Daily Devotion, February 23, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Ezekiel 37:1-14.

This beloved passage has captured the imagination of readers for centuries. It is one of the visions God gave to Ezekiel to offer hope of God’s life-giving power. In the midst of the despair and hopelessness of the Hebrew people during their years of exile, this vision moves the people toward restoration.

This vision of God breathing life into dry bones gives the promise that the people will be returned to their homeland and “they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.” This phrase is written often in the book of Ezekiel. It’s God’s reminder to the people and to us today that there is nothing that God can’t do! God has the power to give life and to give life again!

Reading this passage, an image from the movie, “Remember the Titans” came to my mind. It is the scene where Coach Boone has taken his football team to Gettysburg to receive a new vision.

Coach Boone asks the team, “Anybody know what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died on this field, fightin’ the same fight that we’re still fightin’ amongst ourselves today. You listen and you can take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together, right now, on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed----just like they were.”

Coach Boone offered a new vision from the Gettysburg’s graves that if the football team could overcome the racial issues that separated them, instead of on-going fighting and death, new life could be ahead for them!

Ezekiel, from the beginning of his book, was trying to get the people of Israel to understand that God was faithful to the covenant with them, but they had been unfaithful to their covenant with God. But God offers forgiveness, restoration and new life! In the process of God’s breathing new life into their dry bones, they would know it was God who had accomplished this and renew their own covenant of faithfulness unto God.

Personal Worship Option:

Lord, from the pandemic and the divisions around us, we can understand the despair of Ezekiel’s day and we too, need your life-giving power again, around the world. Open our eyes to see your vision for healing, restoration, unity and hope, trusting you each step of the way. Amen.