Friday, July 30, 2010

Egypt - desolation - Ezekiel 29

Ezekiel 29:3 "Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself."

There is that boosting again. Of course, we are talking about Egypt in the times of Ezekiel.

There were two basic reasons why Egypt came under judgment here. One is that they did not give God the glory for their good fortune. The river/rivers were the source of the riches of Egypt. We all know about the Nile. I believe there was at one time a river system that made the land rich. I don't know much about what Egypt is like now.

Another reason is that Israel was bad about turning to Egypt when they were in distress instead of turning to God as they should have. But Egypt took advantage in those times and hurt Israel.

Therefore, Egypt was given to Nebuchadrezzar as his wages for the work in Tyre.

Once Egypt was made a base nation, Israel would no longer turn to them as they did when Egypt was full of power and splendor.

II Kings 18:21 "Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him."

So, we can see, in these studies, that during this time the face of the whole region changed tremendously. There was greatness all around but it went to Babylon under the judgment of God.

v13 "Yet, thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered; v14 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom."

v19 "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army."

I would like to have seen these nations in their glory days. It must have been a sight to behold. But they rejected or turned from the Lord GOD and it cost them their kingdoms.

1 comment:

Milton said...

In looking through the August issue of National Geographic, I saw a story about the dry desrts of Egypt that use to be oceans. There are skeletons of creatures which resemble those described as a scaley creature which was to be cast upon dry ground. It is interesting to see the aftermath of Ezekiel's prophecy.