From The Depths Of The Valley of Dry Bones
Ezekiel 37: 1-3 The L ord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the L ord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, "Son of man, can these bones become living people again? "O Sovereign L ord ," I replied, "you alone know the answer to that." (NLT)
You find yourself in a great valley. Surrounding you on both sides are insurmountable walls that seem to climb as far as the heavens. This leaves you with but two directions; backwards where you are trying to escape from and forward which remains foreboding in its unfamiliarity. Modern Christianese will refer to the low places in our lives as a valley, perhaps in reference to Psalm 23 and the valley of the shadow of death. Strategically in military warfare, you always seek the higher ground. Fighting from the lower ground is a defensive posture. You have no advantage in the valley. Your enemies on the other hand know just where you are. The dictionary even defines valley as: " an elongated depression between uplands, hills, or mountains." An elongated depression indeed.
The valley shown to the Prophet Ezekiel however was even more ominous. The valley floor he was walking through was littered with bones. Skeletal remains of people who had walked it before him. The bones before him were completely dried out. The word picture God is drawing for us is vivid. We find ourselves often in the valley or dry bones in our walk too. We hold no strategic advantage in the valley as the enemy attacks us at will. The walls to the left and right of us serve only to keep us in and heighten our despair. All around us is the spiritual dryness of our walk. Dry bones calling to our soul and the expectations of where we thought we would be or who we thought we would be. Grieving the loss of time. The key verses end today with a simple question from God to us "Son of man, can these bones become living people again?"
Now why does God ask Ezekiel this question? Why does He ask us the same question today when we find ourselves surrounded by doubt in our valley of dry bones? Surely God knows the answer is yes!
They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago. They will revive them, though they have been deserted for many generations. Isaiah 61: 4 (NLT)
God is always in the revival business. God already knows that He can revive the valley of dry bones but the question is did Ezekiel know it? Do we know it today? Do we believe it today or are we paying lip service to our faith; the faith that is so necessary to navigate this valley.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11: 6 (NLT)
I view the answer from Ezekiel as the "safe" answer. It is the familiar answer to those of us who believe. It is the answer that defers back to God the answer we should already know. It is the answer that sometimes takes the form of religiosity. We know that God has called us out into a ministry but when asked we say, "I'm just waiting on the Lord!" Or we know we are engaging in a behavior that is opposed to the teachings of the Bible but we convince ourselves that we need "confirmation." Beloved, God does not need to confirm His Word to you He already has throughout Scripture!
Now, maybe I am being hard on Ezekiel here. I guess the problem I have is with him using the word "know." God asks him a direct question can these bones become living people? Maybe if his answer was "only You could perform that" or "that's only up to you" I would be more generous. But instead Ezekiel says that only God knows that. And I think that is the first lesson in the valley of dry bones. We must KNOW who God is and what He can do.
"From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done." Isaiah 43: 13 (NLT)
When we find ourselves surrounded by the dry bones, deep in the valley, we can choose to know what we see and feel or we can choose to know God. If we trust what we see, we will become overwhelmed by the steepness of the walls surrounding us. We will become frightened of the darkness that lies ahead of us. We will become despondent in the dryness of death that we walk upon. If we trust what we feel, we can become hopeless. If we trust what we feel we can try to run away, backwards through the valley.
Here is the first truth for today beloved. God does not want to know what we see. He does not want to know what we feel. He wants to know what we believe! Oh son of man, can these bones become living people again? The answer cannot be, "I don't know Lord, they look pretty dry to me." Our answer cannot be, "Lord they frighten me, please take them away!" Our answer cannot even be the deference of our faith to say "well only you know that..."
WE should know it! If it be according to thy will, the answer is a resounding yes! But here is the problem with faith today. Faith defers. You cannot sit in the valley of dry bones and rely upon your sight or your feelings. Nor can you simply turn it back over to God in some form of pseudo-piety. You cannot defer your faith back unto God. You yourself must believe for yourself, in your valley of dry bones. And don't think this lack of faith issue is somehow lost on Jesus:
I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?" Luke 18: 8 (NLT)
Back in Ezekiel's vision, we see the Lord start to give us more insight into how to combat the dry valleys of our lives:
