CAN THESE BONES LIVE?

I am currently reading through all the prophetic books of the Old Testament (Isaiah through to Malachi) in my devotional time. One of the books that is always a challenge for me to understand is Ezekiel, but this morning I came to Ezekiel 37 and it spoke to me in a powerful way.

God’s Spirit took the prophet Ezekiel into a valley that was littered with bones. Death had passed here earlier and the bones were not fresh; in fact, they were dry and bleached by time and the sun.

The historical interpretation of this passage is that it refers to the return of the Jewish exiles and the rebuilding of the Jewish nation. Ezekiel was living in exile somewhere close to Babylon in what would be modern-day Iraq, approximately 575 years before Christ.

The Spirit of God asked Ezekiel a very tough question in the midst of what was an extremely difficult situation: “Can these bones live?”

Ezekiel was looking at bones that had dried out over a period of time. Verse 2 says “They were very dry.” There was absolutely no life left in these bones and for all practical purposes they would soon turn to dust.

The doubting, secularized mind would say, “This is an impossible situation. There is no life here—there is no way these bones can come to life!”

Those who are of the “extreme faith” camp would say, “Of course they can live! God has no alternative but to act if we release our faith and remind Him of His promises.” As if the Creator of the universe suffers from memory loss.

Sometimes it seems to me that demanding that God fulfill a particular Scripture on our behalf, just when we want it, is actually casting an aspersion on God. He has not forgotten one word that’s in Scripture. When we pray the Word, it is not to remind Him, it is to assist us in getting our hearts and desires in line with His will.

I find Ezekiel’s response to the tough question to be curiously satisfying: “Then he asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones become living people again?’ ‘O Sovereign Lord,’ I replied, ‘you alone know the answer to that’” (Ezekiel 37:3, NLT).

Ezekiel is acknowledging his humanity and dependency upon the Lord. I believe he is affirming that God’s plans and purposes are often beyond our ability to comprehend. He is also submitting himself to God’s plan.

We serve a sovereign God—“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all” (1 Chronicles 29:11, NIV).

One very simple definition of sovereign is, “God can do what He wants, when He wants, wherever He wants, to whomever He wants.”

So what does Ezekiel 37 mean to us? A valley of dry bones and the tough question, “Can these bones live?”

I believe this story is teaching us how to respond to what appears, to our eyes, to be an impossible situation.

1.    We acknowledge the Lord as sovereign. His plans and purposes are way beyond our comprehension. There are many things about God’s plan for my life that I just do not understand. I know God is at work on my behalf and I am comfortable with that but I just do not always see the big picture. I am not God and I am not sovereign, so my view will always be limited.

2.    By our acknowledging the Lord, we are inviting and releasing His active participation in the situation and our willingness to receive His answer. I believe one of the highest levels of prayer that we can reach is when we can pray as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Until we get to that point of understanding and embrace it, oftentimes all we are doing is trying to manipulate the Lord through our prayers.

3.    By our acknowledgement of the Lord and His sovereignty, we are bringing into focus our limited abilities and recognizing His unlimited creative and restorative power. God gives grace to the humble and resists (takes a posture of resistance) against the proud. “For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)—[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble^”   (1 Peter 5:5, Amplified Bible).

Can these bones live? Will this impossible situation be solved to my satisfaction? I don’t know but I submit to God’s overarching sovereignty and to His power and ability to do the miraculous in the midst of the impossible. I welcome God to do it—in His time and in His way.