Ezekiel 37:1-22 describes the current situation of Indonesia. Indonesia is like the valley of bones, describing people who have lost hope. In every election, this nation will expect the emergence of a new leader who can change their fate. They hope the new Indonesia will emerge.
Election after election passed, leader after leader changed, but the fate of common people is still untouched, until their lips feel numb to say anything. Eventually they become pessimistic and apathetic.
“Anyway, whatever party is winning, whoever becomes the President or the Minister, our fate remains the same, it will not change,” they complain.
When we hear the chatter at the coffee shop or even a discussion in an elite university, the tones of despair burst through the boundaries of hope that exist.
Tragically, among those who have lost hope of Indonesia is the church of God (read: Christians). In Indonesia, Christians are considered a minority. They are a group that is persecuted, marginalized, and ignored by the government.
Many churches have been burned, demonstrated, forbidden to worship and they are complicated to build a church. The church becomes pessimistic and apathetic. They are like living in the tomb. The church feels like strangers in their own land. But the Word of God says:
“Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves … And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (Ezekiel 37:12-14).
The church will be resurrected by God and will live in her land, Indonesia. God’s people who have lost hope, and have become like the dry bones that lying in the valley of despair will be raised and formed by the Lord to become an exceeding great army of the God that is able to bring change for this nation.
“… there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone … the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them … and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (Ezekiel 37:7-8, 10).
Indonesia will descend from Heaven. The valley of despair will turn into rivers of hope. The divided nation will return to the Unity in Diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika).
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand” (Ezekiel 37:19).
Tribes which are scattered throughout Indonesia will be united by God. They will become one in God’s hands. People no longer look upon others as a tribe of Sundanese, Bataknese, Dayak, Madurese, and others. But we will look at each other as people of Indonesia, NEW INDONESIA!
Also read: The Prayer Which Gives Birth to a New History.
