Thu Sep 4

Listen up, little ones

Listen for the word bones.

Reading

Ezekiel 37:1-6—Very Dry Bones

Keys for kids

• God showed Ezekiel a valley full of bones.
• God asked Ezekiel if these dead bones could live.
• Ezekiel wisely said, Lord only you know.

Questions

1. Where did God’s Spirit take Ezekiel?
2. What was the message of these dry bones?
3. Can these dry bones live? Explain.

Notes

(See Saturday for authors)

All today’s notes are from Derek Thomas

This is a chapter which features the work of God’s Spirit. The word ‘spirit’, in both Hebrew and Greek, is a picture word. It pictures breath breathed, or panted out, as when you blow out candles on a birthday cake or puff and blow as you run… When ‘Spirit’ is used of the Holy Spirit, it is meant to convey the powerful effect of his work.

Here, in Ezekiel 37, the word ‘spirit’ refers to breath, wind and the Holy Spirit in quick succession. It is meant to signal (as it evidently did to Hebrew readers) that the work of the Holy Spirit is both powerful and visible. Not since chapter 11 have we been told that Ezekiel was taken somewhere by the ‘hand of the Lord’ (37:1). The prophet is taken to a ‘valley’ to observe a gruesome sight: the unburied, skeletal remains of a fallen army. It is a depiction of Jerusalem after its fall to the Babylonians, and it comes at what must have been one of the lowest points in the recorded history of Israel. At such a point, God comes with a word of great encouragement to cheer the hearts of his despondent people. It is a vision in which the bones come to life by the intervention of his sovereign power. When things are at their lowest ebb, God intervenes with promises of hope, blessing and revival.

Swedish Method questions

Praise

Psalm 104d, 119t

Prayer

1. Pray for the work of God’s Spirit in your and your family’s life.
2. Pray for the preparation for preaching God’s word this Sunday.
3. Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.