Ezekiel 37:3b

If you’ve ever heard the famous song ‘Dem Bones’, then you’ll know that Ezekiel 37 is a pretty famous chapter. God takes Ezekiel in the spirit to a valley of dry bones. There must have been a war in the valley with thousands of people dying, and he says that all the bones are indeed very dry (vs. 2) (ie. have been dead for a long while). The first thing I noticed in the chapter was that when God asks Ezekiel ‘can these bones live?’ –

‘So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.”’ (Ezekiel 37:3b)

Resurrection of completely dry bones does not exactly seem a natural occurrence to humans. In fact probably 90% of the population would say its absolutely impossible, especially on seeing the dead dry bones in front of them. But not Ezekiel. He has faith enough to know that God can raise them if He wishes. And in this case, God does raise them. The picture is nothing short of cinematic – the bones draw together, bone to bone, and then sinew and flesh grows on them, and finally skin stretches around the whole. Then Ezekiel prophecies to the breath of the air to come into the dead bodies that they may live. And it did, and there before him was a huge army of resurrected soldiers. What a sight!

The passage is speaking of God’s future restoration of Israel, where although Israel think they are dry bones…scattered into nations not their own, leaderless and forgotten, God will bring them together, put them back in their own land, and put a new spirit in them so that they won’t fall back into the same ways as they had. This must have been a huge encouragement to the Israelites, but it is also an encouragement and point of reflection for us.

If Israel were dead in a national sense, how much more were we ourselves dead in a spiritual sense? One passage speaks of us as water poured out onto the dry ground: helpless and hopeless. We think again of the picture of the completely dead dry bones. The bones could not of their own will come together let alone start growing sinew, let alone breathe in the air that gives them life. And yet by faith we know that God can pull us together, and it is His will that He gives us life, pulls our hopelessly fragmented lives together and gives us a relationship with Him, and gives us a new spirit with which to live. How blessed are we? How can we do anything but praise our wonderful God?