We’ve been working through the Old Testament looking for the New Testament Jesus 100’s even 1,000’s of years before He was born. They’re all great stories on their own, but they absolutely paint a picture of who Jesus will be and what he’ll do for those who believe. Jesus claimed that the entire Old Testament pointed to Him (Luke 24:27; John 5:46). Since the Book of Ezekiel is a part of the OT, let’s take a look to see how it points to Jesus.

Ezekiel is a younger contemporary of Jeremiah, who we talked about the last two weeks. Jeremiah prophesized in Jerusalem, Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon. Ezekiel was a person who chose to obey God by calling people to repent and turn back from their wicked ways, he did this for 22 years. Although he was officially a priest turned prophet, in our day he could also be called an ancient street preacher. He was the type of preacher that illustrated messages with crazy and dramatic object lessons. For example, he laid on his right side for 40 days, eating one meal a day that was cooked over manure, to symbolize how long God would punish and how hard it would be for them.

Ezekiel also includes a message of hope. One such story found in (Ezekiel 37:1-14) describes a vision God gave him. Maybe you’ve heard this story before. It’s the story of “dry bones.” It was a vision about a valley filled with lifeless, dried up skeleton bones. As he looked at the situation, he had the feeling of all hope being lost, and that these bones were an accurate picture of his people. Their country was a wasteland, the temple of God was destroyed, and the people were now slaves in a foreign land. His people were dried up. The question was, could these dry bones come alive again? They do! God, like He does throughout scripture, shows just how powerful He is. God would show His mercy and grace by bringing life to a spiritually dead people.

God can do the same thing for us today. The story of the dry bones points us to Jesus, the person who can give each of us new life. He can restore our dried up life. So the big question today, is your life dried up? Is mine? Does this story illustrate our lives too? Do you feel like all hope is lost? So, just like God promised to restore life back then, He promises us the same thing today. He can restore life to anyone who claims Christ as their savior. God is at work calling His people back to Himself, bringing life to each.

May we each believe and grab hold of that promise. May we each claim, not just a life, but the abundant life He wants us to.

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