Purpose of this lesson: To note Gods great patience with those who have spiritually failed.
For many people, the moment of awakening comes. They examine the moment they are in and despise it. They consider all the mistakes made before they were bornnot to justify themselves, but to acknowledge the roots of their evil circumstances. They see specific ways in which they, in their choices and the lives they lived, continued those mistakes. With crushing devastation, they admit that they have no one but themselves to blame for their situation. Their present troubles burden them like lead on the shoulders of a drowning person trying to swim. Their present circumstances take away their breath. All they can see is hopelessness. They detest themselves, and they are sure anyone who knows the truth about them detests them as well.
Many people hate themselves when they react to an accurate understanding of the mistakes they have made in their lives. Usually, the greater the consequences of the mistake, the greater the sense of regret in the person who made the mistake. It is very common for a person to be so grief-stricken at the awareness of personal mistakes that he or she mixes rightful grief from mistakes made with grief for mistakes that were not the persons fault to produce a toxic brand of self-loathing.
Can you imagine the horror of the ten tribes realizations when they finally woke up in Assyrian exile? Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26-40) had opportunity to be Gods king, and he blew it (1 Kings 12:25-28)! The kings of Israel had many opportunities to turn from idolatry and initiate spiritual reform, and they blew it! There were times of great prosperity, and all they did was indulge themselvesthey blew it! In greed, they victimized the helpless. They were concerned for their own lifestyle, not for poor people who stood helpless before their circumstances. They concluded they were invincible. They were certain there was a political solution for every possible problem they might face. God at best was out of step and at worse was a helpless inconvenience. They were equal to any challenges they might facethey were their strength, and they did not need any god who was not dependent on them.
The ten tribes that went into Assyrian captivity had many mistakes to call to awareness. There were times that they we quite successful materially as they continued their spiritual decline. They had a lot to regret as some came to awareness in Assyrian captivity.
Suddenly, they were captives, exiles in a strange land. Suddenly, they were helpless. Suddenly, they saw no hope. And their circumstances were their fault!
A special form of grief descends on people who come to awareness of how unnecessary their situation is.
The second hardest job given to people is to make those who are wayward aware of their mistakes and the consequences of their mistakes. The first hardest job given to people is to give genuine hope to those who realize their waywardness. No guilt is as devastating as the rightful guilt we impose on ourselves for our bad choices and actions.
Hard grief produced by an awareness of rightful guilt also can produce hopelessness. It is not a simple task to help those in the deep grief produced by a sense of guilt to rediscover hope. It is hard to get such people past the question, But what if I had not ? I deserve even more than the consequences that result in my agony! A sense of self-loathing often replaces repentance making repentance extremely difficult (not impossible).
Ezekiel was given both tasks. He was to make the wayward aware of their mistakes. He was to give hope to those who were spiritual failures and repented.
It is demanding to make people aware of their mistakes, and then to give those people hope through repentance. Ezekiel was given a difficult task!
With the hand of the Lord on him, Ezekiel through the Lords Spirit was placed in a valley filled with bones. The circumstance of being near bones was forbidden Jews (see Numbers 19:16; 31:19). In a circumstance that was a symbol of uncleanness or impurity, God (a) commanded Ezekiel to survey the situation, and (b) asked if the bones could live again. The bones represented people who had been dead for a long timeso long the bones were dry without a hint of flesh.
Two things stand out in this experience. First, to the devout Jew, Ezekiel was in a situation that was symbolic of impurity. Even when necessary to be in contact with death, the devout Jew had to endure a ceremony that made him (or her) pure again. Second, the people represented by these bones had been dead a long time. Ezekiel must have felt strange and hesitant in this situation. Serving God often places you in situations you never anticipated! To the devout Jew, God even could produce hope in a valley of bones!
If ever there was impossibility, this was it! The whole valley was full of impurity! The bodies had been dead so long that everything, long since, had decayed from them! There was not even a way to tell who these people had been! (This was long before CSI teams!)
God produced good in the mist of impurity. Example: God produced a Savior when human rejection used pain and execution! God did so by giving meaning to the pain and execution through resurrection.
God asked Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. What a seemingly useless task! Ezekiel did it. With a great noise (like thunder), the bones came together and bodies formed on the bones. Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy again so life could enter those bodies, and the bodies became a huge army.
God did what seemed impossible! Because of God, even in the midst of the most impossible circumstances, there is hope.
The point: Though Israels bones were dry, though their hope was dead, and though they felt cut off, God would give them the opportunity to live again. What seemed impossible would be possible BECAUSE GOD WILLED IT TO HAPPEN. God offered hope to a people we humans would never give hope because those people blew it in the worst sort of way. From human perspective, those people deserved their circumstances.
The issue is never what would we do, but what has God done. God functions in the worst situations to produce good and hope. The value God places on spiritual failures exceeds any kindness people are capable of producing. Christians must never restrict God on the basis of human limitations.
Consider two things. First, read Jeremiah 18:5-10. Note what God does with people is conditional. Their repentance determines Gods actions. Second, read Luke 2:36. Note the prophetess Anna was from the tribe of Asher. Asher was among the ten tribes that went into Assyrian captivity.
God is not restricted when it comes to expressions of repentance, no matter what the people did in the past.
Anna occupied a righteous position in an area her ancestors never visited. The ten tribes as a nation never permitted or encouraged a return to the Jerusalem temple of God and never used that temple as a worship center. One of the two people who recognized the Messiah as an infant at his presentation in the temple was a woman from the ten tribes of Israelites who went into Assyrian captivity. Consider the likelihood of that happening!
Note Gods concern for those who spiritually fail by reading 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 with Galatians 6:1 and 1 Thessalonians 5:14. Punitive efforts of the godly toward spiritual failures exist to encourage those who fail to return to the Lord, not to destroy them. God is much more patient with spiritual failures than many Christians tend to be!
The righteous, with care, confront those who revert to unrighteousness in efforts to bring them back to God, not in efforts to spiritually destroy them.
The issue always has been, Will they repent? not, What do they deserve?
People who dedicate themselves to God call others to repentance. They do not seek the spiritual destruction of people.
For Thought and Discussion
1. Discuss the moment of awakening. Discuss the moment of awakening by the ten tribes of Israel in Assyrian captivity.
Here, the moment of awakening, is a persons or peoples awareness of mistakes made that resulted in consequences that spiritually kill. The discussion should include this awareness.
The nation formed by the ten tribes had gone from material success to being captives who were exiled to a strange county. The end result of centuries of abuse and neglect of God resulted in this terrible situation. The discussion should include this awareness.
2. What are the two hardest jobs in working with the wayward?
(a) The second hardest job is to make spiritual failures aware of their mistakes and the consequences those mistakes produced.
(b) The first hardest job is to restore such people to hope once they are aware of their mistakes.
3. Through the Lords Spirit, where did Ezekiel go? What was unusual about that trip?
Ezekiel went to a valley filled with human bones.
In a scene of impurity, he was to declare Gods working.
In a scene that declared impurity to devout Jews, God worked and did the impossible. If God could restore those bones to life, He could give (real) hope to Jews in Assyrian captivity.
4. What did God first ask Ezekiel to do? What happened?
God commanded him to prophesy to the bones. The bones joined together and became bodies.
5. What happened the next time God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy?
Life entered the bodies, and the bodies became a huge army.
6. What was the point?
Though the nation of the ten tribes were as dry bones, though their hope was dead, though they felt cut off, God would provide them opportunity to live again.
7. What does Jeremiah 18:5-10 say? What does Luke 2:36 reveal?
Jeremiah 18:10-15 declares the conduct of people determines Gods behavior toward them, regardless of what He said in the past. People cannot exploit God!
Luke 2:36: A woman who spent her time in the temple area who came from the ten tribes in Assyrian captivity was among the first to recognize the Messiah.
8. Discuss Gods concern for spiritual failures.
The discussion should include the scriptures given. Those who are guilty of unspiritual behavior (determined by scripture in context, not by human opinion) or a return to an unspiritual lifestyle, are to be confronted, but patientlywith self-reflectionin the determination to restore them to dedication to God.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 5