Meditation 248
Ezekiel 37: 1-14
When I turn to this passage, the first thing that comes to my mind is the Spiritual “Dem Dry Bones” that tells of the dry bones coming together. The song is lively and sticks in the memory, but it is only the beginning. It speaks of all the bones being connected, but it leaves you with the image of a reconnected skeleton.
In the lesson in Ezekiel the Lord shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones, then the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. The bones come together, but they also have flesh come upon them, and then they have breath come into them, and finally they have the Spirit of the Lord God put within them. The bones were the “whole house of Israel” (verse 11). The people of Israel had given up hope, they are in exile in Babylon, and when they were feeling dry and completely cut off, the word of the Lord came to them. They were given the promise of the Spirit of the Lord within them, so that they would live. They would “know that …the Lord [has] spoken and will act” (verse 14)
This is how God gives life. God gives life abundantly. The valley of dry bones was not simply made into a valley of skeletons, but into people who had the spirt of God within them. When God saw that the people were distressed, and hopeless to the point of feeling lifeless, God sent a prophet with a message of hope. The message was not something the people had planned to hear. If they had been asked about their future they would have said that they were cut off from God because they were in a foreign land. They were far from the temple of the Lord; they were no longer in the Promised Land, and they had been conquered by a nation that did not worship the Lord God. The people of Israel were as dry as a valley of bones, but God spoke into this environment through the prophet Ezekiel who gave the people the word of the Lord.
We too may have times and seasons in our lives when we feel like a valley of dry bones. When we feel hopeless and so consumed with worry that it is as if we are dry bones with no life. The presence of God is always there, and even if we are past being able to ask for help, it may be that God will send a message through the words or actions of another, or in the beauty of creation. Some of us may need more than one reminder that when God puts the Holy Spirit upon us that we will live. Our lives of faith show us that God does give us the number of reminders that we need.
It seems that those who have been to the valley of dry bones are among those whose faith shines. We all have the frustrations of living in a fallen world, a world where mistakes happen, and when we turn to God for strength in the times of hurt, of worry and of distress we will find the hope and life needed to go from hopelessness to life.