40. Ensign: Can These Bones Live?

 

 

 

 

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 23 May 2014

"And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest." The name of the prophet Ezekiel and the book of the Old Testament bearing his name don't roll off the tongue the way Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel do. But on a closer read, Ezekiel comes across as the prophet who was one of the best performers (in teaching terminology, he'd be an effective visual aid). In the time just after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, the people of Judah needed someone to underscore what God had been trying to tell them; turn from your evil ways and serve the LORD. God is still looking for someone to stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30) today, to be a watchman for His people: someone who watches them, watches out for them, and speaks to them on their level about God and what is right and pleasing to Him. When you and I can and do, it's never boring.

The opening verse for today's Ensign is Ezekiel 37:3. Let me set up the scene; Ezekiel was "carried . . . out in the spirit of the LORD" and set in a valley full of the bones of the dead there for a long time ("they were very dry"). Then God asks, "Can these bones live?" Conditioned by a near-lifetime of responding based on what we perceive and probably chuckling to ourselves on the logical absurdity of dead men's bones rising to life again, you or I would likely say "No." But not Ezekiel; however, he couldn't say "yes" because it was outside of his experience to see dead men walk. He gave the only answer he could and we can, "O Lord GOD, thou knowest." (4) It is in God's power to kill and to make alive (2 Kings 5:7), and He doesn't need witnesses to His power any more than Jesus needed witnesses when He called for Lazarus to come forth from his tomb after four days dead (John 11:43). But He allowed Ezekiel to witness what He was going to do. Witness . . . and participate.

"Again he said unto me, Prophesy [preach] unto these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:" And you think your pastor has a hard time motivating people from the pulpit on Sundays! Ezekiel had to be available, and he had to do what God said. As he preached to the bones, Ezekiel saw them rise; "And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them." Without breath, they and we could not live. (8) Then God bid Ezekiel prophesy again, and speak to the "four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

And live they did.

Not for nothing is the Hebrew word for breath translated as spirit (e.g. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Genesis 1:2). Without the spirit of life in us, we can have all the attributes to function, but we don't function. Without the Spirit of God in us, the Holy Spirit in us, we are going through the motions; that is, we want to pursue the more abundant life that Jesus promises (John 10:10), but we don't know how. And to be part of this "exceeding great army" that God raised from the dead in the valley, we have to acknowledge each other and encourage each other's contributions to the body of Christ, even when they're not obvious.

Take out infantry, artillery, cavalry, quartermaster corps, commander, or any part out of an army or group, and it won't work as effectively as all the parts do together. Take any one in our church -- yes, the back-biting, back-stabbing, sinful, purpose-driven church -- out, young or old, strong or weak, and the advance of God's kingdom "on earth, as it is in heaven" (from Matthew 6:10, part of the Lord's Prayer) gets blunted by just that much. Many of us have more than one spiritual gift, but no one of us has them all. We are created by God, we are gifted by God, and we move by His direction toward the goal in Christ Jesus, even when it goes against logic, tradition, and experience. Our bones can live (and live again)!

Sincerely yours,

David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that You provie for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.