I’ve been studying Ezekiel 37 and Acts 2 this first week of the Season of Pentecost. I’ve read these texts many times, but I’m not sure I’ve read them with one another. In my journal I’ve begun to list all the things that jump off the page as I read. Do you journal? I’ve found joy in it over the years once I decided that I would journal in a way that suited me and not get hung up over “doing it correctly.”
I’m intrigued by the gift of the “breath” to the re-assembled dry bones in Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel calls the bones back together by the power of God but “…there was no breath in them.” Picture that. A valley filled with lifelike statues of people but no life in them. They look like statues or better, something from the wax museum.
In verse 9, the Lord tells Ezekiel to say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says; Come breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” Of course, obedient Ezekiel does, and the “vast army” stands up.
I suspect that many of you have made the connection between the breath and dry bones of Ezekiel and the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. That’s good. Isn’t it wonderful when the Old and New Testaments work together to reveal the consistency of God’s sanctifying work!
But I’d like to draw your attention to something I just noticed today. In Acts 1:8, when Jesus tells the disciples to await the gift of the Holy Spirit, he tells them that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And when Jesus commissions the disciples in Matthew 28 to “…go and make disciples of all nations” he is inviting them to remember the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37.
A “Four-Winds” commission (Matt. 28 and Acts 1:8) requires a “Four-Winds” Spirit (Ezekiel 37:9).
The followers of Jesus, huddled in the upper room, would have been well versed in the story of Ezekiel. The sound of the wind must have eventually made sense when the same Spirit that resurrected the dry bones exploded into their hearts and caused them to shake off their fear and preach boldly.
What is the Spirit saying to you today? Are you worried that the request exceeds your abilities? Perfect. It’s not about you. The same Spirit who comes from the ends of the earth was sufficient to empower the disciples to go to the ends of the earth. What the disciples realized then is what we need today; the same God who moved then, moves now! We can boldly follow when the Spirit leads!
Sam
