Ezekiel 37:1-14

Dry Bones Live Again

¹Some time later, I felt the LORD’s power take control of me, and his Spirit carried me to a valley full of bones. ²The LORD showed me all around, and everywhere I looked I saw bones that were dried out. ³He said, “Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones come back to life?”I replied, “LORD God, only you can answer that.”

⁴He then told me to say:

Dry bones, listen to what the LORD is saying to you, ⁵“I, the LORD God, will put breath in you, and once again you will live. ⁶I will wrap you with muscles and skin and breathe life into you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

⁷I did what the LORD said, but before I finished speaking, I heard a rattling noise. The bones were coming together! ⁸I saw muscles and skin cover the bones, but they had no life in them.

⁹The LORD said:

Ezekiel, now say to the wind, ^[a] “The LORD God commands you to blow from every direction and to breathe life into these dead bodies, so they can live again.” ¹⁰As soon as I said this, the wind blew among the bodies, and they came back to life! They all stood up, and there were enough to make a large army.

¹¹The LORD said:

Ezekiel, the people of Israel are like dead bones. They complain that they are dried up and that they have no hope for the future. ¹²So tell them, “I, the LORD God, promise to open your graves and set you free. I will bring you back to Israel, ¹³and when that happens, you will realize that I am the LORD. ¹⁴My Spirit will give you breath, and you will live again. I will bring you home, and you will know that I have kept my promise. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

There used to an advert on television for hand cream where some was put on a crinkly dried up autumn leaf.  Without it the leaf crumbled and fell to pieces, whereas the leaf with the hand cream on was replenished and supple again.  The point being what a difference the right moisture can make to our skin.  What was once dried up and dead, can be restored.

One thing deserts are is dry.  No moisture for miles.

As we travel through life, it can be easy get get dried out and thirsty – often without even realising it.

Ezekiel encounters a valley of dry bones.  Life has gone from them.

Can they come back to life?  What a daft question!  They are just bones.  They are way beyond not having any breath, there is no flesh left either – we are talking seriously gone.

But God has not finished with these bones.  He’s going to put muscles, skin and breathe back on them.

Are you feeling lifeless?  Let God breath his life back into you.  Beyond hope? – not when God gets hold of us.

Lord here are my bones,

feeling old, and dry and worn out.

I no longer feel full of life,

I am weary from the journey,

tired by life.

Breathe through me Lord,

may my every breath be yours.

May I live anew

in you.