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Showing posts from April, 2017

Dry Bones- Lent 5

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Ezekiel 37 Shortly after King David’s son Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was split into two- the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. In the 6th century the Babylonian Empire invaded the southern kingdom and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and took a number of people off as captives to Babylon (586 BC). The northern part of the empire fell to the Assyrian Empire 134 years earlier (720BC). One of the people that was taken away into captivity was Ezekiel, who was both a priest and a prophet. This is one of the darkest times of their history. Ezekiel is speaking to his people in exile. The temple King Solomon built has been destroyed. It was the place heaven and earth overlapped. It was the place the presence of God was witnessed and experienced. It was the place of the Arc of the Covenant. Jerusalem was the City of David. They had been taken from the Promised Land God had promised to the ancestor Abraham. It was the land they went to after God used Moses to rescue them