He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" (Ezekiel 37:3)
Today it might be, ‘Can Iraq recover?... or Rwanda?... or Bosnia?'
But this is harder still! Here it is the Lord God who is asking the question of Ezekiel: ‘Can the people of God, exiled 500 miles from their home and temple, be transformed - from what amounts to no more than a vast collection of dried-up skeletons - into a vibrant living army of Spirit-filled people?’ The Jewish cause, of the mid-sixth century BC, seemed dead.
Can these bones live again? Here is an apparently hopeless case. Spiritually dead means spiritually DEAD. We can do nothing to raise such. It is also an apparently useless task. God says to Ezekiel, "Preach to the dry bones!"
"Lord, it won’t do any good. In any case, we’re now living in a post-Temple era. Why try?” In any case, the thought of a raised army of dead people is also an apparently impossible dream. It will never happen!
But it does. The vision of the transformation - from rattling dry bones into a living vibrant army was prophetic of what would eventually happen in the Gospel of Christ; new birth and joy in the Holy Spirit! Don’t give up, Christian worker, in the face of even the most unpromising scenario!
Richard Bewes - Rector, All Souls Langham Place
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