"Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says to the land of Israel: "'The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land!" – Ezekiel 7:2

Today's Scripture Reading (May 2, 2020): Ezekiel 7

Life is filled with endings. Luckily it is also filled with beginnings. Both become important as we move through this journey. Yet, we also know the reality; that everything in this world will one day meet its final end.  We are finite, as is everything that we can hold and possess. Everything is subject to decay, and everything eventually breaks down and must be discarded. Things that stand the test of time are often relative, and very seldom are they physical.

Ezekiel seems to make a transition here. The prophet is living in exile in Babylon. He has been speaking of his home in Judah and their current situation with Babylonians. Jerusalem still stands, although the prophet recognizes that the future of the city is bleak, and it is now coming to an end. Both The city and the Temple will fall in the coming days. There is no longer any doubt in the prophet's mind about any of this. Jerusalem's end, along with the nation, is near.

But it seems like the prophet lifts up his eyes and begins to see and hear something entirely different as the prophet proclaims, "The end! The end has come" he speaks words that have an eschatological (relating to death, judgment and the final destiny of humankind) meaning. It is not just the death of Jerusalem that he sees; it is the death of everything. And he follows up his declaration of the end with more words that have an extended meaning. Transliterated from the Hebrew, the words are 'arbah kanaph' erets, which we have translated here as "the four corners of the land!" But Ezekiel is not the first one to use the phrase. Isaiah used it in his Messianic prophecy that includes the words "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse" (Isaiah 11:1). Later in the same prophecy, he says this:

He will raise a banner for the nations
    and gather the exiles of Israel;
 will assemble the scattered people of Judah
    from the four quarters of the earth (Isaiah 11:12).

The phrase "the four quarters of the earth" is the identical one that Ezekiel uses and is translated as the "the four corners of the land."

It seems possible that Ezekiel is not just talking about the end of Jerusalem and Temple, but the end of everything, including the Babylonians. When it comes to the power of God, it is not just the Jews that had to be careful, but it was every nation on the planet that would bow before the power of God. God had accomplished something in Judah using the Babylonians as his tools. But Ezekiel wants his hearers to know that even the Babylonians are not exempt from the wrath of God. The end would come for them too, and for every other nation, even those standing at the extremes or the corners or quarters of the world. With a prophetic vision, Ezekiel moves to the end of everything and declares that even there, God is on the throne. And all we can do is bow before his power.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 8