How prophecy works in reverse

Imagine life in fast-forward: Everything and everyone here and there and here and there, all in herky-jerky motions. And then all of it goes away.

All of it goes away.

Woke up later than usual. Walked out in pajamas to get the paper. Tax protests. Thirty undergraduates declare for the draft. Griffey hits 400th (he was here, then he was there, now he’s here). New and used trucks for sale. One of these days … me in a new truck! Somehow I’ll rationalize it. Then it gets old. Surf the web. Editorial: Tax protests mean nothing. Okay they mean nothing. What’s the reading for today?

He saw dead bones scattered. Prophesy to them the word of the Lord.

He heard a great rattling as bones and sinews came together. Prophesy breath into them.

He saw them rise and live, standing as a vast multitude. Prophesy the spirit into them.

Graves will open (not shut; they will open). And the living will be brought into their own land.

It was all in fast-forward. But it was fast-forward in reverse.

The years gone; the lives gone; all exciting experiences gone: been-there-done-that. Home runs and new trucks gone. Everything the locust has eaten. All sorts of locusts. Gone.

All of it restored back, and not quietly but with a great rattling. With graves opened. With spirit. With life. And on our own land to boot. True prophecy works in reverse.

Logos2Go

John 15.16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last …

Joel 2.25 So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."