Bringing Dead Bones Back to Life: Reviving a Spiritually Dead Culture

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Ezekiel 37:4-5

Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath^[b] to enter you, and you shall live. 

(ESV)

While driving around this past Black Friday, I noticed the parking lots at most of the stores around Phoenix were full.  It would appear from this bit of evidence that the economy is alive and active.  The economic revival promised by President Trump during the Presidential Election appears to be becoming a reality.  However, spiritually the signs point to a dying culture in danger of becoming a spiritually dead culture.  Fortunately, resurrection and healing of even terminal illnesses were vital parts of the ministry of Jesus on earth and through the church, remains so. 

The passage of Ezekiel 37:4-5 speaks of the revival of the Nation of Israel after exile due to their sins but also has a spiritual application concerning the revival of culture back to its biblical roots.  Let us therefore dissect the passage to find its application for the church in bringing revival to our world.  Bringing the dead bones of culture back to life requires,

1)       Seeing the spiritual death of culture (Ezekiel 37:1) – The first thing the Lord does for Ezekiel is show him the dead bones in the middle of the valley.  Without first seeing, through the inspiration of the Lord, that there is a problem, we will have not have the urgency to pray or work to address the problem.  One of the benefits of 24-hour news and social media is news travels fast and is available to all.  As Christians we see the ungodliness of the culture like abortion, gay marriage, prevalent immorality openly on display in media, and the political corruption of government.  However, while acknowledging there is a problem can lead to good sounding campaign promises, they are empty without finding a way to fix the problem. 

2)      Acknowledging that only God can resurrect spiritual death (Ezekiel 37:2-3) – When we attempt to address the issues bringing spiritual death to our culture, we are in essence seeking to fix the problem through the apparatus that caused the problem.  Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that the forces behind the evil in the world are not of this world and something needing God’s intervention.  While Christians find much of what is occurring in the world abhorrent and want to jump in and fix it, to do so without the intervention of God will result in failure.  This is why even after the spiritual soldier puts on the armor of God, he or she must pray (Ephesians 6:13-18).

3)      Declare life giving truth (Ezekiel 37:4) – When I hear the word truth I think of the line in an Officer and a Gentleman that people can’t handle the truth.  While all truth is present in Scripture, we only understand it as the Holy Spirit provides inspiration.  Therefore, there is some truth to the statement that we cannot handle the truth.  When in the valley of a dying culture, the church has an obligation to speak biblical truth to the problem.  While some will reject the truth because the Holy Sprit has not convicted them, or they are rejecting that conviction, some will receive it.  Therefore, the Church must engage and not fear speaking truth to a dying culture. 

However, the most important component that must occur during each of these steps is prayer for through prayer we can persevere through the difficult times that will occur during spiritual warfare for the souls of lost humanity.  The challenge for each of us is will we remain comfortable in our own salvation and ignore those spiritually dying in our spiritually dying culture or rise to the challenge like Ezekiel and contribute to bringing spiritual life to a spiritually dying culture.