Life from Drought

By Jerry D. Ousley

            “I’m so dry I could spit in Lake Michigan and make dust fly!”  Have you ever been that dry?  Truthfully, none of us have ever been that dry.  But it sure feels like it sometimes.

            Ezekiel was a young priest of Israel who lived during the days just before Judah was overtaken and exiled into captivity in the Kingdom of Babylon.  He was given several mysterious but wonderful visions which he wrote in the Bible Book bearing his name.  One of those visions which is a very popular one comes from chapter 37 regarding the dry bones.  Elevation Worship made the story very popular with their worship song, “Rattle.” 

            The prophet saw this vision after he had been captive for several years in Babylon.  God carried him to a valley that was full of dry bones. Where all the bones came from, we don’t know.  In most cases, in times of ancient war, after the dead had been stripped of valuables, they were either mass buried or mass burned.  I suppose it is possible that in this situation the dead had been left for the birds of prey to clean up.  But again, let’s remember that this was a vision, not necessarily a real-life situation.

            The point is that the valley God showed Ezekiel was very dry and the bones found there were also dry, indicating that they had been dead a very long time.  In full context, the message was that God was going to completely restore Israel in their rightful land and reestablish their cities.  As the vision progressed, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that they would come together, have sinew, muscle and skin, and in a second prophecy the breath of life would return and they would be raised up a mighty army.  God used this vision to let Ezekiel know that Israel would be restored.

            But just as Paul said that all the happenings, stories and situations of the Old Testament occurred as examples to us of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 10:11), so this very vision can also serve as an example for us.  Yes, the vision was fulfilled for Israel, but the example to us is that we are often living in a valley of drought – Drought so severe that it is like we are one of those dried-up-boned individuals laying in the valley, left for dead, for the vultures to feast upon.

            Have you ever felt like that?  I’d wager you have.  Maybe you are going through a relationship situation in which you feel forsaken, or taken advantage of, or just left in the outfield with no contact, no help, and no attention. Or perhaps you’ve lost a loved one on which you greatly depended.  You thought you’d never be able to live without that person yet here you are, the tragedy has struck and you feel you’ve been left alone, dried out, with God a billion miles away.

            You may have even felt so angry at God, blaming Him for the situation you are in, that you have just run from His presence.  “If He really cared He wouldn’t have let this happen to me?”  It seems there’s no one you can turn to, no one who really cares, you’re just alone, by yourself and you don’t know how long you can cope.  Maybe it’s time to just end it all, do away with yourself and give up.  Is that how you feel?  Are you in the drought of life so deep that it seems there’s no way back?  In the depths of your being, you seem to hear others say, “He (or she) is too far gone.  There’s no coming back, no way home.  They are God-forsaken with no hope and no excuse.”

            But that isn’t really true.  It seems that way.  Your vision may be limited because of the panic of the very situation.  But remember the story of Hagar?  In Genesis 21 we read how that, because her son, Ishmael, had mocked Isaac on the day of his weaning celebration, she and her son had been cast out.  Abraham gave her provisions and a bottle of water, but on their journey, I assume back to Egypt (for she was an Egyptian), the water gave out.  They were desperately thirsty and it seemed they were doomed to die.  She lay her son a distance away so she wouldn’t have to watch him die and then prayed to God.  She was desperate.  The Bible tells us that God heard the cries of the boy, and it was then that her eyes were opened to what her desperate situation had hidden from her.  There, just a short distance away, was a spring of water.  They were saved.

            I submit to you that just a short distance away is a spring that is the answer to your desperate situation.  You can’t see it because of the blindness of your desperation.  But God is calling.  Dry bones – come together!  Sinews, muscle – be formed on that body.  Skin come upon them.  Then He speaks and breathes the breath of life – Life coming back into your deadness, healing coming back to your brokenness, hope to your helplessness.  It’s there, just over there.  Listen to God, see with His eye, yes there it is.  I hear the gurgling of the water as it rises from the spring.  I can almost taste the refreshing of the moisture of it on my parched tongue.  And then I am submerged in His washing, His refreshing. 

            I don’t know your particular situation.  But I know that there is someone there who is going through a time of spiritual or emotional drought.  You feel like all hope is gone; you are so dry a single touch could turn you to powder.  But if you will cry out to God, listen to the hope in His word, allow Him to open your eyes and see that the answer to your hopelessness is just over there, behind that bush, gurgling in the weeds.

            You can have life in the middle of your drought. Jesus is the water of life (John 4:14).  Drink freely of Him, and bring life out of your drought.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.