An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.
Ezekiel 7:6 belongs to a vivid and graphic prophecy of judgment on Judah announcing that its end has approached and has arrived, and the reach of that prophecy extends down to the present day. By its repeated announcement that the end is come and its picture of the end watching for those in the land, it declares that the appointed end has arrived and is close at hand and advancing upon those addressed, no longer distant but come upon them, with the arrival made certain and imminent. In its immediate context the day is at hand, and pride and violence have come to maturity.
Its warning applies literally to the present time as the end of the existing order and state of things, because past prophetic fulfillments and present signs of the times point to the close of that order and justify applying its fearful words most literally to this generation. In this application it marks the commencement of the coming time of trouble, which is near and will come upon the nations just before Christ appears as a trouble unlike any before; the sword is already in the land, and famine and pestilence will follow. The end coming upon the world now was made visible in the growing complexity involving the Powers in China, with imported modern arms and ammunition, a highly efficient Chinese army trained by European officers, a harder fight than expected for the allied Powers, cut communications, a blocked way to Peking, massacred envoys, and hurrying troops and battleships while anxiously waiting, which is carrying the world toward the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation and calls for urgent threefold readiness.
The end it announces will not be delayed by skepticism or scoffing. To the unbelieving world and all the multitude the coming end brings wrath and terror beyond description, but to the just it brings glory, release, and reward when the Redeemer is seen returning down the blazing vault of heaven. As part of its chapter, it gives testimony about the character God's people should have in the last days, calling them to heed that testimony rather than joke and jest, and instead to mourn and weep.
Ezekiel 7:6 belongs to a vivid and graphic prophecy of judgment on Judah announcing that its end has approached and has arrived, and the reach of that prophecy extends down to the present day.
By its repeated announcement that the end is come and its picture of the end watching for those in the land, it declares that the appointed end has arrived and is close at hand and advancing upon those addressed, no longer distant but come upon them, with the arrival made certain and imminent.
In its immediate context the day is at hand, and pride and violence have come to maturity.
Its warning applies literally to the present time as the end of the existing order and state of things, because past prophetic fulfillments and present signs of the times point to the close of that order and justify applying its fearful words most literally to this generation.
In this application it marks the commencement of the coming time of trouble, which is near and will come upon the nations just before Christ appears as a trouble unlike any before; the sword is already in the land, and famine and pestilence will follow.
The end coming upon the world now was made visible in the growing complexity involving the Powers in China, with imported modern arms and ammunition, a highly efficient Chinese army trained by European officers, a harder fight than expected for the allied Powers, cut communications, a blocked way to Peking, massacred envoys, and hurrying troops and battleships while anxiously waiting, which is carrying the world toward the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation and calls for urgent threefold readiness.
The end it announces will not be delayed by skepticism or scoffing.
To the unbelieving world and all the multitude the coming end brings wrath and terror beyond description, but to the just it brings glory, release, and reward when the Redeemer is seen returning down the blazing vault of heaven.
As part of its chapter, it gives testimony about the character God's people should have in the last days, calling them to heed that testimony rather than joke and jest, and instead to mourn and weep.