Can These Bones Live?

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” Ezekiel 37:1-3

In a vision, God set the prophet Ezekiel down in a valley full of dry bones. When Ezekiel saw the vision, he must have wondered where the bones came from, how long they had been there, and why God was showing them to him. In real life, such a sight would have seemed to have been the aftermath of disease, famine, or war. The bones were very dry; every sign of life was long gone. As Ezekiel looked around, the Lord asked him, “Can these bones live?” Humanly speaking, the answer would have been, “No,” but Ezekiel responded, “O Lord God, thou knowest.” God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them that they would live. In the vision, as Ezekiel began to preach to the bones, God began bringing them back to life, and they became a great army of living, breathing people. Then God told Ezekiel that the vision was about the house of Israel. The Lord was showing him that He was going to bring the nation of Israel back together, they would one day possess the land that He had given them, and they would become a nation again. As He was comforting His people, God was showing us that He can breathe life into anything.