Ezekiel 37: In Your Valley, God Is Not Finished Yet

Introduction

"Have you noticed that almost everything eventually dries out?" That is how Susan Elsmore, at Gateway Baptist Church in Brisbane, opens her message with humor: the bread that goes stale when you forget to close the bag, the office plants nobody remembers to water, the skin that needs constant moisturizing as we get older.

But there are seasons when the dryness goes much deeper: disappointment, grief, unanswered prayers, seasons when faith looks more like perseverance than passion. "We keep showing up. We keep praying. We keep trusting, but deep down, we feel dry."

God is never surprised by our dry seasons. He has been meeting his people in dry places for generations: Abraham waited, Joseph suffered, David hid in caves, Elijah sat down exhausted in the wilderness. Starting from the vision of Ezekiel 37, the preacher shows that God is present in the valley, that he works before we can see it, and that the last word belongs to him.

Outline of the message

1. A people in exile, between promise and reality

Ezekiel prophesies during one of the darkest seasons in Israel's history: Jerusalem has fallen, the temple is destroyed, and the people are living in exile in Babylon. They have lost their home, their security, and everything that reminded them of God's presence.
Yet God has not abandoned them. In the previous chapter, he promises to give them a new heart and to put his Spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
So there is a great gap between God's promises and the present reality. "You know God's promises. You know he is faithful. But when you look at your situation, it is hard to imagine how anything could change."
It is in this context that God gives Ezekiel the vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14).

2. Looking at the valley honestly

God does not lead Ezekiel into a flourishing garden or to the bank of a river, but into a valley that looks like a graveyard. The bones are not just dry: they are "very dry." They speak of death, loss, abandonment, and a future that seems beyond recovery.
The valley is a picture of what is going on in the heart of the people: "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off" (verse 11). Discouragement has turned into despair.
God then asks a surprising question: "Son of man, can these bones live?" Susan Elsmore laughingly compares it to asking whether fried chicken with eleven herbs and spices could come back to life after being eaten.
Before the restoration, before the breath, before the army, there is an honest acknowledgment of the situation. God has Ezekiel pass "all around" the bones (verse 2), so that the reality sinks in. "God never asks us to deny our reality. He meets us in the middle of it."
Perhaps you are in that valley: a relationship that seems beyond repair, a prodigal child who seems too far away, a diagnosis, a disappointment, a prayer that has gone unanswered for so long that you have almost stopped believing.

3. God is present in the valley

The most remarkable thing is not the bones, but a God who walks into the valley speaking of life when everyone else sees only skeletons. "We have a God who has hope in his eyes."
The valley is not proof that God has abandoned you. Sometimes it is the very place where he begins to bring back to life what was dead. The hand of the LORD was on Ezekiel as he led him into the middle of the bones (verses 1-2).
We often imagine that God is only found in the breakthrough or the answered prayer. Ezekiel discovers that God is already there before anything changes: he is present in the process, not only in the result. He is present in loneliness, disappointment, anxiety, and the long seasons of waiting.
In her own moments of anxiety, the preacher confides, it is the assurance that God is with her that helps her keep hope and keep moving forward.
David knew this when he wrote: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me" (Psalm 23:4). God does not promise that we will never walk through valleys; he promises that we will not walk through them alone.
"Death does not get the last word." Neither do disappointment, illness, or despair: it belongs to God, "and he is good at bringing back to life what is dead."

4. Trusting before seeing, and obeying

To God's question, Ezekiel answers: "Lord Yahweh, you know" (verse 3). Susan Elsmore smiles: a careful answer, "well played." But we have all stood before situations that looked like dry bones.
God sees what we cannot see. We must never let what we see convince us that God cannot act: "nothing spoken by God is impossible" (Luke 1:37).
God asks Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones: not to repair them, not to explain them, only to obey his word. That is often the hardest part of faith.
The preacher quotes one of her favorite passages: "Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Ezekiel does not understand what God is going to do, but he trusts the one who does. Walking through the valley often means not having all the answers and choosing to take the next step of obedience, and then the next. "Faith isn't believing what we can figure out. Faith is trusting God, who has already figured it all out."

5. A family in the waiting

This passage has been a real challenge for Susan Elsmore. Her son-in-law was seriously injured in the leg in a work accident on a construction site about fourteen weeks earlier, and had to undergo a muscle and skin graft on his shinbone. The couple has three young children; the youngest was born two or three weeks after the accident.
From the start, the family has been praying in faith for his healing. The preacher has committed to lay hands on him every time she sees him and it seems appropriate. "I know God can do it. I just have a preferred timeline."
The doctors have said that he may never regain full nerve function or full mobility in his leg. "Those may be the doctor's words, but they will not be our last words." The family lives in the gap between what it sees and what it believes.
The waiting has brought unexpected gifts. Her four-year-old grandson insists on praying too: he puts his little hands on his daddy's legs and quietly repeats, five or six times, "Jesus, heal Daddy's leg," before finishing with: "and help him play soccer with me again." No questions, no doubts, just the trust that Jesus hears him.
"If God had followed my timeline, I might have missed seeing my grandson's faith grow." She even admits, laughing, that she was tempted to use these prayers to bargain a little with God.
"Don't give up. God is not finished yet." Even in the waiting, he is good.

6. Listening for the sound of the bones

Ezekiel obeys and prophesies. "There was a noise, and behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone" (verse 7). The depressing place even becomes "a little bit creepy."
The bones are not alive yet, but something is happening. Many would stop there, amazed. But this noise is only the sign of a beginning: God is at work, but this is not the end of the story.
The preacher admits that she has been tempted to stop praying for her son-in-law's healing. She decided to "listen for the sound of the bones," to wait with hope. And the family sees many encouraging signs, even if sometimes you have to look for them.
When she was ready to give up and was meditating on this text in order to preach it, she sensed God telling her that verses 5 and 6 were for her son-in-law: "I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live." Those words put hope back in her heart. She now prays them every time she prays for him.
"What word of Scripture has God put in your heart for your situation?" If you don't have one, ask him for one, come back to it, pray it, declare God's truth over your circumstances, even when you don't yet hear the sound of the bones.
In the vision, the resurrection does not begin with bodies standing up, but with a noise. Our culture loves instant results, but God often works beneath the surface, one step at a time, long before we see the result.

7. Where you see bones, God sees an army

God asks Ezekiel to prophesy again, this time over the breath. When God's breath enters them, everything changes: "they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army" (verse 10).
Where the Israelites saw death, God saw life. Where they saw an ending, he saw a beginning. Where they saw bones, he saw an army.
One of the enemy's favorite tactics is to convince us that the valley and the bones are permanent, so that we stop praying, believing, and waiting for God to act. The enemy points to the bones and says: "It's over." God points to the bones and asks: "Can these bones live? Can this dream live again? Can this relationship live again?"
The bones did not come back to life because they tried harder, nor because Ezekiel preached a great message. "We can have plans and strategies, but in the end, the only thing that gives life is the breath of God."
The sky grew dark, the veil of the temple was torn in two, and the body of Jesus was laid in a tomb. But all the while, God was at work, and on the third day Jesus came out of the tomb. That same resurrection power is still able today to bring back to life what is dead.
What the enemy intended for evil, God can turn to good and to his glory (Genesis 50:20). "Today's noise may be the first sound of tomorrow's resurrection."

Key takeaways

God does not ask you to deny your reality: he meets you in the middle of your valley.
The valley is not proof that God has abandoned you. He is present in the process, not only in the result.
Faith means trusting God before you see his work, and taking the next step of obedience.
The sound of the bones is the sign that God is at work, but not the end of the story: keep praying.
Only the breath of God gives life. Where you see dry bones, he sees an army, and the last word belongs to him.

Personal application

What dry bones are you looking at right now: a relationship, a dream, your health, a loved one far from God?
What prayer have you stopped praying, what promise have you stopped believing, what situation have you quietly crossed off your list?
What is the next step of obedience God is calling you to take in the valley you are walking through?
What word of Scripture has God given you for your situation? If you don't have one, will you take time to ask him for it this week?
What small signs of God at work, what "sound of the bones," may you have overlooked lately?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What do the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 represent?

God explains it himself in verse 11: these bones are the whole house of Israel, a people in exile in Babylon who say "our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are completely cut off." For Susan Elsmore, the valley is a picture of what was going on in the heart of the people, and of our own dry seasons.

What does "listening for the sound of the bones" mean?

When Ezekiel prophesies, there is a noise and the bones come together, though they are not yet alive. For Susan Elsmore, this noise is the sign that God is at work, but it is not the end of the story. She invites us to watch for these signs, without stopping there and without ceasing to pray.

What should you do when a prayer goes unanswered for a long time?

Susan Elsmore encourages us not to give up: trust God before seeing his work, take the next step of obedience, and ask God for a word of Scripture for your situation so that you can pray it and declare it with perseverance. The last word belongs to God.