The Skeleton Of Hope

The Skeleton of HOPE

One thing that we could all use a little more of is hope. Hope is something that can be hard to find in today’s world. Hope seems to be gone, deceased, expired, no more. Hope is nothing but a dried-up skeleton. But that doesn’t mean we should shrug our shoulders & give up. The skeleton of hope can be resurrected. That is something the prophet Ezekiel learned.

In the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, we read, "The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by his Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them. There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley, and they were very dry. Then he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I replied, “Lord God, only you know.” He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. As I looked, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man. Say to it: This is what the Lord God says: Breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain so that they may live!” So I prophesied as he commanded me; the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10 CSB)

From Charles Stanley’s Life Principles Daily Bible, November 23

In his day hope had become a rare commodity. A captive in the land of Babylon, Ezekiel must have felt as desolate & useless as the piles of bones that he had seen in the startling vision God had given him. (Ezek. 37:1-10). He knew that only a miracle could bring the decimated & scattered people of Judah back together again in the Promised Land.

Yet as Ezekiel sat in the valley & watched the Lord’s mighty work, a miracle unfolded before him. Where before only dry bones had littered the landscape, the Lord added muscles, tendons, & tissue. And into those restored, silent bodies, God breathed new life. It was a testimony that He would do the same for Judah. He would take the spiritually dead, dispersed nation, and, by His might, bring it back to life.

Maybe you feel dry, defeated, & emotionally scattered. Perhaps your valley of dry bones is a great loss, a failed relationship, an illness that consumes you, or a circumstance which is absolutely beyond your control & requires a miracle. But do not despair!

The same God who breathed life into the old, dry bones, sustains you today, & He is able to infuse you with new purpose & hope. Just as He provided the victory to Ezekiel & Judah, God is near to you & can make you triumphant. Just one breath from Him & your life will never be the same.

Thankfully the Lord does not suffer the same effects of the years as we do. He is the same yesterday, today, & always. God can & will do, the same thing for us as he did for this nation. He wants to breathe the hope of life back into His nation, & into His people.

Let’s dig a little deeper into these verses. God took Ezekiel to a valley that was full of dried bones; nothing but a broken-down skeleton of what once was. But God used these bones to restore hope to the people of Israel. He asked Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” What kind of a question is that? Can these bones live? As he stated in verse 2, he noticed that the bones were “very dry”. The phrase “very dry” indicated that death had happened long ago & the bones were well past the point of restoration.

Ezekiel knew that from a human perspective bringing this pile of very dry bones back to life was impossible. It couldn’t be done. So, when asked if these bones could live, he answered the Lord telling Him that only He could make that happen. There was no hope for man to do it; only God.