Bones WORD PICTURE: BONES
Scriptural Reference: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Valley of Dry Bones
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in 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 bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy 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 to life. 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 there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, 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 up on their feet—a vast army.
Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O 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.' "
1. Have someone(s) read the scripture from various translations.
2. Sing “Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!”
3. My sharing, offered to spark sharing by others.
What I Shared
I was cooking a chicken carcass to make soup stock one day. Looking at those bones simmer and fall apart made me think of the popular Bible story of the valley of bones. Dead bones have lost the living parts that make them strong.
Then I remembered a revelation God had given me. I had a bad habit of being inordinately hard on myself. My thoughts and attitudes were weakening me, just as if I were boiling the life out of my bones. Suddenly I realized I’d been grieving my Lord every time I put myself down. I was hurting His precious one -- me!
Now, I was out walking my dog when this revelation came to me. As I realized what I’d been doing, I dropped to my knees weeping. Fortunately it was very early in the pre-dawn of morning, so no one heard me apologizing with a broken heart for having hurt myself and Him. At the end of it all, I felt God say, “It’s all right -- now I just want you to stop this before you hurt yourself. I want you to catch these thoughts and then turn around and give them all to Me.”
When I got home and there’s a message on my phone machine saying four words, “Read Zephaniah 3:17!“ (The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. ) I looked it up to discover it says the Lord is dancing over me, delighting in me, rejoicing over me. I started pawing through my Bible looking for other stuff like that. I found a place He says that, to Him, I’m like a lily among thorns -- a darling among maidens, Solomon 2:2 (Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.)
He is saying that I am PRECIOUS to Him. PRECIOUS! Then I found another blurb of scripture where He says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it..” (Psalm 81:10)
God is now “SEALING THE HEALING” by teaching me how to continue, for the rest of my life, speaking LIFE (not death) into these dry bones!
I will go there, I will go there, Lord,
I will go there in Your name!
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, June 2007