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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
Going to take a different tact this week.
Don't know if any of you on the other side of the ponds ever sang this Spiritual. I learned it at Church Camp.
Anyway, it is based on Ezekial 37: 1-14
What I find fascinating about this story is that it describes a Valley of Bones. How they got there is unknown. Could have been some sort of battle, but there are other possibilities too.
Ezekiel has a vision of this valley of all these bones. And the Lord asks if these bones could ever come alive again.
Ezekiel says only God knows. The Lord then instructs Ezekiel to prophecy to them. As Ezekiel does this, the bones come back together, muscles are reformed, skin covers the bones, but the bodies do not seem to be animated.
The Lord then asks can these bodies be reanimated. Ezekiel says only God knows. The Lord then instructs Ezekiel to prophesy again. And the bodies become reanimated.
Ezekiel's ministry is to a community in exile. This is a community that had lost all life or reason for living. They are wondering were is their God.
To me the lesson is that Ezekiel's mission is to announce to this community that their God is as near to them as their next breath--the Hebrew word ruach (רוח) appears nine times in this story. It is translated as as “breath” (verses 5, 6, 8, 10), “wind” (verse 9) and God’s own spirit (14).
I cannot help but find comparisons of this story to the Chinese survivors of flight 370 or even the survivors of the landslide in Oso, Washington.
When such tragedies happen people's breathes are taken away. They have no hope.
The church still has that challenge--to cry out, proclaim as a herald, to preach and announce the good news that God is as near as your next breath.
That is what Kerygma is all about.
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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Raptor Eye
Shipmate
# 16649
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Posted
This is a brilliant story, a wonderful vision of the creator God bringing life out of death, and particularly appropriate as we approach Easter.
We do become dis-spirited at times, naturally. At such times we need the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us, to replenish what has been destroyed and more. Thanks to God's grace, he does.
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Be still, and know that I am God! Psalm 46.10
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Oscar the Grouch
Adopted Cascadian
# 1916
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Posted
For me, the starting point in understanding (and preaching about) this passage is not the vision itself, but the line quote:
They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.'
Ezekiel was living with people who had lost all hope and felt utterly abandoned by God. In the midst of such desolation, Ezekiel's becomes even more striking.
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Faradiu, dundeibáwa weyu lárigi weyu
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BroJames
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# 9636
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gramps49:
I cannot help but find comparisons of this story to the Chinese survivors of flight 370…
It's vanishingly unlikely that there are any survivors.
Two things: I see the valley of bones as a dream/vision landscape, it doesn't matter how they come to be there. At the end of the vision it's clear they they stand for God's people; secondly, I think reanimate may not be the best word. The question is can these bones *live*. God gives them *life* which I see as being quantitatively and qualitatively different from reanimating them.
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
Sorry, but I cannot see any parallel with those on the lost flight.
The vision is a very powerful one and capable of interpretation on many levels. It is God who gives physical life to us all, and in His grace gives spiritual life to us also; on the day of judgment, He will give us eternal life in Him; His spirit will invigorate us. All these and more are in the text.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
What I meant to say was the survivors of those who vanished on flight 370. Should have proof read the post a little more.
Not to throw this thread off but I am wondering if the inordinate amount of grief we are seeing from Chinese families is due to the one child policy of that nation. If the parents have lost their one and only child, I would think there would be a lot of grief, especially since it would mean a family line would be disappearing.
What would Ezekiel be saying to these people?
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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Honest Ron Bacardi
Shipmate
# 38
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Posted
quote:
Don't know if any of you on the other side of the ponds ever sang this Spiritual. I learned it at Church Camp.
Just for you, Gramps49 - here's a link to the "Dem bones" scene in Dennis Potter's original version of "The Singing Detective". A piece of writing which if anything has even more layers of meaning than Ezekiel's. Don't go anywhere near the Hollywood version, by the way.
And now, back to your discussion.
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Anglo-Cthulhic
Posts: 4857 | From: the corridors of Pah! | Registered: May 2001
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
Text for that?
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
Also read the vision in context. Its just one of a series of visions and prophecies, in which Ezekiel is the watchman of Israel and pronounces Gods warnings and judgements on various people - in a rather apocalyptic and metaphorical way.
We have the prophecies against false shepherds, and against the mountains of Edom, then blessings on the mountains of Israel (which this vision is perhaps part of or an elaboration or illustration of) then Gog and Magog (getting thoroughly apocalyptic).
It fits into the book between the section of really rude prophecies and the visions of a new Temple.
I don't think there is any need to dream up some real heap of dead bodies that he might be imagining.
On the other hand, anyone else here noticed that Ezekiel is the only book of the Bible that is precisely dated?
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
I've always thought it significant that this story, about a vision of restoration and revival for a people who were defeated captives, was adopted by black American slaves. You can think of the spiritual as a political song, rather than a hymn. One day God was going to come and liberate the American slaves, too.
And since it was a Biblical text the slave owners couldn't object to their slaves singing it.
Powerful and subversive.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
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Zach82
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# 3208
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Posted
I've tended to understand myself, the reader of the text, as the dry bones. Probably not what Ezekiel had in mind.
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
I've tended to understand myself, the reader of the text, as the dry bones. Probably not what Ezekiel had in mind.
I think that he did, and would have counted himself amongst them; we are but dry bones until God breathes his life into us. and what Ken said.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
Yes, many of the black spiritual songs had a subversive message to them. Some of the same songs still do have a subversive message to them.
Yes, I agree ken, without the breath of God we are no more than dry bones, or unanimated corpses, no more than clay.
Could Ezekiel had seen such a valley of dry bones, say when he was being forced into exile? Can't say for sure. I do know if I come across a horrific scene, it will haunt me for a very long time. We call it PTSD these days.
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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Callan
Shipmate
# 525
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by Gramps49:
How they got there is unknown. Could have been some sort of battle, but there are other possibilities too.
I thought that Babylonians wiped out the Israelite army in 587 BCE and left their corpses to rot in the desert.
Strictly speaking Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722BC, so not really salient for Ezekiel who was a Judahite. OK, I'm nitpicking. Ezekiel could have had in mind a battlefield where the Judahites, Israelites or whoever got cut to pieces. But equally it could just as well be a metaphor for the resurrection of the Jewish community after the destruction of 597BC.
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How easy it would be to live in England, if only one did not love her. - G.K. Chesterton
Posts: 9757 | From: Citizen of the World | Registered: Jun 2001
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
Originally posted by Gildas:
quote:
Strictly speaking Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722BC, so not really salient for Ezekiel who was a Judahite. OK, I'm nitpicking. Ezekiel could have had in mind a battlefield where the Judahites, Israelites or whoever got cut to pieces. But equally it could just as well be a metaphor for the resurrection of the Jewish community after the destruction of 597BC.
That, I believe, is part of the power of this vision. Without knowing any precise factual basis it may have haas, we are able to consider a range of possibilities and to ponder on a series of metaphors, gaining different insights from each.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Jammy Dodger
Half jam, half biscuit
# 17872
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Posted
So a couple things sprang to mind here. Firstly alluded to upthread the creation account of a God breathing life into Adam:
Gen 2:7
quote:
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
So in the light of this the Ezekiel passage reads like a new creation. The new life in the new covenant?
Then it also made me think of the passage in John where Jesus breathes on the disciples:
John 20:21-22
quote:
Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
This reads to me as a prophetic act by Jesus recalling the Ezekiel prophecy and inaugurating the new covenant.
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Look at my eye twitching - Donkey from Shrek
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
This in verse 12... quote:
Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people.
...reminded me of the zombie apocalypse passage in Matthew's gospel (27:51-53) quote:
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Yes. We had someone at church mention that a lot of OT prophecies get a triple fulfillment--once in the OT (as in the return from Exile, which I take to be the nearest and primary referent of the Ezekiel prophecy), once in Jesus' time (what you mentioned), and once on the Last Day (the general resurrection of the dead).
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Latchkey Kid
Shipmate
# 12444
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Posted
Sometimes I wonder if the church (or The Churches) are dry bones and whether God can breath life back into them again.
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'You must never give way for an answer. An answer is always the stretch of road that's behind you. Only a question can point the way forward.'
Mika; in Hello? Is Anybody There?, Jostein Gaardner
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
There's plenty of holes in my skeleton and in that of the Church. I think the Holy Spirit can sneak in.
ETA: besides, the text said "nostrils." Haven't learned to close them just yet.
[ 10. April 2014, 14:47: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
Leo, change mouths to minds and I would agree with you.
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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