The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley. And, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know.
Ezekiel 37:1-3
"THIS vision has been used, from the time of Jerome onwards, as a description of the resurrection and certainly it may be so accommodated with much effect.
Faith cannot at all times give a more satisfactory answer than this—"O Lord God, You know."
This passage, again, has been very frequently and I dare say very properly, used to describe the
revival of a decayed Church. This vision may be looked upon as descriptive of a state of lukewarmness and spiritual lethargy in a Church when the question may be sorrowfully asked—"Can these bones live?"
Lord, send us such revivals now, for many of your Churches need them—they are almost as dead as the corpses which sleep around them in the graveyard.
No grave of grief can hold the immortal joy of a Believer—on the third day it shall rise again, for, like the Lord who gave it, it shall never see corruption! Bone to his bone shall your comforts come together and an army of joys shall live in your soul.
Men by nature are just like these dry bones exposed in the open valley. The whole spiritual frame is dislocated. The sap and marrow of spiritual life has been dried out of manhood. Human nature is not only dead, but, like the bleaching bones which have long whitened in the sun, it has lost all trace of the Divine life. Will and power have both departed. Spiritual death reigns undisturbed. Yet the dry bones can live! .... When the holy breath comes from the four winds, when the Divine Spirit descends to own the Word, then multitudes of sinners as on Pentecost's hallowed day, stand up upon their feet—an exceeding great army—to praise the Lord their God."
Charles Spurgeon
Ezekiel 37:1-3
"THIS vision has been used, from the time of Jerome onwards, as a description of the resurrection and certainly it may be so accommodated with much effect.
Faith cannot at all times give a more satisfactory answer than this—"O Lord God, You know."
This passage, again, has been very frequently and I dare say very properly, used to describe the
Lord, send us such revivals now, for many of your Churches need them—they are almost as dead as the corpses which sleep around them in the graveyard.
No grave of grief can hold the immortal joy of a Believer—on the third day it shall rise again, for, like the Lord who gave it, it shall never see corruption! Bone to his bone shall your comforts come together and an army of joys shall live in your soul.
Men by nature are just like these dry bones exposed in the open valley. The whole spiritual frame is dislocated. The sap and marrow of spiritual life has been dried out of manhood. Human nature is not only dead, but, like the bleaching bones which have long whitened in the sun, it has lost all trace of the Divine life. Will and power have both departed. Spiritual death reigns undisturbed. Yet the dry bones can live! .... When the holy breath comes from the four winds, when the Divine Spirit descends to own the Word, then multitudes of sinners as on Pentecost's hallowed day, stand up upon their feet—an exceeding great army—to praise the Lord their God."
Charles Spurgeon