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This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 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, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord\u2019 (Ezekiel 37:13-14).

The vision of a valley full of dry bones is probably the most well known of Ezekiel\u2019s visions. This familiarity may cause us to miss its poignancy. So let us mess around with some dry bones to clear some dust.

One common interpretation suggests that this passage foretells physical resurrection, but that does not seem to fit with what is written. When God identifies the bones as the house of Israel, Israel responds with, \u201cOur bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off\u201d (11). If Israel is both dead and but still responding to God, the main point is probably not just physical resurrection.

The bones are dry, suggesting death happened long age. But again, the age of the bones is not significant. Israel says, \u201cour hope is gone\u201d and \u201cwe are cut off\u201d (11), suggesting a spiritual deadness. God is Israel\u2019s hope, but he has cut her off. That is why she is dead, very dead. The bones are disconnected and scattered portraying an image of Israel\u2019s current state. Her people are scattered throughout the nations. Because she is so dead, because God has cut her off, she has no hope to become a nation again. But there is more. If Israel has ceased to exist, then none of God\u2019s covenant promises can be fulfilled.

Israel\u2019s purpose as a nation was to be a light for God to the people of the world. She was to demonstrate how wonderful God and his ways are. Her light was to draw attention to her God, so the nations would come and worship him. Through her, God intended to bless the entire world. She had failed. She was ruined, ashamed, worthless.

\u201cI will bring you back to the land of Israel\u201d (12). This is God\u2019s declaration. Dead Israel will live again. Further, God declares, \u201cI will put my Spirit [ruakh of Genesis 1:2] in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land\u201d (14). The restoration will involve more than resettlement. God will restore Israel spiritually as well, renewing, enlivening, and enabling her.

Israel knew herself to be dead while her people still lived, for they were cut off from the life-giving presence of the living God and therefore without hope. This is a spiritual condition that by nature we all share. Paul reminds the Ephesians, along with all of us, \u201cYou were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air\u201d (Eph. 2:1-2). By nature, we are all cut off from God\u2019s life-giving presence.

Truth be told, we may or may not be aware of this fact. We may feel that we are on top of the world and that life could not possibly be better, or we may despair of making any sense of the world in which we live. No matter how we view life and the world, without the life-giving breath of God we are equally dead, no matter how we feel. Can such dead people live?

Because of our sin we are under God\u2019s judgement, so the question is not merely \u201cCan God raise dead people to life?\u201d but rather \u201cWill he raise rebels like us to life?\u201d Thanks be to God, the answer for us \u2018Yes\u2019, as it was for Israel. Paul tells the Colossians, \u201cWhen you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ\u201d (Col. 2:13). In Christ, there is life for the spiritually dead.

Paul reshapes Ezekiel\u2019s imagery, \u201cWhen you were baptized, you were buried together with Christ. And you were raised to life together with him when you were baptized. You were raised to life by believing in God\u2019s work. God himself raised Jesus from the dead. At one time you were dead in your sins. Your desires controlled by sin were not circumcised. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave us all our sins\u201d (Colossians 2:12-13).

Ezekiel\u2019s vision is mostly about this spiritual resurrection. Its about us. Its about the power of the Holy Spirit to give us new, spiritual life in the here and now. We are invited to see ourselves among these dried up bones and to believe that God\u2019s Spirit brings us to life. Thanks be to God.