Ruins of All Ruins

God created our world to be a beautiful place. In the Genesis of human existence, Moses gave us a meager but satisfactory picture of the loveliness God lavished upon this world during those six days of creation. In our everyday experiences and travels, we get to see glimpses of God’s glory in the sunrise. We witness His holiness in the sunset. We tremble from His power in the thunder and lightning. We witness His miracles out in the ocean. Without admittance…we know, He is Lord.

However, as we all know the story, sin has transformed our beautiful world to a world of ruins. The evidences are all around us. In almost every chapter of Ezekiel God points out the ruinous state of humanity and the ruinous state of our world. As we discussed earlier, Ezekiel didn’t just have a message for the people of Israel, he also had a prophetic message about human depravity, God’s final judgment of our world and His final redemption to the mansion He is preparing for us.

Human Depravity is so explicit and convicting in the book of Ezekiel. God gave a list in Ezekiel chapter 22 and this is hardly the half.

• “Fathers and mothers are contemptuously ignored;
• Immigrants and visitors are forced to pay you for your ‘protection’;
• Orphans and widows are wronged and oppressed.
• The things of God are all despised; my Sabbaths are ignored.
• Prisoners are falsely accused and sent to their death.
• Every mountaintop is filled with idols; lewdness is everywhere.
• There are men who commit adultery with their fathers’ wives and lie with menstruous women. Adultery with a neighbor’s wife, a daughter-in-law, a half sister—this is common.
• Hired murderers, loan racketeers, and extortioners are everywhere.
• You never even think of me and my commands,” the Lord God says” (vs 7 – 12).
• “They have worshiped idols and murdered my children whom they bore to me, burning them as sacrifices on their altars” (Ezekiel 23: 37).

Doesn’t this sounds like our world? It certainly does. But God says, “I will snap my fingers and call a halt to your dishonest gain and bloodshed.” One day He will call for the ruins of all ruins and put an end to the ruins of the world.

This world is getting progressively worse, but God will say enough is enough. “He will scatter them [the wicked] throughout the world and burn out the wickedness within you. You will be dishonored among the nations, and you shall know I am the Lord…I will blow the fire of my wrath upon you, and you will melt like silver in fierce heat, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured my wrath upon you’ ”(Ezekiel 22: 15, 21-22).

 Ezekiel has given us reminders of our unworthiness and the judgment awaiting those who continue to disregard God’s commandments. However, He has given us messages of our worth. God is coming to perform a final work of restoration from the ruins of this world. He is coming to burn out all of the wickedness. He will call out His people from the ruins and take them home to the mansion He is preparing for us. He will declare, Let him that is filthy be filthy, let him that is righteous be righteous.

In Ezekiel 7, God lashes out his anger, He declares, “The end has come; your final doom is waiting. O Israel, the day of your damnation dawns; the time has come; the day of trouble nears. It is a day of shouts of anguish, not shouts of joy!” (Ezekiel 7: 2, 6). “You will sue for peace, but you won’t get it. Calamity upon calamity will befall you; woe upon woe, disaster upon disaster!…all hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak as water….” (vs 25, 26, 17).

Many will cry out to God then, God repeatedly said, “I will not spare nor pity you… and though they scream for mercy I will not listen” (vs 4, 9, 8: 19).  In Noah’s time, God destroyed the people with water.  The time will come again, when God will destroy the earth; only the remnant will be saved. Anyone who do not turn, turn and live, or unite their hearts with God, will face the ruins of all ruins.  Ezekiel speaks about it, Daniel admitted and John the Revelator confirms it. God will call for the ruins of all ruins, fire will burn, and He will turn away His face from humanity.

Our personal ruinous circumstances are petty compared to that day. That’s why God has us in the ruins to purge is, to transform us and seal us so that we will escape the final ruins. Make use of the ruins, and learn the lessons that God wants you to learn from your ruins. Ezekiel made good use of the ruins to work. Daniel made good use to prophesy. Moses made good use to lead. Joseph made good use to dream. Get to work and get ready, because God wants to save you from the fire of the ruins of all ruins.

Ezekiel 20: 47, “Hear the word of the Lord. I will set you on fire, O forest, and every tree will die, green and dry alike. The terrible flames will not be quenched, and they will scorch the world. And all the world will see that I, the Lord, have set the fire. It shall not be put out.”

Artwork: Donald Keefe (Used by Permission)