Can These Bones Live?
Ezekiel 37:1 – The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and placed me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones. 2 – He made me walk all around among them. I realized there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry. 3 – He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.” 4 – Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 – This is what the sovereign LORD says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath into you and you will live. 6 – I will put tendons on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
There were a lot of bones and they were very dry. The people these bones belonged to had been dead for a while. Imagine wandering around the tombstones in a graveyard. I recently did just that and noticed the graves of people who had lived back in the 1800s. They had been dead for a while. Can these bones live? Ezekiel gave a wise reply. “Sovereign Lord, you know.”
What about being dead in our sins? Can we be like the dry bones Ezekiel was made to walk among? Can people who are dead in their sins be made alive in Christ? How many people have we judged as lost because we’ve concluded that it’s just not possible for Jesus to save them under such conditions? Let us not presume to know the limitations of God.
And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved – and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. – Ephesians 2:1-7.
May the surpassing wealth of the grace of Jesus Christ be demonstrated to us. All hope is not lost. He has the power to breathe life into the most dead of all sinners, the driest of all bones. Can these bones live? The Sovereign Lord knows and He has prophesied to the bones and to the breath – that they may live and know that the Sovereign Lord is God. May His promise reach the hardest of hearts and the most stubborn of minds: Salvation is the gift of God granted by the grace of God through faith. No one can boast of earning it – for as the dry bones were reassembled by God and made to live. God Himself can reassemble us and breathe into us His Holy Spirit so we may be empowered to do His good works bringing glory to His name. Why? Because He loves us! He loves you!
Let’s be raised to new life in Christ Jesus today!
Where two are gathered 