Dry, Not Done: Sitting With Ezekiel in the Valley

Some people walk into church looking fine. Pressed clothes, a smile for everybody, a hug at the door. Then they go home and fall apart where nobody can see it.

Maybe that's you right now. Maybe it's your marriage, or a bank account that won't stretch, or a prayer you've prayed so long you quit expecting an answer. You wouldn't call it hopeless. You'd just call it dry.

Pastor Lonnie Clinkscale preached about that exact place in his message "Hope in the Valley," from Ezekiel 37:1-14. And he started by telling the truth about how bad things were.

A people who thought their story was over

When Ezekiel had this vision, God's people were in exile. Jerusalem had fallen in 586 BC. The temple was torn down. Families had been dragged off to Babylon. As Pastor Lonnie put it, "Israel had been defeated, deported, and dispersed." They believed their story was over.

So God set Ezekiel down in a valley full of bones. Not fresh ones. Very dry ones (Ezekiel 37:2). Then God asked him a strange question: "Son of man, can these bones live?" (Ezekiel 37:3).

Ezekiel's answer is worth borrowing: "O Lord God, You know." Pastor Lonnie pointed out that God wasn't asking because He needed information. He was building Ezekiel's faith. Sometimes the most honest prayer you have is this one: Lord, I don't know how. I don't know when. But You know.

God isn't confused by the pile of pieces

Pastor Lonnie told a story plenty of husbands will recognize. A man comes home tired, hoping for a hot meal and a football game, and finds a box "bigger than the refrigerator" with a bookshelf inside. He tosses the instructions. Two hours later he has leftover screws and a shelf leaning like the Tower of Pisa. When he finally calls the company, customer service asks one question: did you read the instructions?

That's us, he said. We keep trying to put our lives together with our own plan and our own power, and we wear ourselves out carrying what we were never meant to carry. But in his words, "God never gets confused by the clutter. God never gets frustrated by the fragments. God knows exactly where every piece belongs."

Speak the promise, not just the problem

Then God gave Ezekiel an odd assignment. Preach to the bones. Bones don't have ears, but God's word carries power. Pastor Lonnie challenged the church that some of us talk more about our problems than we speak God's promise. Instead of "I don't have it," say "my God shall supply all your need" (Philippians 4:19). Instead of "I can't do it," say "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

When Ezekiel spoke, there was a noise and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone (Ezekiel 37:7). Pastor Lonnie's word on that moment: "Before God changes your situation, he shakes up your situation." So don't fear the shaking. It means God is working.

Put together is not the same as alive

Here's the part that's easy to miss. The bones came together. Sinews, flesh, skin, the whole thing. It looked right. But there was no breath in them (Ezekiel 37:8). It took a second word, prophesying to the breath, before they stood up as "an exceedingly great army" (Ezekiel 37:10). "Religion without the Holy Ghost is an empty ritual," he said. Real life comes from God's Spirit: "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:14).

Faith that builds before it sees

He closed with Field of Dreams. Ray hears a voice in his cornfield and starts cutting down good corn to build a ballfield nobody asked for. The neighbors laugh. His family wonders if he's lost his mind. And when it's finished, nothing happens. Just an empty field. Then one day the players come walking out of the corn.

Ezekiel wasn't responsible for making the bones live. Ray wasn't responsible for bringing the players. Each of them was responsible for obeying. If you've been faithful and haven't seen anything yet, hold on to this: "Just because nothing seems to be happening doesn't mean that God isn't working."

And if you've never given your life to Jesus, or you used to walk close with God and life pulled you away, Pastor Lonnie was clear. Today isn't about condemnation. It's about restoration. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. The Father is waiting with open arms.

Live It This Week

•         Pray Ezekiel's prayer. Name your valley out loud and tell God, "I don't know how. I don't know when. But Lord, You know."

•         Trade a complaint for a promise. When you catch yourself saying "I can't" or "I don't have it," answer it out loud with Philippians 4:13 or 4:19.

•         Keep building. Don't stop hoping, don't stop praying, and do the next faithful thing even if the field still looks empty.