The Valley of Dry Bones
In The Valley • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Nothing is worse than a dried out turkey on Thanksgiving.
There is nothing worse than a Christian who is dry spiritually and is in despair.
1 The hand of the Lord was on 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. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 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.’ ” 7 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. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 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, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. 11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 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. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in 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.’ ”
In the book of Ezekiel, the nation of Israel found themselves in a hopeless situation. Their nation was facing major collapse and calamity.
1 The hand of the Lord was on 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.
In a temperate climate, it usually requires three weeks to several years for a body to completely decompose into a skeleton, depending on factors such as temperature, humidity, presence of insects.
Mass graves have been around for almost the entirety of human history, but the earliest definition of a mass grave was created as recently as 1987. According to "Human Remains and Identification," Arthur Keith Mant defined a mass grave as a grave "where two or more bodies in physical contact are buried together". Meanwhile, M. Skinner defined a mass grave as having at least six bodies and for them to be placed randomly and tightly together "with no reverence to the individual."
2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.
Be Reverent 3. Resurrection: The Nation Reborn (Ezek. 37:1–14)
The Lord told Ezekiel to walk around among the bones so he could appreciate their vast number and see how dry they were. As a priest, Ezekiel was never to be defiled by the dead, but this was a vision and the bones were not toxic. The prophet must have been wondering why the Lord gave him this vision, but the Lord’s question gave him the answer: “Can these bones live?” From the human point of view, the answer is no, but from the divine point of view, nothing is impossible. It is God who “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17). Ezekiel’s reply didn’t question the power of God; it only expressed the prophet’s conviction that God knew what He was going to do and was able to do it.
3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
hear the word of the Lord / I will make - you will come to life.
Similarly, the Word and the Spirit bring spiritual revival to God’s church today. When one or both are absent, then God’s people have no living experience of his reality in their midst.
6 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.’ ”
7 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.
So I prophesied as I was commanded
When we speak God’s word as He commands things start to happen.
He spoke over the whole valley.
8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then the skeletons were covered with flesh and skin so that what was lying there in the valley looked like a sleeping army. The bodies lacked only one thing: life.
9 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, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ”
breath - In the Hebrew language, the word ruah can mean wind, breath, spirit, or Spirit. Jesus made use of this when He spoke to Nicodemus about the blowing of the wind and the new birth through the Spirit
from the four winds—implying that Israel is to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
They came to life and stood up on their feet.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’
dried up and our hope is gone
When you are dried up spiritually, hope is gone.
Even though they had religion, they had no relationship which meant spiritual distance.
Q: One sign of spiritual dryness is a feeling of hopelessness. Where does our hope come from?
Q: Share a time in your life when you experienced hopelessness.
5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My hope comes from him
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 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.
open up you graves and bring you up from them
This is what God meant in verse 12 when He said, “I will cause you to come up out of your graves.” Israel is buried in the nations of the world, and they are to be brought back and become a nation again.
13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
Now since 1948 they have come back as a nation, but it is really a corpse over there today. They have a flag, they have a constitution, they have a prime minister, and they have a parliament. They have a police force and an army. They have a nation, and they even have Jerusalem. They have everything except spiritual life. - J vernen mcgee
14 I will put my Spirit in 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.’ ”
I have done it
The dry bones represented the people’s spiritually dead condition. Your church may seem like a heap of dry bones to you, spiritually dead with no hope of vitality. But just as God promised to restore his nation, he can restore any church, no matter how dry or dead it may be. Rather than give up, pray for renewal, for God can restore it to life. The hope and prayer of every church should be that God will put his Spirit into it (37:14). In fact, God is at work calling his people back to himself, bringing new life into dead churches.
Q: In Ezekiel 37, we learn about God breathing life back into piles of old, dry bones. What dreams or parts of you have died over the years due to past life experiences?
Q: What might God want to breathe life back into in regard to your calling and dreams? What is the next right step for you to begin walking in obedience to that calling?
Q: How do you know when you are dry?
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
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