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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Ezekiel 29

Immediately following the fall of Jerusalem, the Lord had something for Ezekiel to say against Pharaoh and Egypt. Even though Egypt was a strong regional power in the days of the Old Testament, she had less interest in Israel then the Assyrian and later Babylonian and Persian powers to the east. Egypt already had her own coastland on the Mediterranean. For Syria and the empires to the east, to control Israel on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Seas meant access to the European world. Israel had geographic advantages that enabled her to defend herself against most of her closest neighbors, including Egypt. The best hope for Egypt to control Israel was to keep the Israelites within the border of Pharaoh’s land. Once Israel had escaped out of that nation at the time of the Exodus, the Egyptians would lose most of their desire to control Israel and their ability to rule over God’s people without their consent.

Israel’s bigger threats came from those eastern empires. Nonetheless Egypt was a problem for God’s people, because she represented a continual temptation. The temptation of Egypt for the Israelites was primarily this: that Egypt might be a savior for Israel in the face of the expansive Assyrians and Babylonians. Because of this hope, rulers and populace together regularly entreated the Egyptians for some kind of alliance that would supposedly bring some security to Israel, even though the Lord had prohibited such an arrangement. As it turned out, the Egyptians never were much of a help to the Israelites, just as the Lord had regularly warned His people would be the case. Here, and in the next several chapters, God speaks a word against this once-great nation through the prophet Ezekiel.

God announces here that He is against Pharaoh. As with the prophesy against the King of Tyre, Pharaoh is spoken against using imagery of Satan. He is a proud dragon who will be cast out, and will be food for the birds of the heavens. The reason that God gives for this treatment is that Egypt has been a useless support to Israel. Even though God prohibited His people from seeking their support, the fact that the Egyptians ended up being such a dangerous and useless staff for Israel to lean upon is reason enough for them to face the Lord’s discipline. Because of this, the Lord will bring a sword upon them, and will destroy their power.

Just as the King of Tyre saw himself as some kind of God over the seas, Pharaoh considered himself Lord of the Nile. Where the river flowed there was life. Yet God would make Egypt a land of desolation for forty years. Even when she was gathered back to her land, she would never again be the world-class power that she once was. No longer would she be a tempting source of help for the Israelites. In this disposition of a once-commanding empire, the Lord displayed His sovereign power over all lands. When people would one day see what had happened to Egypt, they would know the Lord’s divine power and justice.

Many years later Ezekiel again would announce a message from God concerning Egypt. This is one of the latest prophecies given in this book, and it tells us of one other purpose that God had for Egypt. When the Lord sent his judgments against the King of Tyre, the conquering agents that He used were the Babylonians under the command of Nebuchadnezzar. In this role they were serving in the employ of the Lord, and He had never paid them for their work. Tyre was so utterly destroyed that there was no compensation for the Babylonians as the agents of the Lord’s wrath. In order to settle this unusual debt, the Lord gives the Egyptians into the hands of the Babylonians. They may plunder the land of Egypt as wages to this army in working for God as the destroyers of Tyre.

One more note closes this chapter. The Lord will cause a horn of power to spring up for the house of Israel. As Ezekiel was unable to speak for some time earlier in his ministry but then was given a voice, some good thing will come for Israel, perhaps through a divinely appointed messenger like Ezekiel. This will be yet another sign that God’s purposes for Israel were not yet completed.

The Lord did raise up a horn among His people. During the days of the restoration there would be prophets that would call the nation to faithfulness, and the Lord would grant them some success, despite the continuing sin of His people. But especially in the coming of John the Baptist and in the Messiah that John announced, after several centuries of silence, the Lord raised up a horn of salvation in the house of His servant David.

There would be no Messiah who would come from the line of the great Pharaoh. There would be no Deliverer who would come from the descendants of the Egyptians. They would never again be as great a power as they had been in earlier years. In the days when the Romans would assert their proud authority over both Israel and Egypt, and even all the way to Spain and Britain, a new King would be born in the city of David, Christ the Lord. He would establish a very different kingdom, and would rule forever. We are the subjects of His wonderful rule and reign, and we wait with joyful expectation to greet Him face to face. All of His true subjects are happy to be known by Him. He is not a proud despot who lives for a time and then fades away. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He has shown His love for us by redeeming us at the cost of His own life. He has displayed His power not only be laying down His life, but then especially by picking it up again.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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