September 29, 2025 • 30 mins
What happens when a mighty nation forgets who placed them in power? Ezekiel's lament for Egypt reveals the sobering answer. This powerful examination of Ezekiel chapters 30 and 31 unpacks how God pronounced judgment on one of history's greatest empires—and why.
For over 2,500 years, Egypt had stood as a cultural and military colossus, wielding immense influence across the ancient world. Yet God declared its downfall with precise detail through His prophet Ezekiel. The specificity is remarkable: Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would attack in 568 BC, followed by the Persians in 525 BC who would completely end the dynastic line of Pharaohs that had ruled continuously for millennia.
The heart of Egypt's downfall? Pride. "Its heart is haughty in its loftiness," God declares. Through vivid imagery, Ezekiel portrays Egypt as a mighty tree whose branches once sheltered many nations but would become a place where only scavengers feed after judgment. This transformation from protector to prey illustrates the totality of divine judgment—a pattern that repeats throughout history.
This message remains profoundly relevant today. God still raises up and brings down nations according to His sovereign purposes. Leaders who believe their countries exist autonomously, without accountability to divine standards, misunderstand the lessons of history. Yet there's hope in this warning—God always sends messengers before judgment, giving opportunity for repentance. The question for nations today is whether they will heed these warnings before experiencing the day of the Lord.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
In the book of Ezekiel, the Lord, god gives a
great deal of condemnation ofhis own chosen people, the
people of Israel.
We're also now in a sectionwhere he gives condemnation and
judgment towards the nationsaround Israel, and we're in
specifically speaking of Egypt.
So today we're going to seesome details of what God thinks
(00:44):
about Egypt and why.
If you have your copy of theWord of God, open it to Ezekiel,
chapter 30, and we're going tobe reading there.
This chapter is a lament forEgypt.
A lament is a sad dirge forsomeone or something that is in
the process of death.
The prophecies of Egypt beingdefeated that are found in the
(01:07):
previous chapter and thefollowing ones were literally
fulfilled in two differentbattles, one of which was in 568
BC.
Babylon came in and took muchof the wealth of Egypt.
(01:28):
Then later, in 525, thePersians came in and completely
took away the line of thepharaohs and took away the
nation.
Egypt was a great, highlyeducated and well-developed
world power.
For over 2,500 years After Godjudged it, most of the Egyptian
(01:48):
history was buried in the sandand had to be rediscovered.
Even today, historians knowvery little comparative to all
of the history of it.
What we know has been found onthe walls of the tombs, but many
of the cultural history hasbeen lost.
God judged Egypt thoroughly.
(02:09):
When I was there we wentthrough the Sinai Peninsula and
I can tell you it has beenjudged.
It is very desolate.
We're going to see today thislament for the nation Israel.
Steve, can you read the firstthree verses of Ezekiel, chapter
30?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
The word of the Lord came again to me, saying Son of
man, prophesy, and say Thus saysthe Lord.
God Wail, alas, for the day,for the day is near, even the
day of the Lord is near.
It will be a day of clouds, atime of doom for the nations.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
With this again.
Verse 1, ezekiel says the wordof the Lord came to me.
So he's giving a very directeyewitness, first-person account
of what he experienced and whathe was told by God.
We have an eyewitness accountthat we can trust and there's no
person today that can look backand question what the
(03:09):
eyewitness said in ancientIsrael.
Verse 3, we'll stop here for aminute talks about the day of
the Lord.
Steve, what is the day of theLord and what is it in this
context specifically?
When you look up that phrasethe day of the Lord and what is
it in this context specifically?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
When you look up that phrase, the day of the Lord, we
see that it's referenced about23 times throughout Scripture.
Almost all of those are in theOld Testament.
There's a couple of times it'sreferenced in the New Testament
and a great many of them isreferred to in the book of Joel
(03:45):
itself the day of the Lord.
That word there of the Lord.
Anytime we see L-O-R-D incapital letters, the word behind
that is Yahweh.
We've mentioned that many, manytimes as we've gone through all
of our teachings.
The reason the translators usethe Lord rather than the name
(04:06):
Yahweh is out of respect of notusing the name Yahweh itself.
The Hebrews, the Israelites,they didn't want to use God's
name directly.
So you'll see today, many timesin writing it will be written
with a capital G and then a hashmark or an underscore and then
(04:30):
a letter D.
Another way that you'll hearthem they'll talk about Hashem,
meaning the name, whenever youhear Israelites or Jewish people
referencing Yahweh, israelitesor Jewish people referencing
Yahweh.
So I'm bringing this up becausewhen you look at the words here
, when it says the day of theLord, what it's actually saying
(04:53):
is the day of Yahweh.
That's what's being referencedhere through all of these
different times.
As we look at the different waysthat it's used throughout the
prophets, I think it's best forus to look at the context as to
what is being used.
Is it talking about somethingthat is future, or is it talking
about a day that has happenedwithin the time period of what
(05:17):
the prophets are talking about?
So with that set up, glenn, Ithink you're going to go into a
little bit of detail.
Is this day of Yahweh heretalking about something that's
going to happen in the future,or is it talking about something
that happened during thelifetime of Ezekiel?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We don't have to guess at what the phrase means
day of the Lord, because hetells us what it means in verse
3.
He says it will be a day ofclouds, a time of doom for the
nations.
Whenever it uses the phrase dayof the Lord, this is a time
when Yahweh, the Lord, God, theone true God, will pour out his
(05:55):
wrath on a country or countries.
The day of the Lord is alwaysused as a day of vengeance, a
day of wrath, a day ofpunishment.
The Lord is long-suffering and,as we've seen, as we've gone
through Ezekiel, there was many,many centuries where God sent
prophets but did not send fulljudgment.
(06:17):
Here, most of the book, thecontext is he's sending full
judgment on the Jewish people,the people of Jerusalem.
Most of the time when it usesthis term day of the Lord, the
context is quite clearlyspeaking of a future time when
God pours out his wrath on allnations.
If we go through many of theOld Testament prophets and look
(06:39):
up that phrase, it's veryclearly speaking of a future
time when God pours out hiswrath on all nations.
However, the context hereraises some questions, simply
because, as we've seen, the vastmajority of the wrath poured
out here in the book of Ezekielhas been relatively immediate.
(07:01):
Within either the exact timethat Ezekiel was alive or very
shortly thereafter.
Within less than a hundredyears, was most of the
prophecies.
There have been some, as we'veseen, where he said there's
going to be a future day whenIsrael is restored.
Well, the restoration is not apouring out of vengeance.
(07:21):
It's not, again the last partof verse 3, a time of doom for
the nations.
That's not a restoration, thatis a pouring out of wrath.
Verse 30, chapter 30, ratherverse 5, lists several more
nations that God is going todeal with, including Ethiopia,
Arabia, Libya.
(07:41):
So God is speaking of a timewhen he's going to pour out his
wrath on Egypt specifically,because that's what this section
of the book is talking about,but also these nations around it
.
This now makes at least a dozennations that have been
mentioned up to this point inthe book of Ezekiel that have
(08:02):
been mentioned so far, all ofwhich God says he's going to
deal with in judgment.
Therefore, this particular dayof the Lord was one where God
poured out his wrath on thenations mentioned specifically
here in Ezekiel.
In this context, Much of it hadalready been completed.
(08:22):
We're going to see as we get tothe next chapter or two, he's
going to speak of past tense,having already judged some of
these people and destroyed themalready.
If we look in the book ofLamentations, chapter 2, verses
21 and 22, we can get one clueabout how to answer this day of
(08:43):
the Lord question, because thereGod speaks about the Lord's
anger having already come uponIsrael.
Technically, the day of the Lordis any time when God's anger
and wrath is poured out on thenations, and the context, as you
well stated, on the nations andthe context, as you well stated
(09:08):
, Steve is the clue to tellingus whether it's present or
future.
Most of the day of the Lord isclearly future.
This one could be spoken of ina sense of the day of the Lord
coming on Egypt, because again,there's Babylon's going to come
within a few years, Persia a fewyears after that.
For Egypt, the day of the Lordcame when these nations came in
(09:30):
and ended the line of thePharaohs.
But there will come futuretimes, because there's just too
many other Bible passages whenit talks about the great and
terrible day of the Lord comingas the pouring out of wrath on
the nations.
The next few verses reinforcethis idea of God's judgment on
(09:50):
the nations.
Steve, can you read from verses6 down to verse 9?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Thus, says the Lord.
Indeed, those who support Egyptwill fall and the pride of her
power will come down From Migdalto Syene.
They will fall within her bythe sword, declares the Lord.
God, they will be desolate inthe midst of the desolated lands
and her cities will be in themidst of the devastated cities.
(10:17):
And they will know that I amthe Lord when I set a fire in
Egypt and all her helpers arebroken.
On that day, messengers will goforth from me in ships to
frighten, secure Ethiopia.
Anguish will be on them, as onthe day of Egypt.
For behold, it comes.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Steve, we've asked this question before.
We'll ask it again here.
Does God take action to controlnations?
Does God have a plan andexpectations for countries as
well as individuals?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, he does.
As we've talked about, there isgoing to be a redemption of the
nations.
We see through all of thesechapters here that we've been
dealing with since chapter 24 ofGod talking about dealing with
and judging the Gentile nations.
He's very clear as to the partsthat he's talking about there
(11:11):
in verse 6 when he says fromMigdal to Syene, they will fall
with her by the sword, her beingEgypt, and Migdal was an
outpost in the northern part ofEgypt and Migdal was an outpost
in the northern part of Egypt.
Syene was in the southern partof Egypt.
So it's clear here he's talkingabout the whole nation of Egypt
(11:32):
and the geographic area ofEgypt.
He's not just talking aboutPharaoh himself and in this
section that I just read here,glenn, he's talking about the
other nations that have alignedthemselves with Egypt that
they're going to be heldaccountable to.
Specifically at the end therein verse 9, he was talking about
(11:52):
Ethiopia and he was talkingabout secure Ethiopia, but it
was no longer going to be securewhenever God passes judgment on
it.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
In verse 9, god talks about how he's going to send
messengers to these othercountries.
He uses the phrase he's goingto send them on ships.
Now the ships was the masstransportation of the day.
God says here I'm going to sendout the message and it's going
to go across the lands quicklyon a ship.
Back in chapter 28, god haddealt with Tyre and he made the
(12:26):
picture of Tyre as being a shipthat he's going to deal with.
Here God uses his ownmessengers as being on a ship.
In chapter 30, verse 9, goduses his own message as coming
on a ship.
God always sends messengers outprior to casting judgment on a
(12:51):
nation.
He always sends prophets outwith a message of what he's
going to do.
We find that throughout theBible from the Old Testament New
even in the future we havemessengers that go out, prophets
that go out with God's wordbefore he casts judgment.
So the reason I bring that upis because the skeptics and the
(13:12):
critics make a lot of.
So the reason I bring that upis because the skeptics and the
critics make a lot of criticismabout when God sent Joshua to go
destroy the Canaanites.
We can only conclude, becauseGod does it everywhere else that
he sent prophets to Canaan andthey did not heed that.
Those prophets did not obey andkept on doing their evil
(13:32):
practices of child sacrifice.
And the skeptics can't have itboth ways.
We can't have a God thatdestroys evil and a God that
allows evil to continue.
We have here a very just Godthat sends messengers out before
he actually destroys a people.
These people were evil, theywere against God.
(13:54):
They had been fighting againstGod.
He sent messengers out.
They ignored it, and now he'sgoing to send prophets out to
say that their doom is sure.
God made it very clear what hewas going to do and they refused
.
Steve, the message is still thesame for us today, is it not?
Steve?
The message is still the samefor us today, is it not?
(14:15):
Has God sent messengers out onwhat we have to do to get right
with Him and what happens if wedon't?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, we're messengers.
In our Bible study here we'rebeing very direct in teaching
God's Word, which tells us whoGod is, his characteristics and
His attributes, what he has donein history past and what he is
going to do in the future.
(14:42):
We know what he's going to doin the future and can trust it
because we know that from Hisprophecies.
Of things that have happened inthe past, we have historical
evidence, we have historicalrecords.
We have archaeological evidenceof actual places that exist and
people's names that have beenfound in these archaeological
(15:03):
digs from cities and seals withthese prophets and others' names
on them through variousarchaeological digs.
God is very real and present andthrough his preachers and
pastors and teachers in our age,those are the messengers that
have gone out far and widetelling people of salvation that
(15:25):
they can have through JesusChrist.
Jesus says I am the way, thetruth and the life.
No one comes to the Father butthrough me.
He also says believe on theLord Jesus Christ, and you will
be saved.
That's the way to have eternalsalvation and a life in eternity
with God is through JesusChrist.
(15:46):
That's the message that goesout today, the good news, and we
invite any of our listeners whoare not already believers in
Jesus Christ, to become abeliever in Jesus Christ and you
will be saved.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Ezekiel, chapter 30, verse 10, and following.
He continues to go on and givedetails about how he's going to
destroy Egypt.
I'm reading now Thus says theLord God, I will also make the
hordes of Egypt cease by thehand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon.
He and his people with him, themost ruthless of the nations,
(16:23):
will be brought in to destroythe land and they will draw
their swords against Egypt andfill the land with the slain.
Moreover, I will make the Nilecanals dry and sell the land to
the hands of evil men, and Iwill make the land desolate and
all that is in it by the hand ofstrangers.
(16:43):
I, the Lord, have spoken.
This passage tells us that Godwill send in Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon to come and attack Egypt.
It was literally fulfilled in568 BC, when Babylon attacked
Egypt and Babylon took much ofthe wealth of Egypt but did not
(17:04):
completely conquer it.
The final conquering happenedin 526, when the Persians came
in and completely destroyed theland and ended the line of the
pharaohs and the old kingdom.
Skeptics try to make chapters29 and 30 say that Ezekiel is
(17:25):
predicting Nebuchadnezzar willcompletely conquer Egypt, but a
close reading of this text saysthat Egypt will be destroyed and
one of the invaders is going tobe Nebuchadnezzar, who will
kill a lot of people and makethe land desolate.
That was literally fulfilled inthe years following Ezekiel's
(17:46):
prophecy.
The Bible once again is provencorrect, for the text never says
that Nebuchadnezzar willcompletely defeat Egypt by
himself.
It just says that he will killa lot of people and that the
land will then be destroyed.
Steve, we have here once againGod raising up nations and
(18:07):
taking them down.
This seems to be a major themethrough the Old Testament.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, as we've talked before, there's going to be a
major theme through the OldTestament.
Yeah, as we've talked before,there's going to be a redemption
of the nations, and we can beassured that that's going to
happen, because we see here andin other places of Scripture of
God being very clear that theleaders of the nations serve at
his pleasure.
Whenever he decides to takethem down or to take them out,
(18:32):
then he's going to do that.
We see that here with Egypt,he's using Nebuchadnezzar in
order to do that, and hementions that in verse 11, that
Nebuchadnezzar, babylon, is themost ruthless of the nations At
that time.
That was the reputation thatBabylon had as a ruthless
(18:52):
invader that would come in andnot spare people at all and then
, when they defeated the nations, they would take those people
and take them into exile, whatthey did with Israel in Judah
and Jerusalem they took them offinto exile.
That's who Ezekiel isprophesying to.
He's prophesying to theIsraelite exiles that are in
(19:15):
Babylon at the time.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Verse 13 says this.
Thus says the Lord God, I willalso destroy the idols and make
the images cease from Memphis.
There will no longer be aprince in the land of Egypt, and
I will put fear in the land ofEgypt.
What is God saying he's goingto do there?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
He's saying that he's going to cause their idol
worship to stop.
Just like God is using thisexile, this taking away from the
land of Israel, taking them outof the land, and the final
destruction of Jerusalem and thetemple in order to finally get
the nation of Israel out, awayfrom idol worship, he's going to
(19:58):
do the same thing here withEgypt.
He's using Babylon, much likehe has used with Israel, to get
them to where they're not anylonger going to serve or worship
these false gods that Egypt has.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
He says here he's going to get rid of the idols.
He also says no prince is goingto be there.
No prince means that the lineof the heir to the throne is
going to be ended.
That was literally fulfilled.
He destroyed the line of thepharaohs.
We can trust these prophecies.
He goes on in the followingverses verses 14 to 19.
(20:37):
God lists off a series of ninespecific cities and regions of
Egypt that are going to bedestroyed.
God is very specific in theseprophecies.
These cities were the strengthof Egypt.
Once the major cities weredestroyed, then the strength of
Egypt would be gone, whether ornot the entire land was taken.
(20:58):
Once you take the major cities,then the strength of Egypt was
destroyed.
The pharaohs had been leadingEgypt for 2,500 years by this
point and God ended the line ofthe pharaohs.
God sent a series of invadingnations that took away Egypt's
ability to help Israel orinfluence Israel with idol
(21:20):
worship.
Egypt had been a world powerfor two and a half millennia,
but in less than 60 years ofEzekiel's prophecy, babylon and
Persia had destroyed it.
They were literally fulfilled.
Steve, can you start at verse20 and read through 22?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the
seventh of the month, the wordof the Lord came to me saying
Son of man, I have broken thearm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and, behold, it has not beenbound up for healing or wrapped
with a bandage that it may bestrong to hold the sword.
(21:57):
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, behold, I am against
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and willbreak his arms, both the strong
and the broken, and I will makethe sword fall from his hand.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Steve, can somebody hold a sword with a broken arm?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
No, they can't.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Can they hold a scepter with a broken arm?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
No, they can't, especially whenever it's put
into a cast.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's what he's saying.
He's going to break the arm ofPharaoh.
That means the strength will begone.
They won't be able tomilitarily fight with a sword
and won't be able to rule fromthe throne with a scepter.
You have to have power, andoftentimes the right hand is
used as the symbol of that.
(22:44):
So he's going to break his arm,won't be able to fight
militarily, won't be able torule with a scepter.
God is bringing a series ofinvading armies to come in and
take away the strength of Egypt.
His military might is going tobe gone and the line of the
pharaohs are going to bedestroyed.
(23:05):
That's literally fulfilled inthe coming years.
After Ezekiel's prophecy.
That brings us to chapter 31,.
And in chapter 31, he continuesthis lament for the downfall of
Egypt.
Verses 5 through 7 speak of thegreatness of Egypt at the height
(23:25):
of its power.
I'm reading now in Ezekiel31.5,.
Therefore, its height wasloftier than all the trees of
the field and its bows becamemany and its branches long
because of many waters as itspread them out.
All the birds of the heavensnested in its bows and under its
branches, all the beasts of thefield gave birth and all the
(23:49):
great nations lived under itsshade.
So it was beautiful in itsgreatness, in the length of its
branches, for its roots extendedto many waters.
Steve, it said here at the endof verse 6, all the great
nations lived in its shade.
How powerful and influentialwas Egypt.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It was very influential.
We talked about Tyre as havingthe trade and the commerce and
that was up in the kind of thenorthern part of the
Mediterranean.
But a great trading partner forthem was Egypt, the nation of
Egypt, and it had great powerthroughout its history.
It would make excursions intoIsrael, up into the northern
(24:32):
part of Israel, into, then, theTyre area and even up into the
Assyrians.
They had battles with Assyria,they had battles with Babylon,
they had battles throughout itshistory, all throughout that
region.
In fact we have clay tabletscalled letters that were going
back and forth between some ofthe city-states in the Canaanite
(24:55):
area to pharaohs of Egyptasking them to come in and help
them throw out some of theinvaders that had come in.
Egypt was very influential, atthe height of its power within
that region of Canaan and evennorth of that.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Verse 10 gives us even more information.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, because it is high in
stature and has set its topamong the clouds and its heart
is haughty in its loftiness,Therefore I will give it into
the hand of a despot of nations.
He will thoroughly deal with itaccording to its wickedness.
(25:32):
I've driven it away.
So in those verses, Steve, whydoes God say he's going to cut
down Egypt?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
He says because of pride.
Once again, it comes down topride.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
We mentioned this before, but it's come up again
here in the text.
What is it about pride that Goddoesn't like, and what is it
about humbleness that he doeslike?
Why is it that those twofeatures of the human nature are
like?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
that Someone that is prideful thinks that they have
done everything on their ownpower and they give no credit
whatsoever to God.
Who is humble and humbledthemselves to God does the exact
opposite.
They acknowledge that theirexistence and the blessings that
they have comes from God andthey worship God.
(26:19):
So it's the complete oppositeof the spectrum and they worship
God.
So it's the complete oppositeof the spectrum.
One is all self-centered on manpride.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
The other is all centered on God humbleness In
this passage in this chapterhe's giving a description of
before and after Egypt wasjudged.
Before it was judged in verse 6, all the birds of heaven and
the beast of the field werenesting and resting under its
branches.
The beast could give birththere.
(26:50):
So all the other nations, andeven the more unseemly, unsavory
ones, were able to live withinthe shadow and influence of
Egypt.
In verse 13, after God judgesEgypt, the birds came, but these
were carrion birds that werethere to eat the dead flesh of
(27:10):
the people that had been killed,or the beast.
They weren't giving birth thereanymore.
They were scavenging on thedead bodies and the dead flesh.
This was a quite drasticdescription of before and after.
Before, egypt was so powerfulthat even the smaller nations
(27:32):
that were like the jackals couldsurvive within its branches and
under its shade.
After God judged it then, thesejackals were coming in like
wolves to feed on a deceasedanimal.
God had shown Egypt his powerin the 10 plagues and the defeat
of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, andhe's doing it again here.
(27:55):
They didn't learn their lessonthe first time?
Steve going all the way back toGenesis.
Steve going all the way back toGenesis.
Why did God judge the people ofEgypt and the Tower of Babel
and do all these nation things,and he's still doing it.
Here we have this idea that theBible is only about salvation,
(28:18):
but we have here nations thatare being judged, are they not?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yes, they are, and that was one of the purposes of
the nation of Israel Wheneverthe covenant was made with
Abraham.
He says that I'm going to giveyou land to live in and through
you and your seed, you're goingto be a blessing to all the
nations.
So the nations were part of thecovenant from the beginning
(28:45):
with Abraham.
It's not just about theredemption of mankind, it's also
about the redemption of thenations.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
If God brought down the great and powerful Egypt and
brought it down to desolation.
What will he do to lessernations like ours when they
don't follow?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
his ways, and that's a very good question.
If God has a plan for thenations, then he's got a plan
for the nations today as well.
It would be a good thing forthe leaders of these nations to
acknowledge that God is still incontrol.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
If the leaders of our nations today do not bow the
knee to the Lord, god and learnhis ways, then God will bring
them down, because they willultimately bow the knee either
humbly in contrite repentance orunder his mighty hand of wrath
and judgment.
(29:43):
But God is the one that raisesup nations and he tears them
down again, and it's hisprerogative.
That is such a great lessonthat is just not taught today.
We'll stop here for today.
We'll next time learn thedifference between Sheol and
hell, because many of thesenations are going to be there.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Thank you so much for watching and listening, as
always.
May God bless you.
In the book of Ezekiel, the Lord, god gives a
great deal of condemnation ofhis own chosen people, the
people of Israel.
We're also now in a sectionwhere he gives condemnation and
judgment towards the nationsaround Israel, and we're in
specifically speaking of Egypt.
So today we're going to seesome details of what God thinks
(00:44):
about Egypt and why.
If you have your copy of theWord of God, open it to Ezekiel,
chapter 30, and we're going tobe reading there.
This chapter is a lament forEgypt.
A lament is a sad dirge forsomeone or something that is in
the process of death.
The prophecies of Egypt beingdefeated that are found in the
(01:07):
previous chapter and thefollowing ones were literally
fulfilled in two differentbattles, one of which was in 568
BC.
Babylon came in and took muchof the wealth of Egypt.
(01:28):
Then later, in 525, thePersians came in and completely
took away the line of thepharaohs and took away the
nation.
Egypt was a great, highlyeducated and well-developed
world power.
For over 2,500 years After Godjudged it, most of the Egyptian
(01:48):
history was buried in the sandand had to be rediscovered.
Even today, historians knowvery little comparative to all
of the history of it.
What we know has been found onthe walls of the tombs, but many
of the cultural history hasbeen lost.
God judged Egypt thoroughly.
(02:09):
When I was there we wentthrough the Sinai Peninsula and
I can tell you it has beenjudged.
It is very desolate.
We're going to see today thislament for the nation Israel.
Steve, can you read the firstthree verses of Ezekiel, chapter
30?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
The word of the Lord came again to me, saying Son of
man, prophesy, and say Thus saysthe Lord.
God Wail, alas, for the day,for the day is near, even the
day of the Lord is near.
It will be a day of clouds, atime of doom for the nations.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
With this again.
Verse 1, ezekiel says the wordof the Lord came to me.
So he's giving a very directeyewitness, first-person account
of what he experienced and whathe was told by God.
We have an eyewitness accountthat we can trust and there's no
person today that can look backand question what the
(03:09):
eyewitness said in ancientIsrael.
Verse 3, we'll stop here for aminute talks about the day of
the Lord.
Steve, what is the day of theLord and what is it in this
context specifically?
When you look up that phrasethe day of the Lord and what is
it in this context specifically?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
When you look up that phrase, the day of the Lord, we
see that it's referenced about23 times throughout Scripture.
Almost all of those are in theOld Testament.
There's a couple of times it'sreferenced in the New Testament
and a great many of them isreferred to in the book of Joel
(03:45):
itself the day of the Lord.
That word there of the Lord.
Anytime we see L-O-R-D incapital letters, the word behind
that is Yahweh.
We've mentioned that many, manytimes as we've gone through all
of our teachings.
The reason the translators usethe Lord rather than the name
(04:06):
Yahweh is out of respect of notusing the name Yahweh itself.
The Hebrews, the Israelites,they didn't want to use God's
name directly.
So you'll see today, many timesin writing it will be written
with a capital G and then a hashmark or an underscore and then
(04:30):
a letter D.
Another way that you'll hearthem they'll talk about Hashem,
meaning the name, whenever youhear Israelites or Jewish people
referencing Yahweh, israelitesor Jewish people referencing
Yahweh.
So I'm bringing this up becausewhen you look at the words here
, when it says the day of theLord, what it's actually saying
(04:53):
is the day of Yahweh.
That's what's being referencedhere through all of these
different times.
As we look at the different waysthat it's used throughout the
prophets, I think it's best forus to look at the context as to
what is being used.
Is it talking about somethingthat is future, or is it talking
about a day that has happenedwithin the time period of what
(05:17):
the prophets are talking about?
So with that set up, glenn, Ithink you're going to go into a
little bit of detail.
Is this day of Yahweh heretalking about something that's
going to happen in the future,or is it talking about something
that happened during thelifetime of Ezekiel?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We don't have to guess at what the phrase means
day of the Lord, because hetells us what it means in verse
3.
He says it will be a day ofclouds, a time of doom for the
nations.
Whenever it uses the phrase dayof the Lord, this is a time
when Yahweh, the Lord, God, theone true God, will pour out his
(05:55):
wrath on a country or countries.
The day of the Lord is alwaysused as a day of vengeance, a
day of wrath, a day ofpunishment.
The Lord is long-suffering and,as we've seen, as we've gone
through Ezekiel, there was many,many centuries where God sent
prophets but did not send fulljudgment.
(06:17):
Here, most of the book, thecontext is he's sending full
judgment on the Jewish people,the people of Jerusalem.
Most of the time when it usesthis term day of the Lord, the
context is quite clearlyspeaking of a future time when
God pours out his wrath on allnations.
If we go through many of theOld Testament prophets and look
(06:39):
up that phrase, it's veryclearly speaking of a future
time when God pours out hiswrath on all nations.
However, the context hereraises some questions, simply
because, as we've seen, the vastmajority of the wrath poured
out here in the book of Ezekielhas been relatively immediate.
(07:01):
Within either the exact timethat Ezekiel was alive or very
shortly thereafter.
Within less than a hundredyears, was most of the
prophecies.
There have been some, as we'veseen, where he said there's
going to be a future day whenIsrael is restored.
Well, the restoration is not apouring out of vengeance.
(07:21):
It's not, again the last partof verse 3, a time of doom for
the nations.
That's not a restoration, thatis a pouring out of wrath.
Verse 30, chapter 30, ratherverse 5, lists several more
nations that God is going todeal with, including Ethiopia,
Arabia, Libya.
(07:41):
So God is speaking of a timewhen he's going to pour out his
wrath on Egypt specifically,because that's what this section
of the book is talking about,but also these nations around it
.
This now makes at least a dozennations that have been
mentioned up to this point inthe book of Ezekiel that have
(08:02):
been mentioned so far, all ofwhich God says he's going to
deal with in judgment.
Therefore, this particular dayof the Lord was one where God
poured out his wrath on thenations mentioned specifically
here in Ezekiel.
In this context, Much of it hadalready been completed.
(08:22):
We're going to see as we get tothe next chapter or two, he's
going to speak of past tense,having already judged some of
these people and destroyed themalready.
If we look in the book ofLamentations, chapter 2, verses
21 and 22, we can get one clueabout how to answer this day of
(08:43):
the Lord question, because thereGod speaks about the Lord's
anger having already come uponIsrael.
Technically, the day of the Lordis any time when God's anger
and wrath is poured out on thenations, and the context, as you
well stated, on the nations andthe context, as you well stated
(09:08):
, Steve is the clue to tellingus whether it's present or
future.
Most of the day of the Lord isclearly future.
This one could be spoken of ina sense of the day of the Lord
coming on Egypt, because again,there's Babylon's going to come
within a few years, Persia a fewyears after that.
For Egypt, the day of the Lordcame when these nations came in
(09:30):
and ended the line of thePharaohs.
But there will come futuretimes, because there's just too
many other Bible passages whenit talks about the great and
terrible day of the Lord comingas the pouring out of wrath on
the nations.
The next few verses reinforcethis idea of God's judgment on
(09:50):
the nations.
Steve, can you read from verses6 down to verse 9?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Thus, says the Lord.
Indeed, those who support Egyptwill fall and the pride of her
power will come down From Migdalto Syene.
They will fall within her bythe sword, declares the Lord.
God, they will be desolate inthe midst of the desolated lands
and her cities will be in themidst of the devastated cities.
(10:17):
And they will know that I amthe Lord when I set a fire in
Egypt and all her helpers arebroken.
On that day, messengers will goforth from me in ships to
frighten, secure Ethiopia.
Anguish will be on them, as onthe day of Egypt.
For behold, it comes.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Steve, we've asked this question before.
We'll ask it again here.
Does God take action to controlnations?
Does God have a plan andexpectations for countries as
well as individuals?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, he does.
As we've talked about, there isgoing to be a redemption of the
nations.
We see through all of thesechapters here that we've been
dealing with since chapter 24 ofGod talking about dealing with
and judging the Gentile nations.
He's very clear as to the partsthat he's talking about there
(11:11):
in verse 6 when he says fromMigdal to Syene, they will fall
with her by the sword, her beingEgypt, and Migdal was an
outpost in the northern part ofEgypt and Migdal was an outpost
in the northern part of Egypt.
Syene was in the southern partof Egypt.
So it's clear here he's talkingabout the whole nation of Egypt
(11:32):
and the geographic area ofEgypt.
He's not just talking aboutPharaoh himself and in this
section that I just read here,glenn, he's talking about the
other nations that have alignedthemselves with Egypt that
they're going to be heldaccountable to.
Specifically at the end therein verse 9, he was talking about
(11:52):
Ethiopia and he was talkingabout secure Ethiopia, but it
was no longer going to be securewhenever God passes judgment on
it.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
In verse 9, god talks about how he's going to send
messengers to these othercountries.
He uses the phrase he's goingto send them on ships.
Now the ships was the masstransportation of the day.
God says here I'm going to sendout the message and it's going
to go across the lands quicklyon a ship.
Back in chapter 28, god haddealt with Tyre and he made the
(12:26):
picture of Tyre as being a shipthat he's going to deal with.
Here God uses his ownmessengers as being on a ship.
In chapter 30, verse 9, goduses his own message as coming
on a ship.
God always sends messengers outprior to casting judgment on a
(12:51):
nation.
He always sends prophets outwith a message of what he's
going to do.
We find that throughout theBible from the Old Testament New
even in the future we havemessengers that go out, prophets
that go out with God's wordbefore he casts judgment.
So the reason I bring that upis because the skeptics and the
(13:12):
critics make a lot of.
So the reason I bring that upis because the skeptics and the
critics make a lot of criticismabout when God sent Joshua to go
destroy the Canaanites.
We can only conclude, becauseGod does it everywhere else that
he sent prophets to Canaan andthey did not heed that.
Those prophets did not obey andkept on doing their evil
(13:32):
practices of child sacrifice.
And the skeptics can't have itboth ways.
We can't have a God thatdestroys evil and a God that
allows evil to continue.
We have here a very just Godthat sends messengers out before
he actually destroys a people.
These people were evil, theywere against God.
(13:54):
They had been fighting againstGod.
He sent messengers out.
They ignored it, and now he'sgoing to send prophets out to
say that their doom is sure.
God made it very clear what hewas going to do and they refused
.
Steve, the message is still thesame for us today, is it not?
Steve?
The message is still the samefor us today, is it not?
(14:15):
Has God sent messengers out onwhat we have to do to get right
with Him and what happens if wedon't?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, we're messengers.
In our Bible study here we'rebeing very direct in teaching
God's Word, which tells us whoGod is, his characteristics and
His attributes, what he has donein history past and what he is
going to do in the future.
(14:42):
We know what he's going to doin the future and can trust it
because we know that from Hisprophecies.
Of things that have happened inthe past, we have historical
evidence, we have historicalrecords.
We have archaeological evidenceof actual places that exist and
people's names that have beenfound in these archaeological
(15:03):
digs from cities and seals withthese prophets and others' names
on them through variousarchaeological digs.
God is very real and present andthrough his preachers and
pastors and teachers in our age,those are the messengers that
have gone out far and widetelling people of salvation that
(15:25):
they can have through JesusChrist.
Jesus says I am the way, thetruth and the life.
No one comes to the Father butthrough me.
He also says believe on theLord Jesus Christ, and you will
be saved.
That's the way to have eternalsalvation and a life in eternity
with God is through JesusChrist.
(15:46):
That's the message that goesout today, the good news, and we
invite any of our listeners whoare not already believers in
Jesus Christ, to become abeliever in Jesus Christ and you
will be saved.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Ezekiel, chapter 30, verse 10, and following.
He continues to go on and givedetails about how he's going to
destroy Egypt.
I'm reading now Thus says theLord God, I will also make the
hordes of Egypt cease by thehand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon.
He and his people with him, themost ruthless of the nations,
(16:23):
will be brought in to destroythe land and they will draw
their swords against Egypt andfill the land with the slain.
Moreover, I will make the Nilecanals dry and sell the land to
the hands of evil men, and Iwill make the land desolate and
all that is in it by the hand ofstrangers.
(16:43):
I, the Lord, have spoken.
This passage tells us that Godwill send in Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon to come and attack Egypt.
It was literally fulfilled in568 BC, when Babylon attacked
Egypt and Babylon took much ofthe wealth of Egypt but did not
(17:04):
completely conquer it.
The final conquering happenedin 526, when the Persians came
in and completely destroyed theland and ended the line of the
pharaohs and the old kingdom.
Skeptics try to make chapters29 and 30 say that Ezekiel is
(17:25):
predicting Nebuchadnezzar willcompletely conquer Egypt, but a
close reading of this text saysthat Egypt will be destroyed and
one of the invaders is going tobe Nebuchadnezzar, who will
kill a lot of people and makethe land desolate.
That was literally fulfilled inthe years following Ezekiel's
(17:46):
prophecy.
The Bible once again is provencorrect, for the text never says
that Nebuchadnezzar willcompletely defeat Egypt by
himself.
It just says that he will killa lot of people and that the
land will then be destroyed.
Steve, we have here once againGod raising up nations and
(18:07):
taking them down.
This seems to be a major themethrough the Old Testament.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, as we've talked before, there's going to be a
major theme through the OldTestament.
Yeah, as we've talked before,there's going to be a redemption
of the nations, and we can beassured that that's going to
happen, because we see here andin other places of Scripture of
God being very clear that theleaders of the nations serve at
his pleasure.
Whenever he decides to takethem down or to take them out,
(18:32):
then he's going to do that.
We see that here with Egypt,he's using Nebuchadnezzar in
order to do that, and hementions that in verse 11, that
Nebuchadnezzar, babylon, is themost ruthless of the nations At
that time.
That was the reputation thatBabylon had as a ruthless
(18:52):
invader that would come in andnot spare people at all and then
, when they defeated the nations, they would take those people
and take them into exile, whatthey did with Israel in Judah
and Jerusalem they took them offinto exile.
That's who Ezekiel isprophesying to.
He's prophesying to theIsraelite exiles that are in
(19:15):
Babylon at the time.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Verse 13 says this.
Thus says the Lord God, I willalso destroy the idols and make
the images cease from Memphis.
There will no longer be aprince in the land of Egypt, and
I will put fear in the land ofEgypt.
What is God saying he's goingto do there?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
He's saying that he's going to cause their idol
worship to stop.
Just like God is using thisexile, this taking away from the
land of Israel, taking them outof the land, and the final
destruction of Jerusalem and thetemple in order to finally get
the nation of Israel out, awayfrom idol worship, he's going to
(19:58):
do the same thing here withEgypt.
He's using Babylon, much likehe has used with Israel, to get
them to where they're not anylonger going to serve or worship
these false gods that Egypt has.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
He says here he's going to get rid of the idols.
He also says no prince is goingto be there.
No prince means that the lineof the heir to the throne is
going to be ended.
That was literally fulfilled.
He destroyed the line of thepharaohs.
We can trust these prophecies.
He goes on in the followingverses verses 14 to 19.
(20:37):
God lists off a series of ninespecific cities and regions of
Egypt that are going to bedestroyed.
God is very specific in theseprophecies.
These cities were the strengthof Egypt.
Once the major cities weredestroyed, then the strength of
Egypt would be gone, whether ornot the entire land was taken.
(20:58):
Once you take the major cities,then the strength of Egypt was
destroyed.
The pharaohs had been leadingEgypt for 2,500 years by this
point and God ended the line ofthe pharaohs.
God sent a series of invadingnations that took away Egypt's
ability to help Israel orinfluence Israel with idol
(21:20):
worship.
Egypt had been a world powerfor two and a half millennia,
but in less than 60 years ofEzekiel's prophecy, babylon and
Persia had destroyed it.
They were literally fulfilled.
Steve, can you start at verse20 and read through 22?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the
seventh of the month, the wordof the Lord came to me saying
Son of man, I have broken thearm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and, behold, it has not beenbound up for healing or wrapped
with a bandage that it may bestrong to hold the sword.
(21:57):
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, behold, I am against
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and willbreak his arms, both the strong
and the broken, and I will makethe sword fall from his hand.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Steve, can somebody hold a sword with a broken arm?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
No, they can't.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Can they hold a scepter with a broken arm?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
No, they can't, especially whenever it's put
into a cast.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's what he's saying.
He's going to break the arm ofPharaoh.
That means the strength will begone.
They won't be able tomilitarily fight with a sword
and won't be able to rule fromthe throne with a scepter.
You have to have power, andoftentimes the right hand is
used as the symbol of that.
(22:44):
So he's going to break his arm,won't be able to fight
militarily, won't be able torule with a scepter.
God is bringing a series ofinvading armies to come in and
take away the strength of Egypt.
His military might is going tobe gone and the line of the
pharaohs are going to bedestroyed.
(23:05):
That's literally fulfilled inthe coming years.
After Ezekiel's prophecy.
That brings us to chapter 31,.
And in chapter 31, he continuesthis lament for the downfall of
Egypt.
Verses 5 through 7 speak of thegreatness of Egypt at the height
(23:25):
of its power.
I'm reading now in Ezekiel31.5,.
Therefore, its height wasloftier than all the trees of
the field and its bows becamemany and its branches long
because of many waters as itspread them out.
All the birds of the heavensnested in its bows and under its
branches, all the beasts of thefield gave birth and all the
(23:49):
great nations lived under itsshade.
So it was beautiful in itsgreatness, in the length of its
branches, for its roots extendedto many waters.
Steve, it said here at the endof verse 6, all the great
nations lived in its shade.
How powerful and influentialwas Egypt.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It was very influential.
We talked about Tyre as havingthe trade and the commerce and
that was up in the kind of thenorthern part of the
Mediterranean.
But a great trading partner forthem was Egypt, the nation of
Egypt, and it had great powerthroughout its history.
It would make excursions intoIsrael, up into the northern
(24:32):
part of Israel, into, then, theTyre area and even up into the
Assyrians.
They had battles with Assyria,they had battles with Babylon,
they had battles throughout itshistory, all throughout that
region.
In fact we have clay tabletscalled letters that were going
back and forth between some ofthe city-states in the Canaanite
(24:55):
area to pharaohs of Egyptasking them to come in and help
them throw out some of theinvaders that had come in.
Egypt was very influential, atthe height of its power within
that region of Canaan and evennorth of that.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Verse 10 gives us even more information.
Therefore, thus says the LordGod, because it is high in
stature and has set its topamong the clouds and its heart
is haughty in its loftiness,Therefore I will give it into
the hand of a despot of nations.
He will thoroughly deal with itaccording to its wickedness.
(25:32):
I've driven it away.
So in those verses, Steve, whydoes God say he's going to cut
down Egypt?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
He says because of pride.
Once again, it comes down topride.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
We mentioned this before, but it's come up again
here in the text.
What is it about pride that Goddoesn't like, and what is it
about humbleness that he doeslike?
Why is it that those twofeatures of the human nature are
like?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
that Someone that is prideful thinks that they have
done everything on their ownpower and they give no credit
whatsoever to God.
Who is humble and humbledthemselves to God does the exact
opposite.
They acknowledge that theirexistence and the blessings that
they have comes from God andthey worship God.
(26:19):
So it's the complete oppositeof the spectrum and they worship
God.
So it's the complete oppositeof the spectrum.
One is all self-centered on manpride.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
The other is all centered on God humbleness In
this passage in this chapterhe's giving a description of
before and after Egypt wasjudged.
Before it was judged in verse 6, all the birds of heaven and
the beast of the field werenesting and resting under its
branches.
The beast could give birththere.
(26:50):
So all the other nations, andeven the more unseemly, unsavory
ones, were able to live withinthe shadow and influence of
Egypt.
In verse 13, after God judgesEgypt, the birds came, but these
were carrion birds that werethere to eat the dead flesh of
(27:10):
the people that had been killed,or the beast.
They weren't giving birth thereanymore.
They were scavenging on thedead bodies and the dead flesh.
This was a quite drasticdescription of before and after.
Before, egypt was so powerfulthat even the smaller nations
(27:32):
that were like the jackals couldsurvive within its branches and
under its shade.
After God judged it then, thesejackals were coming in like
wolves to feed on a deceasedanimal.
God had shown Egypt his powerin the 10 plagues and the defeat
of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, andhe's doing it again here.
(27:55):
They didn't learn their lessonthe first time?
Steve going all the way back toGenesis.
Steve going all the way back toGenesis.
Why did God judge the people ofEgypt and the Tower of Babel
and do all these nation things,and he's still doing it.
Here we have this idea that theBible is only about salvation,
(28:18):
but we have here nations thatare being judged, are they not?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yes, they are, and that was one of the purposes of
the nation of Israel Wheneverthe covenant was made with
Abraham.
He says that I'm going to giveyou land to live in and through
you and your seed, you're goingto be a blessing to all the
nations.
So the nations were part of thecovenant from the beginning
(28:45):
with Abraham.
It's not just about theredemption of mankind, it's also
about the redemption of thenations.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
If God brought down the great and powerful Egypt and
brought it down to desolation.
What will he do to lessernations like ours when they
don't follow?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
his ways, and that's a very good question.
If God has a plan for thenations, then he's got a plan
for the nations today as well.
It would be a good thing forthe leaders of these nations to
acknowledge that God is still incontrol.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
If the leaders of our nations today do not bow the
knee to the Lord, god and learnhis ways, then God will bring
them down, because they willultimately bow the knee either
humbly in contrite repentance orunder his mighty hand of wrath
and judgment.
(29:43):
But God is the one that raisesup nations and he tears them
down again, and it's hisprerogative.
That is such a great lessonthat is just not taught today.
We'll stop here for today.
We'll next time learn thedifference between Sheol and
hell, because many of thesenations are going to be there.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Thank you so much for watching and listening, as
always.
May God bless you.
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