Preach to the bones

God sets a prophet down in the middle of a valley and walks him back and forth through it, so that he will notice two things: there are a great many bones, and they are very dry.

Then a question that is either cruel or the whole point.

O Lord GOD, You know. Which is the only honest answer a man can give standing in that valley, and Ezekiel gives it.

And then the assignment.

Prophesy to the bones. Speak to them. Say: dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

Consider the absurdity of the instruction on its face.

Bones do not hear. That is the definition of bones. Ezekiel is being told to address an audience with no ears, no minds, and no capacity whatsoever to respond — and the command is to speak to them anyway.

And he does. And there is a rattling, and the bones come together, bone to bone, and tendons and flesh come on them and skin covers them — and they are still dead. A valley of corpses instead of a valley of bones, which is not obviously an improvement.

So he is told to prophesy again, this time to the breath, and the breath comes into them and they stand on their feet, a vast army.

God explains the vision Himself in the verses that follow: these bones are the whole house of Israel, who are saying our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.

So the valley is not primarily about death. It is about a people who had concluded there was nothing to be done for them — and God’s response to that conclusion was to send a man to talk to them.

Which is the encouragement in the day for anyone who has ever spoken about Scripture into a room that felt exactly like that valley. A marriage past saving. A child who has stopped listening. A congregation that has been dry for a decade.

Ezekiel was not told that the bones would respond. He was told to prophesy. The rattling was not his department.

And note the honesty of the prophet’s answer to the question. He does not say yes, and he does not say no. O Lord GOD, You know is the reply of a man who has looked at the bones carefully enough not to make a promise, and who has not concluded that God is limited by what he can see.

And note what he was told to say. Not his analysis of the situation, not encouragement, not a plan. Hear the word of the LORD. The message he brought was a summons to hear a message.

The Hebrew ruach runs through the chapter meaning breath, wind and spirit, and the same word appears in all three senses within a few verses — prophesy to the breath, come from the four winds, and I will put My Spirit in you. English has to choose; Hebrew does not, and the ambiguity is the theology.

The imagery deliberately recalls Genesis 2:7, where God forms a man from dust and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. The valley is a re-creation scene, and Ezekiel’s readers would have heard the echo.

Verse 11 gives the interpretation and it is the community’s own words being quoted back: our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, we are cut off. The vision answers a saying that was actually circulating among the exiles.

The chapter continues past the vision to the two sticks joined into one — Judah and Joseph made one nation under one king — and then to the promise of an everlasting covenant and God’s sanctuary among them forever. The bones passage is the opening of a longer argument about restoration.

The vision comes in the same book as the valley of the glory departing the temple, which Week Six touched. Ezekiel is the prophet who watched the presence leave and was then shown a valley of bones standing up. The two visions belong to one man’s ministry.

Look it upH7307 רוּח ruach, breath, wind, spirit · H5013 נָבָא naba, to prophesy · H3002 יָבֵשׁ yabesh, dry, withered · H6106 עֶצֶם etsem, bone

Then read Romans 4:17, where God gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist, and Ephesians 2:1–5, where the readers are told they were dead in transgressions and were made alive. The valley is a picture of what the New Testament says happened to every believer.

Where this touchesEzekiel 37:1–14 · Genesis 2:7 · John 5:25 · Romans 4:17 · Ephesians 2:1–5. Josiah, Ezra, the wilderness, the chariot, Emmaus, Pentecost, Apollos, Daniel, Stephen, Timothy’s household, Jehoshaphat and Nazareth were the earlier scenes.