My wife Susan and I recently went to see Overcomer, which is the newest movie out from the Kendrick Brothers who also produced War Room, Fireproo,fand Courageous. This is a movie about a young black girl who became the single member of a cross country track team for a Christian School.  Of course, she overcomes all odds to excel in her sport and discovers herself and a family member she thought was dead. In some ways, the plot is predictable but in the end you still shed a tear and want to applaud as she overcomes an immense amount of  brokenness.

Although the movie is based on a formula, I highly recommend it. The formula works time and again because it develops the theme of redemption.  A person loses his way, makes terrible mistakes, hurts others, burns bridges, finally receives a second chance to do it right…and does it. Something in us wants to stand and cheer.  If you think about it, a number of great movies through the years have developed that theme including the classic Ben-Hur, Les Miserables, the Rocky series, the redemption of Darth Vader in Star Wars, etc.  I believe these work and we cheer the formula decade after decade because we all know deep within, that we personally need our own redemption.

The Word of God says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Eccl.3:11). The idea of setting eternity in the hearts of men can mean many things, but more than anything, I think it confirms that God has deposited within each man the sense that something lies beyond this life and beyond the physical realm. Within each of us there is a sneaking suspicion that when I take my last breath, a door is opened to another realm.  I know that there are self-proclaimed atheists who argue that there is nothing beyond that moment of death, but I believe they had to convince themselves of that view…it did not come naturally.

With an inherent sense of eternity and the longing and even certainty of life after death, the next logical question is, “What does life after this life look like?” Historically, every culture has developed some answer to that in the form of religion and each one has imagined some kind of reward for righteous living and some form of punishment for the wicked…however that was defined by the culture.  It is fascinating that every people group through the ages has struggled with their own mortality and has been concerned with their eventual destination after death.  I believe that is confirmation that God has indeed placed eternity in the hearts of men.

I also believe that we have inherited a sense of defectiveness from our ancestors – Adam and Eve.  After they both sinned against God, they were overcome with a sense of fear and shame…a sense that they were no longer acceptable to God. That sense of defectiveness haunts us all at some level.  One response is to construct a system of good works, courageous exploits, self-sacrifice, or special knowledge that will earn us entry into the blessed realm of the next life.  Every form of this option has us trying to earn our salvation, but men are still haunted by the fear that they have never done enough.  Another option is to simply deny life after death and the threat of judgment through a disciplined mindset of atheism. If I can’t earn my way to God, I will simply deny  his existence. The third option is found only in Jesus and that option believes that God is good and that he loved us enough to personally pay the price for our defectiveness.  We cannot earn salvation but can only accept it through the sacrifice of Jesus.  In a works religion, man keeps trying to get to God. In Jesus, God has come to man.  In him and him alone is the redemption we all long for because we know we need it.  Maybe we can’t verbalize it, but we sense it – we feel it.

When movies or stories hit that nerve, it resonates with our deepest need.  We identify with the character who finds redemption and we experience the hope of redemption in that moment.  Of course, it is only a movie or a book and that hope fades unless we have the abiding hope of Jesus.  One reason the gospel is so powerful, is because it hits that nerve.  As followers of Jesus, we have the story that meets the need.  We should be eager to tell it and the truth of it will resonate in the hearts of men. Jesus is the redeemer and the hero of every story.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:28-30

This is one of those “so familiar” verses that we often read right through it, assuming that we fully understand it.  Those are the verses in which it is often best to slow down, read word by word, and ask the Spirit to give you an additional revelation.  So I wanted to do that myself tonight.

The first phrase is an emphatic invitation.  Many Greek concordances translate it with an exclamation point next to it.  It might be translated, “Come to me now!!!  The word “come” can also be translated as “follow.”

The ultimate goal of most of us…especially as we grow older is to find peace, rest, or renewal in our lives.  Over the months and years, the world nibbles away at our souls.  If we are not careful there will be an accumulation of stress, anxiety, regrets, losses, and a longing for something we have not yet found that robs us of peace and joy. Life and even ministry can become a burden.

Jesus recognizes that condition with the words weary and burdened.One suggests the tiredness and exhaustion that comes from a long march or days of hard labor with little to show for it. There is a sense that those who are weary are on the verge of quitting.  Remember, Paul tells us to not grow weary in doing good because eventually there will be a harvest (Gal.6:9).  He is encouraging believers at Galatia not to quit or give up because they have labored hard but have not yet seen any harvest. His call is to keep going because God has promised a harvest that will surely come if we keep believing. Sometimes staying faithful seems like labor.  You serve, you pray, you cry out and have yet to see a breakthrough. You begin to question the promises of God or your own faith because no fruit , no answered prayer, is yet discernable.  Those can be hard days.

The word burdenedcalls to mind a heavy load. Some translations call it “heavy laden.”  Caring for a special needs child or a spouse with a long-term disability can begin to feel like a heavy burden where the responsibility weighs you down.  Maybe a child torn by addictions or a marriage in which you feel like the only one trying can bear on your soul. On those days, the road seems too long before you get a break.

Jesus has a remedy for the labor and heavy burdens. He calls it rest.Rest can b translated as relief, recovery, renewal, or restoration. Remember David’s 23^rdPsalm where he says that the Lord restores his soul by making him lie down in green pastures and leading him beside still waters.   This is the same thought.  I think it is closely akin to peace.

Jesus declares that this rest is available, but he is the only provider.  Come to me!!! He declares and no one else. You come, you follow, and I will give it to you. The promise implies relationship. You can’t just drop by the corner pharmacy and get a box of tablets that make you feel better as you continue to live for yourself and follow you.  That is where the emptiness comes from in the first place.  It is only found in him.

He then describes the process of gaining rest.  It is not sitting down and ceasing to serve but it is yoking ourselves to him and learning how to live in the abundance and peace of the kingdom. Yokes tie two animals together, who then labor together.  The untrained animal would learn how to pull and plow by being yoked to the one who was already trained for the task. Simply doing what he saw and felt the other do trained him.  Being yoked with Jesus in a relationship and as a co-laborer in the kingdom teaches us how to live and how to trust in kingdom resources to get us through hard times. Trust is the forerunner of rest.

Jesus doesn’t train us with a whip and harsh words.  He encourages us and brings us along at the pace that fits us. He is gentle and humble and even though he is King he will not lord it over those who come to him. His yoke is easy and his burden is light because he shoulders most of the weight.  Once again, scripture reveals God as a God who wants to partner with his people, co-labor in the kingdom, and grow close by doing great things together.  Intimacy and training in how to live in the kingdom while still on planet earth is what restores our soul.

Too often when we have labored long and carried a weight, we want to run away from the call God has on our lives.  We want to ditch our responsibilities ands chase the promises of the world that offer peace, love, and significance at a minimal cost…but those things truly only come through Jesus. The key to rest is to press in, not to pull away.  In fact, weariness and burden bearing are hints that we have already drawn away and are trying to face life in our own strength. When you feel the weariness and the burden, remember the words of Jesus – “Come to me…I will give you rest!”

I prayed with a godly man last night who has struggled with a personal sin for years. He has a few weeks in which he feels that he finally has victory over the sin but then it rushes back in, along with the shame he feels for not living up to God’s standards. We talked about the dynamic of a wound producing a desire to medicate our feelings of failure, unworthiness and shame which leads to a sin that medicates for a moment which then leads to more shame which then leads to a greater desire to medicate and so on. The biblical balance is to receive conviction from the Spirit regarding our sins but not condemnation.

Bill Johnson has a good word on short-circuiting this cycle of sin in his book, Strengthen Yourself in the Lord. “Focusing on our problems more than God’s answers should be a dead giveaway that we’re really dealing with condemnation not the Holy Spirit’s conviction. Focus on God’s answers – not your problems. When the Holy Spirit shows us where we are falling short, the bigger reality is not the area where we are not yet walking in our destiny, but the destiny itself. So many of us read the verse that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom.3:23) and focus more on the fact that all have fallen short than the fact that we are destined for glory! The conviction of the Holy Spirit is actually a call to turn our focus away from our sin and our limitations. He is saying, ‘Your made for more than this. Lift your head and set your sights higher’” (p.136-137).

Focusing on our sin does the devil’s work of creating an even greater sense of shame and failure in us than existed before. That focus waters a seed that suggests that God is already disgusted with us so that we don’t turn to him for comfort but to “medications” in the world’s medicine chest – alcohol, drugs, power, pornography, sex-based relationships, etc.   The Holy Spirit wants us to acknowledge the sin, agree with God about it, and then lay it at the foot of the cross and move on with our eyes reset on the goal.

Agreeing with God about who we are in Christ and his father’s heart for us is a greater deterrent to sin than any shame or “beat yourself up” session. Keeping our eyes on our destiny is he key. Paul said, “Forgetting those things that are behind, I press forward…” That is good council. In the 11^th chapter of the book of Judges, the king of the Ammonites sent word to Jephthah that he was going to wage war against Israel if Israel did not return the land they had taken from his ancestors. In response, Jephthah recounted the history of Israel and how God had given them that land and decreed that it belonged to Israel. After recounting the history and the promises of God, he declared, “Whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess” (Jud.11:24).

That is a good word for us as well. God has promised us a destiny of victory and glory in Christ and we should possess (hold on to, defend) that future by faith, not allowing the enemy to take back what has been given to us. That is the vision that should possess us, rather than a vision of past failures. God’s mercies are new every morning. No matter what happened yesterday, in Christ today can begin with a clean slate.

Paul was enamored with sporting events. He often used the analogy of runners preparing for a race and fixing their eyes on the goal. Most of us just finished watching two weeks of Summer Olympics events. When each runner stood at the starting blocks seconds before the race, gazing down the track, I assure you that the winner was imagining a perfect race in which he crossed the finish line first. He was recounting past victories rather than brooding over past losses. Any runner who was focusing on past losses, false starts, or disappointing times did not run that race well. In the same way, we need to spend time imagining our victories in Christ, the glory that is ours and will be ours, the strength that God provides, and the victory that is promised in Jesus rather than yesterday’s failures.

Fixating on our failures is coming into agreement with the enemy who wants is to define ourselves by our shortcomings. Fixating on ultimate victory is coming into agreement with God because that is his promise. Fixating on past failures is “illegal” for believers, because in Christ those past failures don’t exist. There is no record in heaven of our sins and our testimony of failure has no evidence to back it up. Lay it aside. Get on with the race.

In Nehemiah 8, Ezra read the Law to the people of Jerusalem after the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt. As the Law was read, the people began to weep for their sins. But the text says, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.8:10).

Weeping for our sins has its place, but it must quickly be replaced by joy. The joy of the Lord is ours when we come into agreement with him about his immense love for us, his quick and eager forgiveness, and his promises that point us to our destiny. This mindset is a great weapon in spiritual warfare.  God is always joyful toward us because he knows the end from the beginning and sees us as we will be, not as we are. Sharing the Lord’s view of me, imagining my destiny in Christ, and fixing my thoughts on him open up that joy to me and become a greater comfort and encouragement than anything the world can offer. Meditating on God’s love for me, my eternal home with him, great victories over the enemy, and feeling the presence of God will release more endorphins than any drug or pornographic display and the result will be joy rather than shame. Our goal is not to ignore sin but to simply deal with it quickly through the blood of Christ and refocus on his promises and our destiny. Try it. You’ll like it. Blessings in Him.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7 ( KJV)

Most of us are familiar with the proverb quoted above. In contemporary language, it means that a man typically lives up to his self-image – the view he holds of himself. If he sees himself as small and insignificant, incompetent and failure prone, he will accomplish little in life because he will attempt little. He will never see himself as a leader and, therefore, will not step into that role even if it is offered to him. He will settle for lesser jobs than he is capable of because he doesn’t believe that he is capable and will settle for lesser relationships because he will feel he doesn’t deserve more. It’s not just men who are crippled by a small and insignificant self-image, women fall into that trap as well.

I am the convinced that the church has fallen into that trap as well. The church, typically, has a much smaller view of herself than God does. The enemy has done an outstanding job convincing us that the words of Christ are not really true when he said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church.

Somewhere, Satan planted a distorted interpretation of certain passages in the Bible that has become a prevalent theological view, especially in the past 50 years. The view is that in the last days, evil will abound more and more and that the church as well as goodness will dwindle and become week. The idea is that things will get so bad and the church will be so down trodden that Jesus will simply pull his people out in moment called the rapture. Basically, this view declares that Jesus will have to evacuate his people from a lost cause. Of course, then after the tribulation, he will return with his saints and establish his millennial reign. Scriptures do say that the world will get darker in the last days but light always shines brighter in the darkness. The question is how do we respond to this growing kingdom of darkness. Does the church find herself helpless to push back or do we walk in the authority of the King and take planet earth back in his name?

Many prophecies declare just the opposite of this view that in the last days the church will seemingly have no power against the darkness. Isaiah declares, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isa.2:2-4).

This is a picture of the church that has been exalted above earthly governments and the nations are drawn to the wisdom and glory of the church. Isaiah says that this will occur in the last days. In Acts 2, Peter declared that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost marked the “last days.” Many theologians refer to this period as the church age. We are still in those days and believe it or not, many leaders of nations around the globe are meeting with God’s prophets in private meetings in search of wisdom and problem solving for their nations. They are already coming to the church for answers and finding those answers just as Isaiah prophesied.   Entire nations such, as Honduras, are inviting the church in to preach and share the gospel in schools, universities, and even police stations because they sense we have the answer to something they desperately need.

Habakkuk also prophesied, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab.2:14). Later, Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations because he had been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt.28:18-20). In recent years, the church has decided that Jesus meant for us to make a few disciples in every nation rather than to make disciples of entire nations. We have settled for less.

In the Book of Acts, Peter preached, “Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:19-21)

What restoration is Jesus waiting for? Could it be the restoration of the church to its intended glory – the bride of Christ, strong and radiant, and reigning on the earth so that she is a glorious bride waiting for her glorious groom? For centuries, Christians believed that they had a hand in the return of Jesus and that when they had preached the gospel to every creature under heaven he would return. Now, many Christians believe that the trigger point for his return is when the world inevitably gets bad enough and the church inevitably gets weak enough that we must be rescued. With that view, who would even try to redeem culture or nations? Who would even try to cover the earth with the knowledge of God, disciple nations, and draw world leaders to herself? Even if a believer has a desire to do those things, he or she is told that it would be futile because it is not God’s plan. But what if Jesus is waiting until the church restores the glory and leadership of God’s people that he always intended? What if he is waiting for the church to restore glory to the Kingdom so that nations come to us as in the days of Solomon when kings and queens travelled to Jerusalem to seek his wisdom and see his glory?

Much of the church today does not see herself as the glorious bride of Christ triumphing in victory over the enemy and bringing in a harvest of nations for her king so that God’s intent – that his children will rule this planet as his representatives – will be restored and then Jesus will return. We are like the Israelites who saw giants in the land and saw themselves as grasshoppers in comparison. Even though God had promised them that he would give them the land and every place they set their foot, as grasshoppers, they saw no point in even making the effort.

At this point, most of the church is suffering from a poor self-image – the bride of Christ, weak and worn, tarnished and looking desperately to escape this planet rather than winning the war. It is true that Jesus came the first time as the meek and submissive Lamb of God who would not lift a hand to defend himself against the enemy. But he rose as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Rider on the White Horse and the Commander of the Armies of Heaven with all authority in heaven and on earth. It is not his nature to role over and give the earth to Satan after he died to take it back. It is not his nature to retreat when he declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church and it must not be the nature of his church or our nature, as followers of the King, to retreat or see ourselves as weak and helpless either.

As the church thinketh in her heart so is she. We need to redefine our view of the church and with that to redefine our view of ourselves as those who make up the church. There are sports teams who have a tradition of winning and confidence that they will continue to win. When they walk on the field or the court they see themselves as the victors before the game even begins and they walk with a certain swagger that intimidates their opponents. Even when things get hard in the game they still believe they will win in the end because, in their hearts, they are champions. We need to believe that we are champions because the leader of our team cannot be defeated and that leader lives within each of us.

The Lord tells us that we are more than conquerors, that we can do all things through Christ, that we have been given power and authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, that we can make disciples of all nations, and that Satan himself will flee when we resist. How does that add up to a desperate church waiting to be evacuated from the planet their King died to redeem?

If I know I am part of a winning team, then I can see myself as a winner. If I know I am on a championship team then I can see myself as a champion. As we define the church, we define her members. We define ourselves. We need to begin to speak and prophesy victory rather than defeat, glory rather than insignificance, and exaltation rather than humiliation. We are the body of Christ in this world and Jesus doesn’t lose. As you go out today, walk and think like a champion because that is who you are in Christ.

Many of us distrust God or hold an offense against God because we are victims of misinformation. We believe that God sovereignly determines all things and, therefore, when bad things happen he is the cause or, at least, is at fault because he didn’t prevent the tragedy. We often hold God responsible for things he never promised and for things he has made clear he will not do. This all falls into the conundrum of free will and is worth considering as we attempt to understand the goodness of God.

In the very beginning, God determined to grant man free will – the ability to make choices that God would neither prevent nor force on man. God placed two trees in the Garden and gave Adam and Eve a clear choice concerning those trees. They could eat of every tree in the Garden, including the tree of life and live forever or they could eat of the one tree of the knowledge of good and evil and become subject to death and expulsion from the Garden.

When Satan entered the Garden and began to dialogue with Eve, God let her choose and let Adam choose their course of action even though the consequences were catastrophic for them, their descendants, and the universe. Their actions released pain and suffering on a fallen world. So why did God simply not rush in and sweep Satan from the Garden or freeze Eve’s mouth in place so that she could not continue her discussion with the serpent? Why did he not intervene to prevent the sin and the far ranging consequences?

I think there are, perhaps, two reasons. First of all, our actions are the true measure of love. I have counseled with any number of abused wives whose husbands continually declare their love for them. Physical and verbal abuse year in and year out suggests something else. How had God expressed his love for Adam and Eve? He had created them with his own hands, given them life, placed them in a phenomenal garden that met every need, and had granted them authority over his creation and the significance that came with that position. He met with them daily to build a relationship and impart his word and his ways to them. He treated them as a son and a daughter. And…he gave them the ability to think and choose rather than simply being puppets on the stage of creation. Being made in the image of God suggests that since God is sovereign, man must have some measure of sovereignty over his own life to reflect that image.

In the same vein, God is love and love is not satisfied unless love is willingly returned. Love that is forced or contrived can hardly be love. Love that is given must be a true choice and a true choice requires free will. Free will is risky but it is the price of love. Adam and Eve chose not to love God that day when they trusted the words of a stranger over the clear commands of the Father. Free will and the actions that flow out of our decisions are measures of our love for others, including God. Free will is the ultimate evidence of love.

Secondly, God was not interested in having eternal children. He wanted Adam and Eve to mature and become adults operating in love and wisdom. Free will is the context in which maturity occurs. Have you ever been around a child whose hovering parents make every decision for him or her in the name of protecting that child? You can easily project the disastrous “adulthood” that is coming for that boy or girl. We mature by making decisions and learning from the consequences. We learn and mature by sowing and reaping the consequences. There is also great risk in that because my free will choices can bring pain and destruction on others – even on innocents. Free will gives every person the potential to bless or harm others. If God controls every person’s heart and intervenes in every situation so that no tragedies occur, no divorces happen, no war breaks out – then free will is out the window.

Free will nailed Jesus to a cross, but the Father, Son and Spirit believed from the beginning that is was worth it. Revelation 13 speaks of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That phrase assures us that in the mind of God, the cost of free will was clear even before man was created and the price for redemption needed by those who chose poorly was already agreed upon.

God does not prevent our pain but neither does he abandon us to it. He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” When the hurt comes, God is there to begin to heal our broken hearts and set us free from the bondage we often choose (Isa.61: 1-4). God is there to direct, restore, renew and, when we allow it, to rescue.

Many things happen in this world that are not God’s will and that do not represent his heart. “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet.3:9). God wants all men to be saved, but not all men will be saved. Disease and suffering is not God’s heart for people. We know that because Jesus came to show us the Father and he constantly healed people out of compassion for their condition. We are also told that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8). Therefore, disease and disability are the work of Satan not God and the cost of free will.

When a little girl suffers at the hands of satanists, a marriage crumbles, a child is born with birth defects, or a teenager commits suicide, these are not events ordained or approved of by God. These are the expressions of free will and sin in this world, which God is in the process of eradicating through the cross, the preaching of the Gospel, and the ministries of his church for healing, reconciliation, and freedom from all kinds of bondage in this world. There is a place where God’s heart is perfectly reflected in every way. That place is heaven and we are taught to pray for that will be expressed on earth as it is in heaven. God’s will is for his goodness to be felt everywhere but it will first be expressed through our choices.

When we take offense at God, we misunderstand the source of our pain. Why do we never take offense at Satan, when he is the source of all that is bad? God is good and wants good things for his children. How often he must show restraint and reserve judgment so that more have an opportunity to repent and be saved? God has sovereignly chosen to let man have a measure of sovereignty over his own life. God has paid the ultimate price for that decision but believes it is worth it in the end. In the meantime, he directs, comforts, heals, and protects more than we know and has sent his son to heal broken hearts and set captives free. He can be trusted and, truly, only wants the best for you.

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. 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. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 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.’ ” 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. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

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.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. (Ezek. 37:1-14)

This is one of the most poignant and compelling sections of scripture in the entire Bible and is filled with as much significance for us today as it was for the Jews in days of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel lived and prophesied during the days of Babylon’s world dominance. In 607 B.C. Babylon had invaded Israel and deported many of the best and brightest of the nation including Daniel. In 597 B.C. another invasion occurred and more of the Jews were taken. Finally, in 586 B.C. the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon’s temple, and took the temple treasures back to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant, which stood in the Holy of Holies and on which the presence of God rested, disappeared and has been searched for ever since. The destruction of the temple and the disappearance of the Ark seemed to be irrefutable evidence that God had finally abandoned Israel to her fate because of years of unrepented sin.

By all rational standards, Israel was finished as a nation. After all, it was an insignificant nation by world standards – only 65 miles wide and 120 miles long. Their capital was decimated, the temple which was the center of Jewish faith and culture was destroyed, and all the powerful, gifted, and educated members of Jewish society had been enslaved and scattered through out the Babylonian empire. Israel looked as if it would disappear into history and be absorbed by the nations around it showing up in old manuscripts as only a curiosity – a small nation that flourished for a few centuries and then faded into oblivion.

But God was not through with Israel. To demonstrate his plans for the nation, he led Ezekiel into a valley of desolation and death. There the prophet scanned a lunar-like landscape covered with the bleached bones of a long defeated army left for the wild animals and hot sun to clean. No one had even cared enough or had the capacity to come find these fallen men and bury them. They were alone. The symbolism of defeat, death, despair, and hopelessness fit the mood of the Hebrews who had left Egyptian slavery for freedom but seemed to have had come full circle now as captives and slaves in Babylon. Having brought him to this valley of desolation, God asked Ezekiel the ultimate question, “Can these bones live?”

Maybe you have asked that question about your own life or the lives of others you care about in a different way but with the same sentiment. “Can that marriage ever be put back together after the adultery?” “ Will I ever feel anything but this pain?” “Can someone so broken ever be freed from his addiction?” “Will the child, molested and raped, ever be able to trust and love someone else?” Our world is full of dry bones. Perhaps, there are piles of dry bones in your own life? Can those bones live again? We will begin to look at the way back to life in my next blog.