I was remembering how several years ago, while leading worship in Tillamook, God reminded me of Ezekiel 37 and the story of the Valley of Dry Bones. That Sunday, as I read this passage of Scripture out loud, I know, without a doubt, I was speaking the very words of life that began to transform my dead marriage.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Valley of Dry Bones
The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
You must remember that Jesus specializes in dead things coming back to life. This is His gig not yours! For His glory not yours! So that others will say, “look what God has done!”
Speak this passage of Scripture over your marriage, over the deadness. Some of you just have small pockets of death in your marriage. Others of you are like Darin and I and it seems like the whole thing is dead but it does not matter. Don’t give up before God resurrects it. You just can’t give up! God will help you! Your marriage may look dead but it might just be sleeping, in a dead sleep. God will wake it when it’s time but you must persevere, believe, hope, and change.
May the same power that rested on me rest on you,
Julie