The usual expression used is, "Where there's life, there's hope". The expression has been turned around here for this entry title in order to express a truth in scripture, and to find out more about both hope and life.
We are looking at a familiar passage from Ezekiel 37 regarding the prophet's vision of the valley of dry bones. This vision sent by the LORD to Ezekiel can speak many things to us today. If we study the Hebrew word meanings within the verses, we can find needed truth for the Church.
The condition that Ezekiel is shown by the Spirit of the LORD in the valley, is of a great many bones laying about on the ground. These bones were so dry, that they had separated one from another. No flesh or sinew was left to hold them together. One could not tell what bone had been joined to another.
The LORD asks Ezekiel if these bones of the valley can live again. Ezekiel could not see life anywhere. In order to answer the LORD, he said, "O LORD God, You know." (v. 2)
The LORD God begins to speak to the bones, and He instructs Ezekiel to also prophesy to the bones.
As the prophet began to obey and speak to the bones, they began to come together bone to bone (v. 7). Flesh and sinews began to form to cover, join and hold the bones together. The LORD then told the prophet to prophesy the winds of breath to come and breathe upon the bones to give them life. The rejoined bones then stood, alive, to become a great army. The LORD identifies this army as the whole house of Israel.
However, after this great army is given the breath that makes them live again, the LORD tells the prophet that this army is saying something to Him:
"...behold they say, "Our bones are dry and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts."
Ez. 37:11b
Although the bones are re-joined and living again miraculously, their cry is one of being without hope, and they still feel that their condition is like dry bones missing parts.
If we look at the Hebrew meaning of the words used in this verse above, it is telling us something very deep, and it explains why the LORD promised them two things in the verses that follow.
According to the Hebrew meanings of the key words of the verse above, this mighty bone army is saying to the LORD that though they are numerous and vast, they are without vital strength. They are ashamed and confused. They still feel like the disjointed bones they were, because there is no cord of hope that binds them together and gives them strength. (The Hebrew meaning for the word "hope" includes the idea of a cord that ties member parts together to make them stronger than they were as separate units). The bone army still feels divided and separated one from another. Needed parts are missing or still separated one from another. This was the Hebrew meaning of their cry to the LORD. There was yet a greater work that needed to be done to strengthen, unify, and make them whole again.
Having heard the bone army's cry, the first promise the LORD made to them was the unifying cord of hope that they lacked. It is the hope of resurrection:
"...Thus says the LORD God, "Behold, O My people (to overshadow and darken because of a huddling together, to collect together, to join together) I will open your graves, and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I AM the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people and brought you up from your graves." Ez. 37:12-13
The New Testament tells us that we have that hope that the dry bones were looking for, that same unifying hope that binds us together with one another like a cord, so we can stand stronger together than if we were just a single individual. That essential, life-giving and unifying hope is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3
Titus 1:2 tells us that this hope of eternal life was promised by God before the world began. Is it possible that the prophet Ezekiel was taken by the Spirit of the LORD, back to a time before time, and to a place before places were formed, where this promise by the Father was first made, even before the world began? That would be an awesome thing!
This same prophetic promise of resurrection means that even the Church, though seemingly divided into many separate parts, is united by that cord of hope created through the resurrection of Christ from the dead unto eternal life. This is the hope that defines us and holds us together. It is this hope that, though we see the sometimes frightening events of this age, we can "Look up, lift our heads, and see our Redemption drawing nigh" (Lk. 21:28). We can give an answer to others in every circumstance for the hope of the resurrection that is within us (1 Pet. 3:15). It is by this sure and steady promise of hope, that we have the assurance and confidence that we can enter behind the veil into His holy presence (Heb. 6:9). It is this uniting cord of hope that changes us from corruptible into incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:53).
The second promise made at that time by the LORD God in answer to the cry of this revived bone army is a promise of uniting Judah, Israel, and Joseph/Ephraim (added to, doubly fruitful). This is in answer to the statement made by the bones that they are still "cut off (divided, separated) for our parts."
The LORD God promises through the spoken word and action of His prophet to unify two sticks as one (Ez. 37:15-20), to bring back together, to restore, the missing parts that had been cut off. According to the LORD's instructions to Ezekiel, one of the sticks represents Judah and Israel, and the second stick represents Joseph and his son, Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are half Gentile.
Again, this concerns the Church, as well as Israel. We are both missing essential parts, those missing parts being each other, that have been cut off and separated from us. We, like the army of living bones, are incomplete without each other.The promise of God is for our unity. By His prophetic Word He has commanded the promise that the two sticks will become one in His hand through the hope found in the resurrection of our Savior and Messiah, Jesus.
This cord of hope in the resurrection of Christ making us a vast, numerous people of God will not, and cannot be broken.
However, after this great army is given the breath that makes them live again, the LORD tells the prophet that this army is saying something to Him:
"...behold they say, "Our bones are dry and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts."
Ez. 37:11b
Although the bones are re-joined and living again miraculously, their cry is one of being without hope, and they still feel that their condition is like dry bones missing parts.
If we look at the Hebrew meaning of the words used in this verse above, it is telling us something very deep, and it explains why the LORD promised them two things in the verses that follow.
According to the Hebrew meanings of the key words of the verse above, this mighty bone army is saying to the LORD that though they are numerous and vast, they are without vital strength. They are ashamed and confused. They still feel like the disjointed bones they were, because there is no cord of hope that binds them together and gives them strength. (The Hebrew meaning for the word "hope" includes the idea of a cord that ties member parts together to make them stronger than they were as separate units). The bone army still feels divided and separated one from another. Needed parts are missing or still separated one from another. This was the Hebrew meaning of their cry to the LORD. There was yet a greater work that needed to be done to strengthen, unify, and make them whole again.
Having heard the bone army's cry, the first promise the LORD made to them was the unifying cord of hope that they lacked. It is the hope of resurrection:
"...Thus says the LORD God, "Behold, O My people (to overshadow and darken because of a huddling together, to collect together, to join together) I will open your graves, and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I AM the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people and brought you up from your graves." Ez. 37:12-13
The New Testament tells us that we have that hope that the dry bones were looking for, that same unifying hope that binds us together with one another like a cord, so we can stand stronger together than if we were just a single individual. That essential, life-giving and unifying hope is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3
Titus 1:2 tells us that this hope of eternal life was promised by God before the world began. Is it possible that the prophet Ezekiel was taken by the Spirit of the LORD, back to a time before time, and to a place before places were formed, where this promise by the Father was first made, even before the world began? That would be an awesome thing!
This same prophetic promise of resurrection means that even the Church, though seemingly divided into many separate parts, is united by that cord of hope created through the resurrection of Christ from the dead unto eternal life. This is the hope that defines us and holds us together. It is this hope that, though we see the sometimes frightening events of this age, we can "Look up, lift our heads, and see our Redemption drawing nigh" (Lk. 21:28). We can give an answer to others in every circumstance for the hope of the resurrection that is within us (1 Pet. 3:15). It is by this sure and steady promise of hope, that we have the assurance and confidence that we can enter behind the veil into His holy presence (Heb. 6:9). It is this uniting cord of hope that changes us from corruptible into incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:53).
The second promise made at that time by the LORD God in answer to the cry of this revived bone army is a promise of uniting Judah, Israel, and Joseph/Ephraim (added to, doubly fruitful). This is in answer to the statement made by the bones that they are still "cut off (divided, separated) for our parts."
The LORD God promises through the spoken word and action of His prophet to unify two sticks as one (Ez. 37:15-20), to bring back together, to restore, the missing parts that had been cut off. According to the LORD's instructions to Ezekiel, one of the sticks represents Judah and Israel, and the second stick represents Joseph and his son, Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are half Gentile.
Again, this concerns the Church, as well as Israel. We are both missing essential parts, those missing parts being each other, that have been cut off and separated from us. We, like the army of living bones, are incomplete without each other.The promise of God is for our unity. By His prophetic Word He has commanded the promise that the two sticks will become one in His hand through the hope found in the resurrection of our Savior and Messiah, Jesus.
This cord of hope in the resurrection of Christ making us a vast, numerous people of God will not, and cannot be broken.
Ezek. 37- Two sticks become one in His hand
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