There was no breath in them

“I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.” (Ezekiel 37:8)

 

A woman certain man had loved passed away at young. The face of the dead woman laid in the coffin looked pale and beautiful. But only the cosmetic appearance looked so, but the life was absent inside the body. God the Lord made man’s body with soil in the beginning. And God put life into the body and made it become an existence of life. In this Bible text, Ezekiel was led by the Spirit of the Lord to see around a valley. It was full of bones there, and the bones all were dry. The Lord questioned Ezekiel this, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And Ezekiel the prophet said, “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.”

 

Lying in a coffin was the body of a Greek woman who died from methamphetamine addiction. The man who loved her had kept stopping her from injecting the narcotics, but to no avail. I heard, she had said, “Even if I die, I want to get a shot just this once.” in response. The man had fallen in love with woman’s appearance of beauty, but her soul was like the dry bones Ezekiel saw in the valley. People as like dry bones, they’re not just those struggling with narcotics. To speak in spiritual meaning, everyone who has not received a new life by the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the bones spread in the valley. The question of whether the bones can be alive again is like the Lord’s asking if the people of world is hopeful.

 

Many people are anxious and wonder what the world will be like in the future. And there are many sophistic philosophers who express their personal views on the end of the world. Also there are quite a few religious preachers who are obsessed with apocalypse in their own way. They commonly make their own point based on the Bible. However, the facts and contents of their arguments are relying on their subjective reasoning and personal experience. If not some things they say are objectively stated explicitly in the Bible, it’s a right answer and attitude to say this, “Sovereign Lord, You alone know,” like Ezekiel. The pedantic attitude means an attitude, though they don’t have accurate knowledge in fact, but they explain it in difficult words as if know on it. Such a pedantic attitude is not desirable for those who believe in Jesus Christ. We only need a faith the posture of own endeavors, with hoping the Lord will know and attain everything.

 

The Lord said Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and say to those. And this is what the Sovereign Lord said to those bones “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” God the Creator is the only One who gives life to man. God had made men and made them active, and made them live as spiritual beings. It’s also a problem that the flesh can’t function, but moreover if a person can’t live as a spiritual being, it’s a bigger problem. Jesus calls all people to come, not only because of physical illness, also for the cure of those who weren’t reborn in spirit. In order for a family or country to be strong, individuals who are the members of family and country must be healthy. We should raise our children healthy by feeding them well, getting vaccinated, and making to exercise. But the more importantly, what must be done is to teach Jesus Christ, the Lord of Creation and Salvation, in order to be healthy the souls of them.

 

Under the Lord’s saying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. And they moved and formed tendons, flesh and skin, but there was no vitality inside the bodies yet. When Ezekiel spoke again at the command of the Lord, they were arisen to life from all sides, and the bodies without life became beings of life. It’s a situation like a cartoon, but that was a fantastic appearances showing God’s actual power. The change in believing in Jesus and getting a new life is not a fiction made up. That’s a fact that we can perceive by looking at own life lived until now. By believing in Christ, we can make a healthy and new our fragile body. Also we can enjoy a reborn spiritual life in a Holy Spirit. Money, knowledge, status, and honor are essential in this world life. But it’s practically meaningless in worth if those things are left lifeless like the dry bones of the valley.

 

If you hear someone says you are like the dry bone scattered in a valley, you would feel very bad. However, if there is no life and no use, anyone could hear such the offensive words. What good is it if the bones are constituted well but lifeless inside it? When moving the tomb, even if they find the bones of the dead and put them side by side, by order on the board, those are also nothing more than dead bones. Remember this truth, even if the flesh is alive, but if the person is not in the Holy Spirit of Christ, that person is nothing more than lifeless being spiritually in fact.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Sept 11th 2022)