Bones in the valley

Friday, August 23, 2024

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Bones in the valley

The hand of the Lord came upon me.

And Ezekiel did not resist. He had left his priesthood in the temple far behind when he was deported to Babylon, and for decades in exile he excoriated the folks in both Judah and Israel. But it was not his blue words that bruised them – it was their disobedience, their resentment of God for permitting their exile, and their unwillingness to follow God into the place of grace, mercy, and peace where He so longed to lead them.

Now there was nothing left of this proud country but bones, all dead – dried up bones wasting, clicking, walking further and further away into the valley.

No peace in this valley, and nothing new or real or right in the darkening night.

 

He set me down in the center of the plain and made me walk among the bones in every direction so I could see how many there were. Oh, how dry they were!

The Lord God gave Ezekiel the words, and Ezekiel opened his mouth to say them.

See I will bring spirit into you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin and put spirit in you.

I wish we could have been there. I wish the miracle Ezekiel witnessed would happen on our mountains and in our valleys.

And my third wish?

I heard a rattling as the bones came together, I saw the flesh come upon them and the skin cover, but there was still no spirit.

God rebuilds one layer at a time and always goes deeper.

From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. And the spirit did come, and the spirit came into them. They stood upright, alive, a vast army.

“These bones are the whole house of Israel,” the Lord said to Ezekiel, his Son of Man. And then God removed the hopelessness of his house and promised again his faithfulness.

O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle upon your land. I have promised. And I will do it.

I have been thinking about that third wish.

Hungry and thirsty, their life was wasting away within them. But He led them by a direct way to reach an inhabited city.

If I’m a dry bone in the wilderness just now come back to life, I wonder about reaching an inhabited city. Lot sought the city, and the city won. His family was nearly destroyed by the evil Sodomites. On the other hand, wandering in the desert is killing us all.

But the dry bones weren’t caused by the desert or even the exile; the dry bones died from the inside out, from their disobedience and ignorance of the way God made us all.

God satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good things.

Jesus refused to allow his people to fall back into the superficial obedience to 613 Pharisaical laws mostly focused on the outside of the cup. He insisted they drink the cup he drank – obedience from the inside out.

The third wish?

Jesus gives us our third wish with his tough, powerful command to …

Love the Lord your God with all your soul and all your mind and all your heart, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

And how does Paul describe what happens next, as we claim our third wish, this wish of Jesus for all of us?

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

And living in such fruit, we require no more wishes.

 (Ezekiel 37, Psalm 107, Psalm 25, Matthew 22)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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