Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
Ezekiel's announcement was given to the captives in Babylonia while Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. It belongs to a graphic prophecy of judgment that reaches down to the present day. The evil, an only evil, is a unique, unprecedented and exceptionally severe calamity of divine judgment that has come and is coming upon the people. That singular severity is declared as already come and still to come.
The evil is the end, the close of the present order and existing state of things, the coming day of the Lord that is nigh at hand with wrath upon all the multitude. Its warning of the end is to be applied in the most literal sense to the close of the present world and to our time, on the ground of prophetic fulfillments in the past and present signs of the times. The chapter's message applies in some particulars to the present day.
The verse marks the approaching beginning of the time of trouble connected with Christ's second advent, whose morning is near, with the sword already in the land and famine and pestilence soon to follow. It is part of the biblical warning of the coming time of trouble before Christ's return, associated with the seven last plagues. This end will be terrifying beyond description for an unbelieving world, but for the just it will be a day of glory, release and reward when the Redeemer is seen coming down the heavens.
In the chapter's application to the last days, God's people should respond with mourning and weeping rather than joking and jesting.
Ezekiel's announcement was given to the captives in Babylonia while Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. It belongs to a graphic prophecy of judgment that reaches down to the present day. The evil, an only evil, is a unique, unprecedented and exceptionally severe calamity of divine judgment that has come and is coming upon the people. That singular severity is declared as already come and still to come.
The evil is the end, the close of the present order and existing state of things, the coming day of the Lord that is nigh at hand with wrath upon all the multitude. Its warning of the end is to be applied in the most literal sense to the close of the present world and to our time, on the ground of prophetic fulfillments in the past and present signs of the times. The chapter's message applies in some particulars to the present day.
The verse marks the approaching beginning of the time of trouble connected with Christ's second advent, whose morning is near, with the sword already in the land and famine and pestilence soon to follow. It is part of the biblical warning of the coming time of trouble before Christ's return, associated with the seven last plagues. This end will be terrifying beyond description for an unbelieving world, but for the just it will be a day of glory, release and reward when the Redeemer is seen coming down the heavens.
In the chapter's application to the last days, God's people should respond with mourning and weeping rather than joking and jesting.