Pastor Hugh's Monthly Meditation

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Can These Dry Bones Live?

The alternate reading for the First Lesson on Pentecost Sunday is from Ezekiel, chapter 14. It is that strange, if not a bit gruesome, vision of the valley of dry bones.

Click on image to see a larger view of Doré's, The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, in a separate window.

Ezekiel was a prophet of the 6th century BC. He probably got his start as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Babylonian king, Nebuchadrezzar, forced the Kingdom of Judah (all that was left of the once united Israel) to surrender, many of Judah's elite were sent into exile in Babylonia. Ezekiel was one of these original deportees. A few years later, following an attempt to revolt against their Babylonian occupiers, Jerusalem was sacked and the temple completely destroyed.

With everything that the people of Israel and Judah held dear now gone or destroyed, and having been forcibly removed from their homeland and held captive in a foreign and hostile land, Ezekiel's fellow Israelites despaired. They naturally felt as if their God had abandoned and forgotten them. They cried out to God, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely."

After a period of nearly 22 years of silence, Ezekiel finally spoke words of comfort and hope to his people. In chapter 37, Ezekiel has a vision of a valley full of dry bones. God asks Ezekiel the question, "Mortal, can these bones live?" Ezekiel responds that only God knows. And then he is commanded to prophesy to the bones. And the power of his message, God's word, restores the people, turning them from lifeless, disconnected, dry bones into the living, breathing, hoping people of God.

Gustave Doré was one of France's most prolific and popular book illustrators in the 19th century. His "Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones," (1865) shown here, captures the bizarre and disturbing qualities of Ezekiel's vision. Here we find the skeleton's reassembling themselves. Ezekiel wrote, "As I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them." (37:7-8)

As a child I marvelled at the strange yet wonderful vision that Ezekiel depicted. Here the natural course of decomposition was reversed. A whole valley full of death and bones was transformed into one brimming with life and hope. And, as God explains, here the lifeless and hopeless people of Israel become a people empowered by a promise of restoration.

We too, can echo the words of Israel, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely." Whether it be because of a personal loss or a family tragedy, a present misfortune or a future threat, life can seem overwhelming at times. And this experience can be, for some, unrelenting and never ending.

Pentecost is about God breathing life back into dry, lifeless bones. Our bones, too. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit—and in both Greek and Hebrew, the word for spirit is the same for both wind and breath—we, like the ancient Israelites, have hope of renewal. Our future, even when we feel completely cut off, becomes open to countless possibilities. Death and its evil minions no longer hold any power over us.

Can our dry bones live again? Can our hope be restored? The voice of the prophet assures us with an unequivocal, "Yes."

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