If you find the idea of a wrathful God too frightening to imagine, just try adding a sword to the picture!
Ezekiel includes such a sword to his prophetic vision of God in chapter 21. A sword is mentioned numerous times throughout the chapter. We hear of an unsheathed sword (vs. 3 and 5), a sharpened sword (vs. 9 and 10), a polished sword (vs. 9, 11, 15, and 28), a sword for slaughter (vs. 14 and 28), and a sword for flashing (vs. 15 and 28). A sword in the hand of God is spoken of, as well as a sword in the hand of the king of Babylon (vs. 19 and 20).
The military implication is clear, and devastating. God is coming against Judah bent on destruction. They have made an enemy of God by their refusal to obey, and now judgment - by the sword of the king of Babylon - is at hand.
Here is what God has in mind for Israel: "I will pour out my indignation upon you, with the fire of my wrath I will blow upon you. I will deliver you into brutish hands, those skillful to destroy. You shall be fuel for the fire, your blood shall enter the earth; you shall be remembered no more, for I the Lord have spoken" (vs. 31 and 32).
As God says earlier in this chapter through Ezekiel, "I too will strike hand to hand, I will satisfy my fury; I the Lord have spoken" (vs. 17). God's terrible swift sword is about to be loosed.
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