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The Valley of Dry Bones
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 I felt the powerful presence of the Lord, and
his spirit took me and set me down in a valley
where the ground was covered with bones.
2 He led me all around the valley, and I could
see that there were very many bones and that
they were very dry.
3 He said to me, "Mortal man, can these bones
come back to life?"
I replied, "Sovereign Lord, only you can
answer that !"
4 He said, "Prophesy to the bones. Tell these
dry bones to listen to the word of the Lord.
5 Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am
saying to them: I am going to put breath into
you and bring you back to life.
6 I will give you sinews and muscles, and cover
you with skin. I will put breath into you and
bring you back to life. Then you will know that
I am the Lord."
7 So I prophesied as I had been told. While I
was speaking, I heard a rattling noise, and the
bones began to join together.
8 While I watched, the bones were covered with
sinews and muscles, and then with skin. but
there was no breath in the bodies.
9 God said to me, "Mortal man, prophesy to
the wind (a)
Tell the wind that the Sovereign Lord
commands it to come from every direction, to
breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring
them back to life."
10 So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath
entered the bodies, and they came to life and
stood up. There were enough of them
to form an army.
11 God said to me, "Mortal man, the people of
Israel are like these bones. They say that they
are dried up, without any hope and with no
future.
12 So prophesy to my people Israel and tell them
that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to open
their graves. I am going to take them out and
bring them back to the land of Israel.
13 When I open the graves where my people are
buried and bring them out, they will know that
I am the Lord.
14 I will put my breath in them, bring them back
to life, and let them live in their own land.
Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have
promised that I would do this - and I will.
I, the Lord, have spoken."
Footnotes
Ezekiel 37:9 wind; or spirit.
The same Hebrew word may mean wind,
or spirit, or breath.
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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union
The Valley of Dry Bones
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The impression of the valley described in the passage is of a gulch, a deep valley formed by erosion that,
if the eroding river is dried up, can be prone to flash floods. It sounds a dried-up, hostile, isolated place.
Led by the 'spirit of the Lord', the prophet's feet tread in among heaps of bones. Whatever happened,
so long ago, that not only has all the clothing rotted away but also the very bones have been bleached
completely dry.
There were no survivors to bury the bodies, mourning them and paying them due respect.
To the Lord's challenge - 'Can these bones live?' - the prophet makes a wise response.
The obvious answer is, 'No, of course not', but Ezekiel is loyal to his faith in the one God,
mightier than any foreign deity.
Obediently, Ezekiel speaks to the bones, telling them that the Lord Almighty will restore them to life.
First comes the noise - a rattling - and we imagine the prophet breaking off, scared out of his wits,
looking this way, and that, as the source of the noise becomes apparent.
The bones are moving. As the prophet watches (I think, open-mouthed), the bones are reconstituted into bodies.
We may be tempted to envisage a kind of zombie army here, silently staring at the anxious prophet as he wonders
what on earth will happen next. The dead are alive, however, not just undead, and they are a 'vast multitude'.
While the Bible is no science textbook, it is absolutely clear that God is the life-giver for all.
Whatever the exact mechanism by which the gift was first given, the source of it is the Lord Almighty,
who is also our Heavenly Father.
Finally we come to the point of this prophecy, but it has often been misunderstood:
In fact, at that time, there was no concept of life after death.
All the dead, righteous and unrighteous alike, were thought to end up in a shadowy region known as Sheol.
The 'whole house of Israel' feels itself dried up and dead; hope is gone. Both Israel and Judah were fought over,
dominated and eventually swallowed up once they had wilfully distanced themselves from God's protection.
They have been 'cut off completely', not only from the temple the heart of their worshipping life)
but from the promised land, which had been the centrepiece of the covenant.
Now the Lord gives Ezekiel his orders: 'tell my people that I am coming for them'.
Just as dry bones can become living beings again, so God's people can and will be resurrected.
God has spoken; God will act. What the people have to do is trust, and wait for the word to be fulfilled.
The Holy Spirit still enlivens and empowers dried-out souls.
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