‘Vision of Dry Bones in the Valley’ in Ezekiel 37
1. Hope
- Sermon about ‘Vision of Dry Bones’ Valley’ in Ezekiel 37
- March 2001 - Samil Independence Movement Day
Ezekiel 37
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.'"
Let me ask of you one quiz.
What is the thing that is smooth while the strongest, and sweet while the bitterest?
The answer is ‘tongue’ or ‘the flat of the tongue’ (see Matthew 15:18~19, Mark 7:20~23, James 3:36).
It is the tongue of the masses or the mouth of people that was the most feared by the dictators who had killed exiled or purged many people in order to control over the world.
In the eyes of dictators, each tongue of the public is frequently like a mere gravel stone under the foot. However, as the weak tongues gather, they become weapons that emit roaring cries like lions.
But here what we have to point out is that the mouths of the messes don’t cluster easily.
The persons who do this role are intellectuals, poets or prophets.
In peaceful days or in a materialistic society, the role of poets is not conspicuous. Most of the public are busy farming, commuting, giving birth,...in each of their own livelihoods. In this situation, poems are sometimes looked upon as a ‘valueless and useless thing’ that is neither so good nor so bad.
Rather, what they practically need is arithmetic rules(+-×÷) they learned in their elementary school, not elegant or polished ‘poetic language’ that isn’t helpful in their realities of life at all.
It is nothing but a phantom that you sing descent songs of spiritual future life to the people who are preoccupied in what they invest in only visual matters and make sure of the investment.
However, they are running past the most important one.
They are not aware that the world is lead along by such as ghosts, dreamers or by folks who do something curious.
For example, costumes on a fashion show that commoners cannot wear, nonsensical structures on an architectural exhibition, extremely metaphysical and symbolic language by the poets who won literary awards,...
And the civilized benefits of wearing, sleeping and using which we now enjoy were categorized as crazy things or some bizarre nonsense 10, 20, or 100 years ago. Compare with 100, or 30~50 years ago, and we will understand how distinctly our current home electric appliances, houses, clothes and language have been changed.
The persons who speak of and lead the future have the following common point: They don’t compromise with or settle down in the existing presence. But they look toward the future with the ‘belief in the unseen.’
By the realists is the reality kept and developed. But it is dreamers that speak of the future and suggest the possibility of progress. The thing is, while most people are tied to visible material civilization, poets’ language and thought implants the belief in the future, in the ‘human life beyond the time’ though we couldn’t see.
In this sense, the Prophets are poets, poems and the prophets suggesting the future.
While you are reading the Scripture, the 2 points you should be careful are:
1) The Holy Scriptures is the will of God which is written through human language.
If one disregards this and shouts literally and emphasizes only letters, it is easy to miss the real meaning that is between the lines, much less the will of God who wills to tell man through human language.
For example, if an elementary schooler interprets the lines of Korean Independence Day song, “Let’s touch soil again, the seawater dances,” he or she will literally associate the lines with the sea water dancing in their mind. If a step further, they may have thought up the seaside with the waves fluctuating in their mind.
In 36 years of shame after sovereignty taken away to Japan, as soon as Korea became independent because of Japan emperor’s surrender August 15th 1945, a poet sings his emotions.
The earth under the feet is the earth yesterday; the sky is the sky yesterday; and the neighbors are the very folks yesterday. But at the liberation they so desired, their full of joy possesses their heart and their deep emotions make them hold a grasp of soil again. ‘Even the seawater fluctuating at every corner of homeland is dancing as joyful dance as the writer!’ Perhaps this may be the interpretation of the Korean Independence Day’s song lines, “Let’s touch soil again, the seawater dances.”
What if you?
You listeners too might have experienced in your mind the joy in which the seawater was dancing, if you had been a grandparent and if you had first heard of the news of your homeland’s liberation on a homecoming ship where you were bringing your drafted son from Japan, or at a nameless battlefield, or under the sky of an outland.
2) Remember that the text of the Scripture has a thorough reflection of the times and situation.
There were many intellectuals in our country under the humiliating 36 years of Japanese colonial rule. In a sense, it was those days’ intellectuals that had more benefits than most of poverty-stricken common people on this land. Only a few out of these intellectuals died in love for their country Chosun and burned their souls and bodies for the people of Chosun.
While, most intellectuals sought for ‘their easy lives’ only for the lives of their own, their parents, their children and their wives.
This situation is the same with ancient or modern, oriental or occidental.
Leaders in religious circles at the time of the 1919 Independence Movement, Yu Gwansun the young girl, Hong Nanpa who tried enlightening our national spirit with our own emotions, Nam Gung-oek who lead the drive for planting roses of Sharon, Ahn Changho who shouted for enterprising spirit of young generation, Yun Bonggil the symbol of righteousness, Han Yong-un who struggled between despair and truth-seeking, Lee Sanghwa who expressed despair through his poem ‘Is Spring Coming In The Dispossessed Land?’ Yun Dongju who burned his own soul and body without a shame for the glorious restoration of his motherland, Ahn Iktae who said “A Chosunese is a Chosunese, not a Japanese,”
... There were other many more figures who raised Chosunese folks’ national consciousness and implanted hope for their own motherland Chosen.
It is the same with the prophets in the Bible.
Don’t look at only the glory of David and Solomon in the Bible!
Like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Amos...and other unknown poets, prophets’ lives are full of trials and tribulations, according to the Bible.
For the sake of Israelite nation that was deprived of the spirit, for the sake of the fate of their nation that was swayed by the international conditions, for the sake of homeless people who were thrown into despair in the lost land of Israel, for the sake of enslaved people who were suffering from frustration and agony as prisoners in Babylon, for the sake of homecoming people who were taking great pains in reconstruction of their nation..., most prophets in the Bible were full of strenuous series of life, indeed.
It was strives which held a mortgage on their lives.
How do you think would have been their lives if the prophets who had been oppressed in their country work in another land?
Think of our poets under the rule of Japanese imperialism.
Penal servitude, cruel torture, ailing body, death penalty,...in Kyungsung, Tokyo, Yeosun,...this was the cost for the poets who had strived for national spirit.
Today’s text Ezekiel 37:1~ also has us hear of the similar context, that is, the outcry and hope by the prophet who burns themselves for the sake of national spirit in appalling situation of enslaved people and in all their tribulations.
In B.C. 587, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Jerusalem with his army attached. He and his army destructed - the Temple of Solomon - the house of God King Solomon built and burned mercilessly the streets of Jerusalem where people were living.
They murdered the people who didn’t surrender. And among physically powerless crowd, they bound and dragged Jerusalem’s main figures as prisoners, such as King, priests, secretaries (2 Kings 24:13). The document about this is Jeremiah 39, 2 Kings 25, 1 1 Chronicles, Psalms 137 and others.
Ezekiel was a priest among people who had been dragged along to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in B.C. 598, 11 years earlier that that.
While King Jehoiachin and his men and a few aristocrats alone were held captives within the castle town of Babylon (2 Kings 25:27~), the rest of the enslaved people were made to be strewn about the south of Babylon and settled down on desolate state-run farm villages as colonial settlers. They were mobilized to the forced labor.
For the Israelite enslaved folks, who had been much accustomed to Palestinian mountain climate, it was so hard to put up with the heavy labor in the hot marshland of lowlands Babylon.
The emotions of the enslaved people these days are well expressed in Psalms 137 (See also Lamentations 3:4).
Hopelessness, affliction and self-abandoned resignation were weighing heavily down on the minds of the enslaved people. Lamentaions 3:4, ‘He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones...’ At the fall of Jerusalem, the poet cried this song. It was times of gloominess when the enslaved people dragged unto another nation had to live with self-abandoned despair in their hearts, “Now we are as bad as dead men!”
In gloomy times, in the foreign land and in Babylon where there were cold reception and contemptuous treatment, Ezekiel delivered God’s message through various visions as a prophet. Ezekiel’s representative prophecy is today’s text, the ‘Vision of Dry Bones.’
What Ezekiel saw was the image in which dry bones were scattered in a valley. In the valley where the prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there was full of bones of countless people.
Dear readers, let’s imagine the image that appeared in the revelation of Ezekiel.
Decades of years since they died, bones of countless people filled the valley as dried-up bones. With no shape with no position, the bones were like strewn pieces of firewood. Naturally, there would have been no contact between them. They are just bones without power and hope.
God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
Ezekiel answers, “How can I tell? O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” (Ezekiel 37:3)
Between these words lies the meaning, ‘Even the dry bones like these, God can make them live, if He is willing.’
His answer is that in the situation of no hope and power, God - who is omnipotent with anything in His power - is capable of doing. Then Jehovah commands Ezekiel to prophesy and say to the dead bones (Ezekiel 37:5)
Here, the word ‘prophesy’ means not just to say future things, but also to send God’s message as the representative of God.
At the command of God, Ezekiel shouted to the bones like the verse 5~, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!’ Instantly, there came an unexpected roaring sound and earthquake; all the bones were finding their way into original positions one another to be well-organized. After organization of skeletons, he looked, tendons and flesh appeared on them until skin covered them.
Now, they were each organized in a perfect shape of human.
They are still dead bodies though they are imaginatively perfect shapes of humans.
The reason is, none other than they don’t have the living breath which is the most precious and important in them. So God command Ezekiel to prophesy for the second time and say, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man.”
At the command, Ezekiel prophesied, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” And there came a sudden blast of wind, and living breath entered the dead bodies. So they came to life and stood up on their feet; they became an exceedingly great army.
This ‘living breath’ is the ‘same living breath in Genesis 2:7 that Jehovah used while breathing into man’s nostrils the breath of life to make man become a living being after forming man from the dust of the ground.’
This part of living breath is a dramatic expression of God’s Spirit that gives life to the world according to the command of God, or God who gives growth and prosperity for His people everywhere in the world.
The message’s purpose he prophesied is that through vision he may raise national spirit and plant hope in the minds of the enslaved people of Israel who are passing the days of suffering and despair.
Ezekiel 37:12 and 37:21 proclaims the prophecy of hope that Jehovah will make his people go back to their homeland of Israel. This prophesying is being advocated again on Isaiah 40~55.
How miserable the life of enslaved people dragged along as captives with sovereignty taken away must have been in the exiled land! Otherwise, would he have expressed them as the bones rolling over the valley of death?
The prophet’s poetic words(poem) are not from abstractionism or sentimentalism. But they are expressing the concrete all painful really with deep-grieved breast.
We could find in Ezekiel as well, a certain poet’s soul who died young and sick in prison for the sake of glorious independence of his motherland, one of whose poem is ‘Till I die, looking up to the sky, Oh, that I had no speck of shame...’
Ezekiel is planting hope in the minds of enslaved people, looking up to the ‘hope’ beyond death, instead of soothing his grief with utterance to himself. So Ezekiel is a genuine priest and prophet and poet at the same time.
That hope is concretely represented in verses 11~14.
Ezekiel again expresses the situation of enslaved Israelites who are dispossessed of the slightest traces of life as the words, “The say, ‘Our hope is gone; we are cut off.’”
The figure of speech to the Bones of Dead Persons is the present state where Ezekiel is prophesying.
Only where one is stamping, rolling over, and wailing in the distress like death, in the life more distressful than death, from there comes a helping hand of relief (by Jehovah), says the Bible numerously.
To the enslaved people, the ‘actuality’ of salvation is their motherland, that is, going back to their land of Israel. Look at verse 12. How dreadful the enslaved people must have been on the exiled land, otherwise, would God have said He will bring them out of the grave? For, Israelites saw the coming near of death in each of their lives and many times saw such becoming reality in the fate of many nations that had been forced to be displaced.
To lead Israel out from Babylon, a huge grave of many nations, means for God to rescue his own from the force of death and let his own identify through eyes the power of victory that God’s salvation brings. (Isaiah 41:9, Isaiah 41:26, Isaiah 43:12. Isaiah 43:14~21, Isiah 48:20~22)
God’s power is beyond all the human things.
Only the miracle by God is the only hope for the enslaved people left with bare bones in the land of death, exclaims Ezekiel to the enslaved people with all his might.
This is the hope and salvation wished for in the middle of desperation.
Only when the past is connected to the future, God’s event of redemption is connected, too.
Though it might seem very paradoxical, the Bible emphasizes this paradox. In many events written in the Bible such as Jacob’s life, Joseph’s life, Israel during Exodus, Israelites’ living in the wilderness, and events in the scriptures of Job, Jonah and Judges, and Jesus on the Cross.., there is ‘tribulation like death that encounters humans’ and ‘God’s grace pouring over the tribulation,’ which we call ‘salvation.’
Today’s text Ezekiel 37:1~14 is not suggesting itself to the enslaved people with fantastic words of consolation.
But Ezekiel is representing the severe reality that Israel suffers in the land of destruction. So he is representing God’s message that the people who’ve lost hope make the new contract, a new relationship with God.
Now, let me conclude.
Poem is important to the person who made it, too. But the poem can come as life only to the person who uses it like his own.
There are a multitude of people who are in despair nowadays, too. In a multitude of the people, only a few look up to the hope and salvation because of Jehovah in their lives as today’s text says.
Only the person of such faith can confess “God thyself is living.” The lord of life who overcame even the forces of death made the promise to you “I will be with you till the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)
Only the persons who keep his hope persistently upon this word in their lives may have the qualification of possessing the word.
I pray the word may come into your possession.
** Word of Addition:
Language of prophets is not the outcome of abstractionism and sentimentalism. One should let know and know the fact about a history of any country and any age.
Hopefully, you would appreciate that linguistic style in the books of prophets is realistic language like something blazing.
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