“Can these bones live?” Can this life be turned-around? Can hope be embedded in the heart? Can these bones live, the dry bones we see all around us, the lives empty and forlorn, in the grip of the most desperate drought, in a nation that is weary and worn, that is often senseless and brutish? Can the darkness of death be dispelled and the light of resurrection dawn upon benighted souls?
Can our bones live? Can our dearth be reversed and our lives flooded again by the life of God? Are there any reasons to keep on keeping on?
The question was addressed to Ezekiel as a ‘son of man’ - a mere mortal. A man with all the usual limitations - from the dust and returning to the dust. Whatever answer can be given to the plight of the nation, it doesn’t lie with him. Having been asked, his response is marked by a humility that has within it the seeds of living hope:
“Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
Yes, only he knows. It is as far beyond us as it was Ezekiel. His nation had been torn apart, stone by stone and life by life. There was the deepest decay at its heart. The powers that be (in this case, the Babylonian empire) were at their peak. There were no evident reasons for hope, none at all.
In a culture that continually self-harms, enthroning death by embracing decay, the same bleak outlook would seem to be true for us. Minor respites, here and there, perhaps. But genuine grounds for expectancy? It seems not.
Where all hope was seemingly dead and buried, the LORD speaks. He has addressed Ezekiel and now calls him to address the dry bones, to proclaim to them, to let them know that breath will enter them and they will come to life. And that happens when Ezekiel has further spoken, this time to the breath, at the Lord’s direction. The re-made but inanimate army would only then come to resurrection life.
A resurrection without life would be not simply irrational, it would also be intolerable and desolating. Lives reformed, returned to some sense of normality and meaning, yet without true transformation; re-calibrated but without the breath of life to give vitality and indissoluble joy. That isn’t what is so sorely needed and would be bitterly disappointing. We can be thankful for all that might change circumstances for the better, but we long for lives to be renewed at the deepest level.
The words of the Lord and the breath of the Lord: the live-giving message and the life-giving Spirit - these are the proper basis for genuine hope, a hope that leads to sustained prayer for new life. Come, O Lord...
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O Breath of Life, come sweeping through us,
Revive Thy church with life and power,
O Breath of Life, come, cleanse renew us,
And fit Thy church to meet this hour.
O Wind of God, come, bend us, break us,
Till humbly we confess our need;
Then in Thy tenderness remake us,
Revive, restore; for this we plead.
O Breath of Love, come, breathe within us,
Renewing thought and will and heart:
Come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,
Revive Thy church in every part.
Revive us Lord! Is zeal abating
While harvest fields are vast and white?
Revive us, Lord, the world is waiting,
Equip Thy church to spread the light.
(Elizabeth Ann Head, 1850-1936)
