In Ezekial 37, we are taken to a scene that is completely desolate…scattered with broken reminders of life that has long since past. The prophet Ezekial is taken into the middle of a valley with thousands of dry bones scattered within it. He walks among these bones and is, I am sure, saddened by the scene surrounding him.
Then God asks him a surprising question. And if there is one thing that I have learned from reading the Bible, it is that when God asks a question….”Watch out! You are about to be schooled!” God asks Ezekial, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekial wisely answers, “Sovereign Lord, only you know” (He knows, that when the Lord asks an impossible question, it is time to listen.)
The Lord then tells Ezekial to prophesy over the bones, saying, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 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.”
Can you imagine being Ezekial? “Ok Lord, so I’ll start prophesying and these dry, dead bones are gonna come back to life.” I’m not sure how Ezekial must have felt, maybe: silly (he was talking to bones after all)…unworthy…scared (an army of dead bones doesn’t seem very normal).
But Ezekial had spent enough time with the Lord to know that when he speaks; you listen. You stand on faith and you watch Him to do the miraculous. As Ezekial prophesies, God supernaturally creates tendons, muscle, skin, and turns those dry bones into flesh and blood. Ezekial is given an sneak peak of the creative power of God. What was once dry and broken, is now whole!!!
At Teen Challenge, we know what it is like to prophesy over dry bones. We see students and families coming to us dry, beaten, and broken…consumed by addiction or defiance. We know what it is like to stand on faith, believing the Lord will heal and restore them. During our program, students are able to separate out from the vices and addictions that were sapping the life out of them. They begin to look and feel better as they learn to confront hard truths and are given the time to truly reflect upon their lives. They are given counsel/mentoring and they learn a lot about themselves, their faith, and the world around them….but this alone does not make them alive and whole.
In the valley of dry bones, we see that while the bones were restructured, covered in flesh, and appeared whole…they still were not alive. They lacked the breath of life. It is important to note that everything was not complete after that first prophecy; sometimes the Lord asks us to steadfastly intercede. He tells Ezekial to prophesy again and say, “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.’ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”
Wow! An army of dry bones, come to life…that is a day you definitely tell the grandkids about! God could have stopped at just putting flesh upon dry bones, that was incredible enough. But God does not want a zombie army…men who appear whole, but whom lack the substance that allows them to truly live. He reanimates them with the breath of life.
Later in the chapter, God explains that He has shown Ezekial this incredible event so that he can bring a message to the people of Israel. “God sees their hopelessness. He knows that they feel like dry bones, left to waste away in the valley of death, but their Lord WILL NOT abandon them to the grave!” When all seems hopeless…stand and prophesy life…because the Lord is not bound by the laws of science or our lack of faith. What is dead, will be made whole again. More than that, the creator God will breath His Spirit into them and they will know what it means to be alive!
This is our hope and vision for the young men at Ozarks Teen Challenge. We can only do so much, the Lord must provide the breath of life, which is His Spirit, within each one. We know that the Lord will not abandon them to the grave. He will make them whole. We stand together and prophesy that truth and we wait expectantly for the miraculous. If you feel like a pile of dry bones today, consumed by hopelessness, take heart! The Lord is with you and he will not abandon you or your loved one to the grave.
