10-18-2025 Ezekiel 37 Dead Bones & Today

How does Ezekiel chapter 37, the valley of the dry bones, apply to today?

The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord.  He set me down in a valley which was filled with dry bones.  He caused me to pass around and in them, the valley was open and the bones were very dry (v1-2).  Then He asked me 

  
And I said, Lord God, You know (v3).

Then He said to me to prophesy to these bones and say “Oh dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.  Thus says the Lord God to you bones, I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live.  I will lay sinews upon you, lay muscle upon you and cover you with skin and I will put breath in you and you shall live.

I prophesied as commanded and here was a noise and a shaking and bones came together, bone on bone 

(v4-7).

     

And I beheld the sinews and muscle came upon them and a skin from above covered them, but there was no breath in them (v8).

        

Then he said to me prophesy to the wind, son of man, “Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds and breathe upon these slain that they might live” (v9).

So I prophesied as He commanded and breath came into them and they stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army (v10).

Then the Lord said “son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel and they say our bones are dried, our hope is lost and we are cut off for out parts (v11).

Therefore, prophesy to them and say “Behold, my people, the Lord God I will open your graves and cause you t come up out of you graves and bring you into the land of Israel and you will know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and brought you out of them (v 12-13).

I will put my Spirit in you and you shall live and I shall place you in you own land.  When this happens, you will know that I am the Lord because I have spoken it and performed it.  says the Lord (v14).

This was Father’s promise to Israel.  BUT, how does this imspact us today?

The world, and too much of today’s church ARE in the valley of dry bones. I lookk at a posting called “quora”.  It is a place where people and ask questions, express opinions and even post jokes, all on various topics. Through the posts, I’ve sen how lthe world views the bible and Jesus Chlrist.  I’ve seen suppoortive, positive information as well as degrding, ‘anti’ information.  Some negative, worldopinion, tidbits call the “the bible a ‘fairy tale, evenl a lpack of lies which never happened or ‘Jesus is a myth, He never really lived”.  I’ve also seen where scientists are discovering facts that ‘do’ support the bible. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6).  Father tells us that if we don’t listen to Him when He talks to us, He won’t listen to us when we cry out to Him (Zech. 7:13).  But, thank God, when the righteous cry out, God always hears us (Psalm 34:17).  But, bear in mind that even when a ‘sinner’ cries out, when his heart is truly seeking the Lord, God will honor that prayer (Psalm34:18).  After all, he who confesses Jesus and believes with all his heart, shall be saved Rom. 10:9).

 

So, in Ezekiel, Father has raised all those dry bones and gave them life and what do they do.  They complain, they don’t have what they want, they have no direction in life so they are divided.  Yet God promised them that He will fill them with His Spirit.  Keep in mind that there is the ‘spirit of life’ which enables all creatures to take a breath.  There is God’s Spirit, a part of the ‘Trinity’, that is to say the active part of God who puts His words into action through His breath (read Genesis chapter one).This is the same Spirit that entered Jesus which enabled Him to do all the works which He did, suffer the cross, be buried, then raise from the dead and return to the Father.  This same Spirit will work within us as long as we allow Him and don’t quench Him (1 Thess. 5:19).  Jesus tells the disciples to ‘receive the Holy Ghost (John 20:22) and strengthens that promise on the day of His ascension (Acts 1:8) and on that da, promises us ‘explosive power to do the things to which Father has called us.  In the upper room, the disciples did receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:1-16).  This same Holy Ghost is available to us, even today.

But note in our passage, Israel became complacent as God was good to them, even to the point where they forgot all about Him so Father no longer walked with them (Jer. 9:13).  He let them “do their thing’.

According to Webster, religion is basically being committed practicing a personal or institutionally set of practices or beliefs (Webster’s 7^th Collegiate edition 1966).  That means if we practice a personal belief or one that is established by a church or an organization constitutes, we practice a religion.

Faith is allegiance to a duty or a person. Belief or trust (Webster’s).  The Hebrew word for faith is emuwnah (H530) and is basically is stability and truth.  The Greek is pistis (G4102) means assurance, faith, belief or truthfulness.  Either or both indicate a strong commitment.

A fine line separates these two definitions, but the substance of the difference is what’s in our heart.   Do we ‘just do’ or do we serve with all our heart?  In short, in the Old Testament, the Jews observed the Law, all the holidays and rituals and sacrifices.  They attained salvation by being obedient in these works.  In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit did not come upon just anybody but on those whom God designated for a task.  Also prophets such as Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-9), Jerimiah (Jer. 1:-4-5) or Ezekiel (1:3, 2:1-3 ).  Consider some of the judges -Othniel (Judges 3:9-10), Gideon (Judges 6:34), or Samson (Judges 14:6) as examples.  Jesus upbraided Israel as to whether they truly believed the ordinances or not.  Jesus called them hypocrites for their heart was not into what they were doing (Matt. 23:1-32).  Remember that David was a man after God’s own heart so Samuel anointed David to become king (1 Sam. 16:11-13), David becomes king (2 Sam 5:3) and God explains that David was a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22).  

Faith is obtaining salvation first, then doing the works. Israel did the works to get ‘saved’, but today, we should be doing the works because we’re saved! Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we should keep His Commandments (John 14:15) and His Commandments are to love (Matt. 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31)!  Because as the passages say “all the law and t the prophets are dependent on love.

Compare today’s church wit the 7 churches of Rev. chptrs 2 & 3: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergmos, Thyatria, Sardis, Philadephia and Laodicea.Father praised each chuch for the good that had been doing, but then came the ‘however’.  The howevers included: some have left their first love (Father/Son), fearful and not showing that they understood lthat God loved them.  Some held to the doctrine of Balaam, sacrificd to idols and commintted forniacation listened to Jezebel, guilty of impefect works (not afrom the heart) or were luke-warm (not tlruly committed to Jesus, but not denlyingd Him).  Yet, on the other side God will protect the faitful and prepare us to be worthy to stand before God and be  welcomed on that last day.  We will hear “Well done, good and faitful servant.  … welcome into the joyy of the Lord” (Matt. 25:23).

I’ve lbeen discovering and seeing how the Old Testament refelcts conditions of today’s world.  If we read the OT, we can learn a lot about how Father interacts with His children. As we we learn our rrelationship with Him, we cn become better equjipped to deal with the situations lthat come our way.

Good or bad, which of lthese qualities do w see abiding in today’s Chlristian churches?  In the lives in those around us?  where do we stand?

We are justified through the blood ofd Christ (Rom. 5:9), so we are redeemed from our sins through that blood (Eph. 1:7) and our robes are mde white through the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14)

To sstay clean from sin, we need to to be transformed by the renewing our minds (praying & reading scripture) daily so we know what is good, acceptable and perfect before our Lord (Rom. 12:2).  In a race, all run to win, but only one actually crosses the finish line first (1 Corint. 9:24), and Jesus is the first to cross that finish line as He was raised from the dead (1 Corinth. 15:20-22).  Understand all who cross the finish line are winners.  We have emainned fdaithful to our Lord.  We So, when we do mess up (sin)  we have an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1).   Jesus intercedes on our behalf (Rom. 8:27).  So, as we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us from those sins, cleansing us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1:9).  And whatsoever we do we do from our heart (Col. 3:23-24) shows  that those actions are heartfelt which means honest and true.

Again I ask, where do we stand in our relationship with the Lord?

 

Amen