“These Bones Can Live”

Ezekiel 37

1 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, 2 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. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, 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. 10 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.

God does not fail, nothing is impossible with Him, and His mercy is revealed to all flesh. What man discards as useless, God can revive and make use of.

Here Ezekiel, the man of God, receives a revelation of God’s plan with His people.

All he sees is the hopeless situation of a valley FULL of stone dry bones – completely lifeless. But these were the bones of God’s elect, who no longer followed Him and were no longer used of Him. Israel had forgotten God, turned to idolatry, followed their own desires and landed up as oppressed captives in Babylon.
Yet God still had hope for them, to cleanse and revive them.

God asks the prophet: “Son of man, can these bones live?”. The human reaction would be that it is impossible (that these people can no longer experience grace), but the prophet answers: “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know” – Your understanding surpasses mine. The prophet here realises that all life resides in the Spirit of God, and he hands the matter back to God.

Now God commands the prophet to prophesy to these dry bones saying “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!…” The prophet obediently did all God commanded, without debate, and fulfilled his responsibility.

A child of God can land up in a state as lifeless as these bones, where there’s no more life in your soul, no zeal towards God, no longer a relationship with God – a state of confusion, being burdened by sin, and having been absent from God for a long time. Christian, if you realise that this is your condition, that you are no longer where God intended you to be, then “hear the word of the Lord”!

As the prophet prophesied, the Word started working in the bones, which started stirring. Yet, there was no breath in them yet. Let us not be content and stop prophesying when the bones start rattling, but continue until the Spirit of God operates in our lives. God’s children should also prayerfully seek to speak His word of life to his fellow man who is only dry bones.

God’s work is complete. The dry bones came together, received tendons, flesh and skin and the breath of life – living people who “stood up on their feet – a vast army”.

God wants to use you as part of His army. He said on the cross “It is finished”. Therefore come to Him that His work might reach completion in your life and His plans and purpose for you might be fulfilled.