Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14 says:

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

      I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

 11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”

 

If you’ve read the text before and decided to skip it as I regularly do when I am dominated by my American/lazy ways, reread it so that it is fresh on your mind.

I hope that no one takes me as trying to be preachy or simply listing Bible-study ideas or that I think I am something that no one else is. In fact, maybe the things that Christians talk about on a regular basis should be things that are Bible-study worthy… But PLEASE understand, as my close friends do, that I know I fail at an incredible amount of things. My life has only proven that without Christ, I am not only bound to fail but WILL fail. I know that I have many shortcomings and that Christ is still working on me and always will be! Also, to my two friends (about 50% of the readers of this blog) who were at the Bible study that I greatly miss when I said this, I am sorry. I am writing this primarily to remind myself of the commitment I spoke aloud to other believers. I need to be reminded why and what statements and ideas I have dedicated myself to.

With all of that said, at the beginning of this year I was prompted with a question. Marty – a great man/singer/preacher/small group leader/now church planter – asked those of us at his small group what changes were we really going to focus on making this coming year. What spiritual journeys are we focused on embarking this coming year? Little did I know that God had been building up knowledge inside of me to answer this question the entire past semester. I wrote a 10-page paper on Ezekiel 34-48 focusing on chapters 34, 37 and 47 (which my dad said he enjoyed reading!). I waited the entire conversation to add my $.02. I speak a lot during get-togethers but I am tentative when to speak because I generally dominate the conversation. Knowing this would probably be a lengthy rant – as this blog might be becoming already – I decided to not speak. Finally towards the end of the small group I was about to burst. Marty asked if there was anyone else who wanted to speak. The Spirit was saying… now! Now! NOW! Since no one answered Marty said, “If no one has anything to say,” before I interrupted him. Thus it began…

I have been thoroughly upset with the church lately – as is every member of the church. Know that I am trying to not focus on complaining but changing. So I started with telling everyone else this vision I have been having. Ezekiel’s vision is one like nothing else in the Bible. In it we see resurrection that leads to life and prosperity; resurrection that happens by the Spirit – as it did with our beloved King. In it we see dead, lifeless bones with no meat or purpose to them. They simply are. Interestingly enough, the Lord asks Ezekiel if these bones can live again which we just read Ezekiel’s answer to. Then the Lord tells the mortal to command the bones to hear the Word of the Lord! Live again! Be active, be human, LIVE! And the bones are resurrected. Then the Lord tells the mortal to command the Spirit to enter into these bones! Now what does this mean? Can we command the Spirit; do we have some sort of power that commands the nature of this world? I’ve been wrestling with this for a while. Expect another post… In the end these lifeless, dry bones are resurrected, the Spirit enters into them giving them breath and making them human once more.

So many times in the church I feel as though there is no life. There may be enthusiasm, but is there life? We (myself included) sing songs to a God Who we claim brings life to our bodies and quenches our every thirst. Yet I feel as though I am involved in a play in which dead bones are bouncing about and singing as though part of a collection of entertaining marionettes. We sing, we (don’t) dance, we shout, we claim that we have victory. Yet we go into the week expecting to be defeated, to end up depressed, to end up right back where we were last Sunday morning. The glory of Easter does not stop at the forgiveness of sins! More is to be said! Jesus overcame the grave; His Spirit resurrected Him, conquering sin, evil, and anything standing in His way of restoring us! Jesus’ resurrection is not to stop with Jesus. Our resurrection is not a far away date. Jesus is looking to make us human again! We are to be alive, to be restored, to be human again! We are not to be constantly dominated by anything Satan throws at us. We are to dominate through the name of Jesus who has resurrected our dry bones.

My focus to change for this year is to learn to command dead bones to come back to life, to reveal the worthless things that fill our lives, and to pray my guts out so that the Spirit will resurrect our lifeless bodies into something that He truly finds joy in! I am most likely going to fail and that is something that I’m wrestling with is ok… But I have to throw myself out there and step out in faith! Who knows, I might walk on water! And I might see Christ resurrect a few piles of lifeless bones.