SON OF MAN, CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE?

      Ezekiel 37:1-10 is a great message of hope. It is a great affirmation that all things are possible for God. It is a great Easter message... and it says this according to the NIV:

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these dry bones live?" I said, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophecy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.' This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will come alive. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but these was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophecy, son of man, and say to it: "This is what the Sovereign Lord say, 'Come, breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet- a vast army. 

      O my, what a vision! For a man who was living in exile, what a vision! For a people who had lost their loved ones, their homes, and their freedom, what a promise! For any of us who have walked in a valley full of dry bones, what a hope!
      In the midst of his exile in Babylon, when the world he knew was crumbling around him, the "Spirit of God" sat Ezekiel down in a valley of dry bones. It was a valley, not a mountain, and the only view he had was a view of dead bones. He was knee-deep in dry bones, and God asked him the question every person struggles with when he and/or she comes face to face with death- CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE? When we held my brother's funeral service in Anniston, Alabama, there was some concern that Randy did not look like himself. The funeral directors, it seemed, had not done a particularly good job... but the bigger and unspoken question was this: CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE? In God's Sovereign hands, can Randy Lee Shedenhelm live? That was the question. That is always the question. When we walk through the graveyards that dot our lives; when someone abandons us, or divorces us; when we get "downsized," or "fired,; when we see our friends die in combat; when we're told that we will never walk again, or work again, or that we have just a few months to live... we hear God whisper or shout, "Son of man... CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE?"
      Can they...well...can they? And Ezekiel was wise enough to say, "Only you know, Lord." I don't know. I can't see how they can possibly live because they're very dry. They are really dead. Dead dead. They aren't wounded, dying, or sort of dead... but dead... and I wouldn't give anything for their chances... but you know, Lord. You know. And so, he obeyed... and in his obeying God worked his miracle. Ezekiel obeyed, and he was blessed in his obedience... which is an important truth because, while God is indeed Sovereign, he invites us into partnership! The 1st step is believing and the 2nd step is living as if we believe (obeying). Believing isn't enough alone; we need to claim it for ourselves, for God, and for the dry bones in our world! But there is one final truth that bears mentioning and it goes all the way back to Genesis- without the breath (the Spirit) of God, we are not truly alive! It is the Spirit of God that gives us life, and it is the Spirit of God that gives us the strength to stand on our feet and sing his praises.
      Like many of you, I am well acquainted with death. I've attended funeral services for both my parents and both my brothers, and I've conducted well more than a hundred funeral services as a pastor. I've also had my share of life's ups and downs- life's "little deaths"- and- like you- I know dry bones when I see them. I've heard the sobs, I've seen the vacant looks, I've experienced them myself. There's nothing attractive about dry bones and there's no profit in denying that they are everywhere around us. God is not suggesting that we "whistle past our graveyards"or ignore our pain... but he is asking us Ezekiel's question: CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE? And as Christians... we can boldly answer YES. In His dying our Lord atoned for our sins, and in his rising, He conquered death... and because He Lives, we will live. You will hear a rattling, and we will rise to our feet...even though we die! Amen.