Favorite Passages...

By Brett Myers CONTRIBUTOR

I recently taught one of my favorite passages in a Sunday morning small group that I lead, looking at Ezekiel 37 and the passage of the “Valley of Dry Bones.” In this passage, the Israelite prophet Ezekiel is given a vision by God. He’s taken out into a desert valley, and the valley is filled with dry bones. God then asks Ezekiel a question that seems to have a simple answer: “Can these bones live?” Not only were these bones, but they were dry bones…bones that had been long baked by the sun, years past comprising the frame of a living breathing person. The answer seems simple: “Of course not.” However, the prophet gave a profoundly correct answer when God is involved: “O Lord God, only you know.”

Ezekiel would then be instructed to prophesy over these bones, and within this vision, God would bring these bones back to life, first rattling, then sinew forming to connect them, then flesh and organs, and then breath entering these restored bodies. What would stand before Ezekiel would be a massive and powerful army, that originated with dry useless bones until God got involved.

God would go on to explain that this vision was about how He would intervene in the hopeless situation in which the people of

Israel had gotten themselves into. Over and over again, God makes “I will” statements, promises of action for Ezekiel to pass on to His people.

If we are honest, we all face times when life seems hopeless; when a situation rises up in front of us like an unscalable mountain exploding upward from what seemed to be flat ground. It may be a medical prognosis, a financial situation, or a broken relationship. It may appear as though there is no earthly way this could ever work out. When that happens, it helps to remember that God is not bound by earthly reason. He is far more powerful than what our finite minds can comprehend. Now, He may not always answer in the precise manner in which we would like for Him to, as His ways are above our ways, His plans are superior to our plans, and sometimes He uses difficult situations to bring about our growth or, more importantly, His glory. But when we are walking in relationship with God which we find through Jesus Christ, we are walking through life with a God who is infinitely capable of all life can throw our way, and who promises that regardless of how dark and deep the valley may be, He will be with us through it. Ezekiel didn’t bring hope in the valley. Only God can do that.

Brett Myers is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church on Hilton Head Island. FBCHHI.org

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