Friday, March 10, 2006

From death to life

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. 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. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

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

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, `Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 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.' "

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. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

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.' " So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army.

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.' 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. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 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.' " (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

The Old Testament is filled with many dramatic images, but Ezekiel’s vision of a valley of bones is one of the most compelling. Let me set the stage for you. After King Solomon died, the ten northern tribes of Israel split off from the southern two tribes and formed their own nation. For hundreds of years, the two kingdoms existed side by side—the kingdom of Israel to the north and the kingdom of Judah to the south. Eventually, the northern kingdom of Israel turned away from God and was punished with destruction by the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah continued on. Judah was the part of the nation that still contained Jerusalem, God’s Temple and the priests of God. But eventually Judah, too, turned away from God. And so God sent the Babylonians to punish Judah, by destroying Jerusalem and taking all of the nation’s leadership into exile throughout the Babylonian empire. There they were kept for 70 long years, as God waited for His chosen people to humbly turn to Him once more for help.

The loss of their country and the Temple of God broke the pride of the Jews. As they unwillingly lived for year after year in a foreign country, they began to turn to God once more in prayer. But as the years went by without release, despair crushed the hearts of the Jews. Many feared that they had alienated God forever, that He would never forgive them and accept them back as His special people. The Jews became dead inside, losing all hope.

It is to these people that God sent Ezekiel as His prophet. Ezekiel came to the Jews to help them understand how they had offended God. Ezekiel was also sent to the Jews to tell them that God was willing to forgive them and restore them as His chosen people. That is what Ezekiel’s vision from God is all about.

Ezekiel was shown a valley of dry, dislocated bones. That they are noticeably dry indicates that the bones are long dead. Whose bones are these? The Lord tells Ezekiel that they are the whole house of Israel, all those people who had belonged to God. How did they meet their death? God said that they were killed. They were killed because of their sins, killed because they had abandoned God for a life of indulging sin. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and in this vision Ezekiel sees the terrible consequence of life lived apart from God. Without a loving, trusting relationship with God, there was no life in these bones. And because the Jews took pride in their nation instead of pride in their Lord, God had scattered them in exile throughout the world, just as their bones were scattered in Ezekiel’s vision. When there is no unity with God, there can be no true unity among men.

But the exile had served God’s purpose. The Jews had been brought to the point where they cried, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off." The fallen people of God had finally realized the folly of their sinful ways, and saw nothing in their future but despair. They had become humble, and were ready for the Lord’s mercy. The Lord asks Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel’s answer, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know", indicates that only God’s power can bring life to these dead bones. So God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the dead bones. What a strange scene this pictures. How can the words of a man have the slightest impact on a valley of the dead? But our almighty God created the universe with the words "Let there be…" (Genesis 1:3 ff). God’s words have the power to accomplish His will. So Ezekiel speaks God’s words, and a rattle echoes throughout the valley. But this is no death rattle; this is a sound of restoration, of life returned. The bones reassemble, and flesh covers them once more. Through Ezekiel’s vision, God promised the Jews that they would be reunited as a people, living in the land God had promised to Abraham a thousand years earlier. God’s people would be scattered and alone no more.

But this was only half of the promise. Even though the people were restored physically, Ezekiel noted that there was no life in the vast army of the people of God. All that stood before him were soulless zombies. Then God told Ezekiel, "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.' " So Ezekiel did as the Lord told him, and the Lord sent His breath of life, His Holy Spirit, among the people He had raised up from death. And with the Spirit of God, the life-giving breath of God within them, they lived. Through this part of Ezekiel’s vision, God promised that a time was coming when His Holy Spirit would live in His people, making it possible for them to know that it was God alone who restored hope to their lives.

And God made good on His promises. It was not much longer before the Persians conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return home and rebuild both Jerusalem and the Temple. But God’s people had to wait a little longer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into their hearts. The Holy Spirit was not given to God’s people until Jesus sent Him to the founders of His church on Pentecost, shortly after Jesus had ascended into heaven. But both promises in Ezekiel’s vision have come to pass.

But Ezekiel’s vision means more to us today than just a history lesson. Ezekiel’s vision shows us our modern world as well, and how our Lord continues to work among us. All humans enter life spiritually dead. King David wrote, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). With sin in control of our lives, we were dead in God’s eyes, just as the bones in the valley were dry and without flesh. With sin making us selfish, we were all disconnected from each other, as the dry bones in the valley were disconnected and scattered. It is our Lord’s fervent hope that the people who live their lives isolated and dead inside will eventually realize the hopelessness of their condition and cry, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off."

It is when we realize how pointless a life of sin is, and how helpless we are to bring about real change in our lives, that Jesus comes to us. Jesus is the Son of God; He lives forever, and has always been standing near. Jesus waits patiently for us to let go of our pride and admit that we need help to fix the mistakes with which we’ve filled our lives. When the burden of our selfish mistakes finally moves us to say, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off," Jesus offers us comfort through His word. He sends us His word through the mouths of those He has called to speak for Him, just as He sent the Jews His words through the mouth of Ezekiel. The comfort He sends us is this: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The holy Son of God took on the responsibilities of humanity for one purpose only—to benefit us. Jesus chose to be responsible to God where we failed to be responsible, and to endure the punishment of God for taking pride in ourselves instead of taking pride in our God. Because Jesus lived a life of perfect responsibility, and because Jesus has endured God’s anger at our misplaced pride, we can be forgiven for being irresponsible and prideful. When we set aside our pride and humbly ask Jesus for forgiveness and help, He assures us that God loves us and welcomes us. Jesus gives us unity with God, and unity with every other forgiven sinner. And Jesus gives us help, for "Our help is in the name of the LORD" (Psalm 124:8).

Through the mouths of God’s representatives, Jesus’ words gather the scattered bones of sin-deadened people together in unity—the unity of the one true Church. Through Jesus’ words proclaimed by that Christian Church throughout the world, the Holy Spirit comes and enters countless hearts, making those dead in sin to be alive in Christ—a vast army. You are part of that army. You have been made alive by the gift of Jesus’ righteousness, earned on the cross where your sins put the innocent Son of God to death. You have been united with your brothers and sisters in Christ through the common faith and love given you by the Holy Spirit. It is your bones that God’s word has brought together and made alive. You were dead, but by the free, loving gift of God, you are now alive. You are alive and a part of the Christian community, in order that you may do the good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do (cf. Ephesians 2:10).

Dead, an army is useless. Alive and united, an army can accomplish great things under a great leader. Christ is your leader. He has raised you and united you with believers all over the world. Go, and follow in His service, always giving thanks that He was willing to die that you might join in serving Him in love. Go and follow Him, knowing that He has promised to settle you in your own land—a land where there will be no pride, no selfishness—a land ruled by God, that we call heaven.

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