epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Ezekiel 37

The Lord had an important message not only for the exiles of Judah in Babylon, but for the New Testament church; a message that started with a valley of dry bones. When we consider bones that are said to be very dry, the point is that they are old and dead. The Spirit of the Lord leads Ezekiel around this valley of dry bones and asks the prophet a crucial question: “Can these bones live?” If there is no way for dead bones to live, then God cannot bring life from death, and there is no resurrection from the dead, at least not from the substance of our old, old, mortal bodies. Surely God knows the answer to this question. It is important that we embrace the Lord’s answer.

The Lord gives an answer by using Ezekiel in the process of bringing the bones to life. God tells him to prophesy over the bones. Somehow through the preaching of the authorized representative of the Word of the Lord, God will do an amazing thing. God will put sinews on the bones, and He will cover the bones with skin, and God will put the breath of life back into the bones and there will be life. This Ezekiel does, and everything happened as God had said it would. There was only one thing lacking. There was no breath in them.

In the Biblical languages, the word for wind and breath is the same word as “spirit.” The breath missing in these new bodies is probably best understood as the spirit of the departed man. The solution is interesting. God instructs Ezekiel to prophesy to the spirit, calling the spirit to enter into the body again. When we die, there is a divide between our spirit and our body. Our body rests in the grave, eventually becoming dry bones. Our spirit could never be buried with our dead body. Our spirit goes to be with the Lord, waiting for the coming day of the resurrection of the body. Here God instructs His prophet to speak to that spirit calling the spirit back now to a new resurrection body. This is an exciting moment of resurrection life. We have a taste of that moment when we believe in Christ. Our spirit, which was dead in sin, is made alive by God. That spirit is now housed in a mortal body which will die one day, but the final abode of our eternal spirit is a resurrection body brought forward from our old dry mortal remains.

God speaks here to His covenant community Israel, and assures them of a coming resurrection of the dead. The Lord will not let the dry bones of His elect remain forever in the grave. What was obviously mortal will be made alive in a new way. We will have immortality! Our spirit will be closely connected with the Spirit of the Lord, who lives now within the lives of the Lord’s children. God will bring us into the land, not the land of the old Jerusalem, but the new Jerusalem that the Lord has promised to Jews and gentiles who are part of His kingdom. This is how God will display His power. He will do this.

In that day, the distinction between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Israel and Judah will be gone. There will be one covenant people. At the time of the exile, it was enough of an amazing thought to consider that there would again be one Israel. Not since the days of David and Solomon had such a thing happened. But God would do more than that. Not only would the Lord gather the descendants of Jacob from the places where they had been scattered among the nations. God would even gather other people from the nations, and they will be included in that great day. They will all be God’s people and He will be their God.

We know that this must be the case because of the context of this vision. The resurrection of the dead will happen when Christ returns. The words at the end of this chapter about “David my servant” refer to a King, a Shepherd, and a Prince over God’s people forever. This descendant of David can only be Jesus Christ. Therefore, the vision here cannot have a complete fulfillment in an Old Testament setting. Christ the King has come. His reign was announced in the words above His cross. His life was announced through an empty tomb. He was the first one to have His Spirit enter back into His body after His death. He will not be the last one. There will be generations of God’s covenant people who will be alive forever because of what Jesus Christ has done.

In that day, we will not be sinning against the Shepherd of our souls. We will dwell with Him in the new land, and we will obey the Lord’s statutes. Our peace with God will be secure, and nothing will ever take it away. God will bring His people home, and we will be wonderfully alive. His sanctuary will be in our midst forever. We will be with God, and He will be with us.

None of this would have been remotely possible without the work of this one Son of David. He has justified us with His blood. He will sanctify us with His Spirit. He will surely glorify us in the day when dry bones are brought back to life, and when the spirits of just men made perfect are reunited with promised resurrection bodies. “Can these dry bones live?” Yes they can and they will. By the power and grace of God and through the voice of the Son of God, dry bones will indeed live.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home