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:

Then he said to me, "Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, 'Dry bones, listen to the word of the L ord ! This is what the Sovereign L ord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the L ord .'" Ezekiel 37: 4-6 (NLT)

The next lesson is that what we say matters! What we speak into, we give life into. When we find ourselves surrounded by walls too high to climb we can either speak life into them or death. Make no mistake about it; the dry bones are there because of how we have spoken in our approach to the challenges we face. We can look ahead into the valley and see the impending darkness and speak life or we can speak death. We can look and say to ourselves how frightening it appears. How we do not know where we are going. How worried we are about the future. Or we can speak life, as David did:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23: 4 (KJV)

First of all we need to realize that even the valley of dry bones we find ourselves in is finite. It has an end. We may not be able to see it through the darkness but it is there up ahead if we would just continue to walk in faith. We are only walking through the valley if we would just stay close to God. Sometimes however we can set up camp in the valley. Sit amongst the dead dry bones and wonder when God is going to come save us. But look at the rest of the imagery in this verse from Psalm 23. The staff referred to is symbolic of the shepherd's crook which is used to guide his sheep. Remember Psalm 23 begins with the pronouncement that the Lord is my shepherd. Here, David is returning to this truth and reminding us that even in our darkest moments, God is guiding us. He is our shepherd on the mountaintop and in the valley. All we need to know to be comforted is that His staff is leading us. The second imagery used is the rod, which is also a tool of the shepherd. The rod is used by shepherds to ward off potential predators to his sheep. All we need to be comforted is that His rod will protect us from the wolves the enemy will send into our lives. David was able to take comfort in the staff that guides him and the rod that protects him. Both belong to God, our shepherd.

But what we say matters. The sick and anxious person starts their day by saying "I don't feel good" lending immediate power to their feelings over God. The person who laments the loss of a relationship starts their day saying, "will I ever find the right person", lending immediate power to the doubt in their life instead of to their God. That is what these dry bones are beloved. They are the doubt, pain, uncertainty, loneliness, or despair that we all face. They are the feelings we give life to, dry from the lack of faith in God. It is a sobering realization we must face that we created the valley of dry bones we find ourselves in. It is littered with the skeletons of our failures, our fears, and our faithlessness.

But God does not want us to sit down in the valley of dry bones. He does not want us to set up camp there. He knows there is no strategic advantage gained from dwelling in the valley. What is the order God gives Ezekiel? He orders him to prophesy to the dry bones! It is a wonderful insight to realize that no matter how dry our bones become, God can always speak life into them! This should dispel any silly notions of having drifted too far from God to be able to return to Him. The final lesson from the valley today is the message God tells Ezekiel to say:

'Dry bones, listen to the word of the L ord !

Do not listen to your feelings beloved. If David had listened to his feelings he never would have defeated Goliath. If the three Hebrew boys had listened to their feelings they would have bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar. On the flip side, when David did listen to his feelings he lost his throne. When Peter listened to his feelings he denied Jesus Christ.

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1John 3: 19-20 (NIV)

Do not listen to your feelings. In this world we are conditioned to seek out so many things before God. We seek our help from our family, our friends, our therapist, our clergy. We can seek answers in a bottle, in a drug, or in medication. We constantly listen to things that continue to dry out our bones. But what does God say here? Listen to the Word of the Lord!

"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Proverbs 30: 5 (NIV)

I lie in the dust; revive me by your word. Psalm 119: 25 (NLT)

Are you staring at the walls of your valley today wondering how you can ever overcome them? Do you find yourself in a state of spiritual dryness, surrounded by the bones of your own making? In that valley of dry bones, wondering what lies up ahead? God has a word for you today. First of all, you must know who it is that you serve. Your faith in who God is has to be bigger than your fear of where you are. Secondly, what you say matters. What you speak life into; will determine what has power in your valley. If you speak to the death you see, you will empower the death around you. If you prophesy to the life within you, you will empower that life to take charge and your dry bones will be revived. Lastly, listen to the word of the Lord. Do not listen to distractions or worldly solutions. Everything you ever need and every answer you will ever seek is found directly in the Word of God. Faith, speaking life, and listening to what God says. Up ahead you will see the light out of that valley of dry bones. And you will be better for having gone through.

Reverend Anthony Wade October 19, 2011