Dry Bones Live - Day 241 Month 8-28 Week 35-3
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
1 Kings 15:1-16:5, Proverbs 24:23-34, Ezekiel 36:22-37:14, 2 Corinthians 4
Dry Bones Live
““I will put my spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD””
Ezekiel is brought out by the spirit to a valley full of dry bones. He is instructed to prophesy over the bones. As he prophesies, Sinews appear back on them, flesh grows back, and skin covers them. God then tells Ezekiel to prophesy, “Thus says the LORD GOD, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.””
He prophesies as he is instructed and they come to life and stand on their feet.
When the vision is explained, Ezekiel is told by God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:12). At the end of verse 14, God says “Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it.”
Now you can be thankful that I am not going to try to explain the prophetic meaning of the whole passage. I simply do not have the insight to do that and I am certain that there are multiple meanings that can be derived from such an interesting passage.
I mentioned just recently in this blog that I had strayed from my faith. I never totally walked away but there were many questions. Twenty six years ago, when Sylvia and I first met, I was on fire for Jesus. I had gone through a tough time in my life and God had brought me through it. I had met Sylvia and we had gotten married. I had started reading through the Bible every year and was learning from it but it did not take long until the excitement and renewal had faded.
I had also mentioned that I had been doing a reconstruction of my faith. I grew up in a strict evangelical home. The church we all attended was also evangelical. I would say we were “fundamentalists.” In this day and age “Evangelical Fundamentalist” is something I have gone away from and simply refer to myself as a Jesus follower.
If you are going to reconstruct something, you first need to examine what is already there. That's what I did with my faith. I began questioning some of the things I had been taught and asking whether they were truly rooted in Scripture or whether they reflected the traditions and biases of the churches and denominations I had been part of.
I had always been troubled by a number of stands that would be held by the “Evangelical fundamentalist.” As I began to examine my faith, I realized that some of the things I had been taught were shaped as much by the culture and traditions of particular churches as they were by Scripture itself. There were beliefs about wealth and poverty, the role of women, and other issues that I could no longer simply accept without asking whether they really reflected the life and teaching of Jesus.
My faith is back. It’s much different though. It’s like God has taken my dry bones of faith, put sinews on them, put flesh on those bones and sinews and brought skin around it. He breathed life back into it.
Although the vision originally speaks about God's restoration of Israel, the image of dry bones coming to life also makes me think about my own experience of faith. That’s what’s cool about God. He does not discriminate. He loves each and every one of us and He is constantly pulling at our hearts. We just need to be open to it.
Have a great day!
Steve
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