Read: Ezekiel 37:1-14
And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live. (v. 14)
My husband’s enthusiasm for Civil War history has taken us to numerous battlefields and historic sites. I am always moved by the enormity of loss in the cemeteries; row after row of white crosses are a memorial to the young lives cut down in their prime, now buried and almost forgotten. How devastating these deaths must have been for the families and loved ones who suffered such loss!
The Jews of Ezekiel’s day were familiar with similar bereavement. They were captives of Babylon, exiled from their homeland, which had been pillaged and destroyed by their enemies. They felt like a nation of hopeless, dead men: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost” (v. 11). But here in Ezekiel’s famous vision of the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel prophesied that God would raise them up again. God’s Spirit would breathe life back into their dried bones, and cause them to live—“an exceedingly great army” (v. 10).
Paul makes a similar point in Ephesians 2:5: “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [he] made us alive together with Christ.” Dead people can’t raise themselves; like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, we need God’s Spirit to breathe life into us to make us spiritually alive. This is the work of God, not of man. We’ll read what Jesus had to say about this in tomorrow’s meditation. —Laura N. Sweet
As you pray, thank God for his Spirit who has made you alive in Christ Jesus.
About the Author
Laura N. Sweet is a wife, mother, grandmother, and former Christian schoolteacher from Midland, Michigan. She writes devotional material for both adults and children, and her work has appeared in more than a dozen publications.
