Pentecost (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ  (Eph 1:2).  Amen.

If it is a paleontologist  (that is someone who looks for and looks at fossils), standing in the middle of a bunch of bones would be exciting.  As he sets out to assemble them like pieces of a puzzle—one to the other, what kind of dinosaur might it be?  Perhaps a T-rex?  Or possibly even better, a spinosaurus—the biggest and baddest of those carnivorous beasts.  And easily a favorite of little boys.

But it is quite another thing if it is a prophet  (that is someone who speaks from and speaks for God).  Especially Ezekiel.  It was exasperating.  The timeframe that he served the Lord was definitely not a high point in the history of Israel.  King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army had come down and carted off many as captives, relocating them far away from their homeland.  In the process, the soldiers had torched Jerusalem and trashed the temple.  All because of their idolatry—turning their backs on the Lord and turning their attention to idols.

Things did not look good.  And the people knew it.  You can hear it in their complaint:  “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off”  (Eze 37:11).  To paraphrase:  “We are done for.  It is all over for us.”

Not so.  Not true.  Ezekiel was about to learn that.  His name means “God strengthens.”  That is what he was going to do to Ezekiel and through him.  The Lord breathes life into the lifeless.

It came in the form of a vision.  The Lord allowed his spokesman to view something not normally seen.  “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley”  (Eze 37:1).  This was not a green valley with lush vegetation, but a death valley.  “It was full of bones”  (Eze 37:1).

God gave him an extended tour.  “He led me back and forth among them”  (Eze 37:2).  Ezekiel had a good look around.  And he noted two things—almost as if to say, “hey, look at this:”
 The number: “I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley”  (Eze 37:2).  There was not one or two.  If we were walking around the Mall of America, we might comment, “There were millions of shoppers there!”  There were bones all over.
 The condition:  “bones that were very dry”  (Eze 37:2).  Not just a little dead or half dead.  Dead—almost to the point that the smallest touch or slightest breeze would reduce them to dust.

And then the almost strange question—if not absolutely silly.  “Son of man, can these bones live?”  (Eze 37:3).  If you head to a museum of natural history and the guide would pose that with the outline of a triceratops, we might laugh, if not smile.  Of course not.  This is not like a desk from IKEA with “some assembly required.”  This appeared to be a lost cause.

But Ezekiel replies differently.  “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know”  (Eze 37:3).  The One who has all authority and majesty, the One who does not change, could do something, anything, if he wanted.

And he did.  “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!”’”  (Eze 37:4).  Ezekiel was to preach, or proclaim, God’s Word to them.  There is tremendous power in that and behind that.  And not just stating something randomly, but specifically.  “This is what the Sovereign LORD  [Notice the name again.] says to these bones:  I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life”  (Eze 37:5).  There could be, would be, life.  And more than that:  “I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life”  (Eze 37:6).  This was not just a cool trick that you might watch with computer animation.  “Then you will know that I am the LORD”  (Eze 37:6).  Remember God’s people were in exile.  There may have been questions and concerns.  They would not suspect or suppose, but know.  He is the LORD—kind and compassionate, loving and forgiving  (Ex 34:6,7).

Ezekiel didn’t scratch his head in confusion, but opened his mouth in confidence—certainly to a strange audience.  “So I prophesied as I was commanded”  (Eze 37:7).  No reason to disobey, no more than when your boss assigns a project to you.  And no surprise.  “And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone”  (Eze 37:7).  It was visible and audible like an earthquake.  “I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them”  (Eze 37:8).

But still one problem:  “There was no breath in them”  (Eze 37:8).  There was no life.  Yet.

The Lord addresses that issue next.  “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says:  Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”’”  (Eze 37:9).  Those killed in action were deceased.  No doubt about it.

Once again, Ezekiel follows orders  (Eze 37:10).  And it is effective.  “Breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army”  (Eze 37:10).  A battlefield of bones becomes a fearsome force.  Recall the inquiry:  “Son of man, can these bones live?”  (Eze 37:3).  Yes.  Yes, they can.  The Lord breathes life into the lifeless.

The Lord goes from revelation to explanation.  “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel”  (Eze 37:11).  He draws a comparison between the two.  It is easy to connect the dots.  A glorious nation now gone.  It could be like the fresh flowers for Mother’s Day last Sunday.  By today, they are wilted, if not in the wastebasket.  The tulips were cut from the stem.  The dandelions were pulled from the ground.  No bit of optimism is going to keep them blooming, let alone growing.

But with the Lord, nothing is impossible.  We have his Word on it.  And again that is what Ezekiel was to explain.  “Therefore prophesy and say to them:  ‘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’”  (Eze 37:12).  They may have felt that the Lord had abandoned them.  But Ezekiel announced, “My people.”  God had not given up on them.  And one more time for emphasis:  “Then you, my people  [yes, “my people” for the second time], will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them”  (Eze 37:13).

That is really unheard of.  When a nation was carried off, that spelled the end as a separate group.  The deposed people would not just lose their home, but their identity—swallowed up by the conquering country.  And it did occur because God said so.  The Lord punctuates this account:  “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.’””  (Eze 37:14)  Years later they did return to and did resettle in Israel.

That serves more than just something trivial.  That is tremendous.  It was because the Lord had given his word.  The Messiah would come from them and from there.  And God is not like some—full of worthless words and pointless promises.  The Lord declares and the Lord does.  And Jesus was born in Bethlehem—to grow up and go up to the cross for us.

The idea was not lost on the apostle Paul, whether he had this image in mind or not.  “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins”  (Eph 2:1).  We were born physically alive, but spiritually dead.  And the concept is clear.  Dead is dead.  Not just incapable of living, but unable to.

“Can these bones live?”  (Eze 37:3).  Yes.  Yes, they can.  As Luther reminded us, “I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him”  (Explanation to the Third Article).

So the Lord acted.  The same apostle can go on to assert:  “But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ …—it is by grace you have been saved”  (Eph 2:4).  He breathed on us his breath, his Spirit.  “The Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel”  (Explanation to the Third Article).

The Holy Spirit works with God’s Word—spoken from our mouths or written in the Bible.  There is power for salvation in that  (Ro 1:16).  Peter and the others witnessed that on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came—not just in impressive displays of nature, but with incredible gifts of boldness.  They were talking about “the wonders of God”  (Acts 2:11)—the great and glorious things God had done in Christ, most recently his death, resurrection, and ascension.  And in understandable languages from all over.  These are words of eternal life  (Jn  6:63).

But that is not all.  There is the Word connected to water in baptism.  Or the Word combined with wafer and wine in his Supper.  The Lord responds to the prayer of the psalmist that he had us sing:  “Create in me a pure heart, O God”  (Ps 51:10).  He does something exceptional and extraordinary.  He gives us hearts that are genuine—cleansed of sin and cleared of guilt.  We join those at the first Pentecost because “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”  (Acts 2:21).

We can be sure and certain that the Lord claims us and calls us “his people.”  We belong to him.  We have the peace that Jesus referenced on Maundy Thursday evening.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you”  (Jn 14:27).  The night before the most violent day of his life, Jesus stresses peace.  All is right between us in God in light of what Jesus would do the next day—dying for our sin and delivering our peace.

A paleontologist can put bones together, but they will only remain a skeleton.  A spinosaurus will not walk or run.  Ever.  It will never be alive.  Not so with the Lord.  The Lord breathes life into the lifeless through his saving Word.  You and me.  We live with God right now and forever because the Holy Spirit has brought us to faith and builds us up in that faith.

We read from Ezekiel 37:1-14:
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.
2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.
3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones:  I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.  Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded.  And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:  Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ”
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me:  “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.  They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them:  ‘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.
13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
14 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.’ ”

Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love  (Eph 6:24).  Amen.


May 20, 2018