Thursday, July 23, 2009

Lessons from Dry Bones

"And He said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord''...So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone" (Ezekiel 37:4,7)

I cannot imagine preaching to a valley of dried-out, sun-bleached human bones, beloved, and I stand in awe of Ezekiel for the way in which he was able to do so! I have stood in pulpits where it was the last place I wanted to be and preached to people for whom I was likely the last person they wanted to hear, but that is still a far cry from Ezekiel's valley of dry bones!

What really grabs my attention about Ezekiel is that, regardless of what he may have thought of what God had commanded him, he did it faithfully and apparently with great passion. Imagine being told: "Preach to these bones!" From a preacher's perspective, nothing seems more a waste of time and energy than preaching to those who can neither hear nor see. Yet Ezekiel proclaimed to those bones the unmistakable truths of God's word as if they were all pulled together and hanging upon every word!

As Ezekiel obediently carried out God's command to him, a wonderful thing began to happen. Bone began to move toward bone until they were connected as they had once been however long before. Ligaments and tendons joined bone to bone and bone to muscle, blood vessels appearing and tissues and skin covering each restored individual. As Ezekiel continued to preach God's word, there suddenly arose before him "an exceedingly great army" (v.10).

Should it surprise us, beloved, that God commanded Ezekiel to proclaim truth faithfully to even those dried up old bones? Do you recall the apostle Paul's exhortation to a young preacher named Timothy?

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (2 Timothy 4:2)

We may all at one time or another encounter our own "valley of dry bones," a situation in which we feel that we are not doing God any good, that no one cares and no one is listening. Those are the times that most try our endurance, those times when we feel that our energies are being wasted. Yet that is not God's concern, just as it was not when He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy. His concern is rather that we do what we have been put there to do and just leave the outcome to Him.

What an encouragement I find Ezekiel to be in these verses, beloved! He is an encouragement to me personally to remain faithful where God has me and not to worry about who is listening or who is not, about who is being changed or who is not. And that is precisely why and how you and I need to keep right on proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to a world that seems to care less. Let God connect the bones, beloved! Let's you and I just determine that like Ezekiel we are going to keep on preaching!

Ron