Crying. That's what I'll be doing for quite a while. I have 9 lives like a cat. I will lose 8 in the examinations and one on the results day. Yes, it is going that bad for me.
At least there's still the church to lean on every Sunday. Today's sermon was on Ezekiel Chapter 37:1-14. The valley of the very dry bones. Ezekiel was taken to a valley full of bones in a vision from the Lord. There, he saw many dry bones, a scene devoid of life.
"Son of man, can these bones live?" (trick question? the pastor brought it up)
"O Lord God, You know."
God told him to prophesy to the bones, saying that the Lord God would attach sinews and muscles and flesh and skin onto the bones. He would breathe into them the breath of life.
Imagine talking to bones when you know they are all good and dead. It's like the theory that plants grow better listening to music only bones are technically inanimate objects.I know stuff like inferi and sorcery games have those things rattling along with green smoke... but I think it was a bit more professional.
Most people take history right? What can you infer from unburied bones? They were unhonoured and for them to be very dry they must have been scavenged by vultures and wild beasts and decomposing bacteria. The bones were baked and bleached white in the scorching sun and have no resemblance to the men or even the cadavers they once were other than the main shape.
They represented the scattered people of Israel and Judah. They had lost their favour with God and had lost their blessing because they turned away from him to the gods and goddesses. So in exile the Israelites cried out, "We have become old dry bones." They felt God's presence lost. It's like a separated clique or a separated group of people, all of them feel out of place.
But God wanted to revive them, to send His Spirit and breath to them again because he loved them. So he sent Ezekiel to the vision where suddenly all those little jumbled up bones joined together and flesh came on like stem cell research. Then there's this mass of inanimate blood and flesh. When God said to Ezekiel to say to the bones (yes, it is a little weird, the bones, now corpses, would hear God if they could hear a little guy) that God would breathe into them the breath of life, they became alive.
The whole army of Israel, the living, breathing army in the valley where their dead bones once lay. Just because God loved them so much that he would bring them back again after they knew they were wrong.
When he was at it, pastor mentioned the cheesy advertisement which people paid big bucks to produce and will have the sequel next month. Here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgdYU6iDyh8
Watch it or you won't know what I'm talking about.
See? People need to be told they are loved. Then they feel happy. God told Israel he loved them by by assuring them with this vision he gave to Ezekiel even when they doubted. God promised them so much in those verses, verse 12 and 14 of the passage. It was His glory and reputation at stake if he did not accomplish what he had promised and He did do it. He brought them back home.
But then people don't want to be like that cheesy commercial. We are individuals with our own dreams and aspirations. Our own boss and the person who decides our own lives. We won't drink that plum juice or religion down so easily even with all the facts of no preservatives and now broken promises. That's why the Israelites disobeyed the commandment and chose to believe in other gods instead. A "Because I love you." situation is not always enough to make us feel like it.
I'm basically writing the whole notes for today's sermon. I want to try doing this every week when possible. Not next week but the following. One of my friend's blog has the sermon summarized. It's really heartening. Thanks Tragedia, I'll try finishing the next chapter on fiction press soon. The moment my exams stop. I will be a free, liberated woman.
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