the end of the world

November 14, 2017

Jonah runs away to Tarshish (Jon 1:3-1:3)

“But Jonah set out

To flee

To Tarshish,

From the presence

Of Yahweh.

He went down

To Joppa.

There he found a ship

Going to Tarshish.

He paid the fare.

He went on board,

To go with them

To Tarshish.

He wanted to get away

From the presence

Of Yahweh.”

Unlike all the other prophets, Jonah refused his mission.  He decided to run away to Tarshish, probably in Spain, as far away as he could get from Yahweh and Israel at that time.  Most of the ancient people considered it to be the end of the world.  Tarshish was often mentioned in the biblical literature as a rich ship building area, as in Isaiah, chapter 23 and Ezekiel, chapter 27.  Jonah went to Joppa, a seacoast town on the Mediterranean Sea.  There, he had enough money to purchase a fare to board a ship headed for Tarshish.  He really wanted to get away from the presence of Yahweh, as far as he could go.

August 3, 2017

God had revealed the answer to Daniel (Dan 2:28-2:28)

“But there is a God in heaven

Who reveals mysteries.

He has disclosed

To King Nebuchadnezzar

What will happen

At the end of days.

Your dream

With the visions

Of your head

Came

As you lay in bed.”

Daniel seemed to be a favorite of the God in heaven. Daniel received many of these visions with interpretations about the end of days, the end times, the end of the world. Only God could reveal this mystery to Daniel. This same God had revealed to King Nebuchadnezzar what was going to happen, as he was laying in his bed. Thus, Daniel made the king feel important.

August 4, 2016

The day of destruction of Yahweh (Isa 24:1-24:3)

“Now Yahweh is about

To lay waste the earth.

He will make it desolate.

He will twist its surface.

He will scatter its inhabitants.

It shall be,

As with the people,

So with the priest.

It shall be,

As with the slave,

So with his master.

It shall be,

As with the maid,

So with her mistress.

It shall be,

As with the buyer,

So with the seller.

It shall be,

As with the lender,

So with the borrower.

It shall be

As with the creditor,

So with the debtor.

The earth shall be utterly laid waste

It shall be utterly despoiled.

Yahweh has spoken this word.”

These next few chapters are sometimes referred to as the Isaiah Apocalypse. This section, like the other sections, is a hodgepodge of oracles and ideas, but these oracles are about the judgment at the end of the world. On this apocalyptic judgment day, much like the flood of Noah, destruction was to come upon the whole world, like in later eschatological works. The twisted earth was to be made desolate. All the inhabitants on earth would be wiped out, whether it is regular people, priests, slaves, masters, maids, mistresses, buyers, sellers, lenders, borrowers, debtors, or creditors. No one would be saved. The earth would be utterly ruined, because Yahweh has spoken.