The Bible Recap - Day 251 (Ezekiel 37-39) - Year 4

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today we open with a Valley Vision and a Stick Sign Act. Ezekiel's vision in the Valley of Dry Bones is probably his 20 minutes of fame. This is what he's most known for. In fact, I've heard probably half a dozen sermons preached on this, using it to illustrate a variety of different things, like God making dead people into a powerful army, or how people have the power to speak life into things, but lots of them have nothing to do with what the text is actually teaching here, and some of them are even biblically inaccurate. So today we're going to make sure we keep our

eyes on the text and the context to see what God is actually communicating to us about Himself and His plan. Ezekiel has a vision of a bunch of dry bones in a valley. As far as the eye can see, there's nothing but femurs and fibulose. Then, through Ezekiel, God commands the bones to live. This is God's command, not Ezekiel's. We can hear it in verses 4 through 6 where God says, Prophecy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live,

and I will lay sin used upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. So we can see that God is the one who issued the command and God is the one who breathed life into them. And yes, of course, we know God could have done it without Ezekiel. God doesn't need Ezekiel for this, but he loves him and he's using him. So Ezekiel gets the joy of being part of God's process in this vision. God says this vision represents the twelve

tribes, the people of both Judah and Israel. He will give them new life and bring them back to their land. Here are three things I find interesting about this story. First, it connects us back to God's original creation of mankind in the Garden of Eden. Back in Genesis 2, God created Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, too. God is recreating things here. Second, the word used for breath here is the Hebrew word Ruhak, which is also translated more often as Spirit. And third, did you notice that God doesn't command the bodies to breathe? That seems like it would make more sense, right?

Instead, he commands the breath to enter the bodies to breathe, that seems like it would make more sense, right? Instead, he commands the breath to enter the bodies. I think there's some spiritual symbolism for us in there somewhere. Then God tells Ezekiel to perform a sign act. Here's the plan. He'll take a stick and write, Judah and company on it to represent the Southern Kingdom. Then he'll write, Joseph and Epperyam and Company on another stick representing the Northern Kingdom.

Then he'll tie the sticks together like a law firm merger. Except it'll actually be the restoring of all that has been broken relationally in the 350 years since the Kingdom divided. This is an especially big deal, because it's been 150 years since the Northern Kingdom was overthrown by the Assyrians, so it's possible that the newly exiled people of the Southern Kingdom think that the Northern exiled people of the Southern Kingdom think that the Northern Kingdom has been destroyed entirely. But this Sin Act lets them know that God has preserved a remnant from the Northern tribes too. They get their own stick, and he'll bring

them all back to their land and set one shepherd over them, a king from the line of David, and the remnant of Israel will be restored, reunited, and repinate, because God himself will be among them, who will sanctify them, and he will live out his eternal covenant of peace with them. In chapter 38 we meet a king named Gog. I'm going to pronounce his name Gog, so there's no mistaking whether I'm saying Gog or God. So, Gog rules a nation named Megog, except no one knows who he is or where this is. And even the details Ezekiel gives us about him make things more uncertain. For instance, his army is comprised of people from all over the place, so that doesn't

help us narrow down his location. What do we make of this mysterious king and kingdom? Lots of commentators think Ezekiel has invented this king as an amalgam of all the powerful nations that have opposed gods people throughout history. Ezekiel even uses a lot of the same imagery he used earlier with Tyra and Egypt, so Gog seems to be an archetype that represents gods' enemies. For that reason, and the fact that God twice tells us that this will happen in the latter days, most commentators think this is a yet-to-beefle-filled prophecy about the end times. Ezekiel says some peculiar things will happen in the future that involve both Goge and the

restored remnant. They'll be dwelling securely, then Goge will show up to attack them. What? Why? Why is God bringing this big, bad enemy against His people? Fortunately in verse 16, he tells us why. God says, In the latter days, I will bring you against my land that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. God says he's doing this to remind

all the nations around Israel not to mess with him or his people. By demonstrating his dominance over a powerful enemy, the less powerful enemies won't risk him or his people. By demonstrating his dominance over a powerful enemy, the less powerful enemies won't risk attacking God's people. Clever. So when Goag shows up on the scene, God will send an earthquake and fire and hail and pestilence and mass confusion where the people of Goag's army accidentally kill each other. We saw this happen before in Judges 7. And of course, God closes this with his traditional, then they will know that I am the Lord. In chapter 39, God lays it on even thicker for Gogue. He says he's not just going to show up at the side of Gogue's army

and attack them, but he'll also throw fire on Maygogg, their homeland. And this is where my God shot appears. God says Israel will take all the weapons gog was going to use against them and recycle them into fuel. Not only that, but Israel will also get the spoils of a war they didn't even have to fight. Who is this God? Who takes the enemy's efforts to destroy his people and turns them to bless his people instead?

It's like Joseph said in Genesis 50, after running into the brothers who sold him into slavery years earlier, you meant evil against me, but God meant it were good. God doesn't land on zero. God doesn't shift into neutral. This isn't him working out everything so that it's perfectly fair. Nothing about this is fair. This is absolutely undeserved generosity and unmerited favor. Nothing God's people have done has earned them anything but eternal separation from Him.

But He doesn't just say, I forgive you, now leave me alone. He says, here's a new heart to love me with. And here's my spirit to empower your obedience. And here's the eternal kingdom you're going to inherit. You guys, no one is like him. He is where the joy is. Did you hear?

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