Bones t

Word Study: Bones

If your house was on fire and you could only take one thing, what would it be?

* Your most valued possession:

A look at one of the Israelites greatest possession:

Joseph's bones, Gen. 50:22-26 (context) J. is sold into slavery by his bros and now he is second to the king of Egypt. There is a phamon and his family ends up coming to live with him in Egypt. Here he also prophecy's of the exodus.

So the question we are left with, is why the heck did J want his bones buried in Israel, to his fathers land? This isn't the last we hear of J bones.

Exd.13: 17-19 (context) Israelites are now on their way out of Egypt and before they get to the red sea we read this. The interesting thing about this verse is that there is a record of J bones in the midst of such a hurry. They didn't even have time to bake their bread yet they had time to grab j bones .EXD 12:33 Why was taking j bones so important to the Israelites? This still isn't the last time we hear of j bones.

Josh. 24:32 (context) the Israelites have conquered the land, decades after the exodus. So now we have an interesting timetable. Scripture has traced j bones from gen. to Josh. Some 500 years from his request. We come back to our first question of why did j want his bones buried in Israel? To answer this we need to look at scripture for our answer. This also isn't the first instance. Gen 49:28-33

Saul's bones, 1 Sam. 31:11-13 (context) Saul has just been defeated by the philistines and killed. As a trophy the have hung Saul and his sons on their walls. Stick with me. As we see there is just something going on with the preservation of bones.

2 Sam. 21:12-14 now we see David so obsessed with the bones that he goes digs up their bones brings then back to Jerusalem and buries them. The parallel from this story to that of Joseph' is that they are taken and not just buried anywhere, but specifically in Jerusalem. We still don't know why but were getting there.

Man of God's bones, 1 Kings 13:29-31(context) this is the story of the righteous man who disobeyed God and was killed by a lion who guarded the body. Not only does he bury the bones but also he has a very odd request to his sons to be buried with him.

Josiah's reform, 2 Chron. 34:5 (context) Josiah has become king and he is purging the land of all the pagan rituals.

2 Kings 23:16-20 the point of this sotry in both kings and chron. Is emphasizing the burning of these pagan bones and preserving the bones of the righteous. I hope it is starting to make some sense.

Elisha's bones, 2 Kings 13:20-21 so we see that there is something going on here with the bones (I hope your starting to get the picture), almost like the Israelites knew some thing.

Ezekiel's prophesy, Ezek. 37:1-14 first of all the interesting thing about this prophecy is that Israel hasn't excised for centuries. Here it says how one day God will open the graves of the Israelites and put life into the bones. What we are seeing is that the Israelites had a clear-cut concept of bodily resurrection.

So back to our question that we started with, the reason Joseph wanted his bones buried in Israel it was because he had an understanding that God would raise his people. It works the same way with why king Josiah destroyed the bones of the wicked. He was showing that there is no hope for the unrighteous - no resurrection.

Bones are a symbolism of bodily resurrection: Heb. 11:17-22 so the point here is that just as Abraham believed there was a resurrection from the dead so did joseph. Even though there understanding was not as developed it agrees with us that there is a physical bodily resurrection. And who was the first, Christ - remember the story of Thomas who put his finger in the holes of his hands. There is an earthiness to it but our understanding of resurrection is much more than mere physical (than what these guys like joseph and so on) it is greater then they could have imagined. A body imperishable undefiled that will last forever.

Ps 34:15-20 so now as we look to Christ he becomes the climax of this study. So we see this contrast between the righteous and the wicked. God keep safe the righteous and will bring them life.

John 19:32-36 so now as we see this and read this verse quoted from the ps it becomes more powerful because of the idea of the bones of the righteous being preserved. Christ is the fulfillment of that he is the one who broke open the grave.

A lot of the time we read the old testament and think of its characters we don't give them the credit of having an understanding of salvation, but through this study we saw that they did have a concept of life with God forever.

John 5:24-29