Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

We successfully picked up our daughter Katherine and family (Joe, Kate, and Nita) at the airport last evening…flying in from Missouri, and landing in Portland amidst storm conditions. We’ll see how much we can squeeze into the calendar during their two-week visit. But, at the same time, I’ll need to squeeze in some income-generating work. I have a mill job slated for today.

I better get on with it.

Love, Dad/Ray.

This is a phrase that is repeated over and over in the prophecies of Ezekiel. Actually, the phrase “know that I am the LORD,” appears 54 times in NIV translation of this book. Do you think this might be something the LORD wants us to know too? The context for the case quoted above has to do with God’s promise of punishment and destruction of Tyre. The cause for the condemnation is cited in the preceding verses: “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’ therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock” (26:2-4).

Without scouring the records with careful research, I can’t come up with any profound evidence that the prophecy was fulfilled to the point that the people of Tyre came to KNOW that the Sovereign LORD is truly LORD. The city and nations was indeed conquered and destroyed, first by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, then Alexander the Great. I went online and read a little about Tyre of today and saw a map that displayed areas in Lebanon labeled “Ruins of Tyre.” But where is the point in time where “they will know that I am the LORD?” When is “THEN?” Hmm. I’m wondering outside the box—which prompts another question: Must that point in time be isolated only to the realm of time?—to some point in recorded history on this side of the grave? After all, the One stating the promise is not Ezekiel himself who is limited by time, but stated by the ever living One, Who is not limited to time—the One Who finally reveals to John the Revelator, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 21:6). Is it not possible that the “THEN” is then? I’m also reminded of Jesus’ words to the antagonistic Sadducees who did not believe in conscious existence after death (the resurrection): “But about the resurrection of the dead — have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32).

If this represents valid links between cause and effect, and between Biblical prophetic utterance and its fulfillment, then we have here a major lesson to live by: DO EVERYTHING YOU REASONABLY CAN TO ESTABLISH AND KNOW THAT HE IS THE LORD THIS SIDE OF YOUR GRAVE. This bottom-line conclusion is entirely compatible with Jesus promise, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Whether in time or eternity, His promises will be fulfilled. Period!