Sermon Tone Analysis

The Valley of Dry Bones

Context:

The book of Ezekiel, is about a prophet and Priest named Ezekiel who was In Jerusalem during the first Babylonian attack of the city.

They did not destroy the city, but they did take exiles from Jerusalem, and Ezekiel was one of these exiles.

The book begins 5 years after that, where Ezekiel, on his 30th birthday, is sitting in one of the Israelite refugee camps.

His 30th birthday was when he would’ve been installed as a priest in Jerusalem..yet here he is, 5 years after being taken captive sitting in a refugee camp.

Here is where Ezekiel sees a vision of the glory of the Lord in chapter 1, these 4 winged creatures, with 4 faces, and on them is a chariot..and sitting on the throne is a human like creature glowing and shrouded in fire..the glory of God!..and the question is why is God’s glory in Babylon and not in Jerusalem, not in His temple…so the book opens with exploring that question..and it is at this time that God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet.

God tells Ezekiel to accuse Israel of their unfaithfulness…and its because of the idolatry of His people.

They had abandoned God and exchanged Him for idols…that God had abandoned His temple..and His glory is in Babylon

The book is divided in chapters 1-11 of these accusations, 12-24 of the judgement of the Israel, and chapters 25-32 God’s judgment on the nations.

And then when you get to chapter 33, The temple has officially fallen.

So now you have a rebellious people, idolatrous people, in exile, temple destroyed…and thought the temple was destroyed, the spiritual collapse of the nation had taken place well before that.

And God had abandoned His temple.

He hasn’t abandoned His people, but at this point we ask ourselves..is God done with them for good?

What hope is there now.

The exile of Israel one of the lowest points of their history, and for all intensive purposes..they could see no way out.

You will read in Ezekiel 37, that they say, “our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, we are cut off”

This is backdrop of chapters 34-37..where God tells Ezekiel to prophesy a message of hope to Israel.

And this is the subject of our sermon from chapter 37.

In the text we see God and two main characters in the valley.

Israel represented by the scattered bones, and Ezekiel, the prophet.

Both of these characters are in the valley…the valley between hope and heartache.

The valley between between what is, and what can be.

The valley between where we are coming from, and where we are going.

It is this valley that Israel the nation, and Ezekiel the prophet are are faced with questions....questions that will determine how and if they will move forward.

Three questions the Israelites must answer, Ezekiel must answer..and we must answer

The Three Questions We Face as We Walk the Valley Between Hope and Heartache.

Why am I here

Can this be fixed?

Will it always be like this?

How can we move forward?

Israelites

1.

Why am I here?

Israelites: Why were the Israelites there?

Rebellion, Idolatry, Wickedness

Sin had gotten them there.

God laid before them the path of righteousness, and they sought life outside of Him..and found despair and ruin.

They found themselves destroyed by thier own sin.

A people now scattered as bones, all that remains of a nation, in exile.

How did they get there....sin got them there.

By failing to trust God, they find themselves in ruin.

Its not that God let them down…its not that God had failed them....their idols had.

And so they fell into a place of heartbreak and ruin.

Application:

God has never failed you, God has never let you down…your idols have.

If your hope feels like it is going up and down…hopeful some days, hopeless others…it indicates that your hope is attached to something that changes.

Its connected to something which can not deliver.

Maybe it can on some days, but other days it fails.

Maybe its your spouse, maybe its your job, maybe its your kids, grandkids, reputation....all of these things no matter how good they may seen, can not carry the weight of your soul.

If your hope is in who God is, if your hope is in who Jesus is, if your hope is in what God has done....then your hope is secure.

God can not change.

God doesn’t just give hope, He is hope.

God doesn’t just provide a way out…He is the way out.

God doesn’t just point you to a refuge, God is the refuge.

God can not fail, no more than I can not be a bird....its not what I am.

And to fail just is not who He is.

So for this nation, it wasn’t about what God had done, or that God had failed them…they were looking for life somewhere else, in other gods, places, things…and found out that it couldn’t carry them.

So they fell..in the valley, scattered, exiled.

And so in the mind and heart of the people…a nation in turmoil, not only do they have to ask themselves why am i here...they must ask themselves the second question.

2. Can this be fixed?

Will it always be like this?

Can these bones live?”

What does Israel think?

i.

The Israelites response in seen in verse 11: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’

They saw no way out

For the Israelites their was no foreseeable way of rescue.

They could see no way forward, because they did not see any hope.

The “dry bones” pointing to the picture of having been in the same place for so long.

Ezekiel had been in Babylon for 5 years before his first vision in chapter 1…8 years passed by the time we arrive at the 37th chapter.

So we are looking at a 13 year exile.

by this point…and it did not look to be getting any better.

And so the last question of

3. How do we move forward

They did not know.

They had been that way for so long…they had been in exile so long, that they saw no way of rescue.

They had no answers…and they remained in exile.

This is the condition of Israel.

Not simply an exiled people, but a people that had no hope.

A Valley of Dry bones…all that remained of a once great nation.

But here now is the next character in the text…Ezekiel.

And He finds himself also, given a vision brought to the valley…and facing the same questions.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel is swept up into this vision, not simply a dream, but something more real.

A glimpse into the spiritual reality of Israel..and God places him in the middle of this valley.

In the midst of the scattered bones of Israel…and proceeds to reveal to Ezekiel His purpose.

1.

Why Am I Here?

Why was Ezekiel there?

Why did God show Him this vision, and place Him in this valley.

The Spirit placed Him there

Ezekiel 37:1

God placed him there.

For whatever reason, it was purposed.

While Israel finds themself scattered in the valley of exile because of their disobedience...Ezekiel finds himself there, in this vision, because God brings him there.

The Israelites are in the valley because of their sin…God in a vision places Ezekiel there because he is sent!

Why is Ezekiel there, a prophet in captivity amongst his people…and now placed in the valley in this vision by God himself?

Why…because God put Him there.

And why did God place Him there?

That’s where the bones were

God wanted to bring his nation and people back to life, back to himself..but to get his nation out of the valley, he had to bring his prophet to the valley.