The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1? 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[a] 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.’”

1. Introduction.

The amazing yet fascinating story of the valley of the dry bones has touched me, so deep that I decided to write on it even if it can be few pages of interest and spiritual lessons out of this great yet hidden story found in the book of Ezekiel 37:1-14

It is very crucial to look into what God is doing and how God does things, and this few verses are full of some serious revelations that I think are of important implications in our modern Christian lives and great implications in the lives of the nation of Israel as a chosen people of God.

1. The dry bone background.

We are not told what happened in this valley and how these people were killed and who killed them. We are not even told how the bones were dismembered from their original bodies and left scattered inside this valley. We are not told when the dismembering took place, whether while the bodies were still fresh like the butchery or after the bodies turned into skeletons and then the dismembering took place.  All the above questions, about these bones in the valley we have no clue of what really happened.

The discovery is that the bones were scattered in the valley not as skeletons, but as single bones dismembered from their original bodies. Each part was lying far away from its place of belonging. What does this leave as with? This is a very hopeless situation of life again. If it was skeletons, one would think there might be hope for flesh to cover these skeletons but it is utter hopeless situation with no indication of life to resume in this situation. Whoever went into this place, just close his eyes and left breathless. Yet another point of concern comes into the whole situation that says, why were these bones not covered with soil, so that no one should see the hopelessness of these bones disfigured and scattered one, bone there and another bone here? There too we have no clue why they were not at least covered for the eyes of people not to see the epitome of this situation.

1. The stages of hopelessness in this valley.
2. SCATTERED BONES. HOPELESSNESS TO THE LATTER.

The way the situation looked like, left someone with chill running the spine of someone. God is able to overcome and go beyond a situation that is absolutely without hope. It was beyond human power and comprehension to attend to such a situation. One would wish to buy petrol and pour it in and burn these bones to ashes, that would be solution one, not to see the bones again. Solution two would be hiring TLB’s to come and cover the entire valley with stones and soil ones and for all. Thirdly, one would which to put a fence around the valley as a no go zone and trespasses will greatly be prosecuted. Lastly one person to buy the area and shut it down from human advances forever even not knowing why keeping such a scenario.

God intervention

God came in such a situation with his servant in his hands. He started to ask questions to Ezekiel simply question for that matter. The Lord took this man around the valley first. The inspection of the situation was thoroughly done and the man agreed that they were many of these bones, that were his observation one, and that they were very dry, not just dry but very dry, and that was observation two. The reasons for taking this man around were to depress this man further and also to make sure that the man understands the hopelessness of the situation. It was not his intention to pass through this testing time, but verse 2 says God caused him to pass through these bones. It was the observation and statement by Ezekiel to conclude that the bones were very dry and scattered.

 Then the Lord asked a simple yet profound question, “Can these bones live again? “Verse 3” Very obvious question asked by the Almighty God to an ordinary prophet who was captured in the hand of God. The answer is amazing indeed. “You only know oh! Lord” profound answer more than what we could have answered as the prophets, pastors, apostles, and evangelists of the 21st century. Maybe we would start by prophesying even before the Lord says we must prophesy. The Lord was impressed by the humble answer from this humble servant of his.

We need to depend from God as his servants for whatever we are doing since God cannot share his glory with anyone. We have done lot of prediction out of our desire and implicated God even when God was not there. In the name of God, we have fooled people and in the name of God we ate lot of our people moneys. This must come to an abrupt end as we are going to give an account to God for all the words we have uttered under the sun.

Prophesy over these dry bones. God gave Ezekiel exactly what he was to prophesy about. “Oh you dry bones, hear the word of the LORD and not my word. Verse 5 thus said the Lord God to these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live: clear God’s utterances and not man utterances. It is very essential to hear what God is exactly saying to us and we must stop predicting what God is saying.

After the first prophesy, the scattered bones moved and joint their original bodies, verse 7. [1] Movement happened. [2] Sound was heard. [3] The bones came together bone to his bones. Verse 7. Then skeletons were seen in the valley as skeleton bone and no more scattered dry bones. Little hope started to emerged, meaning that if God, moved the scattered bones back to where they belong, that means, more serious progress can happen. From scattered bones to one fixed skeletons? Is this not exactly what God is dong in any situation that was out of hand? Such as our families feuds, and family breakdowns, be it our children not respecting and obeying parents, a father who has left his house for over 20 years, a serious breakdown of neighbours communications system, and what about the threats at work where you were promised to be fired if you make the same mistake again. Till today, the Lord had sorted out all of our problems amicably beyond our comprehension. Let us allow God to speak and allow him to be in charge.

1. STAGE TWO WAS THE SKELETONS.

This stage is rather better than the first horrible stage if scattered bones in the valley. Now we have skeletons which signify a better position of the situation. They are in one accord these bones back to where they belong.

God further said to Ezekiel, prophesy that flesh should cover these bones, and then the third stage emerged the stage of dead bodies without the spirit.

1. THE DEAD BODIES WERE THE THIRD STAGE. Covered by flesh.

BODIES BEING COVERED BY FLESH

The Lord said prophesy for wind to come from all four corners of the world and fill all those bodies and the wind came and the bodies were filled and became alive. Then they turned to be a great army that the Lord needed to use. We are that army.

1. THE GREAT ARMY IS THE FOURTH STAGE.

Out of the Coronavirus, can we be the spiritual, physical, social and political army that God can use to change the lives of the people.

1. May we move away from selfishness that we use to practise.
2. May we move away from denominationalism.
3. May we move away from jealousy and lack of support to our neighbours.
4. May we move away from lack of concern about the poor in our surroundings.
5. May we move away from prayerlessness.
6. May we move away from lack of concern for the evangelization of our neighbours and the world at large.
7.  

1. Conclusion.

There are great lessons learned from the Coronavirus period that we are still learning. Can we take most of the positive Coronavirus lessons of caring for one another, and spread the Love of God to all the people. Always when God allows situations to happen, he has a reason why he does that. We better learn the secret of God as much as we have lost so many a souls. We too one day are going to die. It is not the issue of death, but it is the issue of dying in the Lord. Can we then use these remaining days to serve the Master seriously out of pure hearts and care for one another like never before?

May all church members see the importance of their pastors in this time of Coronavirus? Can all members of the churches realise the much needed presence of their pastors as spiritual parents and take them serious after the Coronavirus has left the world. You can start right now by phoning or texting your spiritual leader and tell him or her how important they are in your life. All the lessons you learned from them, have indeed sustained you during all these time of the Coronavirus. You are coming out as s mighty army of God that he wants to use to bring glory to his name.

Can we be what God wants us to be? Can we kill selfishness ones and for all.

THE FOUR SERIOUS STAGES IN THIS VALLEY , SUMMARY

1. Scattered bones.
2. Skeletons
3. Dead bodies without the spirit
4. A great army that God was ready to use after the spirit of life came into these dead bodies.

1. Scattered bones.
2. Skeletons
3. Dead bodies without the spirit
4. A great army that God was ready to use.