Can These Bones Live?

by Rodney Burton

A valley that is filled with dry bones is a valley that represents what used to be but is no longer. The valley that Ezekiel looked upon was a boneyard of memories and no longer a playground of possibilities. God, however, asked the prophet to imagine the impossible. Ezekiel was asked to envision these bones coming to life once again. The bones that Ezekiel looked upon were very many and they were very dry. In the natural it was an unfinishable human jigsaw puzzle; a collection of broken dreams and divided purpose. Nonetheless, Ezekiel was faced with the alarming question from God, Can these bones live? It would have been much easier had God asked did these bones live, but His question was not a look back but a look forward. Can is a question of future possibilities and not a reflection of what has been. Can these bones live? The amazing picture God painted for His prophet comes to life in a powerful way in the thirty-seventh chapter of the book of Ezekiel. Nestled within his many calls to repentance and the call to the restoration of the covenant we find this incredible picture of what can happen. Can these bones live? Absolutely they can, but it does not happen instantly or automatically. The transformation from a very dry collection of bones to an exceedingly great army involved many steps along the way, and each step enlightens us with an understanding of how God can progress from humanly impossible to spiritually powerful.

106 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2017

About the author

Rodney Burton was born in Indiana as the youngest of eight children. He earned an Associates Degree in Practical Ministry from Brownsville Revival School of Ministry (1997-1999). During his time at Brownsville, he married Kim, and the two of them have been involved in ministry since graduation. They have served as staff pastors in St. Peters, Missouri, as lead pastors in Franklin, Kentucky, and they currently serve as lead pastors in Carthage, Illinois. Rodney's heart is to see the church come alive with the power, presence and fullness of God and his writing is geared that direction. His first work, "31 Keys to Possessing Your Promise" is a devotional designed to journey the reader through keys he needs to apply to his life to inherit God's promise in his life.

Reviews

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A devotional exploration of Ezekiel 37.

Burton reads Ezekiel's vision as a metaphor for recovering from seasons of dryness and the role of the prophetic in speaking life. On the whole, not bad, even helpful, but he is not very attentive to the actual context of this passage, the post exilic community of babylon. Not that he doesn't touch on the community in a later chapter, but his emphasis is on personal resurrection not communal restoration. In the passage, it is the reverse.