Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones
“Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the LORD.” Ezekiel 37:4
Ezekiel, one of three prophet-priests in the Old Testament, began his ministry in 593 B.C which was the fifth year of Judah’s captivity by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. God commissioned Ezekiel to prophesy of the coming judgment of the people of Judah, but then later changed Ezekiel’s preaching to a message of deliverance beginning in Chapter 33. You’ve probably heard or heard of the song, “Dem Dry Bones” which was a spiritual based on Chapter 37. The dry bones represented the nation of Israel because she had wandered so far from God that she was like an old skeleton without life or breath.
That is an accurate metaphorical description of a person without the light of Christ. I remember my aunt, after visiting several years ago in one of the eastern European countries which had been under the oppressive, godless rule of communism for a very long time, describe the people of that country as walking around with no light in their eyes, almost as if they were the “walking dead.” If we are observant, we can see people in this country who seem to wander aimlessly around with no real purpose or goals in life whose chief objective is to just get through the day. There is no light in their eyes because they have chosen to ignore or outright reject the only true source of Light. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I Am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life.”
When Ezekiel spoke to the dry bones in his vision as God instructed him, the bones began to shake and come together, covered with flesh, and breath came into them, an extraordinary exhibition of the power of God to not only resurrect the dead, but to redeem a dead spirit to life. Israel will one day be restored to the nation of God’s chosen people that God intended for her all along. Most of the visions that God gave to the Old Testament are illustrations of things that are humanly impossible in order to manifest His sovereign power and grace. “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones; now hear the Word of the LORD.”