Old Dried Bones Can Live

There are things that Scripture records God saying and doing that if it were not God saying or doing them, would be either harsh or just plain crazy.

In Luke 7 Jesus and His disciples encounter a funeral procession coming out of a town called Nain. In verse 13 Jesus tells the mother of the young man who died not to weep. Now, if this was anyone but Jesus, God in the flesh, those would be harsh and unfeeling words. But Jesus next goes over to the casket and brings the young man back to life.

In John 11 Jesus brings Lazarus back to life. In verses 25 and 26 Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” If anyone else either then Jesus said that they would be crazy. But Jesus then goes and calls Lazarus from the tomb and Lazarus comes out alive.

Maybe the craziest thing that God did in all of Scripture is found in Ezekiel 37.

Ezekiel 37:1 says, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones.”

God takes Ezekiel and places him in a valley full of old dead bones. That sounds weird and creepy to me.

Verse 2 describes these bones as being very dry. That means the bones had been in that valley for a long time.

In verse 3 God asks Ezekiel if these bones can live. Now, my answer would have been - No Way!

But that is not how Ezekiel answered. He said, “O Lord God, you know.” Ezekiel is saying, “God, if You want them to live, You can make them live.”

God tells Ezekiel to speak in his authority as a prophet over the bones. He tells Ezekiel to say to the bones “hear the word of the Lord.”

That seems crazy to me that God would tell Ezekiel to speak to these dry dead bones.

But the message God has for Ezekiel seems even crazier. He tells Ezekiel to say to the bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews 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.”

And Ezekiel did exactly what God told him to do.

The result of Ezekiel’s obedience and God’s power is recorded in verses 7 through 10. It says:
“There was a sound and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there was sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

This is a weird and awesome story. But is that all it is? - NO!

I believe it really happened. Does that make me crazy?

There is more to what God is doing here.

Because God tells us in verse 11 what the bones represent. God says, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.”

So the bones represent God’s people, the nation of Israel.

The bones show that God’s people were dried up, without hope, and cut off.

God then tells Ezekiel to tell His people what He would do for them. God will:
Bring Them to Life
Establish Them in the Land
Put His Spirit in Them
Make Them Know that He is Lord

God ends this passage at the end of verse 14 with these words, “I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

As I read the way that God described His people in verse 11, I believe that God could describe the church in America today in the same way.

The church in America is dry.
The church in America feels hopeless.
The church in America is cut off from the power of God.

But look at what God says He will do:
Bring us to life
Establish us in the land
Put His Spirit in us
Make Us Know that He is Lord

So what is it going to take for God to do these things for us as His people in America? It will take us as His people cooperating with Him.

Cooperating in Praying

John 14:13
Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be gloried in the Son.

Cooperating in Worshiping

Matthew 4:10
You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.

Cooperating in Being One Together as His People

John 17:21
That they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, I and in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Cooperating in Sharing the Gospel

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Cooperating in Sharing our Resources

Acts 4:34-35
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ fee, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Cooperating in Making Disciples

Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Cooperating in Living as Children of God

Philippians 2:14-15
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Cooperating by Surrendering Your Lives to Jesus

Luke 9:23
And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

We live in an insane world. So God is going to look crazy to the world and if we follow Him we will look crazy.

Everything in our world is asking us to give up everything and Buy Into, Give, Surrender, or Abandon All for it. Jesus is the only one that asks us to surrender all to Him because He has already surrendered all for us.

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being crazy, crazy enough to trust God and obey Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being radical, radical enough to believe God’s Word and live it.

Radically Crazy Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe