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Can These Bones Live Again?

 Ezekiel 37:1 – “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.” 

    God takes the Prophet Ezekiel and sets him down into a valley filled with bones.  Ezekiel 37:2 says, “Then he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold there were very many in the open valley, and indeed they were very dry.” This valley was filled with death. There was no life, only dry bones.  It is a valley of impossibilities. It is a valley of hopelessness.


In Ezekiel 37:3 the Lord asks the prophet a question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Can these dry bones be reanimated and live again? The prophet answers the Lord in Ezekiel 37:3, “So I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’”  The New Living Translation says, “you alone know the answer to that.” 


Like Ezekiel, we are standing in a valley of impossibilities. The Lord is asking the same question of us today. “Can these bones live?” Is the God we serve able to turn a hopeless situation around?  Here is what I believe the prophet was saying, “You alone are the answer to our dilemma. You alone are our hope.” Our declaration must be, “You alone are able to take an impossible situation and turn it around for our good (Romans 8:38). 


The Lord gave the prophet the following instructions in verses 4-6, “Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ”


Can these bones live again? Notice what happened when the prophet obeyed the Lord’s instructions in Ezekiel 37:7-8, “So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.”


A miracle took place in this valley of dry bones. Bones came together and muscles and flesh covered the body, but there is no breath. Here stands an army, but there is no breath. Ezekiel 37:9-10 says, “Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”


God is not finished in this valley. Can these bones live again? There is a miracle of resurrection awaiting us in the valley of dead, dry bones. 

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