Focus: Death Isn't Final

Text: Ezk.37:9.

"O breath, and breathe upon THESE SLAIN, that they may live."

Death is beyond man and God is beyond death. Once death occurs there is nothing anyone can do to remedy it except by miracle. Death is only reversible by the power of God.

God brings Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones in a vision. Right in the middle of the valley he sees very many bones scattered all over the entire space, and they were very dry. The hand of God takes him round the valley to see the hopelessness of the situation. It is indeed a hopeless case and Ezekiel feels totally helpless. He is clueless as to what can be done to transform the situation.

The dry bones signify or symbolize death, and the valley is like a cemetery.

God himself describes the dry bones as "these slain," and slain means killed, and I could not but wonder who killed us. How did it happen? As I searched the Scriptures I noticed that life can be cut short in several ways - by wrong choices, by mistakes and error in judgment, by hardship and affliction, by malice and avarice, by hurts done to us by others, by what Solomon describes as the "viper's tongue," by our foolishness, by misdeeds and carelessness, by sin and evil, and I can go on and on. In the process of time life becomes hard and dry. Life becomes only a mere appearance, but within us we are dying bit by bit.

But then, the message of Ezekiel is that there's hope beyond the grave. God can hinder or reverse death. God has the last word on any matter.

So God says to Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones, and again to speak to the four winds of the earth to breathe upon these slain. Yes, resurrected life is possible in Christ. In God we live, move and have our being. There's hope, and death isn't final. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter