Come Alive Dry Bones!

Have you faced a hopeless impossible situation? Have you ever felt that it is impossible for a particular situation to possibly turnaround? Have you been confronted that hope for the future is bleak? Picture a valley of dry bones. No life. No hope. Just silence. The finality is confronting and startling. Perhaps you too feel like this about the situation that you are faced with – the seeming finality of your dreams and hopes and aspirations and only dry bones left as a reminder of what could have been. What do you do when you are bone dry? What do you do when you reach the seeming end? It is really over?

The prophet Ezekiel and the remnant of Judah taken into exile into Babylon faced this dryness. Yes, Judah had walked away from the One True God Yahweh and pursued other gods thus breaking their covenant relationship with God. As judgement, God allowed for these people to be taken away into exile into Babylon far away from Jerusalem and the Temple where the presence of God was. Then word came to Ezekiel that Jerusalem too had fallen and the Temple was razed. There is no hope now for God’s people when the very Temple where God’s presence was hosted was gone. They were as good as dry bones, completely cut off from the life giving presence of God.

It feels like all is over. God has abandoned them and there is no hope for the future. They are on their own, completely devastated in a foreign land. Then the prophet Ezekiel receives a confronting vision from God. He is taken to a valley of dry bones and he is faced with not just death but total death. Decomposition of flesh and finally bones themselves totally dried up and bleached in the hot sun. Hope completely cut off.
Ezekiel 37:1-3,11
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?”
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.’

But it is not over! Not yet! Not when God is involved. There is hope yet! How can this be? God asks Ezekiel to prophesy to these dead bones and something beyond impossible happens as God’s spirit breathes life into these dead bones. Amazing restoration and regeneration happens right before his very eyes. The bones join together, flesh and sinew appear and as the Spirit of God breathes over them, they come alive! There stood in the valley a huge army instead of dry bones! Hope is restored! Death has no finality when God is involved. The restoration of these bones was a powerful reminder to the nation of Israel that God was not done with them despite their choices, despite the Temple of Jerusalem razed and that He was going to ultimately restore them! What amazing hope!
Ezekiel 37:9-10
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.

We were those bones. We were dead in our ways with no hope and no future. When we believed in Christ, God breathed His Holy Spirit in us and made us alive in Him! The very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is within us! We may feel dry and we may be in an impossible situation but there is always hope when you have Jesus in your life! Just like Ezekiel prophesized to the dry bones and watched them come alive, speak life into your situation. Proclaim the possibilities of what God can do! If God can bring resurrection life through Jesus into your life, is anything too hard or impossible or without hope in your life? Just like the dry bones connected up and came to life, everything that is connected to you can spring forth life when the Holy Spirit breathes over you and your situation!
Romans 8:10-11 (MSG)
It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

What kind of impossible situation are you facing today? Whether it is a health issue or related to your finances, relationships or dreams you have, don’t give up now when you have God on your side. God can restore you and your situation. He can bring about a turnaround. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Hopeless and dead situations are His specialty! Speak His life giving promises into your situation. Ask God to send His Holy Spirit to bring about life and restoration. Let hope rise within you! Let dry bones come alive! You will see a turnaround. The impossible is restored when God is present!
Ezekiel 37:14
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.