Resurrection!
Introduction
Imagine being away from home in a foreign country, having been taken there against your will, along with 10,000 of your fellow countrymen. Day by day you live in the hope that one day you will return to your home and take up from where you left off. But the prophet who is with you, who you thought would bring messages of comfort, keeps having these weird visions and telling you that your sin has separated you from your God. What’s more, he says, God is so angry with you he’s going to let your beloved home and your beautiful temple be destroyed.
You think that maybe this will happen one day …. but not yet …. surely not yet. Then, eleven years into your time of exile, the most terrible news reaches you. The same foreign army who took you away has plundered your homeland again, and this time, not only are your homes burnt, but your beautiful temple is ruined and many of your relatives who escaped the first time have been killed. How would you feel? Your hope is destroyed, you have no future. What’s the point of going on?
It is 586 BC, and the Jews exiled in Babylon have just heard that their beloved Jerusalem has been plundered once again and that their beautiful temple has been destroyed. Where is their hope? Where is their future? After all, aren’t they God’s own people, the people he’d promised to love forever? Then right when they are at their lowest ebb, Ezekiel, the prophet in exile with them, is given another vision.
God’s message to Ezekiel
- Describe the valley that Ezekiel saw in his vision. (verses 1 and 2)
- What answer would you give to the question God asks Ezekiel? (verse 3)
- How is the situation going to be changed when Ezekiel prophesies over the bones?
“Son of man can these bones live?” What a question. It’s obvious this is a hopeless situation – the bones are dry and lifeless. No flesh, no skin, no breath. But Ezekiel has spoken with God before, so he gives a safe answer: “O sovereign Lord, you alone know.” And God graciously shows Ezekiel what he is going to do.
Resurrection! God is going to bring life out of death. He will give flesh and tendons and skin and the breath of life. Out of a hopeless situation, God will bring hope.
God’s message for the people in exile
- What explanation of this prophecy is given to Ezekiel? (verses 11 and 12)
- What is the chief purpose of God doing this? (verses 13 and 14)
God wants his people to know that he is the Lord. In Jeremiah 29:11 he promises them a hope and a future. After 70 years the exiles will return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple – and rebuilding their lives.
But all the time in the background is the underlying promise that this isn’t all God is going to do for his people. One day the Messiah, the great Saviour, will come and rescue them and be their King.
Jesus fulfilled that promise. He lived and died so that we might be rescued from our sin and reconciled to God.
God’s message for us
- Read Luke 24:1-8 What happened on the Sunday morning after Jesus was crucified?
- Read 1 Peter 1:3-5 How does the resurrection of Jesus impact those who trust in him?
Because Jesus was raised from the dead, if we believe in him, like the dead bones in Ezekiel’s vision, we have new life, new hope and a new future. His resurrection guarantees our resurrection – we are secure with him forever!
Praise God with songs of the resurrection!
Resurrection! (Chiswell); Living Hope (Wickham); Christ our Hope in Life and Death (Getty, Papa); In Christ Alone (Townend); Resurrection Power (Tomlin).