The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37: 1 – 10 (NIV): 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.

Ezekiel was a Jewish street preacher who lived in Babylon during Israel's exile there which began in 605 B.C. So he was living and ministering in a very hopeless and frustrating time for his people. It would be hard to imagine things getting any worse than being taken captive by a hostile, foreign country and having all of your rights and freedoms taken away from you.

Ezekiel says the bones were very dry. This is symbolic of them being beyond hope. Beyond the living. Long dead and never coming back. A whole valley of people without any hope of ever living again.

Ezekiel sees the hopelessness of the situation. But then God turns things, just as we see him do over and over in the scripture and in our lives. He tells Ezekiel to “prophecy” to the bones – which means to preach to them – that God was going to bring them back to life. He was going to cover them with flesh and skin and put breath back into their lungs.

Ezekiel could have refused to preach to a bunch of dry bones, but instead he obeyed. He preached and God did exactly what he said he would. He brought them back to life. He gave them life and hope and a future.

When God's Word is preached, lives are changed. People who have no hope suddenly find life again. With God there is always hope, even after someone dies, or after things seem hopeless. God's Spirit gives life now and forever. We must continue to share God's Word even if people seem dead to the message. And if we live our lives by God's Spirit, he will breathe life into everything we do.