical seed. This means that Ezekiel's promise of the resurrection of Israel also evaporates, as do the covenant promises relating to them. However, this runs counter to Paul's forthright declaration at the beginning of his soliloquy on the status of his own brothers, that is, his physical kinsmen. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, my fellow Israelites. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Torah, the service—I think this means the vassaldom to Yahweh—and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Men. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. Notice that he does not say, for theirs was the adoption to sonship, theirs was the divine glory, the covenant, etc. But supersessionism also contradicts Paul's concluding comments in this soliloquy regarding the future of his brothers, his physical kinsmen, in Romans 11, 25 to 29. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery. Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel, and I think here he's using brothers in the more general sense of his spiritual brothers and the readers of this book, the converts. A partial hardening has come upon Israel, and the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. That's one extreme. A second extreme to avoid is in interpreting and applying Ezekiel 37, 1 to 14, to use this text as a basis for Christian Zionism, which is often tied to dispensationalism and has been widely popularized through the Left Behind fictional series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye and published by Tyndale Publishers. In the current struggle between Israel and its neighbors, this movement advocates unqualified support for Israel, arguing that the Jewish people have eternal title to all the promised land, and that fought 1948 marked a significant step as history lunges forward to the coming of the Messiah. However, contemporary Zionism is a largely secular movement, and as I noted earlier, the current state of Israel bears no resemblance to the eschatological prophetic vision of a restored nation of Israel, whose population consisted of persons who were both physical and spiritual seed of Abraham. While we grant that 1948 and the resultant state remind us that Yahweh has not forgotten, let alone discarded, the descendants of Abraham, and while we grant that Yahweh's covenant with Israel is eternal and irrevocable, the precondition to entitlement to the benefactions that attend that relationship has always been circumcised hearts that yield love for Yahweh, demonstrated in grateful service to him and compliance with his revealed will. As Paul declared in Romans 10.13, in the wake of there is no true devotion to Yahweh apart from acceptance of the grace offered in Jesus Christ, who is Yahweh embodied in human flesh. Having called for a responsible and disciplined application of the message to the current crisis in the eastern Mediterranean region does not mean we restrict its significance for us to the current Arab-Israeli conflict. Yahweh had not called Israel for Israel's sake, but to be the bearers of the commission to Abraham to bring blessing to the world that languishes under the curse of sin, Genesis 12.1-3. At Sinai, Yahweh had confirmed, established with the descendants of Abraham, the covenant that he had first made with him in seed form, Genesis 15 and 17, and his commission of blessing to Abraham or to all the nations born by the ancestors was transferred to the newly constituted nation of Israel, Exodus 19.4-6. Through the covenant rituals described in Exodus 19-24, Israel both became the bride and the adopted son of Yahweh. That event is used with both metaphors, and they were ordained to priestly ministry to mediate the revelation and grace of God to the nations languishing under the curse. When Moses supervised the renewal of the covenant with the generation on the plains of Moab, he cast Yahweh's vision of their role as setting them high above the nations for praise, fame, and glory, upon which he expanded. That’s Deuteronomy 26.19. He expanded in 28.1-14. Through the triangular covenant involving Yahweh Israel and the land of Canaan, Yahweh aimed to create an Edenic environment that functioned as a microcosm of his vision for the whole world, declaring to all what God's grace can accomplish in a cursed context. Ezekiel had alluded to this role for the nation in 5.5. This is what Yahweh has declared. This is Jerusalem. I’ve set her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. However, instead of accepting her role as a city on a hill, Matthew 5.14, she had rebelled against her Redeemer, and her abominations exceeded those of her pagan neighbors, which had precipitated the judgment represented by the valley of the dry bones and the exiles current living in Babylon, Ezekiel 5.6-17. We need to pray that the Spirit of God would blow over that land today and transform all its inhabitants to be faithful followers of Yahweh incarnate in Jesus Christ. But there's a second dimension to its significance, and that is recognizing Israel's paradigmatic role within a fallen humanity. I mentioned that briefly. Now let's talk about it. With this picture of Israel's role in the divine plan of redemption clearly in our minds, we may begin to grasp additional dimensions of significance for this text.1. Israel's past judgment and future restoration are paradigmatic for the human race and the world they occupy. The bones in Ezekiel's vision present a picture of all humanity which languishes under the curse of death. According to Paul, the wages of sin is death for all. And in another epistle he wrote, you were dead in trespasses and sins that made us by nature children of wrath, that is, the objects of God's fury. So the question that God asked Ezekiel is, he also asks of us with regard to the state of humanity. Can these bones live? And the answer is, indeed. And one of these days, when the cosmos is transformed and renewed, this will happen. We await the redemption of humankind, for that will mean the redemption of the cosmos, Romans 8, 18 to 25. 2. We may also legitimately associate these bones with that of the remains of the Western Church, which historically has claimed to be the people of God and which once was the base of God's work in the world and the source of his missionary force. However, like Israel, the Western Church has increasingly taken on the characteristics of the world around us. And when I look at the state of the Church in this land, I smell the aroma of death everywhere. Some bones are very dry. It is most obvious, of course, in the mainline churches, which abandoned the revealed will of God in the Scripture as their life-giving authority long ago and which have largely diminished Jesus' role to that of an exemplary moral man, if that, often denying early creedal statements affirming his full divinity, his atoning sacrificial death, his exaltation in the heavens, and his imminent return to regather his own and inaugurate the eschatological new heavens and new earth. That's all myth to them and mythology. But what concerns me is the smell and the sight of death in the evangelical Church, the so-called evangelical Church. The discrediting of the label itself reflects the problem. Many who claim this epithet treat the Scriptures and the traditional teachings of the Church like an old country buffet. Restaurants spread, claiming the privileges of admission but taking only what satisfies their palates, most of it unhealthy, and ignoring the covenantal ethic that comes with bearing the name. Being born again is often treated as a ticket to health, happiness, and success, a modern version of ancient fertility religion. But it would have been unrecognizable in the circle that Jesus called to take up their cross and follow him. This is a church that does not challenge its people to a higher morality than is common out there, and that is passionate about political agendas but seems heartless toward people in real need. This is a church that has domesticated God rather than gratefully, joyfully, and self-sacrificially serving their Redeemer. And the bones are very, very dry. Why is it, if you want to see the living Church, you don't have to go to South America or Romania or back the back corners of China? Our churches have become cemeteries where people die rather than where they come to life. Can these bones live? In my weaker moments, I become pessimistic, especially when I realize that I am part of the problem. I too am one of these living corpses. Can these bones live? Lord, you know, but I sure hope so, and I pray that I will. We also need to recognize in this text the solution to humanity's problem. Responsible Christian interpretation and application of Ezekiel 37 requires recognizing in its message the solution to the problems of cosmic curse and universal death. What will it take for these dry bones to live? Yahweh's answer hasn't changed. First, this transition from death to life requires a new, animating, and transforming work of the Spirit of God. As a whole, 37 1 to 14 functions as an exposition of this single idea. Deuteronomy 31 to 10, and Jeremiah 31 spoke of it as well, and Paul. They were all unified in their hope that one day all Israel will be saved, and this remains our hope. But what will it take to restore a human race under the curse? And the answer is the same, a mighty moving of the Spirit of God. This is the only way. Jesus talked about this to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jews, a rabbi, a professor of religion, of the scriptures, who came to Jesus that night with one simple question on his mind, how can one be part of the kingdom of God? And Jesus said, you must be born again, not grasping what Jesus meant, the rabbi asked him, do you expect me to re-enter my mother's womb? Jesus responded with a lecture on the working of the Spirit that he should have known if only he had paid attention when he was reading Ezekiel. Since the kingdom of God is spiritual, one must be animated by God's Spirit. And what will it take to restore a church that bears the smell of death? The answer is not found in rewriting the constitution of our congregations, getting a new pastor, forging new alliances with one or more political parties, or even planning new and exciting programs geared to producing revival. The old adage of the psalmist is true, even in the service of the house of God, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build labor in vain. Psalm 127.1. The revival of the church depends on nothing more nor less than a mighty movement of God's Spirit. We need to pray that the Spirit would begin to move among us, not necessarily in dramatic utterances of tongues or mighty healings, but in conviction of sin and driving us to repentance, in infusing us with the life-breath of God, in transforming us from self-indulgent, arrogant, compromising persons that we are to humble servants of God, willing to abandon the cares of the world and to pour out our lives for the Lord. Perhaps then the world will stop ridiculing us for our excesses, our stridency, and our belligerence, but will finally recognize us for our Christlike kindness and our devotion to Him. But there's another dimension, and this transition from death to life requires a lifting of the curse. Yes, we need the Spirit to blow, but we also need the curse to be lifted. Before the blessings would come to Israel, the curse upon them had to be lifted. But only God can do this, and when He would do so, they would begin to experience anew the riches of His grace, and Eden would become reality again. In our own day, the whole world seems under a curse. If it's not nations ruthlessly competing with each other for hegemony that we fear, it is the power of nature in the forms of earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes and tidal waves and COVID-19s and all its variations. These are the reminders to us that we are under the curse. Until the Lord breathes life on this planet, we are threatened, and until He lifts the curse, we are doomed. But we're also under the curse of violence and rage. The TV talk shows become even more outrageous, the register of political speech more degraded, and the media entertain us with ever more brutal and obscene behavior. In a sense, it seems the church itself is under the curse, and every week another leader falls, another church splits, another denomination is in trouble, another Christian home broken, and we begin to scream, Lord, lift the curse! So can these bones live? Prophecy conferences used to be devoted to trying to figure out if and when the bones of Israel would come together and be brought to life in fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy. But we need to ask the question of ourselves, can these bones live? Can I enjoy the abundant life the Lord offers? Can our young people live? Can we who are engaged in ministry live as in Ezekiel's day? The question can only be answered by God, and so with Ezekiel. Lord, you know, and I believe that you can do it. This text is a glorious testimony to the power of God to triumph over death. God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead into our transgressions, can make us alive together again with Christ. By grace are you saved through faith, Ephesians 2, 4 to 10. From the human perspective, the recipe for revival remains the same. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will hear their land. We wait for the working of the Spirit of God, even in our times, and we pray for it as well.