Beyond Desolation

Beyond Desolation

The hand of the LORD was upon 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.

Ezekiel 37:1

IN WORD God’s chosen people were in crisis. Generations before, the twelve tribes of Israel were one nation, and all of them were in the Promised Land. Now, after the succession of evil king after evil king, the northern kingdom of Israel had been sacked by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom of Judah had been carried off into exile by the Babylonians. From all outward appearances, the salvation experiment seemed dead.

Where God is concerned, though, “dead” doesn’t mean very much. So what if the chosen people were scattered all over ancient civilizations? So what if the situation was so hopeless that all of Isaiah’s promises made years before now seemed wildly unrealistic? So what if the bones had been dead so long that they were now dry?

God specializes in resurrection. He demonstrated that through Elijah and Elisha, and He had promised it through earlier prophets. And, as we now know, He would demonstrate it centuries later through Jairus’s daughter, Lazarus, and the Savior of the world. No matter how hopeless a situation seems, even as hopeless as death and decay, God is a God of hope. Nothing’s impossible for Him.

IN DEED We know that intellectually, but we don’t practice it. We let our impossibilities convince us that God isn’t on our side, or that He is a God of miracles only on rare occasions, or some other discouraging thought along those lines. When we find ourselves in an impossible situation, we usually assume our desire for better circumstances simply wasn’t God’s will to begin with. What we don’t realize is that, as He did with Ezekiel, He brings us to the valley of dry bones not to discourage us, but to show us something amazing. It was the Spirit of God who took Ezekiel to the place of despair, and it was to show him that despair wasn’t true. He’ll do the same for you. When you see dead, dry bones, trust the One who showed them to you.

It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.

—JEREMY TAYLOR