Bones

My passage of the semester (part of it):

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. ² 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. ³ He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

 ⁴ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ 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.' "

 ⁷ 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. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

 ⁹ 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.' " ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Ezekiel 37:1-10



Can These Bones Live?



Romans 4:17 says that Abraham believed in "the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." God sees us present-future, not present-past. He called Abraham the "Father of all nations" before his son Isaac was born. He called Sarah "princess" before she was part of this royal family that would be created through Isaac. Abraham knew that he was "as good as dead-- since he was about a hundred years old-- and Sarah's womb was also dead (v.19)." Sarah was just a bag of bones, if you will. And yet God insisted that she would have a child. Abraham was an old childless man, and yet God continued to call him a father.

Really, God's question to Ezekiel was a silly one. But it's the questions in the Bible that I think are the most intriguing parts of Scripture, because they are questions to all of us. They are challenges. We all have bones in our life, and God asks each of us the same question concerning these dry valleys.

"Sarah, can these bones live?" God asks me, stretching His hand out over the booming metropolis of LA.

I know enough now to realize that God wouldn't ask if He didn't already see flesh and tendons on every one. The problem is my own eyes. What do I do with God's vision of life for my valley of bones? Well, He didn't tell Ezekiel to pray for life. He didn't tell him to hope for life. He told him to prophesy; to proclaim life, to speak it forth, to insist it.

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'" (Romans 4:18).

Abraham conformed to God's vision of himself and lived as though he were the father of many nations, knowing that God could do what He had promised. My goal is to live this semester as if I truly am beloved of the Lord, to act is if this city is filled with living, breathing, vibrant souls instead of bones. I refuse to walk through this place in fear and disdain, condemning the bones to their grim fate. Instead, I pray for the strength to proclaim life over the lifeless parts of this city until it is true, even if I never get to see it.

"Can these bones live?"

Why yes, I believe they can.