Ezekiel 29-31
God’s Judgment of Egypt
The prophesies given in Chapter 29:17 through Chapter 30:19 were given 16 years after the prophesies that follow in Chapter 30:20. The prophesies in Chapter 29 explain the why of what is going to happen while the latter prophesies warn of what is going to happen.
s we read previously, Nebuchadnezzar is going to lay siege against Tyre. This will be a long fruitless campaign. Tyre formed an alliance with Egypt to help them. The plan was to move the city from the mainland to an island just off the coast. While the city was being moved Tyre continued to defend the city but when they had completed the move they abandoned their defenses and Nebuchadnezzar took the city but the people and everything were gone. Nebuchadnezzar ended up with nothing. Since Nebuchadnezzar did not have a navy he moved on to Egypt.
The prophesy of the fall of Egypt was given to Ezekiel 16 years earlier. Of course Ezekiel was in Babylon at the time and had been there for 30 years or so. Even though Ezekiel was held in Babylon it is likely that the message reached Egypt. We saw that the reputation of Daniel was well known at the time from a previous study. God warns before He acts.
As is the case again, Egypt was blinded by pride to the point where they were taking credit for making the Nile River. 29:3, 9
Egypt and Assyria were powerful nations around the same time. Assyria had been taken by Babylon some 25 years or so before this warning was given. God was saying that what happened to Assyria was going to happen to Egypt. God sent Jonah and Nahum to warn Assyria. God also warned Judah. They were to look to what happened to the ten tribes of Israel and learn that to continue to follow in idolatry will result in the same thing happening to Judah. Before the ten tribes of Israel were taken by Assyria God sent many warnings.
It is said that the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. The obvious question we should be asking is why? Two things are in play here. One is pride. Pride blinds oneself to reality because it is focused on self. Pride elevates oneself above and beyond reality. This is evident in Pharaoh’s statement that he made the Nile. When this happens pride takes on a godlike attitude. This is why pride is so dangerous and we are warned over and over in the Bible about pride.
The second thing that comes into play here is a hard heart. A hard heart is a stubborn heart that leads to foolish thinking. We know the heart is hard when we hear something like, “He is set in his ways,” or “He is stuck in a rut.” Pride and a hard heart blinds a person to the dangers that are right before him that are obvious to everyone else but the one suffering from pride and a hard heart. When we mix pride together with a hard heart the result will be foolishness. A good example of this is found in 1 Samuel 25.
Christians are called to be humble before God. We need to beware of the dangers of a hard, prideful heart. Paul tells us that we need to put pride and the hard heart on the altar to be sacrificed in Romans 12:1&2. These must be done away with and will be. It is clear from our study that if we will not stop being conformed to the world’s ways God will act, but He always warns before He acts.
Paul said in Romans 12:2 that we are not to be conformed, but transformed. How do we transform ourselves? By renewing our mind. I know of no better way than spending time in the Word of God, but be forewarned, we must sacrifice our old thinking and ways on the altar of prayer. Both the books of James and 1 Peter are good places to be reading if you are “stuck in a rut,” and need to transform your mind.
Pastor Dave