Therefore prophesy and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.” ’
Ezekiel 37:12-14
Have you ever noticed something about shopping malls? You head inside them to get your shopping. You go through the entrance, turn around and always see one thing, right in front of you:
An exit sign.
Every exit in every shopping mall has a sign telling you where it is.
And there is a very good reason for that. It’s not so you can leave the mall without spending any money. No, it’s because if something bad happens in the mall, you need to know how to get out of there.
It's the same with ferries.
It's the same in airplanes. And some of those exits may be behind you.
I used to go into dangerous neighbourhoods as a teenager to speak to people around my age who were getting drunk, doing drugs and carrying concealed weapons. They were often involved in violent fights and several of them were arrested at different times. So what I did is I walked to the neighbourhood in the daylight and got to know all its side streets and alleyways so that, if I was in the neighbourhood at night and things got a little too ‘interesting’, I would know the quickest way to get out of there.
In life we always need an exit strategy. Hard times will always come our way. It’s part of life.
And when they come, knowing how to get out of them is what makes us stronger and more resilient.
The problem is that the people of the world around us have no working exit strategy for suffering. They either numb it with alcohol and drugs and hope it will go away on its own, or give up.
We Christians are fundamentally different. Our exit strategy is the Word of God and everything God promises in it. A Christian will suffer, just like a non-Christian (and sometimes more). However, what makes us fundamentally different is that we have a cast iron, solid as a rock, hope that our suffering will one day end.
We have a guaranteed exit strategy.
And that is what makes us stronger and more resilient.
This is what Ezekiel is talking about.
He is talking about a people who have got themselves into a dreadful situation from which there appears to be no way back. He is talking about a people who have given up all hope, who believe that even God Himself cannot help them now. He is talking about a people who are utterly resigned to their fate.
Does this seem at all familiar?
So how does Ezekiel’s vision answer their fatalism?
When they say that their bones are dried up – that their situation is far beyond all hope – he calls on them to obey the Word of the Lord.
When they say that they are cut off, Ezekiel calls them to come together.
When they say that their hope us gone, Ezekiel tells them that God will raise them up and breathe His spirit in them so that they will become a mighty army.
And there is something even more glorious to this vision.
You see, we might look at the splendour of being resurrected – of rising up against all the odds – and we might wonder if it’s really for us. We might argue that we are too far gone, that we don’t deserve it, that God would not do something like this for us.
The context of these verses make a complete lie of that.
Who was it who received this wonderful vision?
Was it not a people who faced annihilation and abject misery because they had sinned – and not just once or twice, but over entire generations?
God was not giving this promise to people who were holy and righteous and had their lives all together. No, He was giving this vision to a bunch of people who had failed Him time and time and time again.
This vision was for sinners.
Which is why the first stage to full restoration is to abandon their sinful ways, repent and obey the voice of the Lord.
This vision, and all of its wonderful blessings, are open to all of us.
The question is: are we willing to heed its call?
Questions
What is Ezekiel’s ‘exit strategy’ from suffering? How does this work if we never stop suffering in this life?
Why is it important that the people who received this vision were far from perfect? What does this say to us?
Are you willing to heed the call to obey the Word of the Lord? What difference could this make to your life?
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