JMD Devotional 194 Ezekiel 37:1-3 God’s Rhetorical Questions
THE HAND of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. And He caused me to pass round about among them, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the open valley or plain, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know!
Why does an ‘All Knowing’ God ask questions? (He already KNOWS the answer). I have had my time on the couch, and had a psychiatrist probe me with a string of questions. Sometimes he was fishing for a raw nerve, which was exposed when the question itself provoked an angry response. However, his usual mode was to lead me to discover the answers for myself; knowing full well I would not take his word for what was wrong with me. His questions forced me to explore the other side of things; like my wife’s feelings, the wounds behind my words, and the consequences of my actions; and they exposed my duplicity and self-deceit. Breakthroughs came as my tongue got in sync with my mind and spontaneous lights turned on as honest, unrehearsed answers emerged from my lips. God’s rhetorical questions could accomplish all of those things; but certainly there is the added dimension of provoking faith in us. For Ezekiel, the question was could God restore the devastated nation of Israel, looking like a barren desert of dry bones into vital, thriving life again? For us, it is, “Can God restore and make up for our self-destruction and our wasted, ruined lives and relationships?”
How you answer determines your destiny.
Dear God,
I am an odd duck! I am the kind of saphead that always answers rhetorical questions because they are not self-evident to me. I emphatically state that You can and You will restore my life from the ashes! So much progress has already taken place---praise God! Help me to see other broken and hurting and discarded people as beautiful works in progress; help me to believe that you can and will do the same blessed work in others. May I not judge or condemn that which You are not through with yet; especially myself!
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
http://SaintJamesPoetry.blogspot.com
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
http://jamesezadventures.blogspot.com/
Why does an ‘All Knowing’ God ask questions? (He already KNOWS the answer). I have had my time on the couch, and had a psychiatrist probe me with a string of questions. Sometimes he was fishing for a raw nerve, which was exposed when the question itself provoked an angry response. However, his usual mode was to lead me to discover the answers for myself; knowing full well I would not take his word for what was wrong with me. His questions forced me to explore the other side of things; like my wife’s feelings, the wounds behind my words, and the consequences of my actions; and they exposed my duplicity and self-deceit. Breakthroughs came as my tongue got in sync with my mind and spontaneous lights turned on as honest, unrehearsed answers emerged from my lips. God’s rhetorical questions could accomplish all of those things; but certainly there is the added dimension of provoking faith in us. For Ezekiel, the question was could God restore the devastated nation of Israel, looking like a barren desert of dry bones into vital, thriving life again? For us, it is, “Can God restore and make up for our self-destruction and our wasted, ruined lives and relationships?”
How you answer determines your destiny.
Dear God,
I am an odd duck! I am the kind of saphead that always answers rhetorical questions because they are not self-evident to me. I emphatically state that You can and You will restore my life from the ashes! So much progress has already taken place---praise God! Help me to see other broken and hurting and discarded people as beautiful works in progress; help me to believe that you can and will do the same blessed work in others. May I not judge or condemn that which You are not through with yet; especially myself!
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
http://SaintJamesPoetry.blogspot.com
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
http://jamesezadventures.blogspot.com/
posted by James M. Dinsmore at 6:08 AM
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