CAN THESE BONES LIVE?

Ezekiel’s vision of the resurrection of the dry bones is quite dramatic.

He (The Spirit of the Lord) 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.  He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 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.’”

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. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

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.’”  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.(Ezekiel 37:2-10)

While this vision pertains to the nation of Israel and their resurrection, the principles apply to a Christian as well.

For the bones to come to life was an impossible miracle and God asks of Ezekiel if it was possible. His response was perfect and demonstrates not just faith in the ability of God to accomplish the impossible, but also defers all such miracles to the will of God. A Christian while acknowledging the possibility of a miracle, needs to submit to the will of God and walk along with him, not get ahead of him.

The two-staged miracle of first the bodies coming together followed by breath entering them demonstrates the coexistence of the physical and metaphysical within man and around him. For the dry, dead bones to be converted to fully functional people, a miracle was necessary in both realms, as death exists in both realms. The metaphysical absence of hope is as much an indicator of death as is physical sickness in man. And as the work of Christ is perfected in man, life is injected into both these realms.

While the Lord is the author of the miracle that unfolds, he makes Ezekiel the architect by making him prophecy to the bones and to the breath, both which amazingly responds to the command of Ezekiel. Nothing is truly dead and no situation is so hopeless that it cannot respond to the powerful voice of a person speaking the will of God. The adventure of a walk with God is one of being led by him through impossibilities. And it is such experiences that make Christian life unique and incomparable.

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