Ezekiel 37:1-14 Valley of Dry Bones The book of Ezekiel was written during the Babylonian Exile of the

e Jews after the kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in the fourth century BCE. The Jews were in exile, their Temple destroyed, and they felt lost and very abandoned. Chapter 37 is Ezekiels vision known as the "Valley of the Dry Bones." It's a metaphor of God's redemption of the exiled people: They are the dry bones, dispersed and withered, lifeless after their Temple was destroyed. God breathes life back into them, however, and empowers them to rise up and return to his Holy Land. Therefore, the vision was one of Israel's returns to the Promised Land. It was meant to inspire hope within the Jewish people and to encourage them to carry on faithfully while waiting for their redemption and release from exile. And then God comes and breathes upon them and they come to life again. This picture of God's restoring grace illustrates what God intends to do with the nation Israel As far as God is concerned, it has been lying now for more the nineteen centuries in a state of death, but a day is coming when God will breathe upon this nation. Ezekiel, whose name signifies the Strength of God, was of the priestly race and of the number of captives that were carried away to Babylon with king Joachin. He was contemporary with Jeremiah, and prophesied to the same effect in Babylon, as Jeremiah did in Jerusalem; and is said to have ended his days in like manner, by martyrdom. Song of Songs The Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, is a unique book in the Old Testament canon. The book contains exquisitely beautiful lyric poetry, full of sensuous symbolism. Because of the sexual nature of Song of Songs, the message of this book has been debated for the past eighteen hundred years. The erotic content of this book has leaded it into canonicity problems and authorship problems. These issues have become central to the interpretation of the Song of Songs. The issue of the canonicity of Song of Songs was a major subject of debate at the 90 A.D. Council of Jamnia. The literal view saw Song of Songs as nothing more than a collection of love poems. The entire book is a play with either two (Delitzsch), or three (Ewald) characters. These poems, 20 to 30 in all, were collected by an unknown editor(s) for their consistent themes, and placed in the anthology, which is found today. The majority of Christians belief in the Allegorical interpretation of Song of Songs, with a large number holding to the literal interpretation. This interpretation states that the intended message of Song of Songs is an allegory of God and Israel.

The metaphors help dissect them one by one. The "enclosed garden" has been linked to virginity for centuries; the boundaries of the garden speak to morality; the vineyard represents the maidens body; "feeds among the lilies" as kissing, and "honey and milk under your tongue," which possibly represents a deep lingering kiss unlike the others where she is described as having "lips of honey." "Awake, O north wind and come, O south!" is said to refer to the changing weather in Palestine, or that her "breasts were like towers," referring to the fact that in the Near East the walls and the towers of the city would be the first thing an enemy would see. Normally, they would be seen as unconquerable; thus, the maiden is chaste and innocent. Gospel of Mark Marks gospel has many themes throughout it; one of the main themes is discipleship. Disciple means willing follower. It is easy nowadays to be meant for many circumstances. For instance, these circumstances could be anything from a fan following a football club to a citizen following a government; they are both cases of discipleship. In Marks Gospel, discipleship is meant about those who followed Jesus. The disciples in Marks Gospel are good one another and always put others before themselves; this is reflected in Christians today. An example of a disciple like this is Bob Geldof who is a good role model who helped raise money by using his talent and the talent of others. Another example of disciples like this is the organization Amnesty International who together fight for the rights of others. In the calling of the disciples Jesus chose twelve men, he did not chose men of status or wealth he chose men with faith. This is reflected in modern Christian life how we too can be called into religious order or priesthood; we all answer a call at baptism to become a Christian, a disciple of Christ. In this we have to be a good role model to all Christians, in doing this we can do simple things like praying or going to mass. Jesus asks his disciples who he is. Peter answers, "You are the Messiah." Peter goes from being the good disciple to becoming a failure will then rised to life. Peter takes him aside and clearly Jesus is unimpressed with what Peter says calling him Satan. Jesus tells the crowd and his disciples "If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, carry his cross, and follow me" What Jesus meant by this was to put others first and putting themselves last. When Jesus talks about carrying his cross he means that they will have to be prepared to give up their life. By Jesus saying follow me; he wants them to accept the Christian way of life and to follow Jesus' life.