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Danville Enlightener VOL. VIII, No. 45
It Won't Do Any GoodEver notice how many times you hear supposed men and women of faith declare “It won’t do any good”? Whether preaching to the lost, or praying for the sick – “It won’t do any good.” The people of Judah were in serious trouble with no immediate end in sight. Things had gone from bad to worse for the people of God. They had been in Babylonian captivity for several years. They had lost their homeland, and for awhile they falsely believed they would return to Jerusalem within two years (Jer 28:3). But this was not to be, instead of returning, Nebuchadnezzar’s army marched upon Jerusalem, and for two years the city was under siege. Then it fell. The temple was destroyed, the city burned and looted; the citizenry that was not killed, either died of famine or disease. The few who survived the war, sickness or starvation were taken as slaves. This was a dark and depressing time for Judah and for Ezekiel who was also a captive. It looked hopeless. The country was a graveyard. Their sins had eaten them like cancer and they died. They tried everything to avoid this situation; everything that is except repent and turn back to God. They bribed, deceived, schemed, raised up armies and sacrificed to their idols, or their idolatrous notion of God, but nothing worked. Hopeless is how one might describe their situation. They reached the point where nothing could be done. The nation was gone; the people (most of them) were dead. However, at this time the prophet Ezekiel was given a most perplexing assignment. The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the openvalley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? So I answered, O Lord GOD, You know, (Ezek 37:1-2). Ezekiel was taken into a valley filled with (not merely skeletons) but bones of dead men scattered everywhere; unconnected, disjointed bones. They were very dry bones indicating the length of time they had lain parched in the sun. Talk about a dead audience, God told Ezekiel to preach to the bones, (Ezek 37:4-7) and when he did as God commanded the bones began to be assembled; they took on ligaments, muscles and flesh. Humanly speaking it makes absolutely no sense to preach to a bunch of bones, (It won’t do any good) but Ezekiel did as he was told, and the bones became corpses (Ezek 37:8). Next Ezekiel is told to prophesy to a bunch of corpses (Ezek 37:9-10). We need to remember that Ezekiel did not preach life into the bones; all he did was obey God. It was God who caused these bones to live again. The power was not in Ezekiel, it resided with God alone. God was using this as a means of teaching to Ezekiel and the remnant that He was still in control. Even when times are bleak, God is in control. There is never a time to despair and give-up. Despite the apparent hopelessness God would deliver the nation and it would live again (Ezek 37:11-14). This was fulfilled when the decree was given by Cyrus in Ezra 1:1-3. But, are there any lessons we can learn from this event in Judah’s history? We can learn about faith and how courageous it must be. What Ezekiel did was a thoroughly unreasonable thing to do, humanly speaking that is. It was ridiculous to preach to a bunch of dry bones. Everybody knows that bones cannot be reassembled and brought back to life. But, this is always a quality of faith. Faith is trusting God and doing what He says regardless. God often calls upon people to believe something that defies human logic and wisdom. For example, in Lk 5:4-5 we read of this conversation between Jesus and Peter. When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to Him, master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net. The tide had already shifted and the time for fishing would have been past. They were night fishermen. The Lord’s request was illogical to seasoned fishermen! But their faith in Jesus (not in their nets) caused them to do as He said. Also,
when
Jesus
came
to
the
grave
site
of
Lazarus,
a
man
dead
for
four
days;
He
requested
in
Jn
11:38,
Take
away
the
stone.
It
made
no
sense
(from
a
totally
human
standpoint) to open the tomb of a decaying man. But their faith in Jesus caused them to defy logic and do as he said. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Humanly speaking it makes no sense to believe that water baptism plays any part in a man’s salvation. Yet the Bible makes it clear that baptism in water is essential (Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; 1 Pet 3:21). I don’t have a clue why God linked water baptism with salvation, but he did. It would do well for me to simply trust God in these matters. Remember what Ezekiel said when God asked him in Ezek 37:3 Son of man, can these bones live? Ezekiel’s response: So I answered, O Lord GOD, You know. We would be a lot better off if we stopped trying to answer things we can’t know and begin doing things we do know. We would do well to admit our ignorance and simply commit ourselves to God. Our problem is: We want God to do things the way we would do them. We want Him to agree with us, and when He doesn’t then we have a hard time following Him by faith. We cry out “It won’t do any good!” If God did everything we wanted and approved of, and if God always explained perfectly (so we could thoroughly understand His reasoning) then we would be living by sight and n |