Scripture Reflection Paper: Ezekiel in the Valley of the Dry Bones
“The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me: “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the lord God: Come from four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the lord God: I am going to open you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from the graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you should know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”

Ezekiel’s time was a time of upheaval in the region. The northern kingdom of Israel had crumbled under the might of its attackers and King Josiah of Judah had died in a battle against the Egyptian forces. The power in the hands of his two sons began to weaken and Jerusalem was subdued, forcing one of his sons, Jehoahaz, and about 10.000 Jews to go into exile to Babylon; beneath them Ezekiel and his family. In a second attack against Jerusalem, the walls were breached, the city was plundered and the temple was burnt. The reign of the house of David had come to an end and the Jews were in a desperate situation: they were an exiled people without a state. So when God takes Ezekiel to the Valley of the Dry Bones, he is trying to comfort him by giving him hope on one hand, but also to demonstrate his absolute power over things and to remind him of the difference between a mortal and his Creator. Ezekiel was surely heartbroken, as his cherished Jerusalem had been destroyed and in addition to this, he had to bear the loss of his beloved wife.  One of these events would have been enough to cause a lot of grief and sorrow, but Ezekiel had to face both events in a time when he and his people were homeless and the situation did not seem to improve in their favor.
When God takes him to the valley, he addresses him not by his name, or by his title as a prophet or servant of God. Instead he addresses him as what he is in distinction to God: He is a mortal; and the message that God has to inform him about is about just that: life and death. First he introduces him to the dry bones, which are a metaphor of the hopelessness of his people right now. Then he proves to him that by His power, He can effortless put the bones together into something that resembles human bodies. Just as today’s science is able to reconstruct cells, the bones become systematically reassembled and following a certain order start covering by flesh, tendons, blood vessels and skin. The message is threefold here. For one, He demonstrates to Ezekiel that it is within his Absolute Power to restore any of His creation, whenever he wishes to do so. Secondly, by doing so, he begins to plant hope into Ezekiels heart, that He will also restore the force and power into the bodies and minds of the defeated and exiled Jews and bring them back to a life as they used to know. Thirdly, He reminds him, that he will bring back to live the dead bones one day, and this will be the Day of Judgement for everyone, including friend and foe. So, He is not just sending Ezekiel back with new hope of a better future, he also implants in him the consciousness of the day when all his deeds (and the deeds of every single person) will be weighted for or against him (them).
God also does not stop at just restoring dry bones back to bodies. The story makes it equally clear that it is not enough to just reproduce the body by putting together bones, sinews and skin, as a skilled scientist in a lab. Live does not appear without the breath of the Almighty that animates His creation: The breath symbolizing the spiritual connection between the creation and The Creator. With this breath the divine nature of a human is infused into his soul and he acknowledges His God and recognizes Him.
The most relevant message for our lives is that, as mortals we are standing over a grave, wondering just like Ezekiel did what to say to dry bones and why even try to talk to them. It seems absurd, and Ezekiel, as a mortal, might have felt this way. We know that when the grave closes, there is no more hope, that we might see this person again. However, here we learn that God is not subject to these limits. He is telling Ezekiel, no matter where you are buried - and for Ezekiel this means he is far from his home – and how much your bones could be scattered, God is able to awake you and anyone else when the time has come. He is teaching us, that death is only a stage or transition and not a finality. This gives hope not only when it comes to the prospect of the afterlife, but also when it comes to hopeless situations in our daily lives. When things seem like they cannot be improved or changed any more, we tend to give up and retire and we forget, that we or any other human being does not have the last word on the issue. “Sleep over it!” seems like a sound advice, when it comes to these difficult situations, because time always shows, that there is another act to a problem or difficulty. There is hope, because there is a power that can change things from one direction into a new one in a speed that for us is oftentimes not even imaginable.
In the Quran, we find the story of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who, in order to gain assurance asks God to show him how He gives life:  (And (remember) when Ibrahim said, “My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead.” He (Allah) said: “Do you not believe” He (Ibrahim) said: “Yes (I believe)…) [2:260]
God accepts the affirmation of his faith and proceeds to show him with four birds how He resurrects what is dead. So we are left to ask, why Ibrahim -even though he believed- had to see with his own eyes. And this is also giving us the answer why in Ezekiel’s story God takes him to the place of action and does not just repeat to him, what he surely already knows: that God is the Creator of the universe, all creatures and mankind. It is said that, the above ayah (verse) refers to the doubts that attack the heart and the thoughts that Shaytan (Satan) inspires, but it also refers to the human nature: Just as the Prophet Muhammad told us: “We are more liable to seek certainty.”
So for the certainty of Ezekiel and his people, he was shown and demonstrated that God is The Almighty and Lord over life and death and anything in between. So God sent him back – just as he sent back Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) - to proclaim this message of hope to us after having seen with their own eyes.