Ezekiel & The Valley of Dry Bones

"Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord arises upon you.  See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord arises upon you and his glory appears over you.  Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn."  Isaiah 60:1-3, NIV

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "If you read history you will find that Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

Ezekiel was a prophet during the exile under the Babylonians, which began under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.  He was born around 622 BC into a priesthood lineage.  He is son of Buzi and resident of Anathoth.  Under the direction of Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonian armies exiled 3,000 Jews from Judah, overthrowing King Jehoiachin in 597.  At the age of 25, Ezekiel was one of those Jews.  Ezekiel and his wife lived in their own home where exiled Judaic visitors would come to seek his prophetic insights. 

At age 30 Ezekiel is called to be a prophet through a vision described in the first book of Ezekiel.  God rode upon a chariot of four wheels guided by Cherubs.  For the next five years, he incessantly prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem.  In 587 his prophesy came true when the Babylonians seized the city.  It was at this time that Ezekiel lost his wife.  It seemed that just about everything was going wrong in his life.

Ezekiel didn't have an easy time.  The people to whom he ministered were thoroughly depressed.  They'd been defeated in battle and permanently removed from their homeland.  They were mocked by their heathen conquerors.  They were riddled with guilt and they were completely overwhelmed by the incredible wealth and strength of Babylon.  Ever felt like that?

The first and third verse of Psalm 137 conveys their feeling of shame, hopelessness and humiliation: "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion...and they moaned, 'How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?'"  It was in this miserable situation that God spoke to Ezekiel in a vision.  He showed him  a valley with heaps of bones.

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 froth 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 ou, 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 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.'"  Ezekiel 37:1-14, NIV

Notice Ezekiel's response to God's question.  God's question was direct and should have been reciprocated with a direct answer - yes or no.  Instead Ezekiel replied, "Lord, only you know."  I think Ezekiel might have been afraid to answer.  If he said no, it showed his lack of faith.  And I'm sure he didn't want to say yes at the fear of having to stand before an army of skeletons!

Perhaps we are wondering if we (as individuals, a community, a church or even a nation) can ever be revived.  If we say yes, what proposition must we face?  Like Ezekiel, we haven't the nerve to say "no."  By the same account, we don't have the faith to say, "yes."  But Ezekiel had one thing right - God knows.

Ezekiel's first duty was to persist in the ministry to which God had called him.  Renewal doesn't come through discarding the old and trusted paths where God has led His people in the past.  The prophet is called to keep on prophesying, not to try some new technique in the hope that it will prove more effective.  The young church mentioned in Acts 2:45 "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."  It's not about flashy programs and the latest technology.

Ezekiel was instructed to prophesy a word of hope even if he wasn't exactly sure of its outcome.  God told Ezekiel to tell the bones (1) hear the word of the Lord, (2) I will make breath enter you and you will come to life, and (3) you will know that I am the Lord."  He may not have believed it at the time, but he did it anyways.  And it happened.  There was a shaking and a rattling and the bones came together before his eyes!  Not just that, but miraculously as each skeleton took shape while muscle and flesh formed around them, and then a covering of skin to complete the human form.  Can you imagine?

A vast army of bones stood before him - lifeless corpses as they were.  They posed no threat to him or anyone else in their current state.  Harmless just as a statue or monument, they were useless.  But it wasn't until God formed muscle, tendon, flesh and skin until they were truly alive!  Second Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 5 warns of Christians having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Just like those bones, we can appear like Christians, but we have a lack of faith in Jesus Christ.  If we try to live the Christian life with only our natural resources - without the means of grace, without being in touch with the Lord in prayer and absorbing the Scriptures - we are still living in the flesh.  Paul gave a powerful illustration of this when he wrote to the Christians in Rome, "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do...For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out...What a retched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

Ezekiel had prophesied in the previous chapter (Ezekiel 36:26-28) for Israel to put away their idols, to discard the pollution of the heathen nations.  If they did this their God had a wonderful future in store for them.  "I will give you a near heart...And I will put my Spirit in you...you will be my peopel and I will be your God."

Ezekiel was told to "prophesy to the breath."  He called upon the Spirit of God to "breath into these slain, that they may live."  The breath of God, His Spirit, is seen in the emblem of the wind.  It is His power to blow and bend, to fill and make alive.  Strong trees bend and windmills whirl when the great winds blow in force.  Have you ever experienced the wind of God blowing your doubts away?  Or breathing new life into dead plans?  Rescuing hopeless situations or giving courage and comfort?  That's what He wants to do for each of us.  If there is no Spirit in your life, you are adrift in the sea of life.  And let's face it.  If the wind isn't blowing, you aren't going anywhere. 

The Holy Spirit came in order to reveal Christ to us, to make Christ real to us and to show us what Christ has done for us.  If we're born again, we have been through the Valley of Dry Bones.  We have passed from death to spiritual life in Christ, but only by the work of the Spirit of God.

Ezekiel's prophecy ends with, "I will put my Spirit in you and you will ife and I will settle you in your own land."  The Holy Spirit is given to Christian believers, to give us a longing and a love for Christ.  It enables us to live as Christ lived and conform to His image.

Where are we in the Valley of Dry Bones?  Are we still in the condition of the bones that were made to say, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone?"  Or are we in the position of the skeletons with "no breath in them?"  Or are we filled with the Spirit of God, and in the words of God to Ezekiel, "you will know that I the Lord have spoken and I have done it."

The world is looking for God.  Tragically and ironically, as the world is looking for God, God's people are asleep in their pews!  The world wants and needs to know God and how to access Him.  They want to know how to worship Him.  They don't want to know your opinions, but they do want to hear the Word of God.  The world wants models of authentic Christian living.  The world wants to see God in me and they want to see Him in you.  You can spend your entire life in church, saying the right things, doing the right things, but unless you are filled with the Spirit and it truly penetrates your heart and your life, it's meaningless!  Like the dry bones, it's worthless.  It doesn't do you any good.  It doesn't do me any good.  It doesn't do the church any good.  And it certainly doesn't do God any good.

Second Chronicles 7:14 says, "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgiven their sin and will heal their land."  

"If my people...will humble themselves..."  The church today has a repuation of being too proud.  The church is not led by outstanding people but by kneeling people.  We need to get that through our heads.  Some are more concerned with numbers and programs, being financially profitable or keeping everything nice and neat in the walls of the church.  Christians are more concerned with trivial things than what we are called to do in the first place!  People, we need a passion for God.  We need the world to see Him in us and working through us!  We need to forget being tied to the church building.  We need to be willing to go into the world (out of our comfort zone) for His calling.

"...pray and seek my face."  Our prayer life should be dynamic.  We should have a hunger for God, a desire and longing for Him.  We all know what it's like when you are in love and you want to spend every moment with that person.  That's how our relationship with God should be.  His desires should become ours, meaning we should yearn for the lost.  We should care more about others than we do ourselves. 

"...turn from our wicked ways."  We should not be lukewarm Christians.  We should be hot and on fire for Christ.  We cannot sit on the fence.  Either you are in or you're out.  And to do that, each one of us must repent, confess and be renewed.  According to scripture, only then will God heal our land (our family, our community, our church, our nation).

Ezekiel is a man of God confronted with a congregation of God's people who are discouraged, displaced and spiritually dead.  Revival is the process of bringing to life that which once was alive, but is now at the point of death.  "Can these bones live again?"  Ezekiel obeyed God, preached unto those dry bones and then God breathed His Spirit back into the bodies.  God revived for Himself a mighty army.

Today mega churches exist where people pile in by the droves.  They are about flash multimedia services, loud performances, which appeal to the people.  But they forget one thing.  They are full of people, but many are empty of God.  Too many of God's people have a self-sufficient spirit, an apathetic heart and a dead disobedient lifestyle.  More people go to church, but experience it less.  They are spiritual corpses, or dry bones.

Is there no desire for Bible study or prayer?  Does spiritual conversation embarrass you?  Or do you simply avoid it?  Do you rationalize sin?  You quote scripture and you attend church, but does it make a difference in your life?  Do you care more for money than you do serving others?  Do you care that there are those around you who are in misery and spiritually lost?  Like dry bones we are useless to God.  We have to allow Him to breathe new life into us; to breathe His Spirit into us, thus into the church.  We need to allow God to revive, for Himself, a mighty army!  I want to be like the people in Acts that literally shook the gates of hell!

Is there evidence that the Kingdom of God is set up within your life?  Will you let the Holy Spirit breathe new life into you?  Will you allow Him to change you?  Will you allow yourself to be filled with the Spirit?  Will you allow your life to be set on fire by Him?  Or are you going to turn someone away from Christ because of your life?