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Mid-Week with Christ
March 27, 2020
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Ezekiel 37:1-14
1 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.”
Prayer for the Day
Lord of Life, breathe into our dry bones the promise that you will never leave us or forsake us, in Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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Ezekiel is a book of visions, much like the Revelation to John. The Lord is speaking to and through the prophet to the exiled people of God, many of whom had lost hope. They were miles away from Jerusalem, the Temple was destroyed, and the normal means of accessing God through the sacrificial rites had been taken away.
People were certainly dying physically, some even by direct torture and deprivation from the Babylonian authorities. The bones of the dead could not be gathered together with the bones of the ancestors as was ancient Jewish practice (Genesis 25:8, Genesis 49:29). What would happen to those who had died away from the Promised Land and the Temple?
But this vision also speaks to those dying spiritually. The Lord interprets the dead bones Ezekiel sees this way: "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" (Ezekiel 37:11).
How is your hope today? Is the closing down of society, the loss of group gatherings, maybe even the loss of a job, leaving you feeling cut off? Do your bones feel dried up? Then the Lord is addressing you, here, today. "Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:12).
In the very beginning, God brought the first human to life by breathing into him the Spirit. But since we chose to follow our own path, apart from God, we have not had that Spirit in us by nature. We live and breath, but the circumstances of life leave us empty and longing for something more.
The Spirit of the Lord, when he comes to us, brings us a peace the world cannot give. We know that there is a God and that we holds the universe in his hand. He has displayed his love for us in his Son, Jesus, who died on a cross that our dead bodies might rise just like his did on the first Easter.
COVID-19, unemployment, loneliness, bitterness and death will not have the last word - that is the life that the Spirit breathes into our dry bones. The guilt of our past is washed away forever for the sake of Jesus. One day we will gather again in person to celebrate these gifts. But for now, our dry bones find their comfort in the promises of God. The Lord has spoken, and he will do it.
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