Imagine sitting in your house, minding your own business, and suddenly, without warning, you’re lifted out of your comfy chair and carried off to some desert valley in the middle of nowhere. Now that would be a hard story to tell, don’t you think? That’s exactly the story Ezekiel tells in chapter 37 of the book that bears his name. 

 “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.”

Let’s take a walk with Ezekiel and see what he saw in this valley. A valley full of bones. Can you imagine the stench? Imagine how Ezekiel felt, confronted with such an overwhelming presence of death. A valley FULL of bones. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bodies had rotted there in the hot sun. No funeral, no memorial, no memory of them whatsoever. All that was left of them was piles and piles of dry bones; dry bones, picked clean by scavengers and laid bare and exposed to the elements for a long time.

After the LORD shows Ezekiel the bones, He asks the prophet a question. “Son of man, can these bones live?”  There was a reason the LORD was asking. As the Omniscient One, He was not looking for an answer, but rather a response. What is the difference? The LORD did not need information. He wanted Ezekiel to respond to Him in faith and understanding.

Ezekiel's response does demonstrate faith in that he knows that the Father knows. He says, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” Ezekiel isn’t sure what to say and is careful with his answer. He basically says, “Lord, you know all things. You have all the answers. Only You know.”

Then the LORD says, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.”

If the LORD told me to prophesy over some old, dead, dry bones, I think I would wonder why and probably ask something like, “Really, LORD? You want me to do WHAT???” but Ezekiel immediately obeyed without question or hesitation. That speaks of his great faith and devotion to his LORD.

What do the dry, dead bones represent? The rest of the chapter reveals that they depict those who have have been dwelling among the heathen, defiling themselves with idols, living in sin, cut off from living water and the breath of life.

Ezekiel relates what happened next. “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” The bones grew back to their normal size and position, muscles and ligaments attached in their proper places and skin covered these once dead and dry bones, but there was no life in those bones.

So the LORD says to Ezekiel, “Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

Again, Ezekiel demonstrates his total trust and commitment and carries out the word of the LORD to him without delay, complaint or comment. “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

The breath of life was breathed into those bones and they lived!!

The Lord then reveals His purpose to Ezekiel, saying “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.”

All those who are separated from God are lost and without hope, as a pile of dead, dry bones, but God has an answer. He has the remedy. He IS the Giver of Life. Even believers can become dry and choose not to walk in the fulness of life we have been given. We sometimes allow the world to creep in and block out the breath of life.

But God, the Giver of Life, has an answer. He says, “I shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.”

Just above, we were told that the breath of life was breathed into those bones and they lived. Now the LORD is saying, “I shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live.”  

His Spirit is the breath of life that makes dry bones live!!

Those who hear the word of the LORD through that message and respond in faith without hesitation or complaint as Ezekiel did are those who have received the breath of life by the Spirit of the LORD and who live, to enjoy the precious covenant God makes with His own. Listen to this:

“Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

That promise was given to an Israelite prophet in regard to the people of Israel, but God makes this same covenant with all those who have received the breath of life by His Spirit.

“…To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)

So, what have we learned on our walk with Ezekiel? Maybe we can best answer that by asking ourselves the following questions:

Are we a pile of dead dry bones? Have we been exposed to the world for so long that our choices and responses have cut us off from living water and the breath of life? Or, have we inhaled the breath of life, strengthened, renewed, living to serve the LORD as a mighty army for the King?