Ther
e was no question he was dead! He had succumbed to a deadly illness. Since it had been four days, his body had begun to surrender to the ravages of death and was beginning to decay. Those were the facts! Yet Jesus did not accept the verdict, so he said, “‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out. . . . Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go’” (John 11:43,44).
Seeing a dead man walking must have been something that seared itself into the minds of those present. This great miracle of Jesus proved beyond all doubt that he has complete control and power over death. But there was another man in Scripture who also witnessed the dead come back to life.
Ezekiel was both a priest and a prophet who was taken into captivity by Nebuchanezzar in 598 B.C. He lived near the city of Babylon and spent his 23 years there ministering to the remnant of Israelites who shared his plight. His book is filled with visions and symbolic actions that dealt with those days in exile. One such revelation took place in a rather unusual location: “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” (Ezekiel 37:1). Then the Lord asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” (37:3). Ezekiel knew that was not possible. Then the Lord told him to speak to the bones and say to them, “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin . . . and you will come to life” (37:4-6).
Ezekiel did as the Lord said, and there was a loud rattling sound as bone after bone joined with their previous skeletal partners. Then Ezekiel actually saw the muscles begin to attach themselves to the bones with real tendons. Finally, flesh began to cover each body as they were covered in the skin they once wore. Faces, arms, legs, real people who had lived many years before were now standing before Ezekiel. But they were not complete. They were missing one life-giving ingredient: they were not breathing. “Then he said to me, ‘Prophecy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live”’” (37:9). Just as in the Garden of Eden, it took the breath of the Lord to give these bodies life. And so Ezekiel beheld a vast army of living, breathing beings marching right in front of him.
With this revelation, the Lord was showing Ezekiel that there would indeed come a day when the captives would be given new life and return to their homeland once again. “I will put my Spirit in you [the people] and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken” (37:14). What a sight that must have been!
In Ezekiel’s vision, although the army of bodies had complete anatomies, they were still lifeless. They had no breath within them. They needed the Lord to breathe into them and give purpose to their bodies and lives. And so it is today. We see around us people who go about their daily routines. Children, teens, adults, and seniors all seem to be enjoying life to its fullest. Yet without the breath of the Lord, they are walking dead people. Their lives are hopeless, without vision, lacking purpose and meaning, and void of any future. Paul wrote, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:1,4,5).
Each day we should remember to thank the Holy Spirit for the life-giving breath he has placed in us. We once were as dead as those dry bones, but we have been made alive!
Prayer thought: Thank the Lord for his blessing of making you his child and giving you the breath of life.
Recent Comments