Dave spoke from Ezekiel 37:1-14 tonight, a passage commonly known as the ‘Valley of Dry Bones.‘ Quite often, the church is seen as being insignificant and irrelevant, but this is not a new situation; in Ezekiel’s time, Israel was in exile, feeling forsaken and cut off from God and apparently insignificant. How we view situations is not necessarily how God views them, however.
For Ezekiel to see the valley of dry bones must have been distressing; as a priest, he was not allowed to touch the dead, and this valley was so full of bleached, brittle bones that it was obvious that bodies had been abandoned, something which would have been anathema to Jews for whom burial was really valued. Nowadays, we have become inured to the sight of mass bodies killed in war or disasters, but this vision must have underlined the hopelessness of Israel’s situation.
Nonetheless, God’s question ‘can these bones live?’ evoked an answer that implies Ezekiel recognises there is more to this vision than is apparent from natural sight. ‘Sovereign Lord, You alone know’, he says. God’s response must have seemed even stranger: why prophesy to bones which cannot hear? Nonetheless, he obeyed God and spoke to the bones. What he saw next was beyond imagination, but still he needed to prophesy further for breath – life – to enter these bones.
God speaks and breathes life into us (as at creation) and can do the same for the church today. He could act without us, but He wants us to be involved in His work. We may see dry bones (churches that have closed in recent years, lack of spiritual vitality and so on), but God sees more than we do and knows we can be a ‘mighty army.’ We have to speak out what God says, standing on His promises, prophesying as He commands us to, for God’s Word is living and able to bring even the dry bones to life. God moved as Ezekiel did as He was commanded; we need to rise up and believe and see the valley not as one of dry bones but as the valley of potential.