Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37

I know absolutely nothing about Ezekiel (other than it appears that he is a super intense prophet). With that said, I'm going to write about it as if I do, because I think that this story is pretty incredible.

Setting: The Lord has come upon Ezekiel and takes him out into the middle of a desert valley that is filled with dry bones. The Lord asks Ezekiel if he thinks that the bones can live, to which Ezekiel responds that only the Lord can know that. In response, the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones and tell them that the Lord is going to enter them and bring them to life. Ezekiel (who I imagine would be just freaking out) does as the Lord commands, and as he obeys, the bones begin to reassemble with a great rattling sound. Ezekiel looks on as they are re-animated into human form, back into human bodies, though they have no breath. The Lord then commands Ezekiel to prophesy "to the breath" and prophesy to the bodies that breath will re-enter them. Ezekiel obeys, and of course, the Lord causes the breath to enter what is now a vast host of warriors.

Dry bones to an army of warriors.

The Lord's response to Ezekiel at this point is this:

"Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Isreal. 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: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Isreal. 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." 11-14

It is in the Lord's good pleasure to take things that are past broken-- things that are dead. Things that we would have completely given up on. Things that we have completely relinquished any form of hope that they can be restored, let alone can be made to thrive, and through his power, not only reasemble those things, but to bring them fully to life. To give the strength. To create them into an "army."

I think that not only does the Lord want to restore us in areas that we have previously had victory in, I think he also wants to restore us in areas that we have always failed at. It is not the Lord's will that we be enslaved by areas in our lives that are like those dry bones. Depression, addiction, anger, impurity. These are things that the Lord would release us from and make us masters of. So that He can display His awesome power in our lives.

The other thing that struck me is how integral Ezekiel's obedience to the Lord is to the army being made alive. I think it's obvious that God didn't need Ezekiel, but he did make him an important part of the process. That leads me to think that maybe the Lord longs for completely obedient hearts to the point that He will delay until our hearts are ready to submit to Him.

I long for transformation in my life in so many areas.  I have a lot of things that need to be worked on. But how often do I only have a halfway obedient heart? How often am I asking God to bring things to life in me without really giving him a submitted heart? And then when He delays, how often do I respond with frustration, or a lack of faith that He even cares about helping me?

On a different note, I'm trying to figure out what these stories reveal to me about God's heart. The first thing this made me think of is pure, awesome power. The second is a deep compassion for his children.

He actually looks at areas of lack within someone's life and speaks fullfillment over those areas. There is such power in that, and understanding that action reveals to us something within the Lord's heart.

Romans 4: 17 describes God as one "...who give life to the dead and calls those things that are not as though they are." There is something in that that deeply resonates within me. It makes it sound like the Lord looks at us. He sees our imperfections, our areas of weakness, and instead of just improving us to the point of not being an embarrasment, or to the point where we aren't so weak that we're dragging people down, He actually looks at those specific weaknesses and speaks the opposite over them. Because that is the Father's heart for us. To lead us to a place of rich abundance in areas of our lives where we struggle to keep our heads above water. He loves us too much to be satisfied with areas of "dryness" in our hearts. If we let Him, He will take a desert and turn it into a garden.

To me, this means that when I invite the Lord to come and look at the state of my heart and He sees a heart that struggles with anger, He doesn't say "Wulp, this is always going to be an issue. Let's just fix this so that it won't hold up anything else, and then go focus on something a little more realistic." I think that He looks at me and says "I see a heart that can love unconditionally and forgive without qualifications. I see a heart that is capable of being a vessel to pour out My lovingkindness on those that surround it. I see a heart full of a lifegiving joy untouched by bitterness and hate. I see a heart capable of holding so much love and compassion and understanding for others that it will draw people in. And I will not stop until what I see comes to pass."

What is more disarming than that? Or more hopeful?

If our God is for us, then what can stand against us?