Can These Bones Live?

Isaiah 57:17 is almost too good to believe. God says, “I live in a high and holy place, but also with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.” Revival. The promise that what is old can be made young. What is tired can be made fresh. What is broken can be mended. If it has been lost, it can be regained. If it is dry and barren as a desert, it can become as alive and full of possibility as a fertile field. What is dead can be brought back to life. Oh, let it be true!

Before we can experience revival, we have to recognize our need for it. And that’s often the hardest part. We’re tempted to think that we can self-renew or pull off a do-it-yourself restoration project. I just need to buck up, buckle down, regroup, reboot, get a grip, gut it out, up my game, hit the reset button. But I bet you, like me, have tried that approach. A story in Ezekiel 37 explains why our attempts at DIY revival never work.

God set Ezekiel in the middle of a bone yard. A bone field is more like it. A valley full of bones. White, dry, grotesquely angled, broken bones lay everywhere. God led Ezekiel back and forth among the bones. There is no clock to tell us how long it took Ezekiel to tour the valley full of bones. For all we know, counting the time required a calendar rather than a clock. You get the sense that millions and millions of bones littered this deadly landscape.

One chapter back, in Ezekiel 36:18, we learn whose bones these are and how they ended up here. They are Israel – God’s people. And they are here because Israel polluted the land with murder and idolatry. In other words, they treated people like things and things like gods.

When you think about why we end up in need of renewal, restoration or revival, the reasons can usually fall into one of two columns – how people treat each other and how we relate to God. Some of us need restoration because we’ve been treated badly by other people. They treated us like things. They used us. And when we were no longer useful to them, they tossed us away like out of fashion furniture dumped out of the back of a truck at Goodwill.

The only thing worse than being someone who was used and discarded is being a user – being the one who treats people like things. That will dry out your soul and turn your heart to stone.

The other reason we often end up in need of revival has to do with how we relate to God. Or, perhaps better said, how we try to replace God with something else. It’s bad when you treat people like things. It’s worse when you treat things like gods. Which is what the Bible calls idolatry.

So is it really possible? When your life is as disjointed, scattered and dried up as that bone-strewn valley, can you really experience revival? That’s the question God asked Ezekiel. Can these bones live?

Yes! How?

Not by your own effort or mine, that’s for sure. Imagine if God had said to Ezekiel, “Ezekiel, I’m going to give you the archaeological, the anatomical and the forensic knowledge to reassemble all these bones. Take all the time you need. Call me when you’re finished.”

Not only would Ezekiel still be there assembling bones, but if he ever finished, you know what he’d have? A museum. Never, in a million, million years would he be able to make those bones take on flesh, breath in air, stand up and march.

We try all kinds of things to quench the drought in our souls. We lose ourselves in diversions. Some people shop. Some of us seek pleasure. Some of us try new relationships. Others try to douse the dryness with work or success or chemicals. We could keep on trying to reassemble our scattered selves and hydrate all the dryness for a million, million years and never succeed.

Only God can bring that kind of revival.

And he has a particular way of doing it. Ezekiel could have told great jokes to those bones, but there would have been no laughter. He could have told sad stories, but there would have been no tears. He could have crafted a compelling speech, but there would have been no stirring. Only God can bring revival and God does it through his word.

So Ezekiel whispered God’s words and the bones began to stir. He told God’s story and the bones began to assemble. He spoke God’s speech and the Spirit came and breathed life into those dead, dry bones. Hebrews 4:12 explains why: Because the word of God is alive and powerful. Only God brings renewal, revival and restoration. And he does that through his word.

Look, you and I aren’t going to self-restore. God is the only one who can do that. But we can put ourselves in a good position for God to do his powerful work. The pressure point we can press, the leverage we can exert is by getting into the word of God and letting the word of God get into us.

We can all certainly spend more time in scripture. But it may be that you need to find your own Ezekiel — someone who can walk into your valley and speak God’s word into your situation with love, mercy and grace.

With nothing but his word, God created everything out of nothing. And with that same word, he can make you live again. He can.

I know he can.