Tag Archives: Ezekiel 38

Daily Bible Study

September 9, 2023 Bible Study — God Can Breathe Life Into the Most Moribund Organization

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 37-38.

When I read Ezekiel’s prophecy about the valley of the dry bones, I am inspired in two ways.  First, it reminds me that I serve and put my faith in a God who raised Lazarus from the dead, and is able to do exactly what this passage describes.  Second, and perhaps more importantly, it tells me that any congregation, or other organization, which seeks to do God’s will continues to serve His purposes long after it seems its future is hopeless to human eyes.  If you are part of an aging congregation which is shrinking, seek to serve the Lord and to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.  Even if everyone in the congregation is over seventy and the numbers have dwindled down to a few dozen (or less), if the Holy Spirit chooses to breathe new life into it, it will catch fire and grow.  That does not mean that we should not close the doors on congregations, or other organizations, which have outlived their mission.  It does mean that if you feel God calling you to serve in a congregation, or other organization, which seems to be dying, do as the Spirit leads.  You will not be wasting your time.  Of course, if you are in such an organization, surrender fully to the Holy Spirit and accept the breathe of life which He breathes into you.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

September 9, 2022 Bible Study — God Can Turn Even Dead, Dry Bones Into Vibrant Servants For Him

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 37-38.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

I really like the prophecy of the valley of dry bones.  It reminds me of the congregations I have known over the years which seemed like they were as good as dead.  The membership had shrunk, and for the most part gotten old.  No one really thought they would ever grow again, and those still attending were doing so because finding a new congregation was too much work.  Usually, the larger Church body they were part of was just waiting for enough members to die off that they could close it.  This prophecy reminds us that thinking that way is a mistake.  Certainly, most of those congregations eventually ran their course, or will run their course, and closed, but if God wishes He will breathe new life into them and revive them.  If you are part of such a congregation, or, if you even just know of one, pray that God will do just that.  That He will breathe His Spirit into those who still attend that congregation and light them on fire for Him.  Pray that God will breath new life into those dull, moribund congregations so that they will be light in the darkness.  However, let us not forget what comes before God breathing new life into them.  First, He pulls the bones together, then attaches tendons and muscles to those bones, finally, He covers this new flesh with skin to protect it from the elements.  Only then does God breathe life into what was dead, dry bones.  The same is true of individual people as well.  God may breathe His Spirit into someone who has become tired and “dried up”, so that His energy and light flows through them once more.  Let us pray that God pours His Spirit out onto the Church in this country, and throughout the world, so that it becomes the army He intends it to be to transform society around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

September 9, 2021 Bible Study — It Won’t Die If God Tells It To Live

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 37-38.

I love Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Valley of the Dry Bones.  God took Ezekiel to a valley full of bones, bones which were completely devoid of flesh and were dry.  Those bones had no life to them whatsoever, not even bacterial life.  Yet, when Ezekiel followed God’s instruction to prophesy that they would live, they came to life.  So, we learn from this that God can bring life back to anything He chooses, no matter how devoid of life it may appear to us.  I tend to see this as applying to what appear to be dying congregations, but it applies equally to other organizations, and to people.  We should never lose hope that God will transform people, no matter how close to death their rebellion against God has taken them.  If we see a way that an organization or group can serve God, we should not lose hope that it will rise to the occasion.

However, there are two other lessons to take from this prophecy.  These two lessons are, in a way, intertwined.  The dying, or dead, only come back to life when God breathes life into them.  And, if God has called us to deliver His message of revival to them it is not a once and done effort.  In this passage, Ezekiel had to make two separate prophecies before the bones returned to life, but God will likely require much more than that of us when sending us to revivify.  God demands a lot of effort from those who sends into the world, but we must remember that our effort will not bring life back to the dead and dying.  Only God can do that.  He can do that without us, and may well do so if we refuse to do the work.  But, He blesses some of us with the joy of being the channel through which His Spirit passes to do its work (the wording there is not quite right).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

September 9, 2020 Bible Study Don’t Give Up On Something Because It Appears Dead, God Can Raise an Army From a Valley of Dry Bones

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 6 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 37-38.

I have always considered Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the Valley of the Dry Bones to contain one of the most important lessons for us.  I have frequently witnessed Christians decide that a congregation has gotten too old, or too staid, or both, to ever thrive again.  While there is some truth to this, we should never believe that God’s Spirit cannot revive such a congregation.  However, the Valley of Dry Bones prophecy does not just apply to congregations, or other institutions, which we think are dead and dried up.  The prophecy also teaches us that God’s Spirit can move and bring life, even when we think something is long dead.  Let us pray that God’s Spirit will move in the world today and bring the fire of revival to it.  Let us pray that God will bring new life to the dry bones of Christianity in parts of the world where it once thrived.  But, let us do more than just pray, let us speak as the Spirit guides us to bring about that change.

I have long wondered whether the passage here about Gog and Magog attacking Israel was a figurative prophecy, or perhaps if it was a reference to the 1967 Arab-Israel War.  Now, the other day I mentioned how Meshech and Tubal were mentioned in a list of nations which Ezekiel’s original readers would have been familiar.  So, as I was reading this prophecy today, I thought about current world affairs and wondered if this prophecy might refer to something about to happen.  It is not that this is something that I know is about to happen, merely something which current world affairs, for the first time in my lifetime, make a possibility.  So, Meshech and Tubal most likely would have been nations bordering the Black Sea towards the east end.  Gomer, which is also mentioned here, would have been in an area which is now part of Turkey.  In the prophecy we have Sheba and Dedan warning this alliance against attacking Israel.  Interestingly, Sheba and Dedan were nations of the Arabian Peninsula.  With the recent normalization between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and Saudi Arabia’s long term silent cooperation with Israel, it makes such a warning not at all improbable.  Looking at the current world situation, the alliances of nations which geographically fit those described in this prophecy are possible for the first time in my life time (during the 1967 War the nations of the Arabian Peninsula were in the alliance against Israel).

Daily Bible Study

September 9, 2019 Bible Study — The Valley of Dry Bones

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 37-38.

Ezekiel describes his vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.  In my opinion, we should pay a lot of attention to this passage.  There are two closely related messages here.  No matter how dead and dysfunctional a group or organization may seem, if and when God chooses to bring them back to life they will become an army to serve His purposes.  Further, when God calls you to speak His word to a group or organization trust that it will be effective, even if no one seems to be paying attention.  Actually that lesson goes beyond that: when God calls you to a mission, that mission will accomplish God’s purpose, even if it seems a failure.  Do that to which God has called you, no matter how pointless it may seem. 

I go back and forth between thinking that Ezekiel’s message to God represents a specific future event (future to Ezekiel, but not necessarily to us) and that it is a figurative prophecy.  If it represents a specific event, the lands mentioned (Magog, Meschech, and Tubal) would today be parts of Turkey, Georgia (the nation, not the U.S. state), and southern Russia.  The current leader of Turkey has shown that he has the ambition to be able to do what is described here and has said things which suggest he even has the ambition to launch the invasion described.  The passage even contains a suggestion that the ruler who launches the invasion believes that he is called by God to do so.  The current ruler of Turkey would make such a claim if he launched an attack.  Such an alliance would be diplomatically opposed by Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish.    Sheba and Dedan were located on the Arabian peninsula and the countries located there today would be among those whose aid Turkey would seek should it choose to attack Israel.  Many of those countries, especially Saudi Arabia, would currently question the wisdom of attacking Israel and oppose doing so.  In any case, such an attack will result in utter defeat for the attackers so as to bring glory to God’s name.  Their destruction will come about as the attacking allies turn on each other.

Daily Bible Study

September 9, 2018 Bible Study — The Spirit Of God Can Breathe New Life Into the Dried Out Husk of a Congregation

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 37-38.

    I have been looking forward to today’s passage since I began reading the Book of Ezekiel this year. I really love Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. We need to closely heed the message God gives us through Ezekiel here. Ezekiel was prophesying to the people of Israel who felt that the nation of Israel was dead and that it was just a matter of time until they ceased to exist as a people. Ezekiel prophesied to them that God was capable of breathing new life into dry bones. When I read this passage today I thought about several congregations I know which everyone thinks are dead and only still meeting waiting for the last members to die off. I believe that this is always a mistake. Those congregations may appear moribund and the congregants may seem to have become cold, but, as long as the word of God is given at least lip service there, God may breathe His Spirit on that congregation and light a fire for Him which will consume the entire nation. If you are part of a congregation which seems to have lost its fire and died, pray to God for guidance as to whether you should stay or move on. If God tells you to stay, pray that God breathe His Spirit upon the congregation and bring it back to life. If God can turn a valley of dry, scattered bones into a living army, He can bring light that congregation on fire for Him.

    The other prophecy in this passage I want to touch on is the one concerning Gog and Magog. When I was growing up most students of prophesy thought that it applied to the Soviet Union. It made sense because north of Israel there were really only four countries: Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and the Soviet Union. Lebanon could hardly be considered the “far north” since it sat on Israel’s northern border, besides which Lebanon would have been known to Ezekiel by that name. Syria was known to Ezekiel as Aram, so he would not have called it Magog. So, we were really only left with two candidates, Turkey and the Soviet Union. At the time, Turkey was closely allied with the West against the Soviet Union and was one of the few Muslim countries which had diplomatic relations with Israel. Further, a historical study of the nations which Gog is listed as ruling over suggests that Meschech and Tubal could refer to lands which were then part of the Soviet Union (there were also people who associated Meschech with Moscow because of the similarities between the two words).
    However, for all of that, the best historical evidence places Magog, Meschech, and Tubal in what is now Turkey. And if we look at the areas which were part of the Soviet Union and could possibly be Meschech and Tubal, we discover that they are now former Soviet states which are majority Muslim. The frightening thing is that current political alignments make this interpretation of the prophecy something not hard to see happening. The allies which are listed seem feasible: Libya, Ethiopia, Persia (Iran). And those warning against such an attack seems plausible as well. Sheba and Dedan are the nations of the Arabian Peninsula and they are currently seeking closer relations with Israel as a counter balance to Iran. The “merchants of Tarshish” is vague, but could conceivably apply to the United Kingdom and the United States. I am simplifying the parts about those advising against because I have already spent more time on this than I like.

Daily Bible Study

September 10, 2017 Bible Study — Gog, The Land of Magog, Meschech, and Tubal

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 38-40.

    Chapter 38 was part of the reading I did two days ago (it was supposed to be yesterday). However, I did not write about it because Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones took up my time. So, I am going to include it in today’s blog. The first thing I want to mention is that Ezekiel is prophesying this as something which will happen in the far future. Most of the other prophecies in the Old Testament were perceived by the prophet as being in the near future; happening inside the next hundred years. I am not sure that they were all fulfilled in that time frame, but the prophet who prophesied them expected most of them to be. Another thing I want to mention is the locations to which Ezekiel would have been referring. Meschech and Tubal were in what is now Turkey, while the location of the Land of Magog is less clear. The Land of Magog may also have been in Turkey, although that is less clear.

    If the above understanding of the prophecy is correct, then it has not yet been fulfilled. Now I am going to do something I usually avoid because it tends to lead to bad theology, but I cannot help myself today. Looking at current world politics I could easily see something like what Ezekiel prophesied happening in the near future (there is currently one “glitch” in this which I will point out shortly). If this prophecy were to be fulfilled in my lifetime it would involve Turkey leading an alliance of themselves, Iran (Persia), Libya, and Ethiopia. This alliance might include some of the Muslim majority former Soviet Republics (Gomer and Beth-togarmah might be other parts of what is now Turkey, or they might be areas which are some of the southern former Soviet Republics). The only part of such an alliance which seems improbable in the current political landscape is Ethiopia. One can even see countries of the Arabian peninsula (Sheba and Dedan could easily be the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) demurring from the alliance and questioning its chances of success. All of that being said, if such an invasion takes place, it will be a total failure.

Daily Bible Study

September 8, 2017 Bible Study — What The Valley Of Dry Bones Teaches Us

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 37-38.

    Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones is a powerful message. As I read it I saw two important messages for us. First I want to set the stage. In his vision, Ezekiel is taken to a valley full of human bones which are scattered about. They are not arranged as skeletons and they are completely dried out. There is no flesh left on them at all, not even connective tissue. Then God asks him if these bones can once more become living people. And here is where we learn the first lesson. The obvious answer is “No”. That is even the answer which we would think God was expecting. However, Ezekiel does not give that answer. Instead, he replies that God alone knows the answer to that question. You could view this as avoiding the question, but that is not what Ezekiel was doing here. Ezekiel was open to the possibility of God bringing life to these bones. He recognized that if God wanted to bring these bones back to life He could and would do so. Would we have been open to the possibility of God bringing life to those dry bones? How often do we throw up our hands and walk away from the “dry bones”?

    This brings me to the second message I see in this passage: with God nothing is truly dead if He wants it to live. When God gave Ezekiel the message to preach to the dry bones, he did so. Ezekiel preached God’s message that He was going to bring these bones back to life and the bones from each skeleton came together from where they were scattered throughout the valley, muscle and flesh formed over the bones, and skin formed over the flesh. However, that was not enough. The bodies which had formed at the prophetic words spoken by Ezekiel still did not live. So, God gave him a second message to speak. It was only after the second message that the bodies formed from the dry bones came to life. And this leads to a follow up to the question I asked at the end of the first paragraph; Do we keep on preaching God’s word when the bodies form, but do not come to life? We need to be persistent in preaching God’s life giving message. And just now I saw another related mistake we sometimes make. What if Ezekiel had said, “Well, the bones formed into bodies. They may not be alive, but that’s an improvement. I’ll just leave well enough alone.” It is not enough for people to change away from the worst of their sinful behavior. We need to keep preaching to them until the Holy Spirit breathes Life into them.