God’s Answer to Despair

5-31-09

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Ez. 37:1-14

Satan was giving a tour of his workshop. Strewn about this hellish place were all tools he uses to lead people away from the truth. There was hatred, jealousy, pride, all smooth and shiny from centuries of use. But there, sitting in the corner was what he called one of his favorites: The tool was labeled “despair” . When asked about it, Satan said “It’s more useful to me than any other tool. When I can’t lead people away with any of the rest of these tools, I use despair.”

Satan is never happier than when he sees you and me despairing of our life. For despair is a reflection of the very character and nature and character of hell, his home. When he can lead someone to despair, he has, in effect, caused the borders of hell to reach into their lives even before their life is over.

He has been very successful at this, take for example Jean Paul Sartre, a highly praised philosopher who thinking now influences our culture. “Man can count on no one but himself; he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.” Cheery isn’t it? And yet it is this philosophy that driving much of the thinking and acting in this world. And we wonder how so many people who are surrounded by blessing upon blessing despair of their lives. It’s because of what they’ve been taught to think like this: Mankind is our only hope? Couple that together that through the history of the world, mankind has proven that it’s rather idiotic and you can see why people despair! Folks quite naturally conclude that there really is no hope. No hope for our climate, no hope for the polar bear, no hope for peace, no hope for our economy and so on and so on. Satan rejoices.

This should not be, and it doesn’t have to be. There are no truly hopeless situations, there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. And the people who grow hopeless are the people without the Lord in their life.

In Today’s Old Testament lesson, There is painted before us a picture that by almost all accounts is completely hopeless. In 597 BC the Babylonians decided it was time to wail the tar out of Israel. They swooped into the promised land with a vengeance, smashing everything in sight. They murdered, looted, and did all the things that attacking armies will do. They leveled Jerusalem, turning the Lord’s temple into a pile of rubble. You would think that would be enough, but no, the babylonians would not be satisfied until they delivered the final blow. They didn’t kill everybody, but they did something worse. They took them captive and led them out of the promised land; moved them away from their place of worship; away from the land of the Lord.

And what we find in Ezekiel 37 is a visual representation of the hearts and minds of God’s people at this time. All of God’s people were like a valley of dried bones. Not freshly traumatized bodies that might still be resuscitated, but bones. And not bones that still had fresh marrow and moisture in them, but dry bones; bones that had died long ago and were beginning to dissolve. And all this, all of these bones presented the picture of what had happened to the hope of Israel.....dried up, dead....hopeless. They themselves had been saying “Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are cut off.” They were in deep despair.

And so God who is always alert, and always aware of what we we are thinking and feeling, takes his cue from their own words and presents it to Ezekiel in the form of a vision. Ezekiel says “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. 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. and then he sked me ‘Son of man, can these bone’s live?’

Well, the prophet didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to think. So he wisely said “Oh Lord, you alone know,” It was really a rhetorical question that God was asking. God was going to show the prophet just how hope would return. The Lord said, "Ezekiel, Prophesy to these bones, Tell them to hear the word of the Lord; tell them that I'm going to put their pieces back together. Ezekiel obeyed, and said what he was supposed to say. Can you imagine that, Standing out there shouting at big old pile of bones? But it worked! The bones heard the word of the Lord. They started rattling and rustling around on the floor of the valley, and Ezekiel could see that the bones were actually coming together forming skeletons, and soon there was muscles, tendons and skin. The valley of bones was now a valley of flesh and bones. But they weren't alive yet. There was one more ingredient that was necessary: Breath.

But that was coming. The Lord Told Ezekiel to prophesy once more. this time to the breath. Ezekiel did so. And the valley of corpses became a living breathing army, standing at attention there in that valley.

Notice how similar it is to creation. Creation happened in two stages as well. First God formed man and assembled his parts. Then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. But this passage in Ezekiel is not talking about the origins of physical life, its talking about the origins of spiritual life. That valley of dry bones represented the children of Israel sitting in Babylon, despairing, hopeless, despondent. And with this vision, the Lord is showing the way out and he’s showing us the way out too. Each of us, I’m sure have taken a trip to this valley of bones before. And as I pointed out, its almost impossible to go through life without having the world around us try to drag us into that valley.

But God has not left us without help. He has given us two different things.....two very powerful things. First, he has given us his word. He commands us to hear it. The same word that used to create the world, he has made available to us with the scriptures. But he has also made it available in His Son, who is the word made flesh. As Satan and your own sinful nature seek to destroy what God has created and also destroy you, God is ready to repair and redeem and restore and forgive through his Son. Jesus, the word made flesh can recreate and fix what is broken in you, and that includes your hope. Hear the word of the Lord, And things will start changing in your valley.

The Second thing that Lord gives us is his spirit. And by the way, in the Language of the old Testament, Breath and Spirit are interchangeable. So when God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, he was animating him by his spirit. And he can animate you too. He can cause the expression on your face to change from one of despair to one of hopefulness. But most importantly he can help your eyes to see again.

The holy Spirit is kind of like a good pair of eyeglasses. He helps us see the world through the eyes of God. And that gives us an altogether different perspective on things; a life-changing perspective; a perspective that flushes away all despair and restores hopefulness. Contrary to what Jean-Paul Sarte and also satan himself, we are not all alone, we are not abandoned on this earth; we have not been left in the valley of dry bones; and we are therefore not without hope. There is a God; a God who is all powerful; a God who has clearly stated his plans to make all things new; a God who has signed and sealed his plans with the gift of his own Son. A God who has called us to faith and loves us very much.

In other words we have hope. Hope that transcends all despair.. Hope that no scientist or doctor or politician or philosopher can even come close to. We have the Lord. AMEN