This past week I’ve been reading through Ezekiel again. It’s always a fascinating read with his prophetic visions and pronouncements. Once again, I came to Chapter 37 which is the “valley of dry bones” chapter. Ezekiel is taken by the Spirit to a sight where some ancient battle had been fought and where hundreds or thousands of bodies had been left without burial. All that remained were dry, bleached, and scattered bones. It was a scene of absolute desolation. As Billy Crystal would say in the Princess Bride, these guys were “all dead” not just “mostly dead.”
Then the Lord questions Ezekiel. “Son of man, can these bones live?” The obvious answer would have been, “No way, Yaweh!” But Ezekiel was wiser and simply replied, “Sovereign Lord, only you know.” Then the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophecy over the bones. “This is what the Sovereign 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!”
As Ezekiel began to prophecy, the bones began to rattle and come together. Then tendons and flesh appeared, then skin, but they were not yet living. Then the Lord told him to prophecy for breath to enter these bodies. The word in Hebrew for breath is the same word as Spirit. When “the breath” came into these bodies they stood up as a vast army. Then God explained to Ezekiel that these dry bones represented Israel. From a human perspective Israel had been destroyed. Most of the Israelites had died in battle or had been taken to foreign nations as slaves. The land was desolate and no one believed the tiny nation could ever live again.
But God still had a destiny for Israel and he swore he would make her a nation once more. It would be that miracle that would convince Israel that God was their God. All through the Old Testament, God declares he will restore Israel and bring his people back from the nations where they have been scattered. That reunification of God’s people to the land he had given them began in 1948 and is continuing.
We could go into all of that, but the principle I want to point out is that God is a God who breathes life into hopeless situations. There are times when we may find ourselves hopeless…a marriage on the rcoks, a child caught in addictions, a bad report from the doctors, too much month at the end of the money, and so forth. But God raises the dead…not just those who have been dead for a few days, but whole valleys of bleached bones.
He does these things because he has already written a destiny for nations and individuals. He does these things to draw people to him and for the glory of his name. Sometimes when God calls people to Jesus, they feel as if their life is such a train wreck that no one, including God, could ever make it live again. My wife Susan and I talked to a friend last night who is living in a large metropolitan area in Texas. She told us about a young woman she had encountered who was making a living as a prostitute. She has a teenage daughter she is trying to raise and doesn’t know how to make enough money any other way. But, bit by bit, she is coming to Jesus. She is slowly opening her heart. She is coming to believe that God can breathe real life into her again. She hasn’t yet given up her profession, but it is coming and she will soon be changed forever by the Lord…her and her daughter. Like the bones coming together – bones, then tendon, then flesh, then skin, then breath, resurrection can be a process rather than an immediate event.
If your life feels like a trainwreck and you’re wondering if you can ever recover and breathe again, remember the valley of dry bones. God still has a destiny for you. He wants to restore that destiny, set you on your feet, and breathe life into you again. Nothing is beyond his reach. It may be a process instead of an overnight event, but he specializes in such things for your sake and for the glory of his name. Hang on. Cry out. Don’t give up. As Ezekiel prophesied over the bones, begin to speak life over your situation in the name of Jesus. See what God does.
