Can These Bones Live?
Prayer of Illumination:
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. So we now ask You, Spirit of God, to breathe on us the life-changing Word of God. Amen
In the summer of 2022, the current Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Rev. Mary Fontaine, two other PCC pastors, and I visited the Ahousaht First Nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island. A few months earlier, they found the potential grave sites of missing residential school children by their ground-penetrating radar search.
The residential school was Presbyterian-run until the United Church took over in 1925. It was a place of pain, loneliness, and fear for many children. Those unmarked burial sites across Canada were the valley of hopelessness and death to countless Indigenous peoples.
In today’s Scripture lesson from the book of Ezekiel, we find the prophet standing in the middle of a valley of death. It is a valley full of innumerable dry bones.
The Book of Ezekiel is a Prophetic and Apocalyptic book written during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews.
For those who are not familiar with the situation, let me briefly explain the historical context. At one point, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. God brought them out from the bondage of slavery under the leadership of Moses to the Promised Land – the land of milk and honey.
God told them “If you obey my commandments, if you hold fast to me, if you trust me, if you love me, you will be blessed abundantly in this land. I will be your God and you will be my people.
But if you disobey my commandments, if you worship other gods, if you turn away from me, I will drive you out to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors.” And that’s exactly what happened.
In the beginning, they obeyed God and followed His commandments, and the United Kingdom of Israel was prosperous under King David. But eventually, they turned away from God and worshipped other man-made gods – idols. And, the kingdom was divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Because of the great sins of disobedience and rebellion against God, the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Assyria. And later the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonian Empire.
The Babylonians came and destroyed the Temple, sacked Jerusalem, wiped out their homes and the land, and banished a great number of people to the land of Babylon – to a foreign land far away.
Amid devastating national turmoil, God raised a young man, a priest, Ezekiel.
Ezekiel pronounced God’s judgment on both Israel and surrounding nations. But God, through Ezekiel, also declared a reassuring message of hope.
In today’s text, Ezekiel reports on a vision of a valley filled with human bones. As he was standing still perplexed and terrified, God took Ezekiel on a tour around the bones so that he could have a clearer view of them and see whether there was any life in them.
These bones were dried, decayed, and scattered. That meant they had been there for a long time. The valley could have been a place of a terrible battle, now forgotten, where many soldiers died
There was a total absence of life. We can almost feel the desolation, fear, anguish, and hopelessness Ezekiel must have felt.
In the middle of the horrendous place, God asks Ezekiel a surprising question, “Can these bones live? Can these bones come back to life?” If you were there and asked the question, how would you answer?
Ezekiel did not presume to know what God wanted to do with the bones and answered, “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.” His answer was filled with the awareness of human helplessness in the face of death. Ezekiel knew that humanly speaking it was impossible. His answer revealed that it would require a divine power to bring about life.
Then the Lord told Ezekiel, “Prophesy to the bones. Tell these dry bones to listen to the word of the Lord. Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: I am going to put breath into you and bring you back to life. I will give you sinews and muscles, and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and bring you back to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
So as he was told, Ezekiel prophesied to the bones. And as he was speaking, the silent valley was awash in the noise of rattling, as the bones began leaping and dancing about.
And tendons and layers of flesh appeared on them and pink skin covered them. But the new creatures were not alive, since there was as yet no breath in them.
Then the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath. “Tell the breath to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life.” So as God commanded, Ezekiel prophesied to the breath.
What happened next is astonishing. The breath came from every direction and entered them. And they, as many as a vast army, came to life and stood up on their feet – Incredible re-birth not only as an individual but also as a vast army of a nation. As the word of the LORD was proclaimed over them, life came into them and they were restored.
Here, the ‘breath’ in Hebrew is ‘ruach’, which is translated as ‘wind’, ‘breath’, and God’s own ‘Spirit’. In this 14 verse passage, ‘ruach’ was used 10 times. God’s Ruach is the source of life.
This ruach gave life into God’s creation and made everything live. It was the Spirit that Jesus breathed to the disciples after He resurrected. It was the same Spirit that empowered the early church in Acts.
In v. 11, God explained to Ezekiel that the dry bones represent the whole house of Israel. The Israelites complained, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost; we are completely cut off.”
Israel was a defeated nation. Its military had been crushed; its people had been separated from one another in exile. The king of Judah, Zedekiah was captured, his eyes were put out, and loaded with chains. Then he was carried captive to Babylon where he remained as a prisoner until he died.
The city of Jerusalem was plundered and razed to the ground. On top of that, the temple of YAHWEH – the center of their national identity and culture – was destroyed. It is no surprise that they cried, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost.’ The exiles felt exactly like a heap of dry bones.
But, to these despaired people, God promised, “O my people, I will bring you back to the land of Israel. I will open your graves and bring you up from your graves. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your soil. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I have promised that I would do this—and I will.”
What a profound promise! And indeed, God brought His people out after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.
Have you ever faced a seemingly hopeless situation? Many of us have our own “valley of dry bones.” We face hopeless circumstances, relationships, and communities torn and falling apart.
We have families shattered by anger, abuse, misunderstanding, betrayal, addiction, and greed. We have churches divided over theology, worship style, or even ministry goals.
Moreover, we have our struggles – unending health issues, financial difficulties, death of loved ones, broken relationships, or hidden sinful behaviors and thoughts.
Sometimes you don’t feel the presence of God anymore. And you think, “My bones are dried up; my hope is lost, and I feel completely cut off from God.”
What about the bomb-shattered villages and towns in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine, and Sudan – is there hope? Is there hope in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, or under the earthquake debris where children cry for help? Is there hope in the ash-covered town after the wildfire swept through?
What about in the homeless camps in Abbotsford or in Vancouver’s downtown eastside where the drug addicts sleep on the sidewalk or walk like zombies?
Is there hope in the Ahousaht First Nation residential school site and all the unmarked graves of Indigenous children across Canada?
At the residential school site, we, including the elders and leaders of the community, made a circle. One of the elders sang, playing the drum, and the Rev. Mary Fontaine, who is Indigenous, prayed for the children, the family, and the community, and for the healing of the Ahousaht First Nation.
God is asking us, “Can these bones live?” With our perspective? No way. But what if we look at them through God’s eyes? Look through God’s eyes, and watch the dead come alive and become a new creation. When we raise our vision to look beyond what our mundane eyes can see, we watch the impossible happen.
We all need restoration and revivals: revival in our personal spiritual life, revival in our church, revival in our community, revival in our denomination, revival in our nation. We need revivals. So, pray for revivals in your life. Declare restoration.
Many need the message of hope. Many around us are desperately in need of the hope of healing and restoration. Speak a word of life to the despaired and the hopeless. Sometimes speaking that word of hope might not even involve speaking at all.
Instead, it might mean showing people a glimpse of the life that God promises through Jesus Christ, through the death and resurrection of Christ. Or maybe simply being there can help people see a little beyond death and despair.
In that, we all can live together prophetically. So when someone asks you, “Can these dry bones live?” You can say, “Yes—by the power of God.”
God, only God Himself can bring life out of death, restoration out of desolation, healing out of wounds, and hope out of hopelessness. Whatever is dead or dying in our lives, the Almighty God can bring it back to life.
We all were once like the dry bones in the valley. But through Jesus Christ, we became a new creation. The Breath of God came into our life and made us alive. Without the Spirit of God, we may exist but not fully alive. In the Spirit of God, there is fullness of life.
Friends, Look through the eyes of God. Return to the Lord and be renewed. God will breathe the life-giving breath – ruach to you. So now let us ask God to send His Spirit into our lives.
Let us pray.
Sovereign Lord, You alone can change the seasons of dry bones and barrenness into the seasons of fruitfulness and flourishing. So Speak to the Breath from every direction and bring about the Spirit of the Lord into our lives. Breathe on us, O Breath of God. Amen.