Bones, Breath, and Resurrection

"Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. "

Ezekiel 37:5   

Somewhere over Austria

We’re zipping along at 538 mph groundspeed, about 4.5 hours into our flight back to the ATL. We have about 9 or so hours left to go.  I’m pretty tired, but can’t sleep a lick this time around. So, this is a good time to type up a blog entry and I’ll post it from the car on the way home.

We visited the Temple Mount and the Garden Tomb today before we left for Tel Aviv and our flight home. Words can’t express how big the Temple Mount is. I can see how it was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world. The Garden Tomb is the second site where Jesus is thought to have been crucified, entombed, and then resurrected. The other is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. You can make good cases about both locations. However, the issue is not where Jesus was resurrected, but that he was raised from the dead. He was not resuscitated; rather he was resurrected into everlasting life, defeating death and decay.

However, what impressed me most was a visit to the National Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem.  In English it means Hall of Names. If it is possible to depict the horror and the evil of the holocaust this museum does it. The building is grey concrete on the inside, no windows. It is shaped like a wishbone turned inside out. It is peaked at the top, but curves inward instead of outward. The design gives you a feeling of somberness and wonder. You zigzag through exhibits of personal belongings of holocaust victims, old film foot age of Nazi Germany, and personal testimonies of holocaust survivors. There is a mock up of a concentration camp bunkhouse and even an old cattle car which was used to transfer the prisoners by rail. They were herded into these cars like cattle being sent to the slaughter house. The last exhibit is called “The Room of Names.”

It is a circular room, probably 3000 square feet. On the walls of the room are black bookshelves that go from floor to ceiling, looks like 20 feet or so. On the shelves are hundreds, possibly thousands, of black binders in which each holocaust victim is recorded along with their personal information. They are not to be forgotten.  How can anyone say there was no holocaust? How ignorant is a person that makes that kind of statement!

God did breath into those bones and make them live. It is a resurrection story, the resurrection of the Jewish people from the ashes of the death factories to new life in Israel. If you have never been to Israel, you need to come. When you see how God has resurrected Israel, it won’t be hard at all to believe that Jesus Christ was

raised from the dead by the same God.

This gives you some idea of the size of the Temple Mount

Gordon's Calvary

Entrance to the Garden Tomb

Dome of the Rock

Sorry no pictures of Yad Vashem, they do not allow them to be taken. However,  you can google Yad Vashem and see some.

 I think I will continue this blog upon returning. I’ll follow the same format of theological reflection on everyday life.

Thanks for sharing this adventure with me. It has changed my life and my ministry. My prayer is that it may have had a transformative effect on your life as well.

Until next time, He is risen!