Although
some people’s faith tends to be skeletal and not muscular (pun), this post will
not be allegorical nor made into metaphor. No, we will be actually talking
about pieces from the skeletal system or bones. No, not the good doctor from
Star Trek…actual bones in a person’s or animal’s body. As I do with all these
topical posts I will attempt to do them in order where they are found in the Bible. Where I can I will tie them together if the intent of Scripture allows it.
The
first place we see a bone is in Genesis 2 (duh).
Genesis 2:21-22 ~ “So the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his
ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had
taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”
This
passage is critical in understanding the male/female relationship. They are inseparably
connected. We are created in two sexes and both bear the divine image to do the
will and the work of God in the world. To do His will we do it together, not
one or the other...both. We see unity of spirit in the proper godly loving
relationships. Without this union the work is somehow incomplete. Somehow some
way it is through this union of men and women that we as human best emulate the
image that is God. It is a multiplicity of personality joined together in unity
action. Perhaps that is why marriage is one of the earliest institutions
instituted in the Bible (singleness is fine, the Church at large still has a
combination or both male and female singles). Whenever those of either sex
disregard this divine order by mixing and matching sexes, roles, quantities and
even kinds, all sorts of evil and detrimental consequences result in the end.
It is most likely the reason that things like homosexuality are considered such
an abomination to God.
Man
and woman in unity is the intended order. Most likely this is as pure an image
of the Trinity as we will ever get in this life. A unity that is in reality a
unity or covenant of three: the man, the woman in Christ or God.
Moving
on we see the bones of Joseph are transported long after his death. The
question is why?
Joshua 24:32 ~ “As for the bones of
Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at
Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father
of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the
descendants of Joseph.
If
we search Scriptures, they tell us why Joseph’s remains were moved. By
mentioning Jacob and Joseph it is tying the Torah or books of the Law written
by Moses to those of later writers of the historical books of which Joshua is
the first. We see continuity or continuation due to the immutability of God's character. Joshua acts as culmination and
conclusion to the desert wanderings and books of the Law and what God start
with Moses (and Abraham). This takes place in a context of covenant renewal and
shows three burials in Israel’s history. All of these being buried at the same
time show stability and permanence of God’s promises not only of Promised Land
but also that Abraham’s descendants would be more abundant than the stars. Joshua
is buried in verse 29, Joseph verse 32 and Eleazar the High Priest in verse 33.
Joshua is Moses heir. Eleazar is Aaron’s heir. Joseph’s bones are the tie to
Jacob and therefore Abraham.
The
next narrative shows us judgment through the jawbone of an ass. Samson clobbers
a thousand men.
Judges 15:15 ~ “And he found a
fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it
he struck 1,000 men.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we see Samson break the bonds he has been restrained with by the his own people to treacherously turnover to the Philistines. His own traitorous people intended to give Samson to the enemy. This is similar to believers today that would encourage fellow believers into sin. Encouraging them into the very thing that will hold them prisoner. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we see Samson defeat a town’s worth of mere men who do not have the power of the Spirit in them. We see the power of God working through man. Through the power of the Spirit we see the breaking of bonds and a defeat of the enemy. This analogy should sound extraordinarily familiar to a Christian. What we see immediately following this incident is even more telling.
Judges 15:18-19 ~ “And he was very
thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted
this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst
and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” And God split open the
hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he
drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was
called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this day.
Even
a man who has just exhibited supernatural endurance and strength is shown to be
dependent on God’s provision. Even a supernaturally endowed man is susceptible to
dehydration and he therefore calls on the God that had just imbued him with extraordinary
strength to provide for him an absolutely ordinary need. What 1000 men failed
to do a lack of water will do very effectively. What do we learn? That the
supernatural and the ordinary all flow from the same source: Almighty God. Our
entire existence is owed to God, without which we would have no needs satisfied nor could we exist.
From the great to the small, from the individual to the nation, from the atom
to the galaxy cluster…existence and being is found in God.
Next
we arrive at Ezekiel’s valley. It is a rather lifeless valley.
Ezekiel 37:1-6 (full context 37:1-14)
~ “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in
the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it
was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were
very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And
he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I
answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy
over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I
will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover
you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall
know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel
is taken “in the Spirit” to a valley that was full of bones. Then the Lord asks
Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel’s reply is
respectful and accurate, "O Lord GOD, you know." God then commands
Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones. Subsequently, God would cause breath to
enter the bones, and they would live again and God would reconstitute them
sinew and flesh and cover them again with skin.
There
was a then a sound, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. So
Ezekiel did as he was commanded and breath came into them (a la Adam in Genesis
2) and they lived and stood on their feet in an exceedingly great army. When we
reach verse 11 we get an explanation of this strange vision. We find that this
army of revived bones are the whole house of Israel. At this moment during the
time of Ezekiel, Israel is essentially dead. No land, no city, no nothing. A
valley of dry bones with no life…as with anything God is involved with, an
appearance or insinuation of impossibility is not deterrent for an omnipotent
God nor should it be a deterrent for one of His faithful. In God's economy, dead to the world means alive in Him and to live for this world is to die to God.
The
Lord has Ezekiel prophesy that the Lord would “open Israel’s graves and raise
them from their graves". He would put the Spirit, His Spirit within them and
they would live and He would place them back in their own land so that they
would know that He is the LORD. Because He had spoken it, He would do it. Is
this not an exact image or shadow what God does through Jesus for the believer? Even in an imagery directed at Israel...we see hints of Christ and the coming Kingdom of God.
The
image of many “dry” bones in the desert indicated that these bones (Israel) had
been there for a long time drying in the desert sun. Ezekiel’s vision was of a
people that would spend a long time in a dry godless place before being
reborn. This place could've been physical, geographical or spiritual. God
essentially told Ezekiel to preach to a pile of dry dead bones…and as the Word (His Word) is preached we hear rattling and clanking like the sound of bowling pins
and dried sticks banging together. God’s Word brought them back to life like death
in reverse. First sinew, then flesh, then skin and finally the breath of life
from God called from the four winds. Just as God spoke things into existence, just like Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. "Lazarus! Come forth!"
Is
this not exactly how we see the new creation of the Christian? God gives life
where there is none. God gives eternal life where there was none. God quickens man and puts a heart of flesh where there was once only a dead stone.
It
is an imagery of hope to an exiled sinful and lost people that have been promised
that they will be restored if they obey their God. When God told Ezekiel to
prophesy to the wind the is an interesting parallel. The word for wind would’ve been ר֖וּחַ or ruwach/rauch in
Hebrew, meaning breath/ exhalation (from God) or spirit/Spirit. This is the
same word in Greek πνεῦμα used by Jesus when speaking with Nicodemus about the
blowing of the wind and the new birth through the Spirit in John 3:5-8. This of
course is similar to the imagery of the breath of life breathed into Adam…the
life spark of man comes from God, both in this life and the one beyond. This use of words and imagery is not an accident.
…and
finally, almost as a reversal of the bones of Ezekiel’s valley that come to
life…we have the tombs referenced by Jesus that are filled with dead men’s
bones. In other words. The Pharisees are the absolute opposite of Ezekiel’s
skeletons yet they are still alive. The Pharisees visually give off an illusion of life superficially on
the exterior but inside they are spiritually dead and therefore condemned. Why
are they condemned? Because they reject Jesus Christ and His Gospel therefore
they reject the promises and truths of God. They are therefore abusing God’s
mercy and grace. It is a choice to choose death and reject life God offers as
He is the source of everything including life.
Matthew 23:27-28 ~ “Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which
indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones
and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men,
but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
This is the polar opposite of Ezekiel’s valley of rattling and clanking bones. Contrary to the Pharisees, outwardly Ezekiel's bones give off an image of death and no life but it is not these bones from which the life will emanate but it will be God will breathe the new life into them. Just as He does through His Spirit when a Christian becomes a new creation. In their return to life, we clearly see the Sustainer of Life that is giving life to otherwise dead beings...God Almighty. The very God the Pharisees reject. The Pharisees are an image of us dead in our sin and self-righetousness. The image of the bones coming to life is us during our conversion as we rattle to life and respond to His holy and life-giving call in our lives.
This is the polar opposite of Ezekiel’s valley of rattling and clanking bones. Contrary to the Pharisees, outwardly Ezekiel's bones give off an image of death and no life but it is not these bones from which the life will emanate but it will be God will breathe the new life into them. Just as He does through His Spirit when a Christian becomes a new creation. In their return to life, we clearly see the Sustainer of Life that is giving life to otherwise dead beings...God Almighty. The very God the Pharisees reject. The Pharisees are an image of us dead in our sin and self-righetousness. The image of the bones coming to life is us during our conversion as we rattle to life and respond to His holy and life-giving call in our lives.
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