Saturday, 5 December 2015

Someone has said that an archaeologist is a person who makes his living digging up dead people.
If you lived in Israel today-
– you might believe that is true.
Israel is bustling with archaeological activity.
Professionals and volunteers are digging up mounds of past civilizations, finding pottery, coins and, occasionally, human bones.
They gather the artifacts carefully-
– but they do not anticipate that the pottery will ever again be used for cooking or the coins for trading.
And they certainly do not anticipate that those dry bones will ever live again.
Not so with the Lord God!
He called the prophet Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones and asked, “Can these bones live?”
Ezekiel was cautious in his response: “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know” (Ezek 37:3).
God was promising that the nation Israel, which was all but obliterated due to enemy invasion, would one day live again.
For almost 20 centuries Israel did not exist as a nation.
There was no Jewish homeland.
The Hebrew language all but died out.
And then God performed a miracle.
He gathered Jews from all over the world and brought them to Palestine, and in 1948 the modern state of Israel was born.
It was proof that, just as He had predicted to Ezekiel-
God would not abandon His people forever.
God keeps His promises-
– even in a valley full of dry bones.
“Thank You, Heavenly Father, for being a God of integrity.
Thank You for bringing Your people back to their land and for giving us one more example that You are a God of Your word.”
(PR)