Thoughts for the Day

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones..... He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath....' I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.'

Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel....' Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord...' I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.’

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The prophet Ezekiel was one of those taken captive to Babylon in 597 BC, and he wrote between 593 and 571 BC in an effort to energise God's people. In this famous vision of the people of Israel, he sees them as a valley of dead bones with no life in them. They can do nothing for themselves, he says, but God can revive the dry bones and rejuvenate them, not because they have done anything, but out of his goodness. The opportunity for this to happen would start when King Cyrus gave an edict in 538 BC to allow the Jews to return to their homeland, and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

We start Passiontide today (the week before Holy Week that leads to the death of Jesus), and our reading from Ezekiel pops up in our lectionary. The original words were for the whole nation of Israel, but today we can surely see ourselves in this story where God promises to revive His people, and to bring them back to life, through His Spirit.

We cannot revive ourselves; we cannot heal ourselves. But God's Spirit (Ruach in Hebrew, which means both 'breath' and 'wind') can energise and bring us back to life. We are incapable of doing anything, but God has already made the first step by sending His only Son, Jesus, to effect our rescue. Through his death he made the payment for our sin. We only need to respond to His offer of love to become spiritually alive!

Father God,
we need Your Spirit
to revive and heal us.
We cannot do this alone,
and without You we are like
dry, desiccated, bones.
Of Your grace, infuse
us with Your Spirit
and rejuvenate us
that we may truly come alive
as Your people.
Amen.