The Prophecy of Life

Ezekiel 37-38; Psalm 117; Proverbs 28:8-10

When is all hope lost? Let’s imagine ourselves sitting at the side of a hospital bed, hearing for the first time the news that our dad has advanced cancer and that it’s expected to end in death. Is hope lost right then?

Is hope lost a few months later, when radiation and chemo have sapped our dad’s strength away and the cancerous tumor, though smaller, is not quite gone?

Is hope lost a couple of weeks later, when the doctors say that they believe they were able to surgically remove the rest of the tumor—but then warn that this particular cancer usually returns within one year?

Is hope lost seven months later, when a checkup confirms that the cancer is back?

Is hope lost two months from then, when dad is again looking weak, but this time because of the cancer itself?

Is hope lost in another month and a half, when dad passes away? Is there any hope on that day?

Is hope lost when dad is laid in his casket and his casket is lowered into the tomb?

How about one hundred years from now, when dad has been in his tomb for a century? Is there any hope for him then?

There is hope. Even then, there is hope.

In Ezekiel 37:1-3, the prophet Ezekiel is faced with what seems to be a hopeless situation:

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. 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. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

None of us would dare look at this situation with any sense of hope in normal circumstances. When people are so long dead that their bones are all that is left, and even their bones have dried up, the situation for those people is basically hopeless. But Ezekiel sees a glimmer of hope in this dreadful picture. Ezekiel is not facing the atrocities alone. God is with him. And so Ezekiel, rather than saying there is no hope, says, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

And God tells Ezekiel to do something that sounds pretty much crazy:

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, `Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 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.' " – Ezekiel 37:4-6

Prophesy to bones? Ezekiel obeys.

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. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. – Ezekiel 37:7-8

What good did that do? They’re still dead! Sure, they’ve gone from being bones to being bodies. But death is death! Death is hopeless! Death rules all! Right?

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.' " So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army. – Ezekiel 37:9-10

Death does not rule over all. God rules over death. And God rules over the dead. And God can speak, and the dead will obey. The dead will hear His voice and will obey—though they have no life to do so—and they will live if God tells them to live! “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).

Because God raises the dead, there is always hope. Pray for even the most hopeless causes—the people whose hearts are the hardest, whose wills are the most stubbornly unrepentant. Pray that God will speak and command the dead to live. If He does, they will live forever! Pray that God will charge you with the same command He gave to Ezekiel—pray that God will use you to bring life to dead bones.

Father, thank You for entrusting us with a prophecy that brings life to the dead. Thank You for bringing my spiritually dead bones to life, and thank You that after I die You will again bring my physically dead bones to life. Thank You that, with You, there is hope!