{"id":2760,"date":"2020-04-22T09:09:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2-18-221-120-76.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com\/?page_id=2760"},"modified":"2020-04-22T09:09:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:09:19","slug":"lord-you-know","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/from-the-pastors\/lord-you-know\/","title":{"rendered":"“Lord, You Know”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the book of Ezekiel there\u2019s a remarkably vivid description of a place that\u2019s come to be called \u201cthe valley of dry bones.\u201d The story reads:<\/p>\n

\n

The hand of Jehovah came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of Jehovah, 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 open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, \u201cSon of man, can these bones live?\u201d (37:1-3)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The image here, like many pictures and stories from the Old Testament, is unsettling and unbeautiful. Why would the Lord bring His servant to a valley of dry bones? To force us to recall the inevitability of death? Of course not\u2014the Lord never rubs the truth in anyone\u2019s face. I think there\u2019s a very simple reason why the Lord includes so many grim images in His Word: they\u2019re there to remind us that the Lord sees even the darkest things, even the lowest ebbs of our spiritual lives. Even the driest, most lifeless valleys within human experience\u2014places in which we wouldn\u2019t elect to spend much of our conscious time\u2014are places He understands.<\/p>\n

The question He asks Ezekiel in this story is a fascinating one: \u201cCan these bones live?\u201d That question could mean a lot of things. It could be rhetorical: \u201cAre these dead things indeed dead?\u201d It could be a question about Ezekiel\u2019s faith: \u201cDo you believe that I have the power to make what is dead come alive?\u201d It could be a question about bones in a valley, or it could be a question about something much more personal, something within Ezekiel, something within us that we recognize altogether too well. \u201cDo you have hope for these dead, dry things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ezekiel\u2019s answer is this: \u201cO Lord Jehovah, You know\u201d (v. 3). Is that really an answer? Is Ezekiel trying to dodge what the Lord is asking? What is he really saying here?<\/p>\n

I think that Ezekiel\u2019s answer echoes the Lord\u2019s very reason for bringing him to the valley of dry bones. The Lord shows us that He sees even the bleakest places in us\u2014He knows<\/em> even these valleys. He asks us if it is possible for life\u2014for breath, for growth, for joy\u2014to take hold even in these places of death. And the small voice of faith within us\u2014the voice of innocence\u2014answers, \u201cLord, You know.\u201d He knows<\/em> the dryness and the darkness, even the worst of it. During His life on earth, in a body like ours, He went there. \u201cSurely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows\u201d (Isaiah 53:4). If He, the Lord, stands with us in the valley of dry bones and says that it is still possible for us to live\u2026 He knows.<\/p>\n

\n

Thus says the Lord Jehovah to these bones: \u201cSurely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am Jehovah.\u201d (Ez. 37:5, 6)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Rev. Jared Buss, March 2019<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rev. Jared Buss shares some thoughts on the Lord’s presence with us even in the darkest times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3935,"parent":17,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-page-comments.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2760","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","blog-style1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2760\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}