Dry Bones and Breath

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Ezekiel 37:1–14

The Valley of Dry Bones

1 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. 2 He led
me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very
dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God,
you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O
dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I
will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 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.”

7 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. 8 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. 9 Then he said to me,
“Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says
the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath
came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They
say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, 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. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 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, says the
Lord.”

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“Our bones are dried up,

and our hope is lost;

we are cut off completely.”

What a nice little ditty for Advent, right? Doesn’t it put you in the Christmas
spirit? But this was how the exiled people in Ezekiel’s time felt. It is believed that
it was a common phrase at that time. “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is
lost; we are cut off completely.”

When the Babylonians conquered Judah, they destroyed the temple and then
sent the priests, artisans, and community leaders into exile and left the rest of the
people in Israel to be ruled over by the Babylonians. This split the nation in two,
leaving everyone feeling hopeless. Those still living in the land had no religious
leaders to guide them or a temple to go to for sacrifices and prayer. Those in
exile were experiencing an identity crisis, wondering how they could be the
people of God without being on the land God had given them. Both groups felt
like God had deserted them. These people’s lives had been filled with deep,
scarring trauma. “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off
completely.” It makes sense they were feeling this way.

The people in exile were cut off from family and friends, from their land, from their
culture. They even felt cut off from God. But God had not left them. God was still
speaking. God saw them and knew how they were feeling—like a valley of dry
bones that have no hope of coming back to life. And in a vision, God brings
Ezekiel to a valley filled with bones. This place could have been a former
battlefield. Not being buried and having one’s bones exposed was disgraceful, so
conquerors would leave bodies in battlefields as a way to taunt and shame the
people they defeated. Perhaps Ezekiel had walked past battlefields cluttered
with dead bodies as he walked into exile, just one more reminder of the horror of
their defeat. But now, time has passed, and all that is left of the soldiers are their
bones—and they are dry—the marrow, what gives bones life is gone…. “Our
bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”

I cannot imagine the trauma and horrors Ezekiel and the others in exile had to
endure. Having your home turned into a warzone, watching the temple be
destroyed, grieving the loss of loved ones, being defeated by the Babylonians,
and then being sent into exile. This is trauma that I am guessing none of us have
experienced, and I want to honor the trauma and horrors in this story and people
who have experienced similar traumas in both past and present times. And so,
instead of pretending that I could understand what Ezekiel and his people
experienced, I found myself asking a new question—What are our “dry bones”
today? What are the things in our lives that leave us feeling lifeless, hopeless, or
isolated? As I thought about it, I was able to make quite the list—Covid, climate
change, deep political divisions, systemic racism, white supremacy, gun violence,
what seems like never ending conflict and corruption in nations around the
world…it isn’t that hard to start listing problems in this world and start to feel
hopeless.

Author Sarah Bessey reminds us that this feeling of hopelessness is why we
need Advent. She says, “How do we celebrate or ‘get cozy’ or turn towards
Christmas when our hearts are broken by coronavirus, quarantines, death tolls,
political divides, conspiracy theories, refugees, detention camps, broken treaties,
by one another?…In these days, celebration can seem callous and uncaring, if
not outright impossible. But here’s the thing, my friend: we enter into advent now
precisely because we are paying attention…The weary world is still waiting in so
many ways, in so many hearts, in so many places for the fullness of the Kin-dom
of God to come. Advent is for the ones who know longing.”

The people in Ezekiel’s day knew longing…longing for their homeland, for the
Temple, for family, friends and traditions. We, too know longing…longing for a
time when covid is not at the forefront of our minds, longing for divisions to
subside, for injustices to be corrected. We are dreaming of much more than a
white Christmas this year.

But thankfully, this vision in Ezekiel does not end with the hopelessness of a
valley of dry bones…

In Ezekiel’s vision, after he walks through the valley of bones and sees how
lifeless they are, God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel knows better
than to put limits on God’s power, so he doesn’t answer the question directly but
instead turns it back to God, saying, “O Lord God, you know.” And then, God
partners with Ezekiel to bring life back into those dry bones. Ezekiel prophesies,
speaks, to the bones and they start rebuilding themselves—growing tendons,
muscles, and then skin. But still, there was no breath, no life, in them. They were
still dead bodies. And so Ezekiel prophesies again, telling the four winds—a
symbol of God’s full power and authority—to breathe into these bodies, “that they
may live.” And that’s just what happened! “Breath came into them, and they
lived.”

Breath is translated from the Hebrew word “ruah,” which means breath, spirit, and
wind. It is the same word used in Genesis 1 for the wind from God, or the spirit of
God that swept over the waters before creation. And it is the word used in
Genesis 2 when God breathes life into man. In this passage, it is the breath of
God, the spirit of God, that comes from the four corners of the earth and breathes
life into these bodies once again. This breath is the divine gift of life God has
given each of us. It is the Holy Spirit in and among us.

Breathwork and mindfulness have become buzzwords in the past few years.
Science has shown that focusing on taking deep breaths for even just a short
period of time can lower heart rate, blood pressure, and feelings of anxiety. But
this is nothing new, it goes all the way back to Genesis. It makes sense that as
we focus on our breath, we can experience a bit of peace because whether we
realize it or not, when we focus on our breath, we are focusing on the spirit of
God that gives us life and peace.

I have a friend that reminds me of this, especially when I am stressed. She prays
with me as I take deep breaths, reminding me that God is in each breath I take,
that I am not alone, that God is with me as I breathe, and that I can experience a
moment of peace by focusing on my breath.

And so after reviving the bodies with the breath of life, God ends this section of
Ezekiel’s vision by providing an explanation for the vision in verses 11–14. God
says these dry bones are the whole house of Israel, who feel lifeless, hopeless,
and alone, but God declares that is not how they will remain. Three times God
emphatically says that God will bring them back from their graves, and then God
promises to bring them back to their land. God ends by declaring, “I will put my
spirit—my ruah—within you and you shall live.”

This passage in Ezekiel reminds us that nothing is hopeless with God, that all life
comes from God and that God breathes life into us. Our dry bones, the things
that feel hopeless in our lives, may be pretty different from the dry bones of
Ezekiel’s day. But the good news remains—God can breathe life into our dry
bones, into our hopeless situations, into our deepest longings. And so, when
things feel hopeless, when we are longing for better days this advent season, we
can focus on our breath and remember the renewed life that God’s spirit brings
and that God indeed is with us.

God of Peace, of breath and life,

We come to you today feeling weary and maybe even a little hopeless as we
think about all that is wrong with the world. But we hear the words of Ezekiel, “I
will put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
And so, as we take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out, we remember that
your spirit, your breath, gives us life. We remember that you are faithful and that
nothing is hopeless in your hands.