Dem Bones, Dem Bones – July/August Apostolos

I recently saw Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and it reminded me of a passage in the Old Testament; from Ezekiel 37.

“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 fleshed appeared on them and skin covered them” (Ezekiel 37:1-8)

Right after this, God makes a promise saying, “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.”

God made the promise that we who are dead will be brought back to life again.  How did he do this?  Jesus.

This story in Ezekiel is God’s way of revealing Jesus to Israel (and to us today)!  Jesus said, “I have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  We are spiritually dead because of our sin.  There is no life in us.  Despite our sinfulness and our spiritual deadness, Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the grave.  Because Jesus took our punishment on the cross, we can be forgiven of our sin and because Jesus rose again from the grave, we can rise again from ours.  God kept his promise!

In Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the exhibits came to life because of a magical “Tablet of Akmenrah.”  If the tablet was taken away, the exhibits would cease to be alive.  It’s not that way with God.  When God makes us alive with Christ, because Jesus lives, we live too—always!

With school being out for the summer, take some time to think about the most important question in your entire life—are you alive with Christ?  Or are you like the dry bones in the valley.  Put your trust in Jesus to forgive you of your sin and he will raise you not only to life, but life to the full!