The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. — Ezekiel 37:1-2.
Men, everyone who reads the Word along with these devotions will recognize an immediate shift in language for ch. 37. Elsewhere we have read, “Again the Word of the Lord came to me saying:” before the Lord granted prophetic knowledge to Ezekiel. Here, we read, “The Hand of the Lord came upon me.” God’s hand represents a different value in His authority. I didn’t say greater or lesser, but different.
Elsewhere, Ezekiel has heard God’s Word, and recognized physical elements to use in his prophecy to the people, but here, Ezekiel is led out of his normal state of consciousness into a state where he perceives both the voice of God and the physical attributes of the environment shown to him in a very literal sense. He can see and feel physical things though clearly not in his normal state or place.
Ezekiel is set by God into a valley filled with dry bones. The Lord caused him to pass through the whole valley where he again acknowledges that there are many bones, and indeed they were very dry. The Lord then asks: “Son of man, can these bones live?” We might suggest “no” from our own time and normal cognition, but Ezekiel is not in his normal cognitive element. He recognizes that he is in the realm of God’s Spirit, where His authority and power are on display unimpeded by the laws of His creation.
There are 2 predominant interpretations for the dry bones. Some argue the bones are the slain Israelites of the siege that had recently decimated Jerusalem and all Judah. Others offer that this is metaphoric for the deadness of the persecuted church, perhaps through the time of Jesus when even the religious leaders were far off course.
V11 offers more clarity, but for now, move forward as we consider, the realm in which we inhabit is a very small place, and the Lord God is not contained within it. The Lord God sees, experiences, shares and creates from a place beyond our doubt or understanding. The Lord God is great and limitless beyond our comprehension.
Vance Durrance
