epcblog

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

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Ezekiel 30

The Lord has spoken to His people through various prophets about something called the “Day of the Lord.” Here He speaks about that coming day with reference to the nation of Egypt. The Day of the Lord in its most ultimate sense is the day of Christ’s return. It will mark the end of the present age and the beginning of the new age of eternal life. When Ezekiel writes this prophetic book, He writes during the prior Old Testament age. With the first coming of the Messiah, and especially with His death, resurrection, and ascension and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, a new age has come. The Old Testament era of the Law is over. The New Testament time of the gospel is here.

During the Old Testament time of the Law, the only way of life was through God’s nation Israel. If an Egyptian was somehow brought to seek under the heavens for the true God of creation, the very best thing that he could do would be to become a Jew, because this was God’s covenant community in that day. This is not at all the case in the current age. The very best thing that a true seeker among the Egyptians could do today would be to associate Himself with Jesus by becoming a part of the church that Christ has established. There is no point at all in an Egyptian becoming a Jew today.

This age is still not the final age. We are looking for that return of our Messiah King, who is the Head of His church. He has faced the Day of the Lord for us on the cross, and we look now for the fulfillment of all of the Lord’s promises of judgment and salvation at the return of Christ. We have so very much to say to Egyptians today. We do not say these things to them as Egyptians who need to stop being Egyptians, or to Egyptians who are doomed because they are Egyptians. We speak to them as people who can hear the gospel of our Lord, and who can be every bit as much of a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ as any Jew could be or any other person could be regardless of national heritage or current citizenship.

Knowing what we know now about the Day of the Lord, we would not have expected that God would say so long ago through Ezekiel that the Day was near. Nonetheless that Day intrudes into prior ages whenever God comes to judge. When the Lord came in the cool of the Day to Adam in the garden, he was coming with an intrusion of the Day of the Lord. When He came with waters in the time of Noah, it was a Day of the Lord. When He spoke to Israel and Judah about impending destruction through the Assyrians or Babylonians, He spoke about a Day of the Lord, and especially when Christ faced the wrath of God on the cross for sinners, it was an intrusion of the Day of the Lord.

What may seem surprising to us is that God spoke about Egypt during the Old Testament times using the same language and imagery of a Day of the Lord that He used with Israel and Judah. This is because the judgment of God through His returning Messiah is coming upon the entire earth. When Nebuchadnezzar comes with His forces against the Egyptians, we all need to know that this is an intrusion of the ultimate Day of Judgment, and we should be warned concerning that coming Day.

The Day for Egypt that Ezekiel announces would mean trouble for them and for all of their allies. It would mean desolation for cities and villages. It would mean destruction by fire and drought from God’s hand. Above all it would mean suffering, captivity, and death. It would mean that no allies could rescue them, and that none of their gods would be able to deliver them from His hand. It would mean that the strength of Pharaoh would be useless. He would be like a man with a shattered arm trying to fight against an adversary who had always been far too strong for him, like a man mortally wounded with no one to help him in a battle against the wrath of the Almighty.

Who could be ready for such a fight against God? In the context of the Old Testament age, there would seem to be no way out for the heathen nation of Egypt. There is still no way out for the world. Our association with the world as a place of hope must somehow be broken. The only way out for any Egyptian man, from Pharaoh down to the lowest slave, would be to forsake Egypt and to become an Israelite. That idea would have been laughable. It was the people in Judah that were always seeking the aid of the more powerful Egyptians. Though God was bringing something of a Day of the Lord upon His own people, this did not change the fact that the best place for any man was to be in God’s ark of His covenant community before the flood of God’s judgment came upon the world.

Even in our current age, any people or nation can feel the danger of the Lord’s judgment, for nations rise and fall at His command. He rules over all, and He calls all men everywhere to repent. The only sensible thing for anyone to do is to become a Christian, and to find a place under the protection of our Messiah, the King of the Jews. In Him an Egyptian who is brought into the Christian church becomes a part of the chosen people of God. Though that alternative may seem laughable in many nations today, when the Day of God’s judgment finally comes, no one will be laughing. Why should any man face the coming Day of the Lord without the safety that comes from God? Our safety can only come through Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Day.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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