Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Then he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I replied, “Lord God, only you know.” He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. Ezekiel 37:3-5 CSB
Hope For Dry Bones
This past Sunday we heard the second sermon in the series Everyday Missionaries where we are learning how Everyday Missionaries are ordinary people empowered by an extraordinary God for an extraordinary mission. As believers we are called to be Everyday Missionaries as we walk out our faith in our day to day life. We have the hope, only found in Jesus, that the rest of the world needs. If you are looking at the world and the circumstances and events that the world gages hope by, there is not much promise of hope to be found. But we have the hope they need, and it is our job to show them how they too can have hope in hopeless circumstances.
Is There Any Hope?
Israel was in ruins. Their enemy, Babylon, had defeated the nation and there was nothing left of the army but a valley of dry bones, with survivors in captivity. Ezekiel wanted to see revival in the land, but the people wanted no part of repentance. God gave Ezekiel a vision so he would know that revival would one day come to Israel. This vision seemed impossible at this point in Israel’s history because of her present condition: dead, both physically and spiritually.
God's vision leads Ezekiel through a valley of dry, dead bones — a vision which symbolizes the lifeless faith of an exiled Israel. Ezekiel was given the vision of dry bones as a sign – as hope to cling to. The dry bones were a symbol of the lifeless faith of Israel. God promises restoration and revival to Israel after their exile is over.
God gives hope.
The Israelites had no hope. They were dead, both spiritually and physically. But God promises to bring them back to life. God always follows through on his promises and he is the only one who can give real and true hope. The Bible proves his faithfulness in one account after another. When we start to believe that we are forgotten by God, or a pile of dry bones that has no hope, we can trust him that he has not forgotten about us.
God gives life.
I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 As I looked, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath,[a] prophesy, son of man. Say to it: This is what the Lord God says: Breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain so that they may live!” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me; the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army. Vs 6-10
God breathed life into a heap of dry bones. He put skin on them, and breath into their lungs and resurrected them back to life. He brought what was spiritually and physically dead back to life.
When was the last time you felt hopeless? Maybe it is your own consequences, like the Israelites. Maybe it is a situation such as divorce, looking for Jesus calls us forward, not backward. No matter how dead you feel, God can breathe life back into your lungs. We were dead in our sins, and he came and gave us new life in him. He breathes spiritual life into the spiritually dead.
God mobilizes a people.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look how they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’12 Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people, and lead you into the land of Israel. 13 You will know that I am the Lord, my people, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 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 am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it. This is the declaration of the Lord.’” Vs 11-14
The vision that God gives Ezekiel is Israel coming back to life and being mobilized as an army for the Lord. Through his Spirit he revives our spiritually dead souls and gives us new life, and mobilizes us to take his Gospel of hope to everyone around us every day.
God gives spiritual life where there is spiritual death so we will take the hope he gives to the world and to everyone we come into contact with every day. He does not give us life to sit in church every Sunday and never do anything with the Gospel that gave us hope. We should infiltrate hope into every area of our lives.
God and his word meet us exactly where we are in life – whether we are broken, hopeless, rejected, or betrayed. We are never too far or too unreachable for God. He breathes life into our spiritually dead places. This is the hope of the Gospel the world needs. There are plenty of realities in life that leave us feeling too broken and hopeless to ever come back from but God meets us and restores us where we are, in whatever current reality we are living – or dying in. Even if we are buried in a pile of bones. This is the Gospel. This is the hope and as Everyday Missionaries we have the opportunity to share that Gospel of hope to a dark and hopeless world.
