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There's No Need To Cringe Over Halloween Hullabaloo

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2008

This is the time of year when we see skeletons in neighbors' yards hanging from trees or plastered against doors. So it seems appropriate to revisit Ezekiel 37, a scene that would blend in well with Halloween imaginings.

"The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones."

So begins an interesting story, as told by Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet during the years that the Babylonian empire ruled over Jerusalem. Ezekiel himself had been taken captive, and was living in Babylon. Jerusalem had been destroyed and God spoke through Ezekiel about the future restoration for the people.

Continuing with Ezekiel 37:3-8: "And he God said unto me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O, Lord God, thou knowest.'

"Again he said unto me, 'Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.'

"So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.

"Then said he unto me, 'Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.'

"So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

Straight out of a Jason movie, you ask?

Actually, these were words of hope. Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the bone story that Ezekiel experienced "in spirit" was God giving the Jews a rather graphic metaphorical picture of how He, who could breathe life into dry bones, would gather His nation Israel, dead in its sin, from the four winds and resurrect it.

It took several centuries, in our time, for God to fulfill that promise and make Israel once again a nation.

Jesus also illustrated how a person dead in sin can be resurrected to new life. Through Jesus' resurrection, we know we also can defeat death.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

There are some Christians today who worry about all the Halloween excitement and revelry, because it is, after all, a pagan celebration. But, just as Christmas for most Americans has lost its spiritual significance and is merely a time for secular celebrating, so, too, has Halloween, for most Americans, lost its demonic significance and is merely a time for secular celebrating. A little kid dressed up like Kermit the Frog is not demon worship in my book.

That said, when we Christians do feel a nervous tic over the Halloween frenzy, just turn to the Book and find a few passages that talk about dead bones or the dead rising from their graves as in Matthew 27:52, or - yikes! - read a few chapters of Revelation.

No need to cringe at all the Halloween hullabaloo going on around us. We can get into the spirit of things - in our own way.

Reporter and columnist Carole Dickey can be reached at (813) 948-4289 or cdickey@mediageneral.com.

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