Morning Light – August 22nd, 2017 – Ezekiel 30: Egypt Falls to Babylon

Morning Light – Ezekiel 30
Today: [Ezekiel 30] Egypt Falls to Babylon. In this chapter, we see the prophetic description of Egypt falling to Babylon. Egypt was a false ally of Judah for over 100 years, and now as Jerusalem burns, God opens Ezekiel’s mouth to speak destruction upon this deceitful nation. Egypt is not just a natural nation but a spiritual principle identified with the godless systems of the world. Babylon likewise is a principality according to John the Revelator still present in our world. Thus, in this chapter we see the enemies of God turning on each other, and bringing each other to dust and ashes by the hand of a sovereign God.
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[Eze 30:1-26 KJV] 1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day! 3 For the day [is] near, even the day of the LORD [is] near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. 4 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. 5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. 6 Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD. 7 And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries [that are] desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities [that are] wasted. 8 And they shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and [when] all her helpers shall be destroyed. 9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh. 10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken [it].
Ezekiel 30 is a continuation of 7 prophetic words against Egypt. This word came during the time that Jerusalem was under siege probably about 587 B.C. As noted in chapter 29 Egypt had falsely promised to defend Jerusalem for decades and now the deceit is fully exposed as the inhabitants of Jerusalem starve, shut up in the walls of the city by the Babylonians, and the Egyptians do nothing to relieve the beleaguered city.
In verse 2 and 3 Ezekiel uses the phrase “the day of the Lord” speaking of the coming retribution on Egypt and upon Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, Chub and all the land that was in league with Egypt to collude in the demise of the nation of Judah (v. 4). This term “the day of the Lord” appears 25 times in scripture beginning with Isa. 2:12. The first 4 references were in the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah so Ezekiel may be deliberately referencing the prophetic words of these two prophets, of which he would have been quite familiar.
Universally speaking, the day of the Lord is spoken of as a day of battle, of judgments and ultimate recompense against the enemies of the Lord. Some might place this in what is referred to as the Kairos timing of God. There is chronos timing that is easily reckoned merely by looking at the clock or the calendar. Kairos timing is the fullness of God’s purposes coming to a head in particular seasons. Much of the teaching of scripture regarding patience is connected with the day of the Lord that ultimately comes to right wrongs and deliver equity and justice to God’s people.
In my own relationship with the Lord I remember the lesson I learned after walking with God for over a decade in my early adulthood. There are some things that you go through that you wait and long to see addressed by God’s hand that will only be adjudicated over decades and not just days, weeks, months or even years. This is important to understand because the measurement we take in questioning God’s faithfulness is usually connected with our impatience regarding our opinion that God did not act within what we considered a reasonable time. In the Ozark hills where my family hails from the saying is “the chickens always come home to roost…” or as my father Roy Walden, Sr., would put it “son, payday doesn’t come every Friday – but it does come!” In the age of instant everything and the 2 second attention span of the digital generation we need to remember the patience of the saints and the virtue of waiting upon God.
In verse 6 we also see that those who aid Egypt as she comes under the judgment of God will also fall and come to destruction. Was Egypt too big to fail? Not in God’s eyes. Remember that Egypt is a type of the world and the systems of the world that operate independent of and in opposition to the things of God and the kingdom of God. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves are we aligned with the kingdom of God or are we in league with the systems of the world. I know one Christian lady we met on the Jericho Drive we took across the nation in 2013. She loved the Lord and loved the things of God but she subsisted financially on the illicit drug trade her son was involved in. We would be quick to judge her but how many times and in what areas of our life to we find ourselves as verse 6 warns, in league with the world system and entangled in the world system because we felt like we had no other choice. In these areas, we need to know that no matter to what degree with think that there will be no recompense – soon or later the systems of this world come to judgment and if we are enmeshed with them – we also will feel the brunt of that season.
13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause [their] images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. 15 And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. 16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph [shall have] distresses daily. 17 The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these [cities] shall go into captivity. 18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. 19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD. 20 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first [month], in the seventh [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. 22 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I [am] against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded [man]. 25 But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. 26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
In verse 13 we see Ezekiel clarify that not only would the nations who opposed Judah be destroyed but the idols and the images these nations worshipped would likewise be destroyed. What is an idol or an image today? One example would be celebrity and the cult of popular culture around celebrity. One of the deities of these nations was Astarte, a pagan goddess of sexuality and fertility. Her name derives from the name we use for stars, the stars in the heavens and the stars on the red carpet and on the silver screen. Sometimes we wink at the scandal celebrities go through and in fact in the day of reality TV these things titillate our interest in their lives, but when it all comes crashing down and they are exposed as pedophiles or worse, or the ambulance is at their estate to carry their bloated bodies to the morgue after a drug overdose, then the idol is no more, and those who made merchandise of these miserable, suffering souls can exploit them no longer.
In verse 15 the Father says that He will pour His fury out upon Egypt. Ez. 29:15 predicted the day that Egypt would become the basest of nations, the meanest of people reduced to nothing. We have seen this happen today as we look to the Middle East and see the nation of Egypt brought low by decades of upheaval and unrest – no more the shining tourist Mecca as the citizens of the world are loathe to travel to her detestable streets where life is cheap and the pleasures and enjoyments of her cities are marred with death, terrorism and instability.
In verse 20 the Lord declares to Ezekiel that the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt is broken and will not be healed. A child of Leviathan – the king of the children of pride, Egypt has yet to fall but even as she revels from a distance gloating over her successful strategy to see Judah and Jerusalem fall, the hand writing is on the wall. Nebuchadnezzar has defeated Pharaoh Hophra and from this wound Egypt shall not recover. In other words, Babylon triumphs over Egypt. What is Babylon? Remember that though it is not a nation it is a spiritual principle existing even today as referenced in the book of Revelation. Babylon is a demonic force, bringing chaos and confusion of nations not just to ancient Egypt but the nations of the world today. We hope to see problems on the world scene solved by those we appoint or elect to get the job done, but you cannot solve the problem on the level of the problem. The difficulties do not arise from a human source but from a spiritual principality that can only be defeated by spiritual means, the warfare that only praying saints can carry out to a successful conclusion!