May 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

The end! Those words have a sense of finality. Children, listening to a good story, will express their disappointment when the book is closed and the reader says “The end”. In Ezekiel 7 our heavenly Father closes the book on a chapter in Israel’s history, but this is no fairy tale. The story does not conclude with, “and they lived happily ever after.” Each sentence is filled with deep emotion. God’s judgment is being announced. Destruction is close at hand. The end is coming.

Ezekiel is called by God to announce that the end is coming! “And you, son of man, thus says the LORD God to the land of Israel: ‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end has come upon you, and I will send My anger against you...’” (7:2-3). There is a note of finality in these words that touches our heart. These are solemn words that predict a time of agony and pain. The land of promise, the place of messianic expectation, is about to be destroyed. The people of God made themselves ripe for judgment by repeatedly ignoring God’s call to reformation and return. The time of God’s patience and longsuffering has come to an end.

The prophet Ezekiel is like a weather forecaster who warns of a storm about to hit his homeland! This is no longer a storm watch. It has been upgraded to a severe storm warning. For the path of God’s judgment is already visible on the radar screen.

The Lord has every reason to come and judge His people. The way they are living is inconsistent with their divine calling. They are no longer a blessing to the nations. Nevertheless, even now, the end is still better than the beginning (Eccles 7). Out of the ashes and rubble the Lord will create a new thing. The land will be destroyed, the holy city and the temple will be reduced to rubble, but the church will remain.

At the present moment, the Lord will not pour out the full fury of His wrath. God is on His way to the coming of Christ. During His earthly ministry Jesus, as the Son of man, sees the storm of God’s wrath approaching. On the cross He announces, “The end!” He is not spared the fury of His Father. He suffers in our place in order that we might have the assurance of living in communion with the Lord in the land of everlasting rest and peace. The End!