30 Thoughts prompted by Bones in the Bible
Our God is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His attitude to sin never changes. He is merciful and He is just. He gives us second and third chances, but if we do not change our ways, we can only take the consequences of our rejection of Him.
Just in case we felt that the word in the previous thought was a bit extreme, we have confirmation here. The chapter begins with a sad report of what the shepherd's of Israel are not doing, and continues with a promise that the Lord Himself will shepherd His flock.
In the Psalms we often see David, the individual feeling hopeless. Here it is a whole nation. But it was not God's intention to leave them in their hopelessness. He saw their misery, and wanted to revitalise the sad discouraged community of Israel. There are many groups, churches, communities and nations today who need to know that the Lord can make dead bones live.
He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." What a wise answer! Ezekiel knows enough of the Lord to know that he himself knows nothing, and that God is full of surprises. Can you think of a situation in your life or someone near to you today which has been taken for hopeless?
Here we see Jeremiah overcome by the need to speak out what the Lord has given him. Praise God that again today He is raising up prophets who speak out for Him, but we are all called to speak out the word of the Lord in our own circumstances.
In our previous thought we suggested that our misdeeds can result in our own ill health, now we see that they can result in someone else's poor health. In Thought 1 we talked about the "one flesh" of marriage. Here we see the effects of being joined with a "bad lot". It is encouraging that the Bible tells the same story all the way through. God never changes, and 'one flesh' means 'one flesh'.
Throughout the psalms the bones are taken as representing the health of the whole body. It is a sign of serious illness or serious worry when David the psalmist talks of his bones. But in every case he ends with confidence that the Lord will move, that He has heard the prayer and will answer.
Jeroboam was an evil king, and during his reign many abominations happened, (1 Kings 12) but the Lord had a plan to put things right, and he sent this unnamed prophet to foretell what would happen 300 years later. In the next verse the prophet declared that the altar would split apart as a sign that this word was from the Lord. Read the rest of the chapter and see that this did happen immediately in front of Jeroboam who lifted his hand to arrest the prophet, but his hand withered and would not move!
30 Thoughts prompted by Bones If you have not yet read the first part of this series, then please click here. Thought 7 Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. In this […]
30 Thoughts prompted by Bones If you have not yet read the first part of this series, then please click here. Thought 4 Psalm 34:20 He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. A prophetic verse about the death of Jesus, and we are beginning to […]
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