Thomas J Parlette
“Because I Said I Would”
Ezekiel 37: 1-14
3/29/20
What would be your dream job? If you could pick any job, what would it be? Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
How about this one – would you like to work for the Queen of England? In February 2018, Britain’s royal family posted a want ad for a digital communications officer to manage the social media account for the Queen. For about $38,000 a year, the digital communications officer would post articles, videos and photos about the Queen’s state visits and royal business on You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The Queen has a worldwide following on social media. And she has a certain image to maintain. It would be a huge responsibility to be the spokesperson for the Queen, or for any major public figure for that matter. In addition to social media experience and a college degree, the royal want ad said the Queen was looking for someone “Innovative and with creative flair” who would do their job as part of a “fast-paced and dynamic team.”(1) For some people that would be a dream job, especially if you’re a fan of the royals.
But there are some jobs that you just wouldn’t to have under any circumstances. For instance, the job of a prophet. It’s a tough and thank-less job to be a spokesperson for God. No one wants to hear hard truths. No one wants to be told that they are sinful and rebellious and on the wrong side of God’s will. It’s a tough life being a prophet.
There’s an old story about a medieval Jewish astrologer named Moishe who prophesied that the king’s favorite horse would die soon. Sure enough the horse died a short time later. The king got angry at Moishe, certain that his prophecy had brought about the horse’s death. So he summoned Moishe and commanded him, “Ok prophet, tell me when you will die!”
Moishe could see that the king was plotting to kill him immediately no matter what answer he gave, so he had to proceed with caution. “I do not know when I will die, your highness. I only know that whenever I do die, the king will die three days later.” Moishe went on to live a long and happy life.(2) It’s a tough job being a prophet, and sometimes dangerous as well.
Prophets have one job- to speak for God. And sometimes God has some uncomfortable things to say to us. Pastor John Ritenbaugh says, “When a person is freezing to death, he feels a pleasant numbness that he does not want to end. He just goes to sleep as he is freezing to death. But when heat is applied, and the blood begins rushing into the affected areas, pain immediately occurs. Though it hurts, the pain is indicative of healing. God sends a prophet to people who are cold in their relationship with God – spiritually freezing to death – though the people may want to stay just as they are. The prophet turns the heat on, and they become angry when the prophet is actually working to make them better.”(3)
So instead of viewing prophets as killjoys, what if we should view them as symbols of hope. Because if God had given up on his people, God wouldn’t have bothered to send a prophet. God wouldn’t send anyone. If God sends a prophet, that means there is still hope.
Ezekiel faced a difficult task because he was called to prophesy to the Jewish people at one of the lowest points in their history. The small nation of Israel had been under siege and finally conquered by the mighty army of Babylonia. Jerusalem was in ruins, the Temple was destroyed. Ezekiel, along with thousands of other Jews, was forced into exile to the capitol city of Babylon, in modern day Iraq.
Things were looking bleak. The center of worship destroyed, the community scattered, families separated. How do you rebuild your life when everything has been taken away from you? Their life was in their worship, in their identity as God’s chosen people. Did this mean that had ended his covenant with the nation of Israel? Had the people lost their identity as the people of the One, True God? God sent Ezekiel to these desperate and broken people to answer that very question.
Ezekiel says, “The hand of the Lord was on 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. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Lord, only you know.”
The he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says to these bones; I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And suddenly there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and the tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the Lord says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”
So I prophesied as the Lord commanded, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet – a vast army.
Then the Lord said: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them “This is what the Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it declares the Lord.” Ezekiel brought a word of hope in a hopeless time. A word of hope I think we need to hear right now.
In 1665, the bubonic plague swept through the city of London. In his book A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe described the devastation we would have seen if we walked the streets of London back then. People who had the means to escape the city, did so. Others barricaded themselves in their houses. More than 1500 died each day. Bodies were piled up in open pits because there wasn’t enough ground or enough grave diggers to give the dead a proper burial. Defoe writes that men roamed the streets, prophesying God’s coming destruction on the city. One prophet wandered naked through the streets chanting “Oh, the great and dreadful God. Oh, the great and dreadful God…”(4) I don’t mean to scare anybody, but I admit that hits a little too close to home these days. Thankfully we’re not there yet.
God begins the exchange with a strange question: “Son of man, can these bones live?” Why even ask that question at this point? Why does God try to interject hope in our most hopeless times? When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and hid themselves from God, God made clothes for them. When Abram and Sarai had reached their golden years without having children, God promised them a son and gave them Isaac. When Esther was a teenage bride in a foreign kingdom, God gave her the courage to stand up to a heartless king and save her people. In hopeless situations, God keeps giving people hope.
So where is the hope in the Valley of Dry Bones? We find our hope in this: God always keeps promises. If God tells you that things are going to turn out alright, trust that God always keeps promises. God explains to Ezekiel that this valley of dry bones represents the nation of Israel. They were dead, hopeless and cut off from the power of God. But they will not remain that way. No matter how circumstances look now, no matter what the history books or the politicians or the pundits say – listen to what God says: “My people, I will bring you back. Know that I am God. I will put my Spirit in you, and I will settle you in your own land.” God keeps promises.
Way back in Genesis 12, God told an old, childless man named Abram to leave his country and his people and go to a land that the Lord would show him. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” That was God’s promise.
When God sent Jesus, through the lineage of Abraham and the nation of Israel, to make a new covenant in his blood that would offer salvation and new life to all people on earth, that promise to Abram was kept. God always keeps promises.
On September 4th, 2012, Alex Sheen’s father died. Most people would describe Alex’s father as an average man. But Alex describes him as a man of his word. At his father’s funeral, Alex passed out small cards to everyone in attendance. He called them Promise Cards. At the bottom of each card were the words “Because I said I would.” His father lived by those words. He could always be counted on to keep his promises. In honor of his father, Alex challenged those in attendance at the funeral to write a promise on their card and to make a steadfast commitment to keep that promise.
The people at Mr. Sheen’s funeral were so inspired by Alex’s Promise Cards that he began printing more and sending them for free to anyone who requested them. Today, Alex Sheen runs a nonprofit that does character education programming in schools, colleges and prisons. He teaches about integrity and honor and character and keeping your promises. His organization has sent more than 11 million Promise Cards to people in over 150 countries.
Alex also has a website, Because I Said I would.Com, where people who have received a Promise Card can post their stories of the promises they have made and kept. Here’s one of the stories that was shared from Elizabeth, a 26 year old nurse in the U.K.
Elizabeth works at an assisted living facility. She eats lunch every day with a particular resident who has dementia. Every day, at the end of lunch, the woman would become afraid that Elizabeth wouldn’t come back to visit her. Her dementia made her forget how faithful Elizabeth was to her. So Elizabeth took a Promise Card and wrote on it – “I promise I will come and have lunch with you tomorrow.” And at the bottom of the card were the words “Because I Said I Would.”
The next day, when Elizabeth showed up for lunch, she found her friend clutching the Promise Card. She looked and smiled and said, “You remembered…”(5)
God will never forget his promises. God will never forget his people. Across every page of the Bible, God writes those promises and signs them with “Because I Said I Would.” In Romans, Paul asks the rhetorical question, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress or persecution? We could add, Will corona virus, self- isolation or quarantine? And the answer is No. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s a promise, says God. And I will keep my promise, because I said I would.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol.XXXVI, No.1, p72.
2. Ibid… p72.
3. Ibid… p72-73.
4. Ibid… p74.
5. Ibid… p75-76.
