Will These Bones Live?

Scripture: References only Series: And You Will Know That I Am the Lord Date: Not yet preached Preacher: Ed Rangel Location: Chile Sermon Type: Expository Status: Not yet preached

Thesis

When God's people consider themselves dry, hopeless, and finished, the Lord can impart life by His word and His Spirit, restoring what no human capacity can raise.

Opening

The valley did not contain sick people needing recovery, but very dry bones. Death had done its work, and time had eliminated every human expectation of restoration.

God made Ezekiel walk around them before asking if they would live. The prophet received no permission to minimize what he saw. Neither did he respond with despair. He left the answer in the hands of the Lord and said that God knew.

Then he received an impossible command from a human perspective. He was to prophesy to the bones and command them to hear the word of the Lord.

Introduction

1. Ezekiel 37 follows the promises of cleansing, a new heart, and a new Spirit announced to the exiled people.
2. The vision interprets the condition of the whole house of Israel, which claimed to have lost hope.
3. The bones receive form and then life through the word and breath of God.
4. The passage promises national restoration to Israel and contributes to the biblical hope culminating in the resurrection under Christ's rule.

Biblical Text, Ezekiel 37:1–14

I. GOD MADE EZEKIEL SEE DEATH EXACTLY AS IT WAS (Ezekiel 37:1–3)

A. The valley was full of bones.

1. The vision does not present a small difficulty needing better organization.
2. The bones represented death spread throughout the valley.
3. There were very many of them, so the condition could not be explained as an isolated exception.
4. God does not build biblical hope by denying the depth of the ruin.

B. The bones were very dry.

1. Enough time had passed to remove every visible sign of life.
2. No medical skill could restore what Ezekiel observed.
3. Israel's condition was beyond a human political solution.
4. The scene prepares the prophet to recognize that only God can give life.

C. Ezekiel responded with humility to the divine question.

1. He did not say the bones would live by the power of positive thinking.
2. Neither did he declare the situation beyond God's reach.
3. He confessed that the Lord knew the answer.
4. Faith looks honestly at death and leaves open the possibility that depends on divine power.

II. GOD'S WORD GATHERED WHAT WAS SCATTERED (Ezekiel 37:4–8)

A. God commanded him to speak to those who could not hear on their own.

1. Ezekiel was to prophesy to dry bones.
2. Effectiveness did not depend on the audience's natural capacity.
3. The prophet obeyed a command that seemed useless according to human experience.
4. The word of the Lord can act where the messenger's strength cannot reach.

B. The bones began to come together.

1. There was a noise and a rattling as each bone joined to its bone.
2. Sinews, flesh, and skin covered what had been dry.
3. Visible restoration advanced according to the announced word.
4. God displayed order and power over a ruin that seemed irreversible.

C. A complete form could still lack life.

1. The bodies had structure, but there was no spirit in them.
2. Appearance and organization are not the same as life.
3. A congregation can maintain activities, names, and forms while needing spiritual renewal.
4. Only God can give the breath that a structure does not produce.

III. GOD'S SPIRIT GAVE LIFE TO THE DEAD (Ezekiel 37:9–10)

A. Ezekiel spoke again according to the command.

1. He did not assume the first stage was sufficient.
2. He depended on God's word in every movement of the vision.
3. Obedience continued even after seeing an extraordinary transformation.
4. The servant must not stop at an appearance of success when God has commanded more.

B. The breath entered and the dead lived.

1. The Hebrew word in the passage can communicate wind, breath, or spirit depending on the context.
2. The vision brings those images together to show that life proceeds from God.
3. The bodies did not generate breath by themselves.
4. The Lord made those who were dead live.

C. Those who were made alive stood on their feet.

1. God's work did not produce motionless bodies.
2. An enormous army arose, capable of standing before the Lord.
3. Received life leads to a new capacity to serve.
4. God does not restore merely to relieve, but to form a people who respond to His rule.

IV. GOD INTERPRETED THE VISION AS A PROMISE FOR HIS PEOPLE (Ezekiel 37:11–14)

A. Israel said their hope had perished.

1. Exile seemed to have dried up the nation's identity and future.
2. The people described themselves as completely destroyed.
3. God allowed that confession to appear within the explanation.
4. The people's despair did not determine the limit of the divine promise.

B. God promised to open graves and restore.

1. The image of resurrection expresses the magnitude of the promised national restoration.
2. The Lord would bring the people back to their land.
3. The restoration would show that He had spoken and acted.
4. The ultimate purpose was for them to know the Lord, not merely to recover favorable circumstances.

C. God promised to put His Spirit in them.

1. Hope did not end with a geographic change.
2. The people needed inner life proceeding from God.
3. The promise harmonizes with the new heart and new spirit announced in the previous chapter.
4. True restoration unites God's power with a life that recognizes His lordship.

D. Jesus Christ guarantees the final resurrection.

1. Ezekiel 37 explains first the restoration of the house of Israel from a condition resembling death.
2. We must not erase that context to turn every bone into an individual allegory.
3. The vision, nevertheless, participates in the biblical hope of the God who opens graves and gives life.
4. Jesus resurrected and taught that all will hear His voice, come out of the graves, and appear before Him (John 5:28–29).

Anticipated Questions

Does the vision describe bodily resurrection at the end of the world first?

The passage itself interprets the bones as the whole house of Israel, which claimed to have lost its hope. The vision announces that God would bring His people out of the death-like condition of exile and restore them. The final resurrection harmonizes with God's life-giving power, but it must not replace the explanation that the chapter gives of its own bones.

Does the vision directly predict every political event of the modern State of Israel?

Ezekiel spoke to an exiled people who considered themselves finished and received a promise of restoration under God's word and Spirit. The text does not provide a modern political calendar or make a national border the center of salvation. Its hope advances toward the rule of God and the life He grants.

Does the breath represent only psychological encouragement?

The bones did not need a more positive attitude, for they were dead and completely dry. The Hebrew word can relate breath, wind, and spirit within the vision, and the entire scene attributes life to the sovereign action of God. Application must preserve that dependence rather than reducing the passage to personal motivation.

Can we apply the dry bones to a discouraged person or congregation?

The application is valid by analogy when the meaning given to Israel in exile is respected first. The passage demonstrates that human despair does not limit God's power to restore by His word and His Spirit. It does not promise that every dead project will be revived according to our desires.

Application

Describe the condition truthfully without turning it into a sentence against God's power. A family, congregation, or life may show deep damage. Pretending the bones are not dry will not help, but declaring impossible what the Lord can restore is equally wrong.

Do not confuse structure with life. Programs, buildings, calendars, and religious language can be in place while obedience, love, and dependence on the Spirit are missing. Ask God to quicken you by His word, and respond to that word with repentance and faithfulness.

Maintain the hope of the resurrection. Physical death will not have the final word. Christ resurrected and will call everyone from the graves, some to life and others to judgment. That promise comforts the faithful and warns the rebel.

Conclusion

1. The valley was full of very dry bones beyond human reach.
2. God's word gathered and formed what was scattered.
3. The Spirit gave life and raised a people capable of standing on their feet.
4. The Lord promised to restore Israel and revealed His power to open graves.
5. The resurrected Jesus Christ guarantees that death will not have the final word.

Invitation

The same voice that promises resurrection also warns about judgment. Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. He can give life to the sinner who cannot save himself.

Hear His word, believe in Him, repent, confess His name, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. If you are already a Christian and have lost hope, listen again to the God who has spoken and will do it.