Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 37-38.

I love Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Valley of the Dry Bones.  God took Ezekiel to a valley full of bones, bones which were completely devoid of flesh and were dry.  Those bones had no life to them whatsoever, not even bacterial life.  Yet, when Ezekiel followed God’s instruction to prophesy that they would live, they came to life.  So, we learn from this that God can bring life back to anything He chooses, no matter how devoid of life it may appear to us.  I tend to see this as applying to what appear to be dying congregations, but it applies equally to other organizations, and to people.  We should never lose hope that God will transform people, no matter how close to death their rebellion against God has taken them.  If we see a way that an organization or group can serve God, we should not lose hope that it will rise to the occasion.

However, there are two other lessons to take from this prophecy.  These two lessons are, in a way, intertwined.  The dying, or dead, only come back to life when God breathes life into them.  And, if God has called us to deliver His message of revival to them it is not a once and done effort.  In this passage, Ezekiel had to make two separate prophecies before the bones returned to life, but God will likely require much more than that of us when sending us to revivify.  God demands a lot of effort from those who sends into the world, but we must remember that our effort will not bring life back to the dead and dying.  Only God can do that.  He can do that without us, and may well do so if we refuse to do the work.  But, He blesses some of us with the joy of being the channel through which His Spirit passes to do its work (the wording there is not quite right).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.