DTK Lesson | 3.29.20
Today’s lesson comes from the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. Ezekiel was a prophet in Israel. If you don’t remember what a prophet was, it was someone who carried messages for God. They were teachers who tried to encourage God’s people to prepare for what was to come. They had visions of the future and they shared those visions and tried to get people to behave better.
Do people you know always listen to the people who are trying to get them to do the right things? No. People don’t always listen now...even me...and maybe even you...and neither did the people back then, thousands of years ago, before Jesus was even born.
Ezekiel warned the people of Israel of absolute destruction if they didn’t stop misbehaving. Well the people didn’t stop, so what do you think they got? Absolute Destruction! Their lives were destroyed, their family members were captured and kept as prisoners or killed, their armies were slaughtered, and their temple---the place that they went to worship, their church, was destroyed.
What do you imagine the area looked like with all of that destruction present? (Talk to someone about that.)
If you guessed burned buildings, lost people, and people dying, you are probably correct. The Israelites who were still alive were no doubt, sad too, their family members were gone, because they didn’t have a temple any more, so they didn’t feel like they were close to God anymore. They thought God was angry at them. Nothing was like it used to be. Even though these people were still alive, they probably felt dead in their hearts and minds. They weren’t really dead, but their hearts and minds and spirits totally were, right? They were so low, and sad, and hopeless that they may as well have been just dry bones on the ground.
Now let’s get back to Ezekiel, the prophet. Prophets tell the future. In a vision, God showed Ezekiel a valley of dry bones and God promised Ezekiel that those dry bones would come alive again. Do you think Ezekiel’s vision was about the bones of the people who had died or the people who were sad and hopeless? Which set of “bones” could really come back to life? (Talk to someone about that.)
Ezekiel learned with that vision that God intended to recreate life for the sad and hopeless people and to restore their relationship with God. That’s a pretty cool ending to a terrible story isn’t it?
God restored Israel. God can restore what’s broken or dry in our lives too. Think about something that needs to be restored in your lives. (Talk to someone about that.) How can you help restore something in someone else’s life?
ACTIVITIES
There are many people who are probably feeling like “dry bones” right now. They are in nursing homes, they are alone at home, they are in hospitals feeling very sick. We can help restore something in their lives by letting them know we are here for them. Write a letter, or draw a picture, or both, that you will share with someone who needs to know we care.
Send your artwork to one of these places:
Prisma Hospital, 5 Richland Medical Park Dr, Columbia, SC 29203
Still Hopes Nursing Home, 1 Still Hopes Dr, West Columbia, SC 29169