S5: Day 254: Ezekiel 37–40

0:00Hey, this is Shelby and CJ and we're walking you through the book of Ezekiel. Today we're in chapters 37 through 40. Before we get started, go ahead and hit follow or subscribe wherever you're listening or watching. And that ensures that you continue to just get every single episode as we walk through the entire Bible this year. Okay, CJ chapters 37 through 40. What's happening in these chapters? So again, just a quick refresher. We might want to break up Ezekiel into two major parts. One through 33 is all about judgment and doom and gloom. And then 34 to the end are all about restoration and a future hope when God will set all things right. And today our first chapter, Ezekiel 37, fits very well with the hopeful restoration theme of these, the second half of Ezekiel. It's often referred to as the Valley of Dry Bones. This is the vision where Ezekiel sees all of these, well, bones and skulls and things

1:00like this slowly coming back to life. This is one of my son's favorite stories because obviously the skulls every little boy would love all the skulls and stuff. So it's supposed to represent how Israel is going to, even though they're scattered, even though they're dead, even though the nation is wiped out for all intents and purposes. Eventually God is going to build back up that nation and is going to put new flesh on old dry bones in the same way that he took that old stony heart in Ezekiel 36 and put made it a new, fleshy heart with a new spirit. It's the same sort of image. And of course, thinking now to new testament and moving forward, this is obviously what's true of you and me, but this is obviously what's just true of God's people in general. You and I were dead and our trespasses and sins against God. We were dry bones. We were dead bodies. But breathing his Holy Spirit into us, we've been renewed and we are now being built up,

2:02as you mentioned earlier, with Ephesians 2 into a new body, into a new people, into a new temple where God can dwell. So it's really just a beautiful image of God really making things alive that were dead, which is also just the theme of the Bible in general. God took nothing and turned it into something. So praise the Lord for Ezekiel 37. Yeah, absolutely. I think my takeaway from this chapter has got to be just God's power, his omnipotence. If you want to say it that way, that he can take something that is totally dead. If you think a valley of dry bones, I mean, these are long gone. You know, there is no human hope here, but he's able to breathe a new life there. And so I think in our own lives, we need reminders of God's power that he's able to do anything. And sometimes we do have big prayer requests that we're bringing to God.

3:02And just the other day, I had a friend come to me and she said, hey, I'm praying for a miracle. Is that right to pray for that? And my response was, well, God will do what he's going to do. And I think Jesus is prayer and guess some of these are great models for us. You know, Lord, I'm asking this yet not my will, but yours be done. But who else do we have to pray for for something that requires an all-powerful God's intervention, you know, but him? And so I know there are things in our own lives that we need God to move in. And we are just dependent on only him to do those things. And this just reminds me that he is capable of that and that to bring those requests to him is something that I can do. So yeah, love these chapters. We're seeing hope spring forth. And as you kill, thanks, CJ, for walking us through that. First.