When I snuff you out, I will cover the heavens
    and darken their stars;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
    and the moon will not give its light.
All the shining lights in the heavens
    I will darken over you;
    I will bring darkness over your land,
declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 32:7-8 (NIV)

In today’s chapter, God wraps up the seven prophetic messages given to Ezekiel against Egypt. And, the thing that strikes me as I read this morning is metaphors and word pictures, layer upon layer of meaning.

First of all, there is the number seven. I have mentioned before that across God’s Message, seven is the number of completion. There were seven days to complete creation. There were seven seals on the scroll in Revelation to complete God’s judgement. Within the scroll there were seven trumpets and seven bowls. The number seven has even deeper roots when you begin to study the Hebrew language. The fact that there are seven prophetic messages for Egypt is no coincidental. It is a metaphorical message pointing to God’s complete and perfect judgement again Pharaoh/Egypt.

Then there is the theme of darkness and light in the verses I’ve pasted above. Darkness carries with it the sense of separation from God. In creation there was darkness over the surface of the deep immediately contrasted by God’s first act of creation: Light. There was darkness in the plagues of Egypt in the Exodus. Darkness fell over the Earth the day that Jesus was crucified. The same darkening of the heavens described by Ezekiel in the judgement of Egypt is also present in John’s vision of the end times. We know from human experience, just as a child cries for a night light at bedtime, that a descent into darkness is an ominous sign.

The final prophecy against Egypt is a list of other great armies who have fallen in defeat. Ezekiel describes them laying with their hordes “in the pit.” What fascinates me about the imagery is the description of warriors, hordes, and burial practices:

Meshek and Tubal are there, with all their hordes around their graves. All of them are uncircumcised, killed by the sword because they spread their terror in the land of the living. But they do not lie with the fallen warriors of old, who went down to the realm of the dead with their weapons of war—their swords placed under their heads and their shields resting on their bones—though these warriors also had terrorized the land of the living.

Ezekiel describes “the fallen warriors of old” buried with their weapons. The swords were placed beneath their heads, shields resting over them. Over the centuries, most cultures have had prescriptive burial practices for their warriors. As a boy growing up I was taught about my maternal ancestor, Sir John Hamelin, who lies entombed in effigy in a church in England. The sculpted tomb depicting him as he lay wrapped in chain mail, his feet crossed, his shield covering his body. This type of practice has been customary since early civilization. Ezekiel’s point is clear: When Egypt falls to Babylon the destruction will be so swift and complete that no one will be left to give them the carefully prescribed and celebrated burial of a warrior.

This morning I am, once again, amazed at the layers of message and metaphor given by the prophets. There is almost a desperation in the depth and breadth of it as if God is trying every possible means of communication to get through to the listener. If one word picture doesn’t work then let’s try a different approach. Human beings, myself included, are notoriously given to blindness of that which is staring right at us (e.g. Me: Sweetie, have you seen my keys? Wendy: You mean the keys you’re holding in your hand? Me: Doh!). Every one of us is given to the dark which comes with spiritual blindness. It is not strange that we need things repeated to us in diverse ways before we see the Light.

Today, I’m thankful for a Creator who ceaselessly reveals Light in endless ways.