LIVING BONES

December 30 1998

In this day and age we are especially privileged, having a unique opportunity of watching and witnessing the ending of a millenium, a century, and the year 1998. In this era of communication the entire story of humanity can be placed on a microchip, and be sent out in a matter of seconds all over the world. What are your thoughts, as we head into the future? Are they full of hope and expectations of great and wonderful things? Do you have our Elohim's prophetic perspective on the future? Has your excitement risen with the thought of the Messiah's imminent return?

This week's Parasha (Gen 47:28-50:26) reading could not have been more appropriate for the occasion of the end of the common year. "Vayechi," means "and he lived." What a seeming contrast this is to the deaths of two of our greatest Patriarchs, which this Parasha recounts! But yet, right in between the records of those deaths, we find the blessing and promise of "life."

In the beginning of the Parasha, we see Jacob calling his son Joseph who was to be the recipient of the birthright, to his side. He asks him to put his hand under his thigh and to take an oath that he would carry his body out of Egypt and bury it with his fathers, in the land of Israel. Jacob knew prophetically that someday his seed would come out of Egypt and return to the land of promise. This act, of putting the hand under the thigh we already witnessed in a previous Parasha, where Abraham asked his senior servant to go and carry out his request of getting a wife for his son Isaac (Gen 24:2). This symbolic act was a commitment to carry out a very important directive, to the best of one's ability; as the thigh represents the strength of man and the hand is that which accomplishes the work. When sealed by an oath, which denotes faithfulness, the thigh and the hand unite in one purpose.

Just before Jacob dies, he imparts the blessing of the family birthright to Joseph and to his sons. He gives to them his name and national identity - "Israel"- along with the covenant promises of fruitfulness (Ephraim); "the fullness of the nations." Years later when Joseph is about to "lay down with his fathers", he calls his brothers together and prophesies the future of the nation. Interestingly, after all that Joseph had endured and had gone through in his life, it was this final prophetic proclamation which gained him recognition in the renowned "hall of fame of faith." "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones" (Heb 11:22). May our faith also meet the challenge of the prophetic word in like manner.

Both Jacob and Joseph were embalmed, Egyptian style, and as we know leaves the corpse recognizable, albeit in a very dry state. Thus, Jeremiah's appalling prophetic description of Israel-Zion, because of sin and Elohim's righteous judgments come to mind: "Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick" (Lam. 4:8). Perhaps it is in light of this scripture that we should re-examine the two "sticks" in the valley of the dry bones (Eze. 37).

In keeping to the promise that the children of Israel made many years before Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for Joseph had made the children of Israel solemnly swear, saying, "Elohim will surely visit you; and you shall carry up my bones with you" (Exodus 13:19). What a prophetic picture of the Messiah of Israel taking the dead dry bones of the whole house of Israel with him to the cross, and then carrying them to the grave. But now through the same power that raised Him from the dead, He is raising them up into newness of life - "Vayechi"! Yes, and as all good stories end, "and he lived" (happily ever after) but not in Egypt. As we follow on in the scriptures, the story continues with Joshua bringing these bones out of the wilderness and into the land of promise. "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph" (Josh. 24:32). Here is another beautiful prophetic picture of our Messiah's ultimate objective, to restore and bring back to the land the whole house of Israel.

The New Covenant establishes the conditions upon which the fulfillment of all the Torah and the Prophets depend, the sovereignty of the "I will" of Elohim Almighty "I will open your graves, I will cause you to come out, I will cause breath to enter you that you may live, I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, and cover you with skin, I will pour clean water on you, I will put my Spirit with in you, I will write the Torah on your hearts, I will bring you back to the land where you will live securely, with one Shepherd and one King over you. Why is Elohim doing all this? 'I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, whither you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am YHVH, saith YHVH ELOHIM, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:22-24). This was not only a testimony to the heathens, but also that "you might know that I am YHVH your Elohim" (Ezekiel 37:6).

“So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived - "Vayechi" - and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (Ezekiel 7:10).

Ephraim

"How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell (shevet achim) together in unity…for in this Elohim commands the blessing life eternal" (Psalm 133).