Editor’s note: This is an old post that
originally appeared on mysslafunky.com and was inspired by a message preached
by Pst. Tony Rapu. This post has been slightly updated from the previous version. So please read, comment
and share.
This analogy came to me during a Sunday Service in which my pastor
preached on dry bones. During the message, I sat there wondering: whatever
happened to the dry bones? What happened to the army that was created from
those dry bones? They couldn't have simply vanished. Or could they? When you
watch Nigerian movies, you watch how people just suddenly disappear only to
re-appear in a shrine or in the case of Pirates of the Caribbean, gone to the
other world to save Jack Sparrow or retrieve some goblet to drink water and
stay forever young. Why did they need those exact goblets! Speaking of bones, I
just remembered the Curse of the black pearl and how Barbosa and his crew
turned to skeletons under the moonlight. I'm digressing.
While I was thinking of all this, I heard the pastor mention that
it was a dream and I went oh, I see! So Ezekiel was dreaming all along and all
these years I assumed it was real. Like Ezekiel was walking and actually
stumbled on a valley of dry bones and then proceeded to resurrect them as
instructed by God. That would be really awkward. How do you start explaining to
them that God rose them up from the dead? How do you explain to the family
members of the soldiers that an army that had been dead for so long their bones
had dried up had risen from the dead? So many questions!
Let me be very honest, before I arrived at this point of
revelation, I was actually feeling sleepy and wondering how I would last the entire length of
a sermon that had barely started. Thank God for the gift of revelation. In
trying to battle the drowsiness, it hit me (revelation that is). At this
moment, let’s flip to Ezekiel 37:1-14. In reading the first two verses, you
notice that it was God that led him to that valley. Of all the valleys, it was
the one that had dry bones that he was led to not the one overflowing with gold
coins or milk and honey; there’s a very good reason. Let’s see:
1. The
hand of the Lord was on 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. 2. 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.
One thing we should pick out is not just the fact that the valley
was full of bones but of bones that were very dry. Meaning they have been there
for a very long time and the sun had done a number on those bones. If this was
a pirate movie, it would have been called ‘Bones Valley’ (or some sinister
hilarious name). Ezekiel was in Bones Valley with the Lord and you can be sure
there was going to be a test.
3. He
asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you
alone know.”
When my pastor read this verse, I smiled: sharp guy! He threw the
question back to God on a coded level and thought he had scaled the test
successfully. As people, we like forming sharp or that na Warri sharp pass
(Warri no dey carry last); the truth is that God will always be sharper. Ezekiel didn’t know that
was just Test 1 of his mid-term Continuous Assessment. So let’s see what Test 2
was. God then said:
4.
“Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord! 5. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will
make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6. 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.’”
Thankfully, as vs. 7 & 8 showed, he did as he was instructed and passed the second test. Then came the final test of his Continuous Assessment
(as if the previous questions had not been testing enough). God then instructed
him to prophecy breath into the bones. I’m sure most of us by now would have gone:
Breath?! Into these bones! You first asked me if the bones can live, as a sharp
guy I said: you alone know. You then asked me to prophecy life and flesh into
the bones, so I don’t seem stubborn or lacking in faith I did as commanded. Now
you’re telling me to speak breath into these bones. Na wa for you oh! However,
Ezekiel had reached the point of revelation and understanding and passed with
flying colors (37:10). What is important to note here is that it is very
important as Christians to reach the point of understanding and revelation,
otherwise we will respond like Ezekiel did in 37:3.
By now, I’m guessing some of you would be wondering like I was
in service: what does dry bones have to do with anything. What do dry bones
stand for? Come back for Part 2...lol!
Photo Cred: Bone Men
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