Bones being used in analogies to convey the essence of a man (his soul)
Many cultures only associate bones with death, others
used it to ward off bad spirits
or bad luck and to attract good spirits or to have good luck
The word ‘bone’ is often mentioned
in various contexts in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for ‘bone’ is
“ètsem.” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #6106
states that bones mean “essence, substance.”
The bones of a man or skeletal
system symbolically represent the invisible soul because bones remain long
after the flesh rots away. The long lasting nature of bones proves that the
soul is the immortal part of humans that will continue to exist after physical
death
Manly Hall in his book The Secret
Teaching of All Ages states
“Since the bones are the frame
work that sustains the corporeal structure [physical body], they may be
regarded as a fitting emblem of the spirit—that divine foundation
There are other instances in the scriptures where
‘bones’ are mentioned.
Prophesy of life in the bones found in Ezekiel
Eze 37:12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you
to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Joseph asked his brothers not to leave his bones
in Egypt
when they returned to the promised land (Gn. 50:25). Also Ezekiel had a vision
of dry bones in a valley (Ezk. 37:1-11). the valley of dry bones symbolically represented Israel. Ezekiel spoke to these bones, they rose on their feet, Spirit entered into them, and they became alive. These bones represented the resurrected souls (Ezk. 37:11-4), which the Messiah fulfilled at His death, burial, and resurrection (Mt. 27:51-52). In both of these circumstances bones
have a deeper meaning than just physical bones. In this context ‘bones’
spiritually mean the soul.
So, when Moses and Israel
took Joseph’s bones out of Egypt
(Ex. 13:19), this typified the resurrection of a man’s soul.
Judges 15 (King James Version)
16 And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men
19 But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
As the skeletal
system in the natural body is a reflection or shadow of both the mental and
spiritual support systems. On a psychological level, our world view or belief
system, although,very limited and biased, is our initial framework to our
environment and people. Eventually, we have to transcend our beliefs wh
ich
limit and constrain us
