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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
All Other Ground is Sinking Sand
Ezekiel 29
Ezekiel series, Part 50
Introduction
2024 is shaping up to be a chaotic year. Elections, Civil War, high profile political prosecutions, war in Europe, war in the Middle East- and another Chinese Spy Balloon. And who knows what else is on the horizon?
Well, someone knows, and that’s what we’ll talk about today.
We’re returning to the study in the book of Ezekiel with chapter 29. This chapter is going to be the first of four that all deal with the nation of Egypt. For a time in world history, near the days of the prophet Ezekiel, Egypt was seen as the most powerful nation in the world. As long as you were on Egypt’s good side, you were probably going to be OK.
They didn’t need NATO. They had Egypt.
And yet, Egypt is not gonna be good enough. The most powerful nation in the world is not gonna be good enough when God comes against you. For the first half of the book of Ezekiel, God came against Jerusalem. Now, God is coming against Egypt.
What can you turn to when even the most powerful nation in the world is falling apart? We’ll talk about that today on the Cross References podcast.
[theme music]
(Continued)
Welcome to the Cross References podcast, where 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 new Christian or a veteran Bible reader, my goal is that God’s Word will make more sense to you after every episode.
My name is Luke Taylor, and I’m an American, and so all of my life, I’ve been told that I live in the most powerful nation in the world. That no other country would dare stand up to us because of our military and economic might. And if they tried, they ended up dead.
We got Osama Bin Laden. We got Saddam Hussein. We outlasted the Soviet Union. We ended WWII. We dropped the nuclear bombs. And if those didn’t work, we had Chuck Norris in our back pocket, just in case.
So I’ve grown up pretty comfortably here in America, perhaps with a bit more security than most people have known in history. In fact, more security than 99% of people in history have known.
That’s a blessing and a privilege that we should not take lightly. But there’s a lesson for us in Ezekiel 29 that we should not get too comfortable in our comfort. Nations come and go. Empires fall. And even a nation as powerful as America with all the roundhouse kick skills of Chuck Norris will not save you in the day of God’s judgment.
And this is a lesson that Ezekiel’s listeners will learn in chapter 29 using the most powerful nation of his day: Egypt.
V1-5, the Crocodile King
Ezekiel 29:1-2
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt;
This prophecy came down on a specific date in history: January 7, 587 BC.
One of the interesting factoids about Ezekiel is that it’s one of the most chronological books of the Bible. Whereas Jeremiah or Isaiah are all over the place, Ezekiel is pretty straightforward. This is the only section of Ezekiel that gets a little out of order, chronologically. I don’t know why. Many of the commentaries I studied had theories, but none of them really affect our understanding of this section. And when I say section, I’m referring to chapters 29-32. This is a four-chapter section containing prophecies about the nation of Egypt.
Ezekiel 29:3-5
3 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:
“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;
you shall fall on the open field,
and not be brought together or gathered.
To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens
I give you as food.
The word of the day is “streams.” It’s a word that showed up repeatedly here. And it’s drawing our attention to the Nile River. The Nile is the lifeblood of Egypt. Without the Nile, Egypt would be nothing. Rivers meant water, and water meant food, and food meant life. If you lived in Egypt, you didn’t want to live out in a desert with no water for a hundred miles around. Egyptians lived near the river because it was your best chance to survive.
Pharaoh is depicted symbolically here in this section as a creature of the nile. Some translations say dragon, some say crocodile. That’s why I call this section: the Crocodile King.
Btw, did anyone else remember learning really early in school the difference in alligators and crocodiles? I remember thinking that was going to be much more vital information to my everyday life than it ended up being. I mean, it’s right up there with identifying trapezoids and parallelograms. It’s been so long, I can’t even remember the difference in alligators and crocodiles anymore. I think it comes down to whether you’re gonna see it again later…or in a while. Something like that. So Pharaoh here may be personified as a crocodile. It’s an allegory. Or an alligatorgory.
It’s also appropriate to translate this as referring to some kind of vague sea monster. Throughout the Bible is a motif of God combatting a sea monster, with the monster of the sea being a force of chaos and God being a force of peace, and so there is this epic picture being painted here of the sea monster vs God.
But God remains in control. He tells the sea monster- some say it should really be thought of as a crocodile, which is fine- that He will put a hook in its jaws and drag it out. Why? Because the sea monster is proud. He thinks that Egypt is so great because of himself. He takes credit for the Nile. And God doesn’t like pride. The Pharaoh at this time is Pharaoh Hophra. And God is essentially threatening here to put Hophra in his place. The Pharaohs had a problem of thinking of themselves as gods. But there is only one God, which brings us to verse 6.
V6-9, Egypt the broken reed
(Ezekiel 29:6—9)
6 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.
“Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, 7 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. 8 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, 9 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
So Egypt’s judgment is not just because of their pride, but this is also a learning experience for Israel. If you rely on Egypt, this superpower of a nation, to take care of you, you’re going to be disappointed. They will fail you. That’s the lesson.
Egypt is a staff of reed. That is an oxymoron. A staff is something you want built out of good solid wood. Something you can lean on. Something dependable. But reed is a hollow, breakable plant. It’s not going to make a good walking stick. It’s a useless crutch. It said it would tear their shoulders; it’s referring to if you leaned on this reed like a crutch. If you leaned on it, it would snap, and then it describes a fearful physiological response from the Israelites. Their knees will buckle. They’ll realize it was a mistake to trust you. And then Israel will also come to the same realization of who the Lord is.
This is the repeated refrain, the main theme, of Ezekiel; it’s almost on every page: “then you will know that I am the Lord.” All these things that are happening to Israel, to Egypt, they’re all to teach us who the Lord is.
A few cross references to this idea of Egypt being a staff of reed:
II Kings 18:21
21 Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
Isaiah 36:6 has very similar language as well. So that’s the other side of the coin there. Those words are to Israel, Ezekiel is saying the same thing to Egypt itself. Egypt thinks it’s a crocodile who owns the river, but God can jerk it out of there and do whatever He wishes with it.
V9-16, The 40-year Exile
Ezekiel 29:10-12
“Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’ 10 therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. 11 No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries.
So God says He will make Egypt desolate for 40 years. This 40-year period was sometime during the 70-year timeframe that Jerusalem was desolate, which we call the Babylonian captivity. We don’t know the exact starting date and ending date of this 40-year period, but God said He would desolate Egypt to the point that nobody would live there for 40 years.
My friend Nate Vainio used an interesting phrase recently talking about Ezekiel. And I’ll tell you more about that conversation later. But he referred to Ezekiel and Jeremiah as dueling prophets. Not that they’re against each other, but that they’re both often talking about the same things at the same time, but from different places and slightly different perspectives. Jeremiah discusses when Egypt would be attacked by Babylon in chapters 43 and 44 of his book, and so you can look that up if you want a cross reference for when this happened.
Basically, after the desolation of Jerusalem, a small remnant of the surviving Jews fled to Egypt for protection, without realizing that Egypt was next on Nebuchadnezzar’s list. Jeremiah tried and tried to warn them, but as usual, they disregard him. They appeal to the Queen of Heaven, which is the cult of Semiramis and Tammuz that we covered all the way back in the Ezekiel series part 12.
Next, God makes kind of an interesting declaration about the Egyptians. Just as God would disperse the Jews and then later regather them into their land after 70 years, God promises to do the same for Egypt. To desolate them, and then bring them back.
Ezekiel 29:13-16
13 “For thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, 14 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15 It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 16 And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.”
God actually makes a promise right here to bring them back after 40 years. Again, I don’t know the exact time frame. I don’t know when it started and when it ended. But it did, and God brought Egypt back, and it’s still here today.
Now, there was another side of this promise. God also stated that Egypt would never regain its status as a world empire. It would never be a major player on the world scene again. And it hasn’t. I mean, it’s there. It’s in the news every now and then. But it’s not in the G7. They didn’t film any Star Wars movies there. It’s not one of the significant nations that gets a whole lot of attention in modern times. And that was part of its punishment for thinking all the way back in Ezekiel’s day that they were the top dogs. God has a way of humbling those who exalt themselves.
But it’s for our own good that we get humbled sometimes. I know it doesn’t always feel good, but it’s better for us in the long-term. And as we see in these verses, God is thinking about what’s best for the long term for Egypt.
I also find it interesting that God’s going to bring them back because it shows a love right here that God has even for the Gentiles. He doesn’t just want to bless the Jews. He wants to bless the Gentiles. And that’s good news for me, since I’m a Gentile.
V17-21, a prize for Tyre
The last few verses of this chapter- and yes, we’re actually covering an entire chapter today- we’ll probably move through this Egypt section a little more quickly than I usually do on this podcast- and the last few verses here actually give a second oracle about Egypt. This one is talks about why God is handing Egypt over to Nebuchadnezzar specifically.
Ezekiel 29:17-21
17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord God.
21 “On that day I will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
So first of all, those who are paying close attention to Ezekiel’s dating system might notice that this little oracle comes 17 years after the last one. I just mention it for the rest of us who AREN’T paying attention. And as I said before, this is the only section of Ezekiel that jumps around a little bit in the timeline; and likewise, the fact that it jumps around doesn’t actually affect our understanding of the passage, from what I can tell.
This calls back or ties in to our study on Tyre in chapters 26 and 27. If you recall from that, Tyre’s capital was on an island city, and God had decreed that it was to be destroyed, like several of the other nations around it. However, unlike the other nations, Tyre’s destruction did not come from Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. He attacked Tyre, but his attack was long and unsuccessful. It would not be until 250 years later that Alexander the Great figured out a way to conquer an island fortress. So God’s prophecy would come true, but not in Ezekiel’s lifetime.
And perhaps why he wrote this prophecy as a follow-up so many years later. Here is what this little oracle says: even though Nebuchadnezzar was unsuccessful in taking Tyre, he was still doing God’s bidding by attacking it in the first place. As we’ve covered elsewhere in this study, Nebuchadnezzar is unknowingly acting as God’s agent of destruction against these peoples in the Middle East. Nebuchadnezzar thinks he’s calling the shots, but he doesn’t realize that God is actually directing and ordaining his every step. It will not be until the book of Daniel, chapter 4, that he finally realizes this. But that hasn’t happened yet.
Despite that, God still feels that Nebuchadnezzar- can I call him Chad? I keep wanting to call him Nebby, but that sounds too silly. But in studying this today, the fact that the word “Chad” is right in the middle of his name is just irresistible right now. Plus, it’s kinda describing how he’s a total Chad. God’s Chad. So God feels that even though Chad didn’t take Tyre, it was such a long and costly campaign to take it, that Chad is owed something for his troubles. And so this oracle is telling us that Egypt will be Chad’s consolation prize.
That’s really all this little section is saying, but it reveals something interesting to me about God’s character. God is fair. Even with unbelievers. Even with people who have no regard for Him. He will still treat them fairly. And if they do something in service to Him, even unknowingly, He will settle that account. And I like that about God, because if God will even be fair with unbelievers, I can trust that He’ll always be fair with me.
It’s also probably really distracting to you now that I’m calling this legendary Old Testament villain “Chad,” but I’m gonna go with that for a while and see if we get used to it.
Let’s take a short break, and when I come back, I’ll mention one last lesson of history from Ezekiel 30.
[musical interlude]
Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, we’ll continue right along with Ezekiel 30.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
I also encourage you to check out a podcast I was recently invited on as a guest to speak about the Book of Ezekiel: Something to Gnaw On with Nate Vainio. He’s a friend and podcaster, he’s been on my show here before, last summer or fall. His Something to Gnaw On podcast is focused on giving you short little lessons to mull over throughout your day after you listen to them. And I was really honored to visit and be featured as a guest, so please go check that out.
Closing Thoughts
This lesson has been heavy on history. We’ll end with another story from history.
Herotodus wrote that Cyrus (of the Persians) conquered Egypt by putting cats out in front of his army. When Egypt saw that line of cats out there on the battlefield, they refused to attack. Kinda like how it’s bad luck to cross a black cats path or whatever. They thought it’d be bad luck to cross the cats. And it ended up being bad luck not to because they lost the fight. This was not a winning strategy.
See, if America got attacked, we’d probably put Chuck Norris out there on the front line to defend us, and I like that strategy a little better. Egypt didn’t have Chuck Norris, so they went with what they thought was the next best thing: honor the cats. And that idea didn’t work out so well for them.
Think about why they did that. Perhaps they feared the cats; or rather, they feared the cat gods. They feared what might happen to them if they hurt a cat, and it came at the cost of their own lives and the loss of their national sovereignty.
Egypt worshiped cats, and it was defeated by cats.
Anything you make into an idol will be your greatest weakness.
If you put your trust in God, it’s your greatest strength.
As the song says: On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Thanks for listening to the Cross References Podcast. This has been Luke Taylor, and I’ll see you later. Or, if you prefer, in a while.