Do you ever have those days where you just sit back and wonder? Your family and friends worry about you because you just all of a sudden are staring off into space. Is it the early onset of some awful mind ailment? Or is it that break from reality that folks have been thinking was coming any day now? .jpg)
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Let's face it. Sometimes it's just that you're sitting back and wondering! You allow your mind to rest for just a moment from the noise that is continually bombarding you and there is peace. Your wondering may have a specific agenda or you could just be having a moment of solitude. Regardless, there is something healthy in the way we go about getting our "moment". It is rest for the weary, and peace from the chaos. It is the wondering that keeps us from having "that other moment". Something that perhaps looks like this...
Regardless of how your "moment" may come, you need the break that comes from them every once in a while to maintain your balance, and to ward off the infection of depression. Sometimes you need it because it's just good for them bones...
The 90s was a defining decade in popular music. You saw a renaissance of sorts with the burgeoning alternative scene and its many derivatives. Bands like Green Day (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" (Green Day), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (Green Day)), Janes Addiction (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Been Caught Stealing" (Jane's Addiction)), and Blind Melon (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "No Rain" (Blind Melon)) assisted in refining the sound and making it one that is easily recognizable some 30 years later. Uh, yeah...we're 30 years older than when "Them Bones" was released. Ok...time to wonder again...
Released as the second single from their 4 times platinum album Dirt (1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die edited by Robert Dimery), "Them Bones" allowed for the continuity that Alice In Chains used in their contributions to 90s alternative music. The single would peak at #24 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart and #30 on Billboard's Alternative Airplay Chart. Does Billboard have a chart for everything?
"Them Bones" is an unusual song as it is written with a 7/8 time signature segueing into 4/4 at the chorus. I had an esteemed music professor once comment, "We don't speak in 4/4 all the time, why should we play in it all the time?" (Thanks! Dr. Brent Bristow ("Music Professor Producing Album With A-list Talents" asub.edu/news-information))
"Them Bones" was written as a sarcastic look at life and death and how the time in which we live is chaotic at best. "Them Bones" was written by Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell who says of the song: "I was just thinking about mortality, that one of these days we'll end up a pile of bones. It's a thought for every human being, whether you believe in an after-life or that when we die, that's it. The thought that all the beautiful things and knowledge and experiences you've been through just end when you end scares me, the thought that when you close your eyes for good, it's gone forever." (Liner notes, Music Bank box set. 1999.)
One wonders if Mr. Cantrell ever had the occasion to explore a certain valley in the Middle East...
Once again we find our intrepid, prophetic hero engaged in a vision. This time the illusory theme for Ezekiel is a valley of dry bones. If you have ever had the opportunity to pick up skeletal remains that are old, you quickly understand the brittle, and dry texture of the bones that Ezekiel encountered. In this vision, God tells Ezekiel to walk around the bones and observe that there was absolutely nothing left to them that would exemplify living creatures. I don't know about you but I can almost hear the clattering as Ezekiel walks among these last vestiges of human existence.
As Ezekiel proceeds, God asks what would appear to be an obvious question..."Can these bones live?" Here is where Ezekiel sets himself apart from the other Israelites. Their idolatry and sin had kept their faith in God squelched, but not Ezekiel. Ezekiel states, "Lord, God, You Yourself knows." Ok, so with all of the other insights we have seen Ezekiel have, this is not too much of a stretch for him to reply in this manner.
Given this instance, how would you reply? How do you reply when God asks questions that seem to have an obvious answer in our eyes, but the response is not as obvious when taking God into consideration? Don't think for a second believing friend, that God doesn't ask us questions like this in our life.
What happens next inspired a song that has assisted anatomy teachers for ages...
"The foot bone connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the thigh bone, now hear the word of the Lord" Yup, this is exactly where the song "Dem Bones" came from. "Dry Bones" by the Delta Rhythm Boys ("Rise of the Delta Rhythm Boys" blogpost on weirdovideo.com)
As Ezekiel obediently prophesied to them bones, they began to come together. Imagine the sight, kinda like zombies in reverse, as the ruckus of the bones coming together, was accompanied by sinews, tendons, skin, and hair as the bodies were formed. These were bones of folks who had been dead but were being raised to life as Ezekiel called the winds to enter their bodies for breath. All of this, to form a great army, an army for the Lord.
Remember that all of this occurred in a vision that Ezekiel was experiencing, not just seeing. What did it represent?
Have you ever been so tired that it seemed your bones hurt? I have. It seems you can't take another step, your mouth is dry and even breathing seems to be a chore. This was the state of Israel at this time. Their devotion and faith were no longer alive but existed like the valley of dry bones that Ezekiel observed.
In one of the most hopeful prophesies in the book of Ezekiel, God instructs Ezekiel to tell the nation of Israel that even though their love, devotion, obedience, and faith in Him are dead, He as the Creator God who loves them and has a world-changing plan for them, will bring them out of their graves and breath new life into them. Ezekiel was to explain that their captivity would not be forever and that they would return to Israel one day as a fulfillment of His promise to Abraham.
Remember them bones we spoke of earlier? Perhaps you feel like you're all dried up and about to return to the dust from whence you were created. Perhaps you feel like, at the end of life that is all there is, there is nothing more. Perhaps your once flame-filled devotion and faith have waned and you've lost the breath that sustains your life. Regardless of these feelings, based on God's Word today, there is HOPE.
The hope of restoration, the hope of flesh on them bones, the hope of breath in the lungs enabling you to shout, the hope of new life that places you on mountaintops instead of valleys. That Hope has a name...Jesus.
If you have drifted and allowed your faith and devotion to grow dry, cry out to Him. If you have never considered your existence past this present physical environment and you feel like your gonna end up a pile of them bones, cry out to Him. If you have wondered what eternity future might look like, cry out to Him. If you desire restoration and the breath of life, cry out to Him.
We are about to enter the time where the world celebrates the death, burial, and Praise God, the resurrection of Jesus. The time for your bones to take on flesh and for your body to have His breath is now. Won't you come join the army of them bones? Now hear the Word of the Lord...
'Til Tuesday
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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