Day Sixty-Two -- A Valley of Dry Bones and a River from the Temple

Ezekiel 36:1 to Ezekiel 47:12

Ezekiel continues to intrigue us with images that begin in contrasting places but point us towards the same hope of new life and restoration in the LORD.  Like two bookends, one at the beginning of today's reading and one at the end, I can only imagine how these prophetic images might have been received by the exiles.  The first takes place in a valley that appears to be a place of despair. Commonly referred to as the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14), the skeletal remains of a defeated people are scattered about the landscape.  As the dry bones hear the word of the LORD they come together, first with a rattling sound, then to be covered with flesh and skin, and finally to be filled with the breath of God that brings a great army to its feet.  To anyone who has felt that the life has gone out of them, that all is lost and without hope, this prophecy is a powerful reminder that with God all things are possible.

Following a series of prophecies about the restoration of the Temple, the priesthood and the nation, Ezekiel provides the second bookend image that is anything but dry.  Water is bubbling up from an unlikely place - the Temple in Jerusalem.  It comes up from under the threshold in a mere trickle, but as it flows towards the east it gets deeper and deeper - first ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep, and finally a river so expansive that it is too big to swim across.  Life is teeming along its banks and within its waters, bringing life and healing from the Temple to the land and its people.  Could the exiles have hoped for anything more?