Ezekiel 37-39, 2 Peter 2 • Key Verses: Ezekiel 37:3-7
Someone has said that an archaeologist is a person who makes his living digging up dead
people. If you lived in Israel today, you might believe that is true.
Israel is bustling with archaeological activity. Professionals and volunteers are digging up
mounds of past civilizations, finding pottery, coins and, occasionally, human bones. They gather
the artifacts carefully, but they do not anticipate that the pottery will ever again be used for
cooking or the coins for trading. And they certainly do not anticipate that those dry bones will
ever live again.
No so with the Lord God. He called the prophet Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones and asked,
“Can these bones live?” Ezekiel was cautious in his response: “O Sovereign LORD, you alone
know” (37:3). God was promising that the nation Israel, which was all but obliterated due to
enemy invasion, would one day live again.
For almost 20 centuries Israel did not exist as a nation. There was no Jewish homeland. The
Hebrew language all but died out. And then God performed a miracle. He gathered Jews from
all over the world and brought them to Palestine, and in 1948 the modern state of Israel was
born. It was proof that, just as He had predicted to Ezekiel, God would not abandon His people
forever. God keeps His promises, even in a valley full of dry bones.
“Thank You, Heavenly Father, for being a God of integrity. Thank You for bringing Your people
back to their land and for giving us one more example that You are a God of Your word.”
Woodrow Kroll & Tony beckett
www.backtothebible.in