Rest - HE Knows
........ I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Ezekiel 37:3 (NKJV)
This short statement, is Ezekiel’s response to the Spirit of the Lord God almighty, when he was faced with a conversation he had no idea of. In the verses preceding, the Spirit of the Lord had led Ezekiel to what is referred to as a valley of dry bones. It was full of bones of dead Israelites and Ezekiel was tasked with the question of whether the bones would live: “son of man, can these bones live?”. Ezekiel responds with the answer that only the Lord God knows whether they could live again or not. The conversation between the Spirit of the Lord and the prophet continues, and Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the bones the word of the Lord, calling them back to life (vs 4 – 6). It is recorded for us that the revival of these bones by the Lord, was so that it would be known that Jehovah is the Lord (vs 14).
Beloved, while this is a story that is often shared and our hearts are encouraged to acknowledge that the Lord God could renew our strength and bring to life dreams that we have considered dead, I was drawn to the last part of verse 3 “……. O Lord God, you know”. In this short sentence, Ezekiel is teaching us huge lessons that we could live by. He is acknowledging that while this is an unimaginable ask by any standards where dry bones of the dead are brought back to life, the Lord God alone knows of the possibility and the means of doing it. The prophet invites us to surrender ourselves to the greatness of our almighty God and declare that He alone can do beyond what we could imagine or expect - literally blowing our minds off. This is also the spirit of worship of who God really is, He is great, He is able and mighty; and nothing is too hard for Him. It introduces us to a sense of awe, wonder and expectation of what God can do, far above what our minds and hearts could ever conceive.
As I mused over this revelation, I realized that often times I struggle to understand things and issues which are beyond my ability and this causes frustration in my heart. I think it causes God frustration too like it does to a parent when a child starts to ask the question “why” and on giving an answer the child follows up with another “why” and another “why” and it becomes exhausting to the parent. The fact that the parent knows the child would not comprehend some things and even if explained the “why” would not go away, frustrates both the parent and the child. With God as our Father, I submit that we at times ask “why”, “what”. “where”, “when” and “how” questions for which the Lord does not answer due to our limited scope and ability to understand. At times, we are safe to result to Ezekiel’s answer “…. O Lord God you know”. After all, we are reminded by Prophet Isaiah that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8 – 9), indeed our God has no equal, least of all, us His creation.
This statement does not mean that we are resigned to whatever will be, but that we are taking rest in the knowledge and confidence that God our loving Father is in full control of the situation. The bible encourages us to rest in His love, a place of security and comfort for we cannot doubt His plans for our lives, plans to give us a future and a hope and if that becomes the reality that we walk in, we can rest. (Zephaniah 3:17) reminds us that the Lord our God quiets us in His love and rejoices over us with singing. He is interested in us and watches over everything that concerns us - everything.
When we struggle to control situations and to understand everything, we are demonstrating a lack of trust in His ability to be in charge. Yes, we are encouraged to diligently seek and study God’s ways (2 Timothy 2:15), but it would be wise to acknowledge our limitations too. In the New Testament, we are cautioned that our worries would not add anything to our lives and if we understood this fact, then we could also appreciate that each day has enough troubles of its own without adding on unnecessary worries (Matthew 6: 34). It is my prayer that we would learn to rest in our Father’s love and watch Him do what only He can do. Will you join me?
Thoughts:
What are you worrying over?
Is there anything you need to release to the Lord as one who alone knows?
How will you discipline your inner (wo)man to rest and be quietened in God alone?