Dry Bones

Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. (Ezekiel 37:4, NET).

Have you ever been in a dry season in your walk of faith? I know that I have. More than once. Dry seasons are times when we feel far from God. It seems like God is far away, maybe even like He has abandoned us. The truth is that, when we feel far from God, it’s more than likely because we have moved away from Him. God is always with us. He’s always there, waiting to listen to us, waiting to speak to us. But sometimes, perhaps because of a difficult circumstance, or because of fatigue or illness, our hearts may become hardened and we may move away from God. The result is a season of dryness, a season in which it seems that all of the life has gone out of us.

In Ezekiel 37, the hand of God was on Ezekiel and the prophet was brought by the Spirit of God to a valley filled with bones. As Ezekiel walked through the valley, he saw that not only were there a large number of bones there, but also that the bones were very dry. There was no life in them. God asked Ezekiel if the dry bones could live. Not knowing the answer to that question, Ezekiel replied, “Lord, you know.” Ezekiel very likely understood that life returning to those dry bones was dependent on God. God had the power to bring life where life has gone. God told Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones, to declare His word to them. His word was that He would breathe life into them. With God’s breath in them, the bones would live, flesh would return to them, and they would know that God is Lord (Ezekiel 37:1-6).

God may use a dry season to teach us. He may want us to learn to surrender to Him, to put our complete trust in Him. And God also has the power to pull us out of that dry season, to restore life to our “dry bones.” We need to reach out to Him in prayer, we need to look to His Word and to “hear” it. We need to allow the Spirit of God to breathe life into us. If our hearts have become hardened, we need to allow Him to soften our hearts. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God promises to give us a new heart, to put a new spirit within us. He will remove the heart of stone from our bodies and replace it with a heart of flesh. He will bring life to our “dry bones”. He will bring refreshing in our dry season by putting His Spirit within us.

Ezekiel prophesied over the bones as God told him to do. Flesh and breath returned to those dry bones and they stood to their feet and lived. When we allow God’s Word and His Holy Spirit to speak into our lives during a dry season, we will be lifted out of that dryness. We will once again draw close to Him and will stand to our feet and walk with Him right beside us.