Ezekiel – 7:1-27
Neither the text nor the context gives a clue as to the circumstances of this sermon. It’s rhetorical style seems intended, and perhaps identical to the form of it Ezekiel preached. It can be divided into three announcements of Israel’s end (7:2–4; 7:5–9; 7:10–27). Both the rst and second sections begin with the citation formula, “Thus says the Lord Yahweh,” and all three sections end with the recognition formula, “then you/they will know that I am Yahweh.” 7:1–4 “End!” – Ezekiel introduces a distinct eschatological, almost apocalyptic, speech. This tone will become more frequent and explicit beginning in chapter 34. In addition to “the day” (vv. 7, 10, 12, 19) and the harvest imagery (vv.10-11), “end” is clearly eschatological. See similar language in Dan 8:17,19; Amos 8:1-3; Jer 9:20-21. Ezekiel links “the land” to “the four corners,” similar to the oracles of Amos 1–2, 3–9 and Zeph 1:2-18, that include the world at large. The Christian cannot hear passages about the “end” without hearing Jesus’s declaration “it is nished” (Jn 19:30) on Calvary, where God’s judgment was concentrated on His son, who is Israel embodied in one person. The judgment is repeated daily in the Christian life of repentance and faith, as we die with Christ to sin and rise with Christ to new life in Baptism. The underlying spiritual and theological problems of the Israelites are the same problems that a ict the church and the unbelieving world today. Our tendency is to embrace one-sidedly God’s promises of salvation for those who believe, while disregarding God’s threat of judgment upon those who do not believe and assume, without self-examination, that divine judgment cannot apply to oneself. Another temptation is to relegate “the end” to a far distant, essentially irrelevant time. The NT warns against such indi erence (Mt 25:13; 2 Pet 3:3-4). The Gospel isn’t relevant merely to a present, existential moment before God, but to the end of our personal lives and the cosmic end of all things created. Biblical eschatology is always simultaneously existential (coram Deo) and historical, extended from creation to cross and to the end of the world at Christ’s return. 7:5-9 “The Day” – The “day” is shorthand for “the day of Yahweh’s fury” (7:19) and especially “the day of Yahweh” (13:4). “The day” is parallel to “the time” (7:7). In the NT, “the time” is when God acts, either in…