September 26, 2025 • 25 mins
What happens when national pride collides with divine purpose? Diving deep into Ezekiel chapters 28 and 29, we uncover one of the Bible's most overlooked themes: God's sovereignty over nations.
The age-old question of Israel's future finds surprising clarity in these ancient texts. While many believers focus exclusively on personal salvation (and rightly so), we discover that God's redemptive plan is far more comprehensive. Through careful examination of Ezekiel's prophecies, we uncover three distinct redemptions woven throughout Scripture: the redemption of mankind, creation, and nations.
When God declares "I will gather the house of Israel" to live securely in "their land which I gave to Jacob," He makes a promise that history confirms remains unfulfilled. Despite returns from Babylonian captivity and the Maccabean period, Israel has never experienced the enduring security promised in these passages—suggesting a future fulfillment still awaits.
Egypt's story proves equally fascinating. For 2,500 years, this mighty civilization dominated the ancient world, with Pharaohs claiming divine status as they ruled from their Nile-centered kingdom. God's response? "I am against you, Pharaoh... the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers." With vivid imagery of hooks in jaws and fish clinging to scales, God pronounces judgment on Egyptian pride, ultimately using Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as His instrument of discipline.
The historical accuracy is striking—from descriptions of battle-worn soldiers with baldness from helmets and raw shoulders from equipment to precise dating of prophecies. These details remind us that we're dealing with genuine history, not merely spiritual allegories.
As world events continue to unfold today, these ancient prophecies remind us who truly controls the rise and fall of nations. Every leader, every empire serves at God's pleasure. What might this reveal about our own nations and times?
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
One question amongst many Christian groups is is
there a future for the nationIsrael or is it already past?
Has God judged them and has nofuture for Israel yet, or is
there still a time and a placethat God has a purpose for the
nation of Israel?
(00:40):
Well, we're going to see one ofthose passages today that gives
an answer to this, and we'regoing to see also some wonderful
passages in here about how Godis going to deal with nations.
Welcome.
We have a ministry we callReasoning Through the Bible.
My name's Glenn.
I'm here with Steve.
So if you have your copy of theWord of God, turn to Ezekiel,
(01:03):
chapter 28,.
So, if you have your copy ofthe Word of God, turn to Ezekiel
, chapter 28, starting in verse25.
If you've been with us, you'llknow that God has spent quite a
bit of time talking aboutcondemnation of the Jewish
people for their great sins.
He's been speaking about thenations around Israel, tyre, and
(01:24):
we're going to see others aswell, but we have a little
glimpse here at the end ofchapter 28 of what God is going
to do at some point in thefuture.
So, steve, can you please readverses 25 and 26 of Ezekiel,
chapter 28?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Thus says the Lord God.
When I gather the house ofIsrael from the peoples among
whom they are scattered Thussays the Lord God and they will
(02:00):
build houses, plant vineyardsand live securely.
When I execute judgments uponall who scorn them round about
them, then they will know that Iam the Lord their God.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So, if we try to get to the answer to this question,
he says he's going to bring hispeople, Israel, back to the land
there's an option of.
Is this some future date that'sstill future to us now?
Was it fulfilled in theintertestamental period in
between the Babylonian captivityand the coming of Christ?
(02:35):
Or is this a figurativesymbolic about the church and
the church age?
Steve, what do we look at totry to answer this question?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I think we look at verse 26 when it says they will
live in it securely and thatthey'll build houses, plant
vineyards and live securely.
Well, when they came back fromthe Babylonian captivity, first
of all, a little over 40,000 ofthem came back, but they didn't
live there securely.
In Nehemiah, as they were tryingto rebuild the walls around the
(03:10):
city, they were under constantthreat and even at one time, the
surrounding nations were comingtogether in order to come up
and kill them in order to stopthem from rebuilding the city
walls.
And that was just right afterthey came back.
And as you go through theirhistory, they're there serving
as a province to the otherempires.
(03:31):
They never get back to a pointwhere their own sovereign nation
until the mid-20th century AD.
So I think that we look at thisand say when they will live in
it securely.
There's never been a time thatthey have lived securely in the
land, even up until today.
(03:52):
They're still in the time thatyou and I are recording this and
they're there and they havestrength and power, but you
(04:12):
wouldn't say that they're livingcompletely and totally securely
.
I think that we can look atverse 26 and say this is a time
period that is still going tohappen sometime in the future.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
If we note the timing of when this prophecy was given
.
Ezekiel is giving God'sprophecy here towards the
beginning of the Babyloniancaptivity.
We know that period lasted 70years and then some of the
people came back to Jerusalemand, as Steve, as you alluded to
, there was the times ofNehemiah and there was times
there where they were struggling.
(04:46):
Many, or at least some Bibleteachers bring up the time of
the Maccabees, which was thisintertestamental period in
between Babylon and the firstcentury when Christ came.
There was a battle where thesons of Judas Maccabeus ran the
Greeks out of Jerusalem and hada military victory.
Some people point to that andsay well, see, that was a time
(05:10):
when Israel had some peace inthe land.
But it really doesn't fit.
If we just really study thehistory.
The reason why the Maccabeeshad to attack Jerusalem was
because the Greeks had run themout in the first place and the
Maccabees took it back again,but that was only for a very
brief period because the Greeksended up retaking it, defeating
(05:35):
the Maccabees in the end.
So there never was an extendedperiod where the Jewish people
lived in security.
When you're constantly losingbattles and winning a few
battles, that's not reallysecure.
We also can really determinedefinitively that it's not
(05:55):
talking about the church age insome sort of symbolic
application of the church,simply because if we look at the
end of verse 25, it says theywill live in their land, which I
gave to my servant, jacob.
So he's specifically referringback to the exact land that was
given to Jacob back in Genesis.
(06:16):
It was from the MediterraneanSea to the Euphrates River and
down to the River of Egypt.
It's specifically talking abouta physical piece of real estate
, the land I gave to Jacob.
There's no way to really makethat symbolic of the church age
without either ignoring thelanguage or violating the
(06:38):
grammar or really torturing theapplication.
It's very specifically talkingabout a specific piece of real
estate, the land that I gave toJacob, and again it says they
will live in it securely.
Therefore, we have a majortheme that's running through
this book.
One is the destruction of theJewish people, and we've seen
(07:03):
that.
We've also I think this is thethird time now where God has
promised to bring them back tothe land and have it blessed.
Do you remember there was apassage where the eagle had
taken the top of the cedar treeaway and it worshipped the pagan
idols in Babylon.
But God said I, I will take itat the top of the cedar and
(07:26):
plant it on the mountain in theland, and it will grow and bear
fruit and it will be there.
God claimed to bring back theJewish people.
This is the third time nowwhere he claims, and it's not
going to be the last.
We're going to see more of itas we go through the book of
Ezekiel.
One of the forgotten passagesare these prophets in the Old
(07:50):
Testament.
It's not just here, but it's inIsaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel
and the minor prophets.
There's going to come a timewhen God brings Israel back to
the land, the land he promisedJacob, and they're going to live
there securely.
Steve, I find it interestingbecause many Bible teachers
(08:11):
today rightfully point to theBible's primary message of
personal salvation, but theysomehow have lost this idea that
God can do more than one thingat a time and he also deals with
nations.
And it's so bad that there'sBible teachers today that when
we point out these passageswhere God deals with nations,
(08:32):
they think it's some sort ofdoctrinal problem or some sort
of major issue.
When God can do, yes, personalsalvation, but other things as
well, why do you think it justgets ignored so much to where
people find this to be a new ornovel teaching.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I think one way it's that way is because the major
theme in the Bible is theredemption of mankind, and
people stop there.
But we also see that there aretwo other redemptions.
There's the redemption ofcreation.
Whenever the kingdom comes in,there's going to be creation
(09:09):
itself is going to be redeemed.
It's going to go back to apoint like it was in the Garden
of Eden, that the animals aregoing to become herbivores again
and they're not going to beconflict with each other and
things like that.
In fact, at one point Paul putsthat creation groans for the
(09:31):
redemption to come about.
And then there's a thirdredemption.
There's a redemption of thenations.
All of that started in the Towerof Babel, in Genesis, chapter
10, whenever God scattered thenations.
And then he brings about thisnation of Israel.
He creates it himself out ofthis man, abraham, and he does
(09:52):
that in order to show anddisplay all the other nations
who he is.
He says to Abraham I'm going tomake you a great nation and
through you, all the othernations are going to be blessed.
So there's these threeredemptions redemption of
mankind, redemption of creationand the redemption of nations.
And I think the latter two justaren't really taught that much,
(10:13):
glenn.
That's why we come to the pointwhere, when we bring up this
topic of the nations, thatpeople kind of look at us kind
of like a new calf looking at agate, so to speak.
As to what are you talkingabout?
Yes, a major theme is theredemption of man, but we also
have these other two redemptionsthat are mentioned in Scripture
(10:33):
.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
These great passages of Scripture teach very
important lessons for us today.
Lessons for us today.
That brings us to chapter 29.
From chapters 29 through 32,talk about God's judgment on
Egypt.
In these chapters the beginningof this one in chapter 29,
(11:04):
ezekiel documents the year,month and day.
He says it's the 10th year,10th month and 12th day of the
month and it has been Ezekiel'spractice.
He's been documenting when Godgives him these messages and he
says the word of the Lord cameto me.
This was a first-personeyewitness account where he
documents the day and, if we'vebeen tracking along, this is
January 5th, 587 BC.
Ezekiel is documenting thelocation and the place and the
(11:27):
date.
It's a historical corroborationof the inspiration of Scripture
so we can trust our Bibles.
Let's go ahead and dive in.
We're going to again start amessage that God gives to Egypt.
Steve, can you read verses 1through 5?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth
of the month, the word of theLord came to me saying Son of
man, set your face againstPharaoh, king of Egypt, and
prophesy against him and againstall Egypt.
Speak and say Thus says theLord.
God Behold, I am against you.
(12:05):
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, thegreat monster that lies in the
midst of his rivers, that hassaid my Nile is mine and I
myself have made it.
I will put hooks in your jawsand make the fish of your rivers
cling to your scales and I willbring you up and make the fish
of your rivers cling to yourscales and I will bring you up
out of the midst of your riversand all the fish of your rivers
(12:29):
will cling to your scales.
I will abandon you to thewilderness, you and all the fish
of your rivers.
You will fall on the open field.
You will not be broughttogether or gathered.
I have given you for food tothe beasts of the earth and to
the birds of the sky.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
With this, again, god begins a message to Egypt.
Now, Egypt was a great nation,partially because of its size,
but also partly because of itslocation.
Of its size, but also partlybecause of its location.
It was in and around the NileRiver, which supplied all of the
life and the water for cropsand food and everything else.
(13:10):
It was very difficult to invadeEgypt because of the
surrounding deserts were solarge that there was no real way
to move an army across thesebrutal, vast deserts.
They served as a naturalbarrier.
The only way to attack Egyptwas through the Nile Delta, and
that's where they were.
(13:31):
Of course, most of theirmilitary was based.
Egypt was largelyself-sufficient because of the
Nile River.
If we remember, egypt was thiscountry that had enslaved Israel
, going all the way back toGenesis.
The other thing that becomesimportant here is that in the
(13:52):
Egyptian myths, pharaoh was agod and had come out of the Nile
River.
The Egyptian myth, many of them, centered around the Nile River
, and Pharaoh was viewed as agod that had come out of the
Nile.
Yet here in these passages, wejust read God says I'm against
you, and God even says I'm goingto treat you.
(14:14):
You think you came out of theNile, then you're a sea monster,
a monster out of the Nile verse3.
And in verse 4, he says I'mgoing to put hooks in you, pull
you out of the Nile.
You're still going to besmelling like fish.
I'm going to throw you on landand you're going to die there.
The Egyptians held Pharaoh as agod that came out of the Nile.
(14:39):
They also worshiped fish-headeddeities and Pharaoh thought he
was a god.
But the real god, yahweh, saysI'm going to cut you down to
size.
Steve, what impression do youget when you read these passages
?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I see a pattern between the Pharaoh of Egypt and
the leader of Tyre, the princeof Tyre, in our previous session
.
What was it that the prince wassaying through his pride of
saying I'm the one that hasbuilt up all of this wealth here
of this city-state of Tyre, andthat I think that I'm a god?
(15:16):
It was pride that was leadinghimself.
And God says I'm going to takecare of your pride.
In that we saw that actuallythe power behind the leader of
Tyre was Satan himself.
Here we come to this sectionnow, in chapter 29.
What is it that the Pharaoh ofEgypt is saying?
He says in verse 3, he has saidmy Nile is mine and I myself
(15:42):
have made it so.
It's another depiction of prideof this king or Pharaoh of
Egypt.
He says I have created all ofthis wealth, I have created this
great nation of Egypt.
I'm the one that has done itmyself.
And God says because you havesaid that, I am against you.
(16:02):
Now we're not told here that thepower behind Pharaoh is Satan,
but we do see this theme ofthese leaders start to look upon
themselves and have great prideOver in Daniel Nebuchadnezzar,
at one point, goes out onto hisbalcony and looks out and he
says look at all this great cityof Babylon that I have created.
(16:24):
And from that he is turned outand becomes a wild beast of the
field for a period of seventimes.
That is after Daniel had givenNebuchadnezzar an interpretation
of a dream that Nebuchadnezzarhad had.
Daniel had told him your prideis going to put you out into the
field and you're going to bethere as a beast, and it's going
(16:46):
to be God that does that to you, and you will stay there until
you acknowledge who Yahweh is.
And we see that Nebuchadnezzardoes that.
So, through all of thesedifferent nations, glenn, this
is the theme that I think we'regoing to see.
Pride comes up with theseleaders to where they think they
have done it on their own, butwe're going to see that they
(17:08):
actually serve at the pleasureof God.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Egypt was this huge, well-developed country for 2,500
years?
Just a true dynasty.
But who is really in control ofEgypt?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
God is in control of Egypt.
He, like I said, they all serveat his pleasure, meaning that
he will take them out wheneverhe deems that it's the time to
take them out, and that theydon't have any control over.
Whenever God decides I'm goingto take this nation down or this
leader down, then he's going todo it and he's going to bring
(17:42):
it about.
We're going to see that as wego through these verses in these
chapters.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Let's move on to the next section.
God says exactly what he'sgoing to do with the land of
Egypt.
I'm starting in the midst ofverse 9.
Because you said the Nile ismine and I have made it.
Therefore, behold, I am againstyou and against your rivers,
and I will make the land ofEgypt an utter waste and
desolation, from Migdal to Syeneand even to the border of
(18:11):
Ethiopia.
A man's foot will not passthrough it and the foot of a
beast will not pass through it,and it will not be inhabited for
forty years.
So I will make the land of Egypta desolation in the midst of
desolated lands, and her cities,in the midst of cities that are
laid waste, will be desolateforty years.
(18:33):
And I will scatter theEgyptians among the nations and
disperse them among the lands.
For thus says the Lord God, atthe end of forty years, I will
gather the Egyptians from thepeoples among whom they were
scattered.
I will turn the fortunes ofEgypt and make them return to
the land of Hathoros, to theland of their origin, and there
(18:56):
they will be lowly kingdom, itwill be the lowest of the
kingdoms and it will never againlift up above the nations, and
I will make them so small thatthey will not rule over the
nations and it will never againbe the confidence of the house
of Israel bringing to mind theiniquity of their having turned
to Egypt.
(19:16):
Then they will know that I amthe Lord.
God, steve, what does God sayhe's going to do to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
He says that he's going to make it a desolate
waste.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
A desolate waste and he's going to really be in
control of the Egyptian people.
Verse 16, he tells us one majorreason that God will make Egypt
so desolate is that so Egyptwill never again be the country
that Israel looks to for help.
Again, god is nation buildinghere and he is concerned for his
(19:47):
nation, israel.
Mind of all of the passagesthat we've gone through so far
in this book were passage afterpassage, chapter after chapter.
God was passing judgment on hispeople from Jerusalem and the
people of Judah and Israel.
The Jewish nation, were indisobedience for many centuries,
(20:12):
to the point that God waspassing severe judgment on them.
Yet here he's moving nationsaround to protect them as a
nation.
So he will keep his promisesthat he made all the way back in
Genesis of his people will be agreat nation and as many as the
(20:32):
stars of the sky, and it willcome through Abraham and he will
keep them in the land.
He took his people out of theland into Babylon, but here he's
still condemning Egypt and thenations around it, so they will
never again be an influence tohis people from Israel.
(20:54):
He will again have a future forIsrael.
Why else would he be dealingwith these nations.
Why else would he say here thathe's doing it?
Because they will not be aninfluence in the future over his
nation of Israel.
God has a purpose for what hedoes of Israel.
(21:16):
God has a purpose for what hedoes In addition to personal
salvation.
Another of God's purposes hasto do with nations, and it's in
large sections of the scripture.
Next, god tells us specificallyhow he will make Egypt desolate
.
Steve, can you read from verse17 to 21?
.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Now, in the twenty-seventh year, in the
first month, on the first of themonth, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying Son of man,Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
made his army labor hardagainst Tyre.
Every head was made bald andevery shoulder was rubbed bare,
but he and his army had no wagesfrom Tyre for the labor that he
(21:54):
had performed against it.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod Behold, I will give the land
of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar,king of Babylon, and he will
carry off her wealth and captureher spoil and seize her plunder
, and it will be wages for hisarmy.
I have given him the land ofEgypt for his labor, which he
(22:16):
performed.
He speaks here of sendingNebuchadnezzar in to attack
Egypt.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
And we know from secular history that
Nebuchadnezzar spent 13 yearslaying siege to Tyre and didn't
walk away with as much booty andloot to pay his army as he
would have liked.
He then turned his army towardsEgypt to try to get enough gold
(22:57):
and spoils to pay the army.
That's what happened.
So it says in verse 18, here'sone of these little clues that
tells us this accurate history.
He says every head was madebald and every shoulder was
rubbed bare.
Well, this was during this 13years.
If you could imagine, wearing ahelmet, having battles every
(23:19):
day, it's going to rub the hairoff of your head, and carrying
all the equipment and the siegemachines all the time is going
to rub your shoulders raw.
So we have a very accuratedescription of true history here
.
God says he's going to allowNebuchadnezzar to conquer Egypt
and take away her wealth.
(23:39):
Steve, he says here in verse 20, I have given him the land of
Egypt.
We've asked this before.
We'll ask it again who is incharge?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
of the nations, god is in charge.
And in that same verse he saysbecause they, being Babylon,
acted for me.
So we see that God uses othernations to discipline or bring
about judgment on nationsthemselves.
We had saw earlier in anothertext from other books that God
(24:15):
says that he used Babylon tobring about judgment on the
nation of Israel.
But we also see that God as wewent through Zechariah, in those
early chapters, he says I usedBabylon as judgment against you,
but now I'm going to bring onjudgment of Babylon because they
went too far.
(24:35):
Through reading the variousbooks we see that God is in
control and, as I mentionedearlier in this session, all of
these leaders and the nationsserve at God's pleasure.
He uses nations to disciplineother nations and bring judgment
on them, yet at the same timehe will bring judgment on those
(24:56):
nations if they go too far intheir discipline of Israel, as
he talked about earlier inZechariah.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That brings us to the end of chapter 29.
Next time we're going to getinto more of what God is saying
about Egypt.
Remember, God is in a lamentfor Egypt.
Egypt had been a world powerfor 2,500 years.
At this point it was quitewell-developed, quite
sophisticated, and God says he'sgoing to bring it down to
(25:28):
destruction.
And we're going to see that aswe continue to reason through
the book of Ezekiel, thank youso much for watching and
listening.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
May God bless you.
One question amongst many Christian groups is is
there a future for the nationIsrael or is it already past?
Has God judged them and has nofuture for Israel yet, or is
there still a time and a placethat God has a purpose for the
nation of Israel?
(00:40):
Well, we're going to see one ofthose passages today that gives
an answer to this, and we'regoing to see also some wonderful
passages in here about how Godis going to deal with nations.
Welcome.
We have a ministry we callReasoning Through the Bible.
My name's Glenn.
I'm here with Steve.
So if you have your copy of theWord of God, turn to Ezekiel,
(01:03):
chapter 28,.
So, if you have your copy ofthe Word of God, turn to Ezekiel
, chapter 28, starting in verse25.
If you've been with us, you'llknow that God has spent quite a
bit of time talking aboutcondemnation of the Jewish
people for their great sins.
He's been speaking about thenations around Israel, tyre, and
(01:24):
we're going to see others aswell, but we have a little
glimpse here at the end ofchapter 28 of what God is going
to do at some point in thefuture.
So, steve, can you please readverses 25 and 26 of Ezekiel,
chapter 28?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Thus says the Lord God.
When I gather the house ofIsrael from the peoples among
whom they are scattered Thussays the Lord God and they will
(02:00):
build houses, plant vineyardsand live securely.
When I execute judgments uponall who scorn them round about
them, then they will know that Iam the Lord their God.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So, if we try to get to the answer to this question,
he says he's going to bring hispeople, Israel, back to the land
there's an option of.
Is this some future date that'sstill future to us now?
Was it fulfilled in theintertestamental period in
between the Babylonian captivityand the coming of Christ?
(02:35):
Or is this a figurativesymbolic about the church and
the church age?
Steve, what do we look at totry to answer this question?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I think we look at verse 26 when it says they will
live in it securely and thatthey'll build houses, plant
vineyards and live securely.
Well, when they came back fromthe Babylonian captivity, first
of all, a little over 40,000 ofthem came back, but they didn't
live there securely.
In Nehemiah, as they were tryingto rebuild the walls around the
(03:10):
city, they were under constantthreat and even at one time, the
surrounding nations were comingtogether in order to come up
and kill them in order to stopthem from rebuilding the city
walls.
And that was just right afterthey came back.
And as you go through theirhistory, they're there serving
as a province to the otherempires.
(03:31):
They never get back to a pointwhere their own sovereign nation
until the mid-20th century AD.
So I think that we look at thisand say when they will live in
it securely.
There's never been a time thatthey have lived securely in the
land, even up until today.
(03:52):
They're still in the time thatyou and I are recording this and
they're there and they havestrength and power, but you
(04:12):
wouldn't say that they're livingcompletely and totally securely
.
I think that we can look atverse 26 and say this is a time
period that is still going tohappen sometime in the future.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
If we note the timing of when this prophecy was given
.
Ezekiel is giving God'sprophecy here towards the
beginning of the Babyloniancaptivity.
We know that period lasted 70years and then some of the
people came back to Jerusalemand, as Steve, as you alluded to
, there was the times ofNehemiah and there was times
there where they were struggling.
(04:46):
Many, or at least some Bibleteachers bring up the time of
the Maccabees, which was thisintertestamental period in
between Babylon and the firstcentury when Christ came.
There was a battle where thesons of Judas Maccabeus ran the
Greeks out of Jerusalem and hada military victory.
Some people point to that andsay well, see, that was a time
(05:10):
when Israel had some peace inthe land.
But it really doesn't fit.
If we just really study thehistory.
The reason why the Maccabeeshad to attack Jerusalem was
because the Greeks had run themout in the first place and the
Maccabees took it back again,but that was only for a very
brief period because the Greeksended up retaking it, defeating
(05:35):
the Maccabees in the end.
So there never was an extendedperiod where the Jewish people
lived in security.
When you're constantly losingbattles and winning a few
battles, that's not reallysecure.
We also can really determinedefinitively that it's not
(05:55):
talking about the church age insome sort of symbolic
application of the church,simply because if we look at the
end of verse 25, it says theywill live in their land, which I
gave to my servant, jacob.
So he's specifically referringback to the exact land that was
given to Jacob back in Genesis.
(06:16):
It was from the MediterraneanSea to the Euphrates River and
down to the River of Egypt.
It's specifically talking abouta physical piece of real estate
, the land I gave to Jacob.
There's no way to really makethat symbolic of the church age
without either ignoring thelanguage or violating the
(06:38):
grammar or really torturing theapplication.
It's very specifically talkingabout a specific piece of real
estate, the land that I gave toJacob, and again it says they
will live in it securely.
Therefore, we have a majortheme that's running through
this book.
One is the destruction of theJewish people, and we've seen
(07:03):
that.
We've also I think this is thethird time now where God has
promised to bring them back tothe land and have it blessed.
Do you remember there was apassage where the eagle had
taken the top of the cedar treeaway and it worshipped the pagan
idols in Babylon.
But God said I, I will take itat the top of the cedar and
(07:26):
plant it on the mountain in theland, and it will grow and bear
fruit and it will be there.
God claimed to bring back theJewish people.
This is the third time nowwhere he claims, and it's not
going to be the last.
We're going to see more of itas we go through the book of
Ezekiel.
One of the forgotten passagesare these prophets in the Old
(07:50):
Testament.
It's not just here, but it's inIsaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel
and the minor prophets.
There's going to come a timewhen God brings Israel back to
the land, the land he promisedJacob, and they're going to live
there securely.
Steve, I find it interestingbecause many Bible teachers
(08:11):
today rightfully point to theBible's primary message of
personal salvation, but theysomehow have lost this idea that
God can do more than one thingat a time and he also deals with
nations.
And it's so bad that there'sBible teachers today that when
we point out these passageswhere God deals with nations,
(08:32):
they think it's some sort ofdoctrinal problem or some sort
of major issue.
When God can do, yes, personalsalvation, but other things as
well, why do you think it justgets ignored so much to where
people find this to be a new ornovel teaching.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I think one way it's that way is because the major
theme in the Bible is theredemption of mankind, and
people stop there.
But we also see that there aretwo other redemptions.
There's the redemption ofcreation.
Whenever the kingdom comes in,there's going to be creation
(09:09):
itself is going to be redeemed.
It's going to go back to apoint like it was in the Garden
of Eden, that the animals aregoing to become herbivores again
and they're not going to beconflict with each other and
things like that.
In fact, at one point Paul putsthat creation groans for the
(09:31):
redemption to come about.
And then there's a thirdredemption.
There's a redemption of thenations.
All of that started in the Towerof Babel, in Genesis, chapter
10, whenever God scattered thenations.
And then he brings about thisnation of Israel.
He creates it himself out ofthis man, abraham, and he does
(09:52):
that in order to show anddisplay all the other nations
who he is.
He says to Abraham I'm going tomake you a great nation and
through you, all the othernations are going to be blessed.
So there's these threeredemptions redemption of
mankind, redemption of creationand the redemption of nations.
And I think the latter two justaren't really taught that much,
(10:13):
glenn.
That's why we come to the pointwhere, when we bring up this
topic of the nations, thatpeople kind of look at us kind
of like a new calf looking at agate, so to speak.
As to what are you talkingabout?
Yes, a major theme is theredemption of man, but we also
have these other two redemptionsthat are mentioned in Scripture
(10:33):
.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
These great passages of Scripture teach very
important lessons for us today.
Lessons for us today.
That brings us to chapter 29.
From chapters 29 through 32,talk about God's judgment on
Egypt.
In these chapters the beginningof this one in chapter 29,
(11:04):
ezekiel documents the year,month and day.
He says it's the 10th year,10th month and 12th day of the
month and it has been Ezekiel'spractice.
He's been documenting when Godgives him these messages and he
says the word of the Lord cameto me.
This was a first-personeyewitness account where he
documents the day and, if we'vebeen tracking along, this is
January 5th, 587 BC.
Ezekiel is documenting thelocation and the place and the
(11:27):
date.
It's a historical corroborationof the inspiration of Scripture
so we can trust our Bibles.
Let's go ahead and dive in.
We're going to again start amessage that God gives to Egypt.
Steve, can you read verses 1through 5?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth
of the month, the word of theLord came to me saying Son of
man, set your face againstPharaoh, king of Egypt, and
prophesy against him and againstall Egypt.
Speak and say Thus says theLord.
God Behold, I am against you.
(12:05):
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, thegreat monster that lies in the
midst of his rivers, that hassaid my Nile is mine and I
myself have made it.
I will put hooks in your jawsand make the fish of your rivers
cling to your scales and I willbring you up and make the fish
of your rivers cling to yourscales and I will bring you up
out of the midst of your riversand all the fish of your rivers
(12:29):
will cling to your scales.
I will abandon you to thewilderness, you and all the fish
of your rivers.
You will fall on the open field.
You will not be broughttogether or gathered.
I have given you for food tothe beasts of the earth and to
the birds of the sky.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
With this, again, god begins a message to Egypt.
Now, Egypt was a great nation,partially because of its size,
but also partly because of itslocation.
Of its size, but also partlybecause of its location.
It was in and around the NileRiver, which supplied all of the
life and the water for cropsand food and everything else.
(13:10):
It was very difficult to invadeEgypt because of the
surrounding deserts were solarge that there was no real way
to move an army across thesebrutal, vast deserts.
They served as a naturalbarrier.
The only way to attack Egyptwas through the Nile Delta, and
that's where they were.
(13:31):
Of course, most of theirmilitary was based.
Egypt was largelyself-sufficient because of the
Nile River.
If we remember, egypt was thiscountry that had enslaved Israel
, going all the way back toGenesis.
The other thing that becomesimportant here is that in the
(13:52):
Egyptian myths, pharaoh was agod and had come out of the Nile
River.
The Egyptian myth, many of them, centered around the Nile River
, and Pharaoh was viewed as agod that had come out of the
Nile.
Yet here in these passages, wejust read God says I'm against
you, and God even says I'm goingto treat you.
(14:14):
You think you came out of theNile, then you're a sea monster,
a monster out of the Nile verse3.
And in verse 4, he says I'mgoing to put hooks in you, pull
you out of the Nile.
You're still going to besmelling like fish.
I'm going to throw you on landand you're going to die there.
The Egyptians held Pharaoh as agod that came out of the Nile.
(14:39):
They also worshiped fish-headeddeities and Pharaoh thought he
was a god.
But the real god, yahweh, saysI'm going to cut you down to
size.
Steve, what impression do youget when you read these passages
?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I see a pattern between the Pharaoh of Egypt and
the leader of Tyre, the princeof Tyre, in our previous session
.
What was it that the prince wassaying through his pride of
saying I'm the one that hasbuilt up all of this wealth here
of this city-state of Tyre, andthat I think that I'm a god?
(15:16):
It was pride that was leadinghimself.
And God says I'm going to takecare of your pride.
In that we saw that actuallythe power behind the leader of
Tyre was Satan himself.
Here we come to this sectionnow, in chapter 29.
What is it that the Pharaoh ofEgypt is saying?
He says in verse 3, he has saidmy Nile is mine and I myself
(15:42):
have made it so.
It's another depiction of prideof this king or Pharaoh of
Egypt.
He says I have created all ofthis wealth, I have created this
great nation of Egypt.
I'm the one that has done itmyself.
And God says because you havesaid that, I am against you.
(16:02):
Now we're not told here that thepower behind Pharaoh is Satan,
but we do see this theme ofthese leaders start to look upon
themselves and have great prideOver in Daniel Nebuchadnezzar,
at one point, goes out onto hisbalcony and looks out and he
says look at all this great cityof Babylon that I have created.
(16:24):
And from that he is turned outand becomes a wild beast of the
field for a period of seventimes.
That is after Daniel had givenNebuchadnezzar an interpretation
of a dream that Nebuchadnezzarhad had.
Daniel had told him your prideis going to put you out into the
field and you're going to bethere as a beast, and it's going
(16:46):
to be God that does that to you, and you will stay there until
you acknowledge who Yahweh is.
And we see that Nebuchadnezzardoes that.
So, through all of thesedifferent nations, glenn, this
is the theme that I think we'regoing to see.
Pride comes up with theseleaders to where they think they
have done it on their own, butwe're going to see that they
(17:08):
actually serve at the pleasureof God.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Egypt was this huge, well-developed country for 2,500
years?
Just a true dynasty.
But who is really in control ofEgypt?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
God is in control of Egypt.
He, like I said, they all serveat his pleasure, meaning that
he will take them out wheneverhe deems that it's the time to
take them out, and that theydon't have any control over.
Whenever God decides I'm goingto take this nation down or this
leader down, then he's going todo it and he's going to bring
(17:42):
it about.
We're going to see that as wego through these verses in these
chapters.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Let's move on to the next section.
God says exactly what he'sgoing to do with the land of
Egypt.
I'm starting in the midst ofverse 9.
Because you said the Nile ismine and I have made it.
Therefore, behold, I am againstyou and against your rivers,
and I will make the land ofEgypt an utter waste and
desolation, from Migdal to Syeneand even to the border of
(18:11):
Ethiopia.
A man's foot will not passthrough it and the foot of a
beast will not pass through it,and it will not be inhabited for
forty years.
So I will make the land of Egypta desolation in the midst of
desolated lands, and her cities,in the midst of cities that are
laid waste, will be desolateforty years.
(18:33):
And I will scatter theEgyptians among the nations and
disperse them among the lands.
For thus says the Lord God, atthe end of forty years, I will
gather the Egyptians from thepeoples among whom they were
scattered.
I will turn the fortunes ofEgypt and make them return to
the land of Hathoros, to theland of their origin, and there
(18:56):
they will be lowly kingdom, itwill be the lowest of the
kingdoms and it will never againlift up above the nations, and
I will make them so small thatthey will not rule over the
nations and it will never againbe the confidence of the house
of Israel bringing to mind theiniquity of their having turned
to Egypt.
(19:16):
Then they will know that I amthe Lord.
God, steve, what does God sayhe's going to do to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
He says that he's going to make it a desolate
waste.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
A desolate waste and he's going to really be in
control of the Egyptian people.
Verse 16, he tells us one majorreason that God will make Egypt
so desolate is that so Egyptwill never again be the country
that Israel looks to for help.
Again, god is nation buildinghere and he is concerned for his
(19:47):
nation, israel.
Mind of all of the passagesthat we've gone through so far
in this book were passage afterpassage, chapter after chapter.
God was passing judgment on hispeople from Jerusalem and the
people of Judah and Israel.
The Jewish nation, were indisobedience for many centuries,
(20:12):
to the point that God waspassing severe judgment on them.
Yet here he's moving nationsaround to protect them as a
nation.
So he will keep his promisesthat he made all the way back in
Genesis of his people will be agreat nation and as many as the
(20:32):
stars of the sky, and it willcome through Abraham and he will
keep them in the land.
He took his people out of theland into Babylon, but here he's
still condemning Egypt and thenations around it, so they will
never again be an influence tohis people from Israel.
(20:54):
He will again have a future forIsrael.
Why else would he be dealingwith these nations.
Why else would he say here thathe's doing it?
Because they will not be aninfluence in the future over his
nation of Israel.
God has a purpose for what hedoes of Israel.
(21:16):
God has a purpose for what hedoes In addition to personal
salvation.
Another of God's purposes hasto do with nations, and it's in
large sections of the scripture.
Next, god tells us specificallyhow he will make Egypt desolate
.
Steve, can you read from verse17 to 21?
.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Now, in the twenty-seventh year, in the
first month, on the first of themonth, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying Son of man,Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
made his army labor hardagainst Tyre.
Every head was made bald andevery shoulder was rubbed bare,
but he and his army had no wagesfrom Tyre for the labor that he
(21:54):
had performed against it.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod Behold, I will give the land
of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar,king of Babylon, and he will
carry off her wealth and captureher spoil and seize her plunder
, and it will be wages for hisarmy.
I have given him the land ofEgypt for his labor, which he
(22:16):
performed.
He speaks here of sendingNebuchadnezzar in to attack
Egypt.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
And we know from secular history that
Nebuchadnezzar spent 13 yearslaying siege to Tyre and didn't
walk away with as much booty andloot to pay his army as he
would have liked.
He then turned his army towardsEgypt to try to get enough gold
(22:57):
and spoils to pay the army.
That's what happened.
So it says in verse 18, here'sone of these little clues that
tells us this accurate history.
He says every head was madebald and every shoulder was
rubbed bare.
Well, this was during this 13years.
If you could imagine, wearing ahelmet, having battles every
(23:19):
day, it's going to rub the hairoff of your head, and carrying
all the equipment and the siegemachines all the time is going
to rub your shoulders raw.
So we have a very accuratedescription of true history here
.
God says he's going to allowNebuchadnezzar to conquer Egypt
and take away her wealth.
(23:39):
Steve, he says here in verse 20, I have given him the land of
Egypt.
We've asked this before.
We'll ask it again who is incharge?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
of the nations, god is in charge.
And in that same verse he saysbecause they, being Babylon,
acted for me.
So we see that God uses othernations to discipline or bring
about judgment on nationsthemselves.
We had saw earlier in anothertext from other books that God
(24:15):
says that he used Babylon tobring about judgment on the
nation of Israel.
But we also see that God as wewent through Zechariah, in those
early chapters, he says I usedBabylon as judgment against you,
but now I'm going to bring onjudgment of Babylon because they
went too far.
(24:35):
Through reading the variousbooks we see that God is in
control and, as I mentionedearlier in this session, all of
these leaders and the nationsserve at God's pleasure.
He uses nations to disciplineother nations and bring judgment
on them, yet at the same timehe will bring judgment on those
(24:56):
nations if they go too far intheir discipline of Israel, as
he talked about earlier inZechariah.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That brings us to the end of chapter 29.
Next time we're going to getinto more of what God is saying
about Egypt.
Remember, God is in a lamentfor Egypt.
Egypt had been a world powerfor 2,500 years.
At this point it was quitewell-developed, quite
sophisticated, and God says he'sgoing to bring it down to
(25:28):
destruction.
And we're going to see that aswe continue to reason through
the book of Ezekiel, thank youso much for watching and
listening.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
May God bless you.
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