Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”
Ezekiel 37:11-12
Lately, I have really been struggling with feeling spiritually energized and focused. A lot of it still centers on things that have come up a lot recently on the blog. One thing being the anxiety that surrounds my future; the other is this concern about finding a relationship. These have been two things that I simply haven’t been able to shake completely in my attempts to seek and grow closer to the Lord.
This passage comes from the infamous moment in Scripture where Ezekiel preaches to the valley of bones. There are several moments where I feel like the people of Israel in verse 11 – “all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.” Let’s face it, it’s easy to feel that way. It is always easy to feel defeated, but it also seems like there’s nothing wrong with feeling defeated. The real issue is when you start living in defeat, when you act defeated.
How many situations in life seem hopeless? Plenty. Divorce, unemployment, disease, famine, war. Israel was encountering many of these things. They were exiled from their homes, living in strange lands. Yet, the Lord gave to them a promise, and for us, when we face these trials, there rests the hope of Christ. The simple truth is that nothing else matters in the face of a relationship with the Divine.
While it is a simple truth, it is not always easy to grasp. I don’t understand why it is so easy to lose faith, at least for me. It is far too easy for me to lose sight of that which is the only thing that matters – my ability to be a part of the family of God. If He has taken care of that one thing and I believe that He has taken care of it, then why can I not have trust enough that He can and will take care of much smaller things?
It is such a struggle for me to believe that not only is He able to add meat and meaning to the bones of my circumstances but that He can also infuse that flesh with something else entirely, the breath of life.
Cross Section 