The Promise of the valley of dry bones
Ezekiel has been recommissioned to preach to Israel (he had been told to be quiet, because of their unbelief, till someone from the destroyed city of Jerusalem came…and confirmed what the Lord had told them through Ezekiel)
But now he was preaching again….even though they thought their future was over. They were not only captives….but now there was nothing to look to: no Jerusalem, no Temple, no sacrifices….they were without hope…truly desolate.
But Ezekiel preached repentance to the captives….return to God and He will:
Ezekiel 36:27-28 “And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your father’s; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.”
The Lord gives Ezekiel this promise to the captives in Babylon…
….yet…
Ezekiel 36:37 “Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”
But, truly unbelief is strong (haven’t we found this for ourselves, too?)!
So God takes Ezekiel (I believe, in a vision) out to a valley….full of bones….dry bones, very dry. (Ezekiel 37:1-2) This is how Israel is to themselves,…and to the world…dead and dry.
And the Lord asks Ezekiel…..”Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3)
Faith is always tried. Naturally these bones were far past living….but faith looks to the Lord, and His Will….for nothing is impossible to HIm, if He will it.
And Ezekiel answered according to faith….”O Lord God, thou knowest.”
Ezekiel knew God had a plan and a purpose….but exactly what He would do, Ezekiel left in the hands of God.
So the Lord said….”Prophesy to these bones”. (Ezekiel 37:4-6)
That is exactly what Ezekiel had been doing….prophesying to the dead bones of the captives of Israel….telling them what was on the Lord’s mind.
When Ezekiel prophesied….what the Lord had told him to say, began to happen…..
….bit by bit. (Ezekiel 37:7-8)
First bones came together….then sinews, and then flesh came upon them, and skin covered them.
It was not….zap!….all was done. No, it was bit by bit as Ezekiel prophesied to them.
Yet they lay there in the valley, still.
These people in captivity (the bones covered in flesh)….may get a form of their former religion….but without the Spirit of God truly awakening them to their life in God, they lay in the dust of the world, still.
Then…(and I find this amazing!)…Ezekiel is to speak….not to them anymore, but to the wind….calling “the wind”, and “O breath” (the Holy Spirit, Psalm 104:29-30).
Three times God had told them that He would scatter them in the winds (Ezekiel 5:10, 12:14, 17:21)….and now from the four corners of the earth….as though the wind which scattered them, would blow again….and He would gather them)
Ezekiel did….and these bones, covered, yet with no life…..suddenly live, and stand upon their feet, an army.
(Notice the honor the Lord gives to HIs Word…spoken by His servants! Isaiah 55:11 “…It shall not return unto Me void, but shall accomplish that which I please…”)
Here was Ezekiel’s message, now to the hopeless and depressed captives:
Ezekiel 37:12-14 “…Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up…and bring you into the land of Israel.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord….
And shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live,….and then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”
Here was a call to repentance from sin, and sorrow in unbelief….to seek the promise that the Lord has given in believing obedience….
…that they may know that the Lord has spoken it….and has done it….by a renewal within them…and then in the land, again.
And now, for us:
Ezekiel 36:37 “Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them….”
God said this through Ezekiel to Israel….but could He say this to us, as well?
Are there promises we have from the Lord we have not yet even sought for?
Are there things in the covenant of grace we have not obtained by HIs Spirit?
Have we prayed for them….called upon HIm for them….or are we following a certain form of our religion, yet we are not standing on our feet as His soldiers?
If there are….let us begin to ask, and seek, and knock that the promise we have been given, may be fulfilled by HIs Spirit, in us and through us.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 