If you came upon a huge pile of bones, what would be your reaction? Would you be scared? Perhaps if you had a medical or scientific background you might be a bit interested. However, if those bones were to get up and join together, that is the stuff of spooky movies! We know that such a scary event would not happen. Yet as we read our Scripture for today from the Prophet Ezekiel, we read his account of just such an event that the Lord showed him. Let’s take a look.
The Prophet Ezekiel’s ministry was primarily during the time when the people of Judah were in captivity in Babylon. The Lord God brought about the Babylonian captivity, when the majority of the people were taken out of the land that God had given them because of their faithlessness to Him in worshiping false gods and idols. The people were spiritually dead, as dead as a pile of bones.
One day during the ministry of Ezekiel the Lord brought him into a valley that was filled with bones. This valley was in a desert wilderness, and the bones were completely dry. There was no possible living cell in them. These bones were all scattered, as well. A skull here, a femur there. Ribs and vertebrae all mixed up together. The Lord showed Ezekiel the valley of bones, and asked him whether the bones could live. They were bare bones, bones that were totally dried out, and that were separated from each other. Ezekiel, though, didn’t just answer back, “No way!” He knew that Yahweh could do anything, and that if He wanted to, He could bring them to life. Ezekiel answered that God knew if they could or not (vs. 1-3).
God then told the prophet to preach to the bones, and for the bones to listen to God’s Word, and as the man of God spoke to them, the bones came together. Muscles and tendons came upon the bones, and skin covered them. They now looked like people, yet they were not alive. There was no breath in them (vs. 4-8). Yahweh told Ezekiel to speak His Word again, calling for breath to come into the lifeless bodies, bringing them life. As Ezekiel obeyed God, the bodies came to life (vs. 9-10).
Naturally, God wasn’t just showing the prophet some spooky scene, something with skeletons and zombies. There was an important lesson in this which He wanted to show the prophet, and in turn for the prophet to bring to the people of Israel. As God showed the prophet, the bones represented the Jewish people. Like the bones scattered all across the valley, the people were scattered all across the Middle East, and eventually they would be across the whole world. But they are lifeless, without any spiritual life, spiritually dead. They had rejected Yahweh and His Word, so God had scattered them out of the Promised Land. The bones may come together with skin and muscle, just as the Jewish people have come back to the land of Israel, but they are still spiritually lifeless, which is how they remain to this day. Only when God’s Spirit comes upon them will they regain life again (vs. 11-14).
It is only when the Holy Spirit, sent from God, comes upon a person, that one gains spiritual life. That only happens when one is saved, when one accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior. Throughout the centuries since the time of Christ there have been some Jewish people who have been saved. The very first Christians were mostly of Jewish background. However, as time passed, fewer and fewer Jews accepted Jesus as Savior. Yet there still are some today who do turn to Jesus and accept Him as their Messiah. The nation of Israel today, though, is in unbelief, and does not have spiritual life. They are like the bodies standing there that Ezekiel saw, but were without breath. Anyone, Jewish or Gentile, who has not accepted Jesus the Messiah, are spiritually lifeless, without breath. We can even see some of them standing in church on Sundays.
God promised, though, that there would be a revival among the Jewish people when Jesus, the Son of God returns. The breath of life will come into them. When they see Him whom they pierced, they will accept Him as their Messiah, and come to life (Zechariah 12:10-14).
We can and should pray for a revival today. Pray that people everywhere, both Jewish people and Gentiles, will turn to Jesus, and accept Him as their Savior and Messiah. Only then will the dead bones come together and have life, spiritual life in them.
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