Dry Bones

In Ezekiel there is a famous story that you might know as "the Valley of Dry Bones." (Ezek 37:1-14) God takes Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry bones and asks him, "Can these bones live?" Ezekiel wisely answers, "You know, Lord." So God tells him to speak to the bones and tell them to rise. Interesting, isn't it? God didn't do it -- speak to them. He had Ezekiel do it. So, he did. And they came alive.

The story is about Israel, but it is also about God's people. And it illustrates the reality quite well. Scripture says that humans are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1; Col 2:13). Spiritual dry bones. Unwilling and unable to accept or understand the things of God (1 Cor 2:14). So God's plan is to have His messengers tell these dry bones to get up. Seems like a stupid plan on the face of it. But we're not supposed to question it; we're supposed to do it. So we "proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). We tell them all. We declare loudly and clearly, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31). We stand on street corners and in tents, in churches and in stadiums, at our neighbor's doors and in our own living rooms and tell all who will hear, "O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD" (Ezek 37:4).

And do you know what happens? God raises them up. God supplies them with spiritual sinews and flesh (Ezek 37:8). God opens the graves and puts His Spirit in them (Ezek 37:14).

In the famous stories of the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 there is a common theme. The disciples told Jesus the problem: "These people are hungry." Jesus told them, "You feed them" (Matt 14:16) The disciples, of course, had no such capacity. So He asked them what they had available and, when they gave it to Him, Christ accomplished through them what He had told them to do using what they had.

This is our story. We live among dead people. Spiritual dry bones. We are commanded to make them live. "We can't." No, we can't. But we have a voice and we have a new character by which we can live Christ in front of them and "they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matt 5:16). We have gifts and talents, insufficient to the task, but usable by Christ to accomplish miracles. Miracles like raising the spiritually dead. Truly awesome, in fact. No, it's not the best argument or the best presentation that wins the day. It is always the Lord of Life that does that. But we get to take part, in word and in deed. Shouldn't we get started? Shouldn't that be a daily pleasure?