#DailyDevotion Then You Will Know The LORD
Ezekiel 37 The LORD laid His hand on me and by His Spirit took me out and put me down in the middle of a valley that was full of bones. 2He led me past them all around. There were a great number lying on the floor of the valley, and they were very dry. 3“Son of man,” He asked me, “can these bones become alive?” “Lord GOD,” I answered, “You know.” 4“Prophesy about these bones,” He told me, “and say to them: ‘Dry bones, listen to what the LORD says. 5The Lord GOD says this to these bones: I will make breath enter into you, and you will live. 6I will put sinews on you, have flesh come on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you so you will live and know I am the LORD.”
On the one hand this is a powerful metaphor for the people of Judah who had been killed, slayed by the Babylonians and carried off into exile in Babylon. They had been utterly decimated by this enemy because they had broken covenant with the LORD. They were about as good and worth as much as these old dry bones. They were so old and dry not even the animals or microbes found them good for anything. Indeed, when the LORD found us we were just and dead and worthless in our trespasses and sins.
But the LORD did want the Jews to be without hope. He does not want us to live without hope. He asks Ezekiel if these bones can live. “Lord GOD,” he answered, “You know.” Yes, such knowledge belongs to the LORD and he wants them, he wants us to know he is the LORD. How will he bring about such knowledge? In this metaphor he has Ezekiel prophesy, to preach to the bones to command sinews and flesh to come upon them. He is ordered to prophesy to them again that the Spirit would come into them and it does and they are animated, a great and mighty force stands before Ezekiel and the LORD.
The LORD was planning on returning the Jews back to Judea and make them a people again, to live in their own land. Certainly that is one intent the LORD was revealing to Judah. When they again returned to the their own land as a people then they would know the LORD God again. Well somewhat. There would be a few hiccups up to the time of Jesus but they would not worshiping other gods or idols anymore. There would be a more earnestness in following the Law of Moses.
Yet the metaphor has a fulfillment in Jesus and the Israel he creates of which you are a part. Jesus raises the widow’s son of Nain. Jesus raises Lazareth from the dead. Jesus is raised from the dead himself having been hung upon the tree to die. But that is not enough. On Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent to the Israel, the Church and animated our hearts and spirits. A vast army animated by the Holy Spirit, God’s Israel now stands upon the earth. We know the LORD is God because we are that people whom he has raised spiritually from the dead. We know him because we know Jesus is LORD and what he has done for us. And then there is one more thing. It is fulfilled bodily, literally (not that the spiritual resurrected isn’t literal either) on the Last Day. Jesus promises to raised all the dead bodily and give eternal life to all who trusted in him in this age.
O LORD God, who puts sinew, flesh and gives the Holy Spirit to a people who are dead in trespasses in sins, grant us hope for the world to come in Christ Jesus so we live in that hope in this present age and know you know and more fully in the age to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.