A New Breath

March 22, 2009


Background Scripture: Ezekiel 37
Lesson Passage: Ezekiel 37:1 – 14

One of the most vivid memories I have of my youth during summer revival is that of the evangelist preaching about the dry bones in the valley. Even as his voice thundered across the pulpit, “Can these bones live!?” it seems that we were all waiting for the same thing. We knew that towards the end of the sermon, the evangelist was going to paint a picture of bones moving across the ground and connecting one to another beginning at the feet and continuing to the head. I don’t know if those bones were properly connected or not in the evangelist’s message. What I do know is that we enjoyed hearing how the foot bones were connected to the ankle bone. I cannot recall the number of times I have heard some variation of that sermon preached in my lifetime. There is one thing I have come to appreciate in ministry relative to those sermons; the drama in the presentation of those sermons seemed to overshadow and indeed minimize the simple message of that passage of scripture. As I reflect back over some of those messages, I know I would not have enjoyed them nearly as much had I understood a little about homiletics and exegesis. So the dry bones were not really “pimping preachers”, “undependable ushers”, “stuck-up singers”, “messed up musicians”, “tricky trustees”, or “devilish deacons”. Those individuals somehow were portrayed in those sermons as the “dry bones”. This was not the case at all when one takes a closer look at the message God gave to Ezekiel. The dry bones of Ezekiel’s prophecy represented the whole house of Israel that had become spiritually destitute. This is not to ignore Paul’s teaching that historic Israel is the example for the church. But we should first seek to understand and receive the message embodied in the scripture in its context before we dare to apply it in another situation or to other individuals.

In our lesson today, God gave Ezekiel a visual image of Israel’s spiritual condition. Except God gives us instructions on how we are to do a spiritual assessment, we don’t have a way of determining our spiritual state. The bones represented an absence of life that had existed for some time. Furthermore, the dryness of the bones was compared to the total lack of hope for restoration. Israel’s despair was due to the loss of their freedom and land. The missing piece in this is what caused this to come about. Their physical loss was a direct result of years of spiritual indifference and down right spiritual rebellion. Their current situation was the result of past sins and no repentance. Israel would be restored to the land of Canaan but they would first have to be restored spiritually. Those spiritual dry bones would be reconnected and once again covered with muscles and flesh. This would cause them to once again look alive but they would not be. God is the source of life apart from external appearances. As it was in the beginning with Adam, the physical body would be animated only after God breathed the breath of life into it. Can these bones live!? They can only after they receive a new breath which is God’s Spirit.


Robert C. Hudson
March 10, 2009