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Welcome to the Cross References podcast on the Book of Ezekiel. In this study, you learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and most importantly, how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
Whether you’re a newbie Christian or a veteran Bible reader, my goal is that God’s Word will make more sense to you after every episode.
Host: Luke Taylor
God Slays the Sea Monster
Ezekiel 32:1-16
Ezekiel series, part 53
Introduction
We live in a world of absolute chaos. Where does it all come from? Well, you’ll find out today.
Today’s episode will start into chapter 32 of Ezekiel, which will be God’s final word on Egypt and the Gentile Nations. Egypt is truly one of the most fascinating nations in the Bible; it plays a huge role in the creation of Israel as a nation, in some of Israel’s struggles throughout the Old Testament, and even factors into God’s plans for the future.
And we’ll talk about that in the weeks ahead, but today, you’re going to learn about some of the Old Testament passages that speak of God fighting some kind of sea monster; levitathan, or the chaos dragon.
Also, you’ll learn why the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21 are said to have no sea.
And if you listen to the end, you’ll gain a greater understanding of what may be going on in our world today- especially right here in America. All of that today on the Cross References podcast.
[theme music]
The Death of Pharaoh
Welcome to the Cross References podcast, a Bible study where we learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
My name is Luke Taylor, and I’m not a lion. I have never claimed to be a lion. And that might not seem like much to brag about, but it’s more than I can say for today’s figure that we’ll be studying.
I tried to make this a one-episode-chapter, but it just had too much going on. So as much as I hate to say it, I had to split this chapter up into two parts. Both have some fascinating things going on. This lesson was originally going to be called Pharaoh Takes a Tour of Hell, but that’s now going to be next time.
But I think you’ll find a lot to love in this lesson. We’ll start by reading the first eight verses.
Ezekiel 32:1-8
In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:
“You consider yourself a lion of the nations,
but you are like a dragon in the seas;
you burst forth in your rivers,
trouble the waters with your feet,
and foul their rivers.
3 Thus says the Lord God:
I will throw my net over you
with a host of many peoples,
and they will haul you up in my dragnet.
4 And I will cast you on the ground;
on the open field I will fling you,
and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you,
and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.
5 I will strew your flesh upon the mountains
and fill the valleys with your carcass.
6 I will drench the land even to the mountains
with your flowing blood,
and the ravines will be full of you.
7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens
and make their stars dark;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
and the moon shall not give its light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven
will I make dark over you,
and put darkness on your land,
declares the Lord God.
So first, a note on the date of the prophecy, which it said was the first day of the 12th month of the 12th year, which to us means it was actually March 3, 385 BC. I love Ezekiel because it’s such a precise and chronological book. This is the same year that Jerusalem officially fell to Babylon, and for the past 8 chapters, Ezekiel has shifted his attention away from warning Jerusalem about it. It was a done deal. Ezekiel has now been warning the other nations around not to celebrate too much when they see Israel fall. That same destruction that fell on Israel was going to be coming their way, as well.
Now it tells Pharaoh, “you think of yourself as a lion.” This speaks to the hubris and arrogance of the ancient pharaohs, who often compared themselves to lions, the most ferocious beasts of the day. Pharaohs often memorialized themselves as sphinxes, which are these lion-like creatures that you can still see in Egypt to this day. It’s easy to see why; a lion is the chosen symbol of many in royalty. God’s message through Ezekiel is that though pharaoh thinks of himself as a lion, he’s really more of a crocodile, or sea monster. More on that in a minute.
But it just reminds me of the devil and how the New Testament depicts him. I Peter 5 says the devil goes about AS a roaring lion. I love the word choice there. AS a roaring lion. It doesn’t say he IS a lion. He goes about AS one. But in Revelation, we see that Jesus is the lion. The devil just goes about AS a lion. He thinks himself tougher than he actually is. Now, still take him seriously, but the devil is not as powerful as he thinks he is. And Pharaoh isn’t either.
So then it depicts Pharaoh as some kind of chaos monster of the sea. An earlier chapter compared Pharaoh to a crocodile, and this is right in line with that. And we see this really graphic portrayal of God fishing for it, grabbing it out of the water, violently flinging it out onto the rocks and letting it decay away in the sun while other animals feast on its body. So it’s a very dark and disturbing chapter. God often gets quite graphic in this book of of Ezekiel. And verses 9 and 10 are pretty messed up, too; they say:
(Ezekiel 32:9-10)
9 “I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries that you have not known. 10 I will make many peoples appalled at you, and the hair of their kings shall bristle with horror because of you, when I brandish my sword before them. They shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall.
So what God says here is that He is spreading “dread” throughout the land as the nations hear of what happened to Egypt, and two important notes on this verse. One, this phrase “when I bring your destruction among the nations.” This is an odd phrase; it’s actually quite toned down from the original Hebrew. Literally, it’s sibreka, your “shattered remains.” it says that God is going to sends pieces of the crocodile’s body throughout the nations. This is a callback, or a cross reference, to a couple of stories earlier in the Bible.
For example, when Saul cut up an oxen and sent its pieces throughout the 12 tribes of Israel, and this was to scare them into helping him fight off some Ammonites. That’s I Samuel 11. And then another, even more gruesome, reference is Judges 19, when a man cuts up a woman and sends pieces of her body throughout all the people, once again to fill them with dread and motivate them to action. So those are a couple of rough stories in the Old Testament, and it appears that God is referencing it as He says He will send parts of Egypt’s body around to all the nations to fill them with dread and sober them up. Nobody is too big to fall, not even Egypt. And that brings us to the second big observation I’d like to make about these verses:
Two, the word of the day is “nations.” Just about every chapter of Ezekiel has some specific word that repeats a lot, and the word this time is “nations.” Goyim in Hebrew. This chapter is directed toward Egypt, but it’s too late for Egypt. It’s not a warning to repent, it’s an announcement of doom. But it’s a warning for everyone else. It’s a warning for all the nations. It’s a warning for America.
Actually, it might be too late for America, too; but just in case it’s not, we should learn from what Egypt learns in this chapter. Nobody is too big to fall. And even worse, when you do: death is not the end.
Now let’s read verses 11-16
11 “For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. 12 I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most ruthless of nations.
“They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt,
and all its multitude shall perish.
13 I will destroy all its beasts
from beside many waters;
and no foot of man shall trouble them anymore,
nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14 Then I will make their waters clear,
and cause their rivers to run like oil,
declares the Lord God.
15 When I make the land of Egypt desolate,
and when the land is desolate of all that fills it,
when I strike down all who dwell in it,
then they will know that I am the Lord.
16 This is a lamentation that shall be chanted; the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they chant it, declares the Lord God.”
This phrase “then they will know that I am the Lord” is Ezekiel’s slogan or catchphrase. The point of this book seems to be making God known throughout the world. And God can make Himself known in a couple of ways. If you cooperate with God and give Him glory and live in humility and follow God’s ways, your life is a signpost to God, and God will bless you for it. If you decide not to cooperate with God and seek glory for yourself and rebel against His ways, then God will make an example out of you, and it’s not going to go well for you. But people are still gonna know who God is by the time He’s done with you.
So God is going to make Himself known, and it’s up to you whether you’d like to cooperate with it or not.
Now, before we start into the last section of verses for today, I just want to comment on this section of Ezekiel as a whole, and something that I haven’t talked about much but has been all throughout this section. Something weird. This section of Ezekiel is chapters 25 through 32, and as I introduced it several months back, I introduced it as 7 letters to 7 nations. Ammon, Edom, Moab, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and then Egypt, and the largest section was all focused on Egypt. However, this whole section has been a series of oracles directed toward Gentile nations. Chuck Missler makes a big deal about how these are all modern-day Muslim nations, and I do agree that’s kinda interesting. I also found Michael Heiser’s commentary on these chapters pretty interesting. Michael Heiser focuses on a motif present throughout this section of God speaking not only to the Gentile nations, but also to the spiritual beings who are in charge of these nations.
The obvious one was Satan in the section where God spoke to Tyre in chapter 28. God spoke to Tyre’s king, but then God also spoke to the power behind the throne, which at that time was literally Satan himself. Hold onto something, because this next sentence is a little wild, but I’ll back it up. There is a motif or idea throughout scripture of God slaying the chaos dragon and bringing order out of chaos. If you’ve never heard that before, I’ll refer to a few cross references about that here. It’s all related to how God created the world, that the original pieces of creation were there but that they were a mess and God had to put them into order.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
So there’s all the pieces. The matter. The materials of nature.
Genesis 1:2
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.
So everything was there, but it was without form. God didn’t just snap His fingers or make a big bang and then there were four seasons and ecosystems and 12 months in a year and the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru. Those things didn’t just happen. The earth was without form. And void. And God created order out of chaos. “Let there be light.” “Let there be waters.” “Let the earth sprout vegetation.”
Sometimes this idea is personified as if God has to defeat evil forces to bring order out of chaos. Now, is this just poetic language, or did demonic forces such as Satan actually oppose God and try to prevent Him from moving forward with the seven days of creation? I’m not sure. Listen to these verses and let me know what you think:
Isaiah 51:9-10
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
We hear “rahab” right there and probably think of the woman who hid the spies in the book of Joshua. It’s not referring to her at all right here; the word “rahab” means a “storm,” but also refers to a mythological sea creature who brings chaos. The “sea” is a term that often refers to “chaos.” The antichrist is a beast out of the sea. In
Revelation 21:1, after the antichrist and devil have been defeated, it says
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Now why is there no “sea” in the new heavens and new earth? What’s wrong with the sea? I don’t think it means there won’t be any bodies of water in the new heavens and earth. I mean, maybe, but I doubt that’s what it’s saying. It’s poetic language. It means an end to chaos. The sea means chaos; in God’s perfect new creation, there will be no chaos. The sea is no more. Another verse that points to the end times, back in
Isaiah 27:1
In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
So this is perhaps talking about Satan, or perhaps evil spirits in general, and someday God will defeat all of them and put them to rest. We’ll find out what’s going to happen to them at the end of this chapter.
Psalm 74:12-14
12 Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
Now that sounds a lot like Ezekiel 32, and it actually sounds like a lot of verses from this section of Ezekiel. You might remember this line from a couple chapters ago
in Ezekiel 29…
“Behold, I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon that lies
in the midst of his streams,
that says, ‘My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.’
4 I will put hooks in your jaws,
and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales;
and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams,
with all the fish of your streams
that stick to your scales.
5 And I will cast you out into the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your streams;
I’ll stop there but you can hear the similarity there. So let me go back to what I said a couple of minutes ago, but it may have been a sentence you’re not too familiar with: There is a motif or idea throughout scripture of God slaying the chaos dragon and bringing order out of chaos. I think I’ve established that. Now let me expand on that a little bit. God created everything in the ecosystem across the six days of creation. Some say they were literal 24-hour days, some say they were periods of time. But what I’m saying makes no difference one way or the other on that. God brought order out of chaos in stages, until everything was good. God’s creation was basically perfect. He created Adam and Eve. You know the rest of the story. Sin entered the world, and suddenly, thing start unraveling. Decaying. Losing steam. Entropy. The Second Law of Thermodynamics. Or as I like to put it, why I can’t turn my head to the right the next day if I sleep on my left side. Everything is running down and falling apart. A return to chaos.
And that’s what we’re always fighting against: chaos. Because when you have chaos vs chaos, the devil wins.
That’s why as we see ourselves approaching the last days, we see more and more chaos. II Thessalonians warns of lawlessness in the end times. Look at what’s happening in society. These movements like defund the police, black lives matter, opening up the borders, they have not made society safer. They have not made black lives better. Crime has gone up, shoplifting has gone up, murder rates have gone up, chaos at the border, chaos in society.
If we look at America, we have chaos on the right and chaos on the left. Those Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 when America’s biggest cities were set on fire and the West Coast set up an autonomous zone? Chaos. That January 6 riot a few years ago? Chaos. Our country as a whole is devolving from order into chaos, and that’s how you can tell that Satan’s in charge.
When it’s chaos vs chaos, the devil wins.
[music]
Closing Thoughts
Next time on this podcast, let’s wrap up chapter 32. And not only that, we’ll be wrapping up a major section of Ezekiel, as it will not just wrap up the section about Egypt, and not just wrap up the section about Gentile Nations, but it will wrap up the entire section of judgment in the book of Ezekiel. Chapters 1 through 32 are the judgment chapters of Ezekiel. Chapter 33 onward are about future prophecy. And that’s the fun part of Ezekiel. After next week, it’s going to be a lot of fun stuff. But it won’t be so fun next time, because next weeks’ lesson is titled Pharaoh takes a tour of hell.
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Email: crossreferencespodcast@gmail.com
[Mailbag response]
In closing, I tend to think Dr. Michael Heiser is on to something with his description of Ezekiel 32. I hope what I talked about today has brought some context to what God is doing through creation, what some of these verses through the Bible are referring to when they talk about the sea and God fighting a dragon. And I hope it’s perhaps helped us to understand a little more about what’s going on in our world today.
I certainly don’t discount the sovereignty of God when I state that Satan might be in charge. God is ultimately in charge. But as we’ve learned in this section of studying the Gentile nations, Satan is a tool that God will use. And God will even turn a nation over to the control of Satan or other evil spirits. And that might explain a lot of things going on right now in America itself.
And so we’ll end it there for today, halfway through a chapter, because next week we’ll finish chapter 32 and tie a bow on all of this.Thanks for listening to the Cross References Podcast. This has been Luke Taylor, and I hope the Bible and the world makes more sense to you after this episode.