Today's Scripture Reading (July 28, 2023): Ezekiel 25
I admit that I have a morbid curiosity about how
different Empires have ended. Maybe that is because I have lived my life in an
era of World History where there has been a significant change in the Table of Nations,
with some countries ceasing to exist while older Kingdoms have reinserted
themselves on the World Stage. When I was growing up, I had a huge National
Geographic map that hung on my bedroom wall. And I spent significant time
considering the various nations on the map. I have always been interested in
various geopolitical events, and I remember times when it seemed that Canada
might devolve into two or more countries. The situation that would instigate
the destruction of Canada was the threatened independence of Quebec. If Quebec
decided to leave the country, I theorized, as a kid, that maybe the Atlantic
provinces might be absorbed into the United States. At the same time, Quebec
would become a French-speaking nation, Ontario would become Canada, and the
Western Provinces would become a separate nation; maybe we could call them
Adanac, which is Canada spelled backward. And as I looked at my map, the
thought of such an upset to the well-ordered nations represented in various
colors on my wall seemed unthinkable.
But all of that was before the dissolving of the
Soviet Union and then the almost constant reorganizations of the nations in
Eastern Europe and Asia that have almost become a constant reality throughout
my adult life. I wish I still had that map of my youth, although it wouldn't
look anything like a map that reflects the world as it stands today. A
contemporary World Map includes many nations that my youthful self would not
recognize.
Ezekiel asserts that Ammon would disappear from the Table
of Nations. If maps were printed and placed on the walls of interested
children, there would be a time when Ammon would be on those maps, followed by
a time when it would not. But exactly when that happened has been a matter of
open debate. For some, that moment of disappearance came during the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar II and the Babylonian Empire. But we aren't sure. It might be
that the nation disappeared at that time, but the people remained a significant
presence in the world for another six or seven centuries. The people may have
influenced the world nations even after the time of the ministry of Christ and
the development of the early Christian Church, just as the Jewish people
remained a real force in the world for almost 1900 years, between 70 C.E. and
1948 C.E., a time when there was no Jewish nation that existed on the world
stage. But, at some time after the ministry of Christ, even the Ammonites became
an extinct race, absorbed into the other nations and people of the area.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 52
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