Hope for the Spiritually Dry-A Reflection on Ezekiel 37

Michael Ryan

Ezekiel and his vision of the valley of dry bones is one of those texts that you need to be able to find. It’s not just a memorable story. It packs a mighty punch. Unless you never feel spiritually dry or dead, this is a passage worthy of “going to school on” and returning to regularly.

If you first heard the story through the song (that’s how I remember hearing the story) you may miss something important. Instead of imagining an entertaining song, we should imagine the horror of stumbling onto a mass grave. The image is grotesque. The valley was “full of bones and . . . There were very many on the surface of the valley.”

But what is this really about? The children of Israel were taken by force from their homeland and were now living in exile in Babylon. This image of a mass grave both captured the horror they felt about their circumstances and the complete lack of hope they would have felt of their situation improving. But there are also clues both in the text and in echoes of this text in the N.T. that demonstrate that we are right to also apply this to the need for spiritual renewal.

Yahweh himself showed Ezekiel this vision and he said to him in Ezekiel in 37:3 “Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, you know.”

Can these bones live? Is it possible for something that is dry and lifeless to be revived? If so, what would that reviving look like? How does it happen? How can a person who is dry and weary and burned out be restored to life once again?

Ezekiel 37:4 (ESV) Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

Only God can do the work of reviving and yet he involves people in the work. Ezekiel was to prophesy over the bones. Often renewal will come through God speaking through a sermon or a conversation or a book. But ultimately it’s that last phrase that is critical. Dry bones need to hear the word of the Lord. Jesus said,  “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Spiritual life cannot be started, renewed, or sustained without the consistent hearing of the word of the Lord.

Ezekiel 37:5-6 (ESV) 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.”

Hearing the word of the Lord is the path to God renewing our souls and our knowing, our experiencing that God is God. But what if we have no desire for hearing the word of God? In that case, perhaps the first step would be to acknowledge that fact. If you had no physical appetite to eat and you were getting thinner and weaker by the day, you would go to the doctor and you might say, “Doc i’m so tired and I have no energy.” Eventually the doc would get around to saying, “tell me about your diet.” If you say, “well I just don’t have any appetite. Every now and then I’ll eat a bite of something, but I just don’t feel like eating.” This would get recognized as a serious problem and you would seek to do something about it. So the first step is to confess, “Father, I am weak. I feel spiritually dead and lifeless. And I have no appetite for the thing that I know that I need. Would you please create a hunger in me for what I really need?” Hear that call again,  “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”

Ezekiel 37:5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

The word here for breath is also the word for spirit and it keeps popping up in this text. “I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.” Unless God does this, we have no hope. Unless this happens in a church nothing else will matter. For us to be spiritually alive, we must hear the word of the Lord and we depend on God to breathe his life into us both initially at conversion and for renewal on a consistent basis. (See John 20:22 for an intriguing echo of this passage.) Perhaps from this text you could pray for yourself, for someone you care about, or for your church. Pray that God will give spiritual life.

Ezekiel 37:8–10 (ESV)  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.

The renewal happened in stages. It did not take place all at once. There is no magic prayer to pray when we feel dead and all will be better.

There are plenty of times I feel no great desire to pray or get after God in his word. But God has shown me over the years that the ache in my soul, the angst that I feel is a hunger pain for God. When we feel a longing in our gut, we do what do we believe will cure the ache. It’s been said that every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God. I’ve never knocked on the door of a brothel by the mercy of God. But I have reached for far more respectable things, things that are not sin in and of themselves. I have tried to address a hunger for God with a bowl of ice cream, or an episode of the West Wing, or a football game. All of those are good gifts of God to be enjoyed in the right time and place. But if what my soul is actually longing for is God, they won’t satisfy.

Based on this passage, here is suggested path for cooperating with God when you feel spiritually dry:

  1. Identify emotional pain as ultimately a longing for God.
  2. Confess to God that you believe that several other things will more effectively address the problem.
  3. Confess that you do not feel or believe in your heart that experiencing God in his word will effectively meet the problem or that if you try, that you will actually experience God.
  4. Plead with God to grant you a hunger for himself.
  5. Ask God to grant you spiritual life through his word.
  6. Read slowly and write down observations.
  7. Be patient.
  8. Claim the promise that God says he will restore.

Gene

P.S. My heart is full already getting ready to continue the message series in Colossians Sunday. The text is Col. 1:24-2:5 and the title is “Ingredients for Spiritual Maturity”.