The Valley of Dry Bones

A valley full of bones. Not a few. Thousands of them, scattered across the ground, bleached white by the sun and very, very dry. And a voice asks a strange question. Can these bones live?

Ezekiel is a priest, but he is a long way from the temple. He lives in Babylon, among the people of Judah who were taken from their homes and carried off as captives. Then terrible news arrives. Jerusalem has fallen. The city is in ruins and the temple is gone. Among the exiles, people are saying, “Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost. We are finished.” It is into that hopelessness that God gives Ezekiel a vision.

The hand of the Lord is on Ezekiel. By the Spirit of the Lord, he is carried out and set down in the middle of a valley, and the valley is full of bones. God leads him back and forth among them. There are so many of them. And they are so dry. Then God speaks. “Son of man, can these bones live?” What would you say? Ezekiel gives the only honest answer he has. “O Lord God, you know.”

“Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I will make breath enter you, and you will live. I will put sinews on you, and bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live. And you will know that I am the Lord.”

So Ezekiel does as he is told. He speaks to the bones. And as he is speaking, there is a noise. A rattling. The ground shakes, and the bones begin to move, sliding across the valley floor, coming together, bone to bone. As Ezekiel watches, sinews appear on them, then flesh, and then skin covers them over. The valley is full of bodies. But they are lying still. There is no breath in them.

Then God says, “Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these who were killed, so that they may live.” So Ezekiel prophesies. And breath comes into them. They live. And they stand up on their feet, a vast, enormous army, filling the whole valley.

Then God explains the vision. “Son of man, these bones are the whole people of Israel. They say, Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are cut off. So tell them this. My people, I will open your graves and bring you up out of them, and I will bring you home to the land of Israel. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it.”

There is a word that runs right through this vision, and in Hebrew it is the same word every time. Ruach. It can mean breath. It can mean wind. And it can mean spirit. So when Ezekiel calls the breath from the four winds, and when God promises to put his Spirit in his people, the listeners would have heard one word echoing again and again. The same ruach that fills lungs with air is the Spirit of God who gives life.

The valley of dry bones is in Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven, verses one to fourteen. God’s own explanation is about bringing his scattered people home. Many Jewish and Christian readers have also heard in it a hint of God’s power over death itself. Either way, the message is clear. Nothing is too far gone for the breath of God. So here is something to think about. Where does life feel dry or hopeless right now, and what would it mean to say, Lord, you know?