Have you ever been revived? As I write, the sports world is buzzing about the Super Bowl. Somebody will win. Somebody will lose. But Damar Hamlin may feel like the biggest winner of all. The Buffalo Bills football player died on the field and was brought back to life by those who attended to him. Someone lamented that he might not play again. I said, “Well I know he wants to, but if he never plays another down of football, his life is good. Because he died and was revived.”
Israel’s spirits had steadily waned after the loss of his son Joseph. But when he found out Joseph was alive, he revived! Along the way to see Joseph, Israel (Jacob) stopped in Beersheeba to offer sacrifices to God. There God came to him again, as he had at Bethel when he was young. God promised Jacob to be with him and to bring him safely back.
What would it take to revive us? We have a defibrillator at our church. But the revival we need is not electronically received. To be re-vived implies that we were once alive. The necrosis caused by sin consumed us. Then God comes to us, in his time, and brings us back to life. Stephen Olford said, “Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people – restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing.” As Israel was revived by the realization Joseph was alive, so we are revived by the truth that God’s only Son, Jesus was raised on the third day after he was crucified. No matter what else happens to us in this life, our lives are good. Because Jesus died and rose from the grave, so someday shall we.
