Picture after picture, paragraph after paragraph, the description of starving people of the world creates an indelible image in our brains and an unforgettable shudder in our emotions. Starvation! Skeleton figures with gaunt, haunting eyes staring out of sockets too well defined. Bones covered with a thin coating of skin, walking, still moving, through bodies stretched out in death, quickly turning into valleys of dry bones. Dust returns to dust.
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
And later, in Ezekiel, this:
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto, them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord [Ezek. 37:3–6],
God made man and woman not just as physical beings that could breathe and walk and live but as living souls with the possibility of spiritual life. This marvelous Creator has watched through centuries the reverse take place as sin has brought the abnormal situation of famine, starvation, death, and the return to bones alone and finally to dust. Slashed art works bring pain to the artist. How much more must the return of living souls to valleys of dry bones bring pain to the Creator of life itself.
“I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Ezek. 18:23). What is he talking about? Physical life? Spiritual life? Both.
The death of the Son of God brought about the specific and absolute result of life in exchange for death. Those who believe him, and accept what he died to make possible, experience God’s breathing into their nostrils the breath of life once more. Each one who believes becomes alive to God, a fresh, reborn creature who will live forever. And each of these living souls will one day experience the changing of a set of dusty bones, a dead body or dying body, into a resurrected body that will live forever! He who breathed life into Adam will breathe life into each body that has become “dust” once more.
Dusty bones to live forever, covered with sinews, flesh:
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.… And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army [Ezek. 37:7–10].
We’re told in Ezekiel that God made it clear that this was a vision and explained what the vision meant. The dry bones were Israel. Israel was saying, “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost.” God was speaking through Ezekiel to say very sharply and clearly, “One day I am going to bring you up out of your graves and bring you into the Land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord God, and that I am the One who has brought you up out of your graves, so that you can live in your own land. I will put my spirit in you, and you will live, and you will know that I the Lord have spoken it, and have also performed it.” God is making it known to Israel that he who made people in the first place, who breathed life into Adam, can take a dead people, physically dead or spiritually dead, and bring them back to life—a victory over the terrible separation Satan brought about. God is also saying that he is going to complete the promises he made to Israel, and that one day there will be a fulfillment of all he promised concerning the Land. “David my servant shall be king over them: and they all shall have one shepherd: and [I] will cleanse them: so they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 37:24, 23b).
When Jesus’ disciples asked, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Jesus answered, “Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.… For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matt. 24:5–8).
God is fair with us. We have been warned of wars and pestilences, of earthquakes and famines. We have been given a more serious warning, however: “The love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12b). The warning goes on, “Therefore be ye ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
All of us should feel a strong responsibility to do all we can about helping the starving peoples. And the famines may bring us to a sudden realization that perhaps we are living in the time close to the return of the Lord.
The sight of dry bones scattered in the deserts of the world ought also to be a sober reminder of something very personal to each of us who is a child of the living God: “What about my own spiritual life? How starved am I in the Lord’s sight? Am I myself in a valley of dry bones, spiritually? Am I without flesh and sinews, a sight that would bring horror to anyone who could see? Because I belong to the Lord and can never be separated from him, have I taken it for granted that I will be well fed without eating?”
Starvation can take place either because no food is available or because the available food is not being eaten. We were given the Bible, the Word of God, to “eat” in its unpolluted form. We are to drink the uncontaminated milk of the Word, with no drops of poison in it to weaken us. We are to eat the strong meat of the Word, unadulterated with modern preservatives. We are to feed on the Bread of Life as we stay close to the Lord, and truly communicate in prayer and receive all he has to nourish us with.
We may be the very Christians who are to blow the trumpet of warning in the midst of this devastating period of history. How can we “blow” if our breath is gone? God has provided food for us to feed on day by day. The Holy Spirit will prepare it for us to digest. But it will not help us until we eat.
