Ezekiel 37:1-10; Mark 10:27
(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
One of the most incredible visions in the Old Testament is recorded in Ezekiel 37:1 through 10 (I shortened this passage to save space without losing its meaning):
The hand of the Lord...brought me out in the Spirit of the
Lord, and set me down in...the valley; and it was full of
...very dry...bones. And He said to me, “Son of man, can
these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”
Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones...‘O dry
bones, hear the word of the Lord!...Surely I will cause
breath to enter into you, and you shall live....Then you
shall know that I am the Lord.’” So...as I prophesied...
the bones came together, bone to bone....sinews and the
flesh came upon them...skin covered them...but there was
no breath in them....He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath
...and say...‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come...O breath, and
breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’” So I prophe-
sied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great
army.
The valley full of dry bones and their resurrection did not happen as an actual event. It was a vision. But the vision put forth a great lesson that the people of Israel needed to learn!
- By this time, the Israelites had been carried away in three deportations to Babylon.
✡ God had warned them many times to turn from their
sins or He would punish them by reducing their na-
tion of Israel to nothing! (see Leviticus 26:14-39).
✡ Many Jews had been killed and many had been taken
prisoner by the Babylonian king Nebachudnezzar.
- Many of the cities and towns of Israel and Judah had been destroyed, including their capital city of Jerusalem!
- The temple, where God was worshiped, was burned and torn down!
The LORD told Ezekiel, “…these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off.” (Ezekiel 37:11). They had no hope of God’s blessing, of being a nation again! But God had other plans!
- As the dry bones were impossibly renewed and revived, so the Israelites would again be the LORD’s people in their own land! After seventy years God ended the Babylonian captivity, and the many of the Jews returned to their homeland! But this was just a preview…!
- We might call it ‘the main event’ for about six hundred years after they returned from Babylon, …Israel was devastated by the Romans in 70 AD, and the Jews were dispersed world-wide!
✡ For almost nineteen centuries, many experienced a
precarious existence, suffering persecution, includ-
ing six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust!
✡ But on May 14th, 1948, Israel once more became a
nation! So impossible was this event, that only God
could do it! Isaiah 66:8 and 9 records the prophesy:
Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such
things? Shall the earth be made to give birth
in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?
For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave
birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time
of birth, and not cause delivery?" says the Lord.
"Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?"
says your God.
- Actually, ‘the main event’ is yet to come!
✡ Zechariah 14:2 and 3 gives a brief description of this
final (yet future) devastation of Israel:
For I will gather all the nations to battle
against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken,
The houses rifled, And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity, But
the remnant of the people shall not be cut
off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations, As He fights
in the day of battle.
✡ Many pre-millennialists (those who believe Jesus re-
turns to initiate the Millennial Kingdom) hold that
this main event will take place in the Tribulation
(the last seven years before Christ returns).
What has all this to do with our second featured Scripture, Mark 10:27? “…with God all things are possible….” Only God can do the impossible…
- …of making a nation out of one century-old man, Abraham; and his ninety-year-old wife, Sarah! But they are the progenitors of Israel.
- …of flourishing a Bedouin family into a multi-million number of people!
- …of rescuing an enslaved multitude from the most powerful nation at that time in the earth!
- …of providing for two to three million people in the desert for forty years!
- …of bringing them into the Promised Land already occupied by powerful kingdoms!
- …of preserving that people through more than 3,000 years of challenges that would have wiped out forever other nations, kingdoms, and empires!
- …of making Israel (and Jerusalem) the center of His eternal kingdom!
God is the LORD of the Possible!
But let’s look further at Mark 10:27: “Jesus said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
- The context starts in Mark 10:17 when the rich young ruler (rich – see Mark 10:22; young – see Matthew 19:20; ruler – see Luke 18:18) who sincerely asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
✞ Because this young man was already outwardly ob-
servant of the Jewish rabbinical law, it seems he
was looking for the Good Teacher’s confirmation
and blessing that he was on the right path!
✞ But Jesus began to answer him by a question and a
statement:
➔ Mark 10:18 – “Why do you call Me good?
No one is good but One, that is, God.”
He was saying, “If you call Me good,
acknowledge that I am God!”
➔ Mark 10:19 – “You know the commandments:
‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’
Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not de-
fraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
➔ Notice: The Lord left out some very impor-
tant commandments – exactly half of the
Ten Commandments:
❏ Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no
other gods before Me.”
❏ Exodus 20:4 – “You shall not make
for yourself any carved image....”
❏ Exodus 20:7 – “You shall not take
the name of the LORD your God in
vain....”
❏ Exodus 20:8 – “Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy.”
❏ Exodus 20:17 – “You shall not covet....”
✞ The young man answered, “Teacher, all these things
I have observed from my youth.” (Mark 10:20).
➔ He had kept the commandments that Jesus
mentioned – at least outwardly!
➔ But the first and the last of the Ten
Commandments (in those listed that Jesus
left out), have to do with idolatry and
covetousness...
❏ ...Paul says in Colossians 3:5,
“...covetousness...is idolatry
...”!
❏ Apparently, the young man was
covetous because he was very
wrapped up in his wealth, put-
ting material riches ahead of
God! How do we know?...
✞ Jesus told him in Mark 10:21, “One thing you lack:
Go...sell whatever you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come,
take up your cross, and follow Me.”
✞ And the rich young ruler couldn’t do it! It says in
Mark 10:22, “...he was sad at this word, and went
away grieved, for he had great possessions.”
- Jesus then turned to His disciples:
...how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter
the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the king-
dom of God. (Mark 10:24 and 25).
✞ In Mark 10:26 it says, “...they were astonished
beyond measure, saying..., “Who then can be saved?”
The general teaching among the Jews was that if a
person was prosperous and rich, it meant he had God’s
blessing! (see for instance Psalm 112:1-3; Proverbs
13:21; 24:4).
✞ And this is when “...Jesus said, ‘With men it is im-
possible, but not with God; for with God all things
are possible.’”
Now, what are the impossibilities and possibilities in your life?
If you are in His Word…
If you are seeking His will…
If you are obeying His leading…
If you are waiting on Him in prayer…
Then…
“…with God all things are possible…”!