Old Testament · Exile
Ezekiel
“He asked me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' I said, 'Sovereign Lord, you alone know.'”Ezekiel 37:3
Biography
Ezekiel was a priest-prophet who ministered to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. He received extraordinary visions — the living creatures and the wheels of fire, God's glory departing from the temple, the valley of dry bones, and an elaborate future temple. He also enacted dramatic prophetic signs to communicate God's messages. His central themes were the holiness of God, the seriousness of Israel's idolatry, and the certain hope of God's future restoration.
Spiritual Lesson
Ezekiel ministers in one of history's darkest moments — captivity and desolation. Yet his prophecies burn with the certainty that God's purposes will not be thwarted. His valley of dry bones asks the question God always asks our impossible situations: 'Can these bones live?' Our impossibilities are the canvas for God's creative power, and his answer is always to breathe life into what was dead.