Tues.’s Devo - The Valley of Dry Bones

Read: Eze. 37:1-38:23; James 1:19-2:17; PS. 117:1-2; Pr. 28:1 We all know this story from our childhood - the valley of dry bones. It is a picture of what God is going to do with the children of Israel in the last days and how He will bring them together, breathe his spirit in them and raise them up as a mighty army. It is also a picture of what he will do with the church in the last day and what will happen at the very last day when God brings to life every believer who has ever been to fight in the battle of Armageddon. And it is also a picture of what God does every time he saves a person. He causes their dry bones to come together, breathes his eternal life in them and raises them up to fight the good fight of faith in the earth. Chapter 38 is a picture of when the Maccabees with Antiochus came down from the north and attacked Israel, but more importantly of what will happen in the end when God will wage war on his enemies at Aramageddon. One of the verses in James that I repeat to myself often is verse 20, “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” Every time I am tempted to get mad I remind my self that my wrath is not representing God’s righteousness. It helps! I love the way verse 25 is worded. It describes the Word as the perfect law of liberty. We are tempted to see God’s Word as a book of laws that confine us when they are really suppose to be words that free us when we do what it says. Chapter 2 reminds us to honor all people the same no matter what their economic state is. Jesus chose to be poor on this earth and he is the most honored of all. Lord, help us to take courage in this world knowing that You have overcome and to honor all men as You do.