Imagine Big
The ministry of the prophet Ezekiel
was unique in that he performed it in the land of the Chaldeans during
the Babylonian captivity. His messages were delivered to fellow Jewish
captives who had lost their homeland. But the captivity had a shelf
life. God through his prophet regularly reminded the captive Jews that
he was NOT done with them, that a glorious future awaited them after
the seventy years in Babylon was accomplished.
One of the most vivid reminders is
found in Ezekiel 37 concerning the valley of dry ones. There were “very
many” dry bones, which were “very dry” (37:2). The Lord asked Ezekiel:
“Son of man, can these bones live?” He answered: “O Lord GOD, thou
knowest” (37:3). When the Lord asks a rhetorical question, he’s not
looking for INFORMATON. He's provoking the IMAGINATION of his
people to
consider whether ANY challenge is TOO BIGi, and whether
he's BIG enough to handle the seemingly imposible.
Jesus asked a similar rhetorical
question of Philip before he fed the five thousand, who had been
soaking up his teaching. He asked: “Whence shall we buy bread, that
these may eat?” (John 6:5). The scripture adds: “And this he said to
prove him: for he himself knew what he would do” (6:6). In John 6,
Andrew discovered there was a lad with a sack lunch containing “five
barley loaves, and two small fishes” (6:9). But in Ezekiel 37,
there was not as much as a drop of moisture to be found anywhere in the
valley.
The God who was able to feed to the
full five thousand-plus followers with a lad’s sack lunch and produce
twelve baskets of leftovers (6:13) is the SAME God who reassembled a
valley full of dry bones, layered them with sinew-flesh, and breathed
life into them. The vision God gave Ezekiel was reflective of his
creative power exhibited in Adam. The big difference is God began with
LIFELESS dust in forming Adam. In the valley of dry bones, he began
with bones through which LIFE ONCE FLOWED. The former was an
act of CREATION; but the latter was an act of RESURRECTION.
Ezekiel 37 has PRIMARY application to
Israel with multiple fulfillments. When God brought his people Israel
out of Babylon and returned them to the land, it was life from the
dead. In the latter days, the full realization of Ezekiel 37 will come
to pass.
But Ezekiel 37, in my mind, has
unlimited SECONDARY applications. Isn’t it possible for ANY individual
or people, recognizing their ‘dry bones’ spiritual status, to look to
the God of life, and cry out, “O dear God of infinite power and mercy,
please
breathe on us!”?
Ezekiel 37 ought to provoke God's
people to IMAGINE BIG to consider that
God can STILL breathe life into dry bones. Whereas the dry bones of
Ezekiel 37 had NO ability to speak and make a request of God, we as
Americans do, and should do so before it’s too late!
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