Daniel 3:16-17: “Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answered and said unto the king,  O’ Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter.  If it be so our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thy hand O king. But if not be it known unto thee O king that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image which you have set up.”

Ezekiel 37:4: “And he said unto me, Prophesy unto these bones and say: O’ ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”

I was reading something very interesting in the Midrash (Canticles Rabbah 8) with regard to Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest and prophet during the Babylonian exile.   King Nebuchadnezzar had already executed some of the young men from the House of David because they were so handsome and the Babylonian women were falling head over heels after them.  So Nebuchadnezzar had them executed and their bodies mutilated and their bones scattered. The Midrash teaches that these were the dry bones of Ezekiel 37:4 and that this was not only a prophetic vision but reality as well.  God actually instructed Ezekiel to speak to these dry bones and they would come together and live again.  This ancient tradition not only teaches that this was a prophetic sign but that was an actual event.  It goes further to teach that these now resurrected men went on to marry and live out a full life.

Of course that is ridiculous.  It is about as ridiculous as Elijah raising the widow’s son from the dead or Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  Almost as ridiculous as the dead in Christ being raised from the dead and we who are alive and remain will be caught up to be with the Lord in the air.   So why is it that we evangelicals have no problem believing that someone who has been dead for centuries and is nothing more than dust or ashes can suddenly have his remaining dust brought together and become a living body again on the last day. We would we not even question an event like that, but if I were to suggest that God actually took a valley of dry bones and brought them together into living human beings as a prophetic sign that it is ridiculous and must be a symbolic vision?   Forget the fact that if it were even a vision a vision is sometimes a depiction of an actual event, like the Book of Revelation.  We would automatically think that the idea of a valley of dead bones actually become living, breathing human beings was ridiculous for one reason – tradition. Our tradition teaches it was a vision of a future event and not an actual event so therefore let’s throw rocks at anyone who suggest that it was an actual event.

Let’s just say, for meditative sake that it was both a prophetic sign and an actually event. Such an event would have established Ezekiel as a prophet of God.   In the Midrash it recounts the story of the three Hebrew young men thrown into the fiery furnace and that before they made their decision to defy Nebuchadnezzar, they consulted with Ezekiel who lived and prophesied during this time period. Ezekiel initially said he had no witness that the three Hebrews would escape the furnace if they defied Nebuchadnezzar nor did he have any witness that God would raise them from the dead.   These men, however, decided to defy Nebuchadnezzar anyways without any assurance that Ezekiel could raise them from the dead.  After they left God spoke to Ezekiel and said that they would survive the ordeal, but Ezekiel was not to tell them this, God wanted them to take their stand without this knowledge.

This may explain the strange statement they made to Nebuchadnezzar that God would deliver them for Nebuchadnezzar‘s hand, but if not they would still not bow down before his idol.   Actually, they are not saying God would deliver them out of the furnace, but out of the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.  This passage is written in Aramaic and in verse 17 the word deliver is shazav.  It is the grammar that gets a little confusing.  In Aramaic the Yod before the Zayin creates a Sere Yod rather than a Chireq Yod which we would have if the Zayin came before the Yod.  This form actually intensifies the word.  What this tells me is that this is event though this is intended to be a particle it is to be rendered as a future tense not to show a time element but a sense of certainty.   This leads me to believe they are speaking of a prior event and not one that is about to happen.   The Midrash is not the inspired Word of God, but it may have some historical accuracy and the three Hebrews were really saying: “God is able to deliver us and the proof is in the pudding Herr Nebuchadnezzar because He has already done that with the other Hebrews you executed.  If He can take dem dry bones and breathed life into them, then He can take three crispy critters and breath life back into them.”

It is possible the three Hebrew youths went to Ezekiel to get assurance that he could raise them from the dead like he did their companions who were executed.   After all they were just executed for their good looks, while these three Hebrews were facing execution for their faith. That is far more nobler and dear to the heart of God,  surely God would be more incline to raise them from the dead if he raised a bunch of beach bum surfers from the dead.  Yet, Ezekiel could not give them that assurance. Nonetheless, they still determined to die rather than bow to the idol, even if God would not raise them from the dead like their companions.

If you have been following my daily studies and journal you know as I journey to the heart of God, I find myself getting a little irritated over the fact that others, seemingly less devoted than I am are getting their prayers answered while I get apparently the door slammed in my fact. I mean why can’t I get my piece of that blessing pie. I would love to get up and get a great testimony of how God healed my affliction but If called upon to give a testimony I have to dig way back into the past and say twenty years ago I fell off a ladder and didn‘t break my back, praise the Lord.

Nonetheless, I have seen God take the dry sun baked bones of someone else’s who is apparently less deserving than myself and breathe life into it.   He can do the same for me if He so chooses. But if that eleventh hour comes and goes and there is still no deliverance I will just have to do what the three Hebrew children did and that is to say:  “But if not, be it known O king of darkness, that I will not bow and serve your god of despair, discouragement, wealth, success or fame. I will only bow down to my God Jehovah so go ahead and do your worst.”