ReStart, week one: Breathe
Ezekiel 37:1-14
2020 has felt like a series of gut punches -
And yet, here we are at second new year’s, i.e. the start of the school year
**We’re going to need a better
Context: the Israelites have been carried into exile and cut off from the Temple - they feel helpless and hopeless
1 The hand of the Lord was on 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, “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.’ ” —Ezekiel 37:1-6
Connection between
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. —Ezekiel 37:7-8
We can have the
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, breath, from the four winds 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 people 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: 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.’ ” —Ezekiel 37:9-14
vv 11-14 - if the dry bones represent the living exiles, then the whole vision isn’t concerned with the physical reality of death, but with the place of despair
v. 14 - Breath = Spirit - it’s how we have what we need to live, it’s the same thing
Ruach (Hebrew) - wind, breath, spirit
With God’s spirit, anything is possible. Without it, our existence is just flesh and blood
We’re gasping for air - God has every breath we need. With God’s spirit, we claim life, even in death.
God says