Many times throughout life we feel spiritually dry. Like our fire has gone out, or life just seems to fall apart or nothing will go right and maybe that has happened. But what causes that to happen? And is there hope?
Israel experienced this many times throughout its history. Israel was even taken from the Promised Land to Babylon as a judgement from God as a result of not following His commands. This case of Israel's punishment was due to their disobedience to God, but there are stories like Job whom God allowed to be tested to bring Himself glory. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that you disobeyed God and now everything is upside down and all over.
But there is hope, there's a piece of scripture written by Ezekiel, a prophecy that God would bring Israel back to life and restore them. Ezekiel 37:1-14:
1-3 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4-8a Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them-'
8b-10 '-but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11-14Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Verses 1-3
God gave Ezekiel a vision, a valley of bones. Dry bones. The significant thing about bones being dry and even very dry is that they have been dead a very long time. And then God asks Ezekiel if the bones can live. I don't know about you, but I've never seen bones come to life before outside the movies, so I'd probably be like,"well I don't think they can", but Ezekiel said,"God, only you know." Now we see that when God was talking about the bones He was really talking about the people of Israel. God was asking,"Can Israel live again?" Can we live again? Can we come back from our brokenness and our dying or dead fire?
Verses 4-8a
Then God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, to speak life over them, not that he would just bring them back to life but that he would attach tendons to them and put flesh over them and cover them with skin. God is declaring that He isn't just going to bring Israel back together is some weirdly formed shape with out order or anything to hold them together but that He would rebuild them from the basics, he would attach tendons and flesh. Tendons hold the bones and flesh together, and the skin to cover, to protect and to hold in the flesh. Then Ezekiel prophesied and the "bones came together, bone to bone and the tendons and the fleshed appeared on them and skin covered them. God was going to rebuild these bones in to humans. This story very well illustrates the power of God in that He made humans come from dry bones, these bones had nothing, no life or tissue but God made the tissue and covered them out of nothing.
Verses 8b-10
"-but there was no breath in them." We can't just live without breath. So right now there are a bunch of dead bodies on the floor of a valley just laying there dead. But then God told Ezekiel to "prophecy to the breath, prophecy, son of man! Tell the breath that the Sovereign Lord says to come from the four winds and breathe into these bodies!" This section shows more than just a physical rebuilding of Israel but of the people coming from the four corners of the earth to which they were scattered and becoming a living, thriving nation once again. God sent Jesus to die for us that we would be brought out of death into life, not just life, but life more abundant (John 10:10).
Verses 11-14
God goes on to say that He hears the cries of His people and He will restore them to life from out of their graves and they, His chosen people, will know that He is God and that He brought them from their sufferings. He said that He would put His spirit in His people and they would live again. These people cried out to God and He heard them, and answered.
God out of His great love for us has offered to bring us back to life, when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us, He made a way for us to be with Him and live a full life. That doesn't mean hard times won't come, in fact in James 1:2 says," Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds." It doesn't say if you face trials, it says when you face trials, and to consider it pure joy. "And if our God is for us, then who can be against us(Romans 8:31b)?"
We don't always know why things happen the way that they do but we do know that God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). There's a lot of scripture in here, but there's a lot to be learned through it, if we listen...
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