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Dry Bones Vivified, February 6
And [I] shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken
it, and performed it, saith the Lord.
Ezekiel 37:14
.
It is not the human agent that is to inspire with life. The Lord God of
Israel will do that part, quickening the lifeless spiritual nature into activity.
The breath of the Lord of hosts must enter into the lifeless bodies. In the
judgment, when all secrets are laid bare, it will be known that the voice of
God spoke through the human agent, and aroused the torpid conscience, and
stirred the lifeless faculties, and moved sinners to repentance and contrition,
and forsaking of sins. It will then be clearly seen that through the human
agent faith in Jesus Christ was imparted to the soul, and spiritual life from
heaven was breathed upon one who was dead in trespasses and sins, and he
was quickened with spiritual life.
But not only does this simile of the dry bones apply to the world, but
also to those who have been blessed with great light; for they also are like
the skeletons of the valley. They have the form of men, the framework of
the body; but they have not spiritual life. But the parable does not leave the
dry bones merely knit together into the forms of men; for it is not enough
that there is symmetry of limb and feature. The breath of life must vivify the
bodies, that they may stand upright, and spring into activity. These bones
represent the house of Israel, the church of God, and the hope of the church
is the vivifying influence of the Holy Spirit. The Lord must breathe upon the
dry bones, that they may live.
The Spirit of God, with its vivifying power, must be in every human agent,
that every spiritual muscle and sinew may be in exercise. Without the Holy
Spirit, without the breath of God, there is torpidity of conscience, loss of
spiritual life. Many who are without spiritual life have their names on the
church records, but they are not written in the Lamb’s book of life. They may
be joined to the church, but they are not united to the Lord. They may be
diligent in the performance of a certain set of duties, and may be regarded as
living men; but many are among those who have “a name that thou livest, and
art dead” (
Revelation 3:1
).—
The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White
Comments, vol. 4, 1165, 1166
.
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