“Son of man, can these bones live?” That was the question God asked the prophet in the 37^th chapter of Ezekiel. As I said in my last blog, Israel had been defeated three times within two decades by Babylon- the reigning heaving weight champion of the Middle East in that era. In the final round, Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem, burned the temple and stripped it of all its treasures, and deported the last of Israel’s best and brightest professionals. On top of that, the Ark of the Covenant disappeared and with it the presence of God. No historian, politician, or military expert would have given them a chance to ever rise from the ashes as a nation. A valley of dead, bleached bones of a long defeated army was the scene symbolizing Israel’s condition and the question was, “Can these bones live?”

Ezekiel responded with wisdom. “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” The right answer is always, “God, it’s up to you.” Our first step toward breathing life into something dead or dying is to know and acknowledge that the issue is beyond our ability. How often do we keep trying to fix an issue – a marriage on the brink of collapse, a child on drugs who is slipping away from us, a bad situation at work with a miserable boss, etc. – only to keep making it worse?  The right answer is always God.

In the book of Zechariah, the Lord prophesies the return of the scattered Israelites to the promised-land and great standing for them in the world community. The promise would have been impossible for man but not for the God of all the Earth. “ Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of host’” (Zec.4:6). His point was the same as Ezekiel’s: There are many things in this world that will never happen by the best efforts of men, but can become realities by the Spirit of God.

Other than health or natural disaster, most of our problems in the world revolve around relationships whether between individuals or nations. Relationship problems exist because of emotional brokenness – hate, fear, insecurities, bigotry, loneliness, depression, rejection, etc. manifest in rage, bitterness, addictions, war, violence and so forth. The best efforts of man aim at alleviating symptoms through drugs or therapies that teach us to cope or manage our issues. But the real issues lie deep within the heart which is touched by a spiritual dimension and is God’s special arena. Jesus came to heal broken hearts (Isa.61:1-4) and God promised over and over that by his Spirit he would heal and give men a new heart (see Ps.147:3; Ezek.11:19; Ezek.36:26; Heb.8:10). Dry bones only come to life by the work of the Spirit of God – but we have an essential role in that work.

Once Ezekiel affirmed that only God can give life to the dead, God commanded him to prophesy over the bones. “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life” (Ezek.37:4). So why didn’t God just wave his hand over the field of dry bones and have them jump to their feet? The answer is simple – it’s not how God has chosen to work in the earth. God has chosen to work through his people. Most of the time, God chooses not to do something for us but rather with us. Doing something with us builds the relationship between God and us. When my girls were young, I discovered that I could do projects for them (often more quickly and easily), but when we did them together they learned some new skills and we built our relationship by the doing. We were able to celebrate what we had accomplished together. God chooses to work in the same way with his children.

God had already determined to release the power of his Spirit into those bones but would not release the power until Ezekiel prophesied. In a sense, God had already loaded the gun but he left it to Ezekiel to point and pull the trigger. Only then would the power of God’s word be released.

How many of us keep asking God to do something, when we already know it is his will, rather than declaring his will over the issue? We already know that God desires all men to be saved, all marriages to be reconciled, all hearts to be healed, his church to be glorious, etc. It is not wrong to ask God to heal, empower, release etc. but then we need to begin to speak or declare life, healing, restoration, and power over the things we are praying about. Remember, the tongue has the power of life and death (Prov.18:21). As Ezekiel began to declare God’s word over the dry bones, they began to rattle. More in my next blog.

The hand of the Lord was upon 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?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 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.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and 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 Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house 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 Sovereign Lord says: O 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. (Ezek. 37:1-14)

This is one of the most poignant and compelling sections of scripture in the entire Bible and is filled with as much significance for us today as it was for the Jews in days of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel lived and prophesied during the days of Babylon’s world dominance. In 607 B.C. Babylon had invaded Israel and deported many of the best and brightest of the nation including Daniel. In 597 B.C. another invasion occurred and more of the Jews were taken. Finally, in 586 B.C. the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon’s temple, and took the temple treasures back to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant, which stood in the Holy of Holies and on which the presence of God rested, disappeared and has been searched for ever since. The destruction of the temple and the disappearance of the Ark seemed to be irrefutable evidence that God had finally abandoned Israel to her fate because of years of unrepented sin.

By all rational standards, Israel was finished as a nation. After all, it was an insignificant nation by world standards – only 65 miles wide and 120 miles long. Their capital was decimated, the temple which was the center of Jewish faith and culture was destroyed, and all the powerful, gifted, and educated members of Jewish society had been enslaved and scattered through out the Babylonian empire. Israel looked as if it would disappear into history and be absorbed by the nations around it showing up in old manuscripts as only a curiosity – a small nation that flourished for a few centuries and then faded into oblivion.

But God was not through with Israel. To demonstrate his plans for the nation, he led Ezekiel into a valley of desolation and death. There the prophet scanned a lunar-like landscape covered with the bleached bones of a long defeated army left for the wild animals and hot sun to clean. No one had even cared enough or had the capacity to come find these fallen men and bury them. They were alone. The symbolism of defeat, death, despair, and hopelessness fit the mood of the Hebrews who had left Egyptian slavery for freedom but seemed to have had come full circle now as captives and slaves in Babylon. Having brought him to this valley of desolation, God asked Ezekiel the ultimate question, “Can these bones live?”

Maybe you have asked that question about your own life or the lives of others you care about in a different way but with the same sentiment. “Can that marriage ever be put back together after the adultery?” “ Will I ever feel anything but this pain?” “Can someone so broken ever be freed from his addiction?” “Will the child, molested and raped, ever be able to trust and love someone else?” Our world is full of dry bones. Perhaps, there are piles of dry bones in your own life? Can those bones live again? We will begin to look at the way back to life in my next blog.