The Spirit Among Dry Bones

Synopsis

Ezekiel is set down in a valley full of bones, very dry — a picture of Israel's hopeless spiritual condition and, by extension, of every soul dead in sin. God asks, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' and Ezekiel wisely defers: 'O Lord God, thou knowest.' At God's command, Ezekiel prophesies, and the bones come together, sinews and flesh appear, but there is no breath until the Spirit is called from the four winds to breathe into the slain, and 'they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.' The vision teaches that restoration is entirely the work of God's word and Spirit; human effort could never reassemble, let alone revive, what sin has utterly destroyed. This is the gospel of new birth on a national scale, and it applies personally: no life is too dry, too scattered, or too dead for the Spirit of God to breathe upon it and raise it into resurrection life through the word of Christ.