Blessed Sunday morning, everyone! So I am in the process of listening to a sermon on my computer and something struck me about the first six verses of Ezekiel 37.

Here they are:

“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 

2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 

3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 

5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 

6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

In this, God seems to be proving both his identity and his power to Ezekiel.

That is a beautiful thing and the Lord has done this in my life in many ways, not as dramatic as this, but he has done it.

However, I don’t think that’s the only meaning that we are meant to glean from this.

What if the image of a field of dry bones is also meant to mean that Ezekiel could have been you or me standing amongst animated bones… That are spiritually dead?

Let me say that again. What if we are standing amongst bones that are animated, yes… but there is no life in them. Spiritually, they are dead.

We can take this idea and strengthen it even more with quite the list of verses.

Ephesians 2:1-5: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Colossians 2:13,14: When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 

Romans 6:23: States that “the wages of sin is death,” contrasting the penalty of sin with the gift of eternal life in Christ.

1 Timothy 5:6:  But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.

Luke 15:24, 32: For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

As you can see, the idea that someone can be dead while also being physically alive as well supported in scripture.

This concept is known in modern terms as being spiritually dead.  This is essentially living in sin and embracing separation from God who himself not only gives life but is life.

There are many people who claim Christ, but do not have his life in them. They do what they want during the week, no matter what sin that might be because their spiritual ears have become deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

They don’t hear or feel his convictions, and if they do, they willingly choose to disobey. They are walking the path of the living dead, the path to hell.

Back in Ezekiel 37 God tells Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones around him.  

The words the Lord spoke to Ezekiel were:  

“Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

In the literal sense, Ezekiel is speaking actual life into bones that have long since been dead.

But again, I say that this passage has another meaning.

Jesus Christ… !

He is the way, he is the truth and he is the life.  (John 14:6)

We are supposed to tell the world about him.

We are supposed to point the lost to him; this has made evident in the great commission. (Matthew 28: 18-20)

if Jesus is the life—and he is!—Speaking about him to others and pointing others to him is exactly what Ezekiel did at God’s command.

It just looks different.

We are speaking the life of Jesus Christ over dead souls. Corpses animated solely by sinful desire.

They think they are alive, but they as a matter of fact are not.

You don’t have life without God.

He put you on this earth for a reason and if you turn away from him, you remain spiritually dead.

You do not have the true life that God has for you, eternal life with him, until you turn toward him, accept the gift of salvation given to you by the blood of Jesus Christ and walk in those steps that the Lord has ordered for you.

Ezekiel spoke life into a field of dry bones through the command and power of God.

Jesus gave us the same command by telling us in the great commission to go out into the world and make disciples of all the nations.

We were told to speak his words so that he might bring life into the dead world.

So I encourage you all….

Be like Ezekiel…

Speak life into the dead around you….

Speak eternal life through Jesus Christ into the spiritually dead around you…

Obey the great commission given to us by our Lord, Savior, Master and King….

By your obedience….

By the power of God…

By the mercy of our Savior…

Go be an Ezekiel and speak life over this world of dry bones!