These are the days of Ezekiel, the dry bones becoming as flesh.
Ezekiel 37, verses 1-14 tell about a conversation between Ezekiel and God, as God shows him the message He wants Ezekiel to share with His people. God brings Ezekiel to a valley full of old, dried up human bones, and He tells him to prophesy over them, causing them through God’s power to come back to life, assembled with skin and breath into an army of living people. How awesome is that?
But as amazing as that moment was, even more amazing is the lesson that God wants Ezekiel — and us — to learn from it.
“Then he said to me,… ‘Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore…., Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord,…And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live,…Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:11-14
Are your bones dry?
Sometimes it feels like we have nothing left. Our hope is gone, our spiritual energy is lost, and we’re struggling to see the bigger picture of God’s plan for our lives. It is in that moment that God — with power even greater than His incredible power over nature — can breathe new life into us. He can bring spiritual renewal, resurrecting us to a spirit that is on fire for Him.
Spiritual renewal can happen any day, all the time. When we dig into God’s word and let Him speak to us. When we worship and fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. When we communicate with Him through prayer. When we willingly seek Him, He is always ready to renew us.
Maybe the best part of this story is that though it is an Old Testament story, it strongly foreshadows a concept that only blossoms into God’s perfect New Testament plan in Jesus Christ. That’s the reason why we can take an old, old story about some dry bones and relate to it so clearly.
“In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4
"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins..." Ephesians 2:1
“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10
God is ALIVE and He is working, constantly, to bring life back to us.
Let Him breathe new life into you.
