Can Dry Bones Live?

This week’s Bible reading challenge is exploring Ezekiel 37 – a powerful text about hope.  And we all need hope at this time.

Ezekiel 37:1-6 (NLT)

The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. 2 He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3 Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” 4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

What an awesome, spooky experience for Ezekiel!

This valley of dry bones was symbolic of the Israelites who had died during the Babylonian captivity but also those who had survived but were in despair lamenting, “We have become old, dry bones – all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.”

When God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  Ezekiel doesn’t dare say yes or no.

He knows God has resurrected people before – but usually those who had just died – never those who had been dead so long.

And he knows the Israelites didn’t deserve to be resurrected – God had warned them not to go against Babylon and had sent prophet after prophet to get them to change their political and spiritual decisions.  But the leaders and the people had disregarded every message and done the exact opposite of what God had advised.

It was customary in those days for the bodies of those who break contract or treaty oaths to be thrown out without burial (ex: Esarhaddon’s vassal treaty with Ramataya of Urakazabanu, a mid-7th century BC neo-Assyrian contract).  The Israelites had broken their covenant with God as well as with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 

So Ezekiel knows these bones can’t live – but on the other hand, he knows God is the author of life.

God calls Ezekiel “Son of man” – in Hebrew, “Ben-adam” – Adam is the Hebrew word for man or mankind and is related to the hebrew word “adamah” which means “ground” or dirt, soil.  

This whole scene is reminiscent of God creating mankind: 

“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7 NLT)

So when God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” he wisely answers, “Lord, YOU alone know.” And when God commissions him to speak a prophetic message to the bones, Ezekiel obeys – 

Ezekiel 37:7-10

7 … And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 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, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

In the same way, God was going to bring Israel back to life as a nation, as a people, as individuals. 

“There is a sure and certain future based not on what Israel can do but on God’s determination to save his people” (NIV Application Commentary).

And that’s exactly what He does for us today.

Do you feel as dry as a valley of dry bones?  Drained of all hope, too tired to keep trying?  It’s been a difficult 19 months as we have ploughed through this pandemic and all its consequences.  Our physical, mental, emotional, relational and spiritual resilience may be at an all-time low.

Remember, God can do the impossible.  He can resurrect a valley of dry bones.  He has done it before and He can do it again. He can bring back to life the prayers you’ve stopped praying, the dreams you’ve given up on, the hopes you’ve buried.

One of the last visions of Ezekiel recoded in Ezekiel 47 is of a stream flowing from beneath the door of the Temple – and as Ezekiel walks in the stream, first it’s up to his ankles.. then up to his knees…  then up to his waist… then deep enough to swim in.

Ezekiel 47:6-9

6 He asked me, “Have you been watching, son of man?” Then he led me back along the riverbank. 7 When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river. 8 Then he said to me, “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. 9 There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows.

God, the source of life and hope, longs to send a river that will drench our hearts with His Spirit.  He can quench our eternal thirst for meaning and He can transform our lives so that we become fountains of living water, blessing all those around us (John 4:13,14). 

Dry bones can live.