DAY 1:

Reading Time: 5 minutes

INTRODUCTION:

When it comes to work, most of us can find no shortage of things to complain about truthfully, work can be tiring, and even overwhelming, but behind our complaints is a lack of faith – an inability to see the work of God’s Spirit.  This study is designed to help us see how the Spirit is moving, even and especially in the places where we have felt frustrated, out of control, or hopeless.

Scripture:  Ezekiel 37

1The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out of the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2and he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.  3And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD you know.” 4then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.  5Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6And I will lay sinews upon 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.

7So I prophesied as I was commanded.  And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them.  But there was no breath in them. 9then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath. Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breach, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

11Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.  Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’  12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.  13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.  Then you shall know that I am the LORD, I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Besides the Literal lifeless objects Ezekiel sees before him in the desert, what do the bones in this passage represent to the people of Israel?

The striking imagery of a valley filled with dry, scattered bones is first a literal and physical presentation of death.  However, this mass grave represents a more spiritual and deeply distressing depiction of death and decay in the hearts of God’s people.  The suggested widespread slaughter brings to mind the sinful nature of mankind, that we are capable of great evil.  God made sure to impress upon Ezekiel that this was not “simply a symbol of death, but death in all its fullness.”

They represent judgment. Israel’s captivity was a judgment for their repeated sins of idolatry and rebellion against God.  The loss of their homeland and their state of exile was a result of their own actions and decisions, which they had been warned about.  

• In Deuteronomy, God tells of the punishment that awaits those who refuse to keep God’s commandments: “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies… And your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away”.

• Later in Jeremiah, the coming punishment gets very specific: “…the bones of the kinds of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their graves. And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they 

The valley of dry bones is the fulfilled consequences of sin.

They represent hopelessness. Ezekiel 37:11 says. “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.”  The dry bones represent their inward state – spiritual death. The scattered skeletons symbolize the disunity, despair, and disconnected people of God as a result of the exile.

The Israelites had once lived with great hope and the promise of a bright future. “God had drawn them close to himself… But like the prodigal son they squandered and wasted the father’s goods.”  And so were cut off.  This “abandonment was more than a passive act of God leaving his people to their own devices; in Ezekiel 10, God’s glory is even depicted as leaving the temple altogether.  This was devastating for Israel.  Without their life-giving source, they withered away completely, like a severed tree branch.

Furthermore, the bones are dry. These are not dead bodies, recently slain.  Their extreme dryness means the “people whose remains they represent have been dead for a long time.” And there is no life force left in them at all. Believing God had abandoned them in their captivity, the Israelites were experiencing a long period of devastation and despair – they had given up hope.

2. What do you find yourself or others in your profession complaining will never change?  What area(s) of work seems hopeless?  Identify a few pain points of your work/workplace.