The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ² And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. ³ And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then 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.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

1) What is the context of this passage and who are the characters?
Jerusalem had been ruined, the temple destroyed, and the Jews have been taken captive and were now displaced in Babylon. The Jews had hit rock bottom; for all practical purposes, they were dead and felt deserted. BUT GOD. He called Ezekiel out to a plain (or valley), and spoke to him. God had neither forgotten nor abandoned His beloved people. The players on the scene are the dry bones, the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord God, and the breath of His Spirit.

2) Is the question in verse 3 a “trick question”? What are its implications?
If we were to visit a morgue and pull out a body that had long since died and asked, “Can this person come alive,” we would scoff. Of course not! For all of our technology and forward strides and theology and psychology, dead is still dead. God’s point in asking this question is to quite vividly show Ezekiel that where man’s ability ends, the Lord’s only begins. Israel had to stop looking for other things to satisfy them, please them, and heal them. They were beyond sick, they were held in captivity and only God could revive them.

3) Why is there a distinction between bodies coming alive without breath and having breath?
Let’s journey farther back to Garden of Eden to get a good look at this question. Genesis 2:7 says, “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” God is the author of life, and it begins and ends with His breath, His Spirit, HE is the source of life. Ezekiel could prophesy all day long, but without the breath of the Lord, those bones were still just dead men…..impressive dead men, but still dead men.

4) What is the conclusion of this incredible object lesson?
The point of the Lord’s miraculous visual lesson is stated twice. Once at the beginning, and once in the conclusion: “That you shall know that I am the Lord.” Only the Almighty can being life where death has reigned, only the Almighty can bring a scattered Israel back home and rebuild them from having been delivered into captivity. The conclusion is the glory of the Lord!

1) What is the context of this passage and who are the characters?
What’s probably most interesting to me about this unique scene in biblical narrative is that God intentionally chose to use Ezekiel. God could have made the army of dead men come alive without the prophet’s words. But He didn’t. He wanted His glory to be made known, His truth declared over Israel, and He wanted Ezekiel to play a role in that. Sister! The same is true for us!! The Almighty wants His glory to be made known as He rescues sinners for eternity, He wants the truth of who we were made to be to be sung over us, and He invites us to be part of it! In what ways are you making His glory known and declaring His truth? Are you pushing your comfortable boundaries away to make room for His Spirit to do the unbelievable?!

2) Is the question in verse 3 a “trick question”? What are its implications?
Until we realize exactly how desperate we are without the Lord, we will never be able to understand why we need Him so much. You and I….we are sinners. Not mistakers. Not “good people”. Not well meaning. We are sinners, falling perpetually short of God’s standard for holiness. And we will never, ever attain His favor on our own. That’s dire. That’s desperate. That’s hopelessly dead. And it’s exactly the picture God wants us to see about ourselves. Not to condemn us or walk all over us, but to extend His Good News of grace and love and forgiveness and redemption and freedom. Until we can see how desperate we are, we can’t see how richly gracious God is!

3) Why is there a distinction between bodies coming alive without breath and having breath?
The picture of bones coming to life with sinews and marrow and flesh is mind-blowing, but when you consider that they weren’t “alive” until the Spirit of the Lord fell on them, it’s breathtaking as we see the parallel to today. Those women at the office, those neighbor boys who seem so nice, that elderly man who sits on his front porch, that cashier with the smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes…..these are the dead bones walking around, faking at life, grasping for abundance, but finding emptiness. Until the Spirit’s breath falls on them, making them new and alive to the Lord, they are dead….perhaps impressively adorned on the outside, but still dead. Are you willing to speak life over them?!

4) What is the conclusion of this incredible object lesson?
The same conclusion that was intended for Ezekiel and Israel is the same for you and I right now in our everyday moments. “That you shall know that I am the Lord.” He is the Almighty, He is for us, He is with us, and He delights in inviting us in to what He is doing in order to declare boldly through us to a sick and dying world that He alone is the Lord God Almighty! One, glorious day the Lord God will “open (our) graves, and raise (us) from the dead,” as He returns victoriously, once and for all declaring Death to be the loser and Life to be the eternal victor! Christ will come back, claim those who have trusted in Him as His own, and we will live with Him forever! Truly a miracle working God!

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