Dry Bones, Hear The Word Of The Lord!

“Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!” God is calling out to us just as he once called out to his Old Testament people. Let’s not reject his Word and remain in spiritual deadness. May we say with a sincere heart what King David said in Psalm 51, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” God will do that for us if we don’t harden our hearts to his Word.

Perhaps some of you remember the television commercials from a few years ago for Coast deodorant soap. It pictured a person stumbling to the shower half asleep. The man or woman would sniff the bar of soap and slowly open his or her eyes. By the end of the shower that same person would be wide awake and ready to go. The catchy phrase that they used in those commercials was, “Coast deodorant soap, it brings you back to life!” We may be living our Christian life like those people as they first appeared in the commercial. Perhaps we are half asleep and stumbling along. We need something to bring us back to life. God’s Word is the answer. Earlier we read Romans 8:11 in our second Scripture lesson, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”

We will remain dry bones if we don’t hear the Word of the LORD. It creates what it commands. It does what it says. It produces what it proclaims. It brings the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives. Some Sundays we may slide into our seats as nothing more than dry bones. But the Word of God in the liturgy, hymns, Scripture lessons, and sermon gives us life. Our pulse may be quickly fading in our life of service to God. But even just a spiritual snack in the form of a short devotion or one chapter from God’s Word can put the spring back in our steps as we follow Jesus. 1 Peter 2:2-3 reminds us of the nourishment that we can have in God’s Word, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

“Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.” Only God’s Word can give life to dry bones. We have that assurance through these words that Ezekiel recorded, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…” Unless we refuse to listen to the word of the LORD we have his promise to give us the Holy Spirit as the source of new life. He will bring us back from spiritual death and put the Holy Spirit in us.

In a variety of situations bones can tell stories. They may reveal clues about animal life in the past. Sometimes bones fill in missing parts of history. After a person has died their bones may hold information about how they lived and why they died. The bones in the vision that Ezekiel saw also tell a story. They show how sin steals spiritual life. They point to the Holy Spirit as the source of new life. Let’s take to heart the message in these dry bones. Being like those dry bones in so many ways let’s hear the word of the LORD as Ezekiel commanded them to hear it. That word of the LORD will show us the deadly nature of sin and give us the new life we need. Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Amen.