May 20, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 2 Samuel 22:1-23:7; Luke 24:13-35

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 John 1:5

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

As a note of advertisement, Promise Keepers is coming up on July 15-16.  I have been working with Gary Peterson, a retire railroader and we have managed to barter with the Promise Keepers to secure a fantastic rate of $25.00 for military tickets.  We currently have 49 Marines going from the Marine Corps bases at 29 Palms and Camp Pendleton.  Most of these guys are working at poverty level, and don't have a lot of disposable income.  If you are willing to pick up the tab on a  few of the tickets, let me know.  Face it, $25 is nothing, it cost me twice that to go out to dinner with my wife.  Come on guys, step up to the plate on this, my prayer is that none of these Marines will have to pay their way.  Respond to the email and I will give you more details.  I am also praying that the number expands to 100 men.  One of the brothers from this Bible study stepped forward to sponsor two Marines today, join in and help me send all of them.

Ezekiel 29 (NASB95)
¹ In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. ³ “Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, The great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, That has said, ‘My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.’ ⁴ “I will put hooks in your jaws And make the fish of your rivers cling to your scales. And I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, And all the fish of your rivers will cling to your scales. ⁵ “I will abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; You will fall on the open field; you will not be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the sky. ⁶ “Then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord, Because they have been only a staff made of reed to the house of Israel. ⁷ “When they took hold of you with the hand, You broke and tore all their hands; And when they leaned on you, You broke and made all their loins quake.” ⁸ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will bring upon you a sword and I will cut off from you man and beast. ⁹ “The land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord. Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I have made it,’ ¹⁰ therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene and even to the border of Ethiopia. ¹¹ “A man’s foot will not pass through it, and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years. ¹² “So I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated lands. And her cities, in the midst of cities that are laid waste, will be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.” ¹³ ‘For thus says the Lord God, “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered. ¹⁴ “I will turn the fortunes of Egypt and make them return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom. ¹⁵ “It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and it will never again lift itself up above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. ¹⁶ “And it will never again be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned to Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.” ’ ” ¹⁷ Now in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his army had no wages from Tyre for the labor that he had performed against it.” ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her wealth and capture her spoil and seize her plunder; and it will be wages for his army. ²⁰ “I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor which he performed, because they acted for Me,” declares the Lord God. ²¹ “On that day I will make a horn sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth in their midst. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”^[1]

I copied the same chapter from The Message Paraphrase, read through this one for a better understanding of the text.

Ezekiel 29 (The Message)
¹ In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day, God’s Message came to me: ² “Son of man, confront Pharaoh king of Egypt. Preach against him and all the Egyptians. ³ Tell him, ‘God, the Master, says: “ ‘Watch yourself, Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I’m dead set against you, You lumbering old dragon, lolling and flaccid in the Nile, Saying, “It’s my Nile. I made it. It’s mine.” ⁴ I’ll set hooks in your jaw; I’ll make the fish of the Nile stick to your scales. I’ll pull you out of the Nile, with all the fish stuck to your scales. ⁵ Then I’ll drag you out into the desert, you and all the Nile fish sticking to your scales. You’ll lie there in the open, rotting in the sun, meat to the wild animals and carrion birds. ⁶ Everybody living in Egypt will realize that I am God. “ ‘Because you’ve been a flimsy reed crutch to Israel ⁷ so that when they gripped you, you splintered and cut their hand, and when they leaned on you, you broke and sent them sprawling ⁸ —Message of God, the Master—I’ll bring war against you, do away with people and animals alike, ⁹ and turn the country into an empty desert so they’ll realize that I am God. “ ‘Because you said, “It’s my Nile. I made it. It’s all mine,” ¹⁰ therefore I am against you and your rivers. I’ll reduce Egypt to an empty, desolate wasteland all the way from Migdol in the north to Syene and the border of Ethiopia in the south. ¹¹ Not a human will be seen in it, nor will an animal move through it. It’ll be just empty desert, empty for forty years. ¹² “ ‘I’ll make Egypt the most desolate of all desolations. For forty years I’ll make her cities the most wasted of all wasted cities. I’ll scatter Egyptians to the four winds, send them off every which way into exile. ¹³ “ ‘But,’ says God, the Master, ‘that’s not the end of it. After the forty years, I’ll gather up the Egyptians from all the places where they’ve been scattered. ¹⁴ I’ll put things back together again for Egypt. I’ll bring her back to Pathros where she got her start long ago. There she’ll start over again from scratch. ¹⁵ She’ll take her place at the bottom of the ladder and there she’ll stay, never to climb that ladder again, never to be a world power again. ¹⁶ Never again will Israel be tempted to rely on Egypt. All she’ll be to Israel is a reminder of old sin. Then Egypt will realize that I am God, the Master.’ ” ¹⁷ In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, God’s Message came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has worn out his army against Tyre. They’ve worked their fingers to the bone and have nothing to show for it. ¹⁹ “Therefore, God, the Master, says, ‘I’m giving Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He’ll haul away its wealth, pick the place clean. He’ll pay his army with Egyptian plunder. ²⁰ He’s been working for me all these years without pay. This is his pay: Egypt. Decree of God, the Master. ²¹ “ ‘And then I’ll stir up fresh hope in Israel—the dawn of deliverance!—and I’ll give you, Ezekiel, bold and confident words to speak. And they’ll realize that I am God.’ ” ^[2]

The reason that God judged the people of Egypt with the Nile was because the Egyptians considered the Nile to be a god.  Judgment was brought against Egypt because they refused to acknowledge God as Lord of their land.  He spoke of dragging the Egyptians out of the river and putting them all in the middle of the desert, where neither crocodile or fish would be able to survive.  The monster that is spoken of can be translated as a crocodile, or a snake.  When Pharaoh claimed that he had created the Nile, he claimed to be God.  This prophecy was given about one year after the siege of Jerusalem had started.

Jeremiah 37:4-8 (NASB95)
⁴ Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people, for they had not yet put him in the prison. ⁵ Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem. ⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ⁷ “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. ⁸ “The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.” ’

2 Kings 18:20-21 (NASB95)
²⁰ “You say (but they are only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ “Now behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

Isaiah 36:6-9 (NASB95)
⁶ “Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. ⁷ “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? ⁸ “Now therefore, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹ “How then can you repulse one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

Jeremiah 43:8-13 (NASB95)
⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, ⁹ “Take some large stones in your hands and hide them in the mortar in the brick terrace which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of some of the Jews; ¹⁰ and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them. ¹¹ “He will also come and strike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword. ¹² “And I shall set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will depart from there safely. ¹³ “He will also shatter the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.” ’ ”

Jeremiah 46:25-26 (NASB95)
²⁵ The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt along with her gods and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶ “I shall give them over to the power of those who are seeking their lives, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his officers. Afterwards, however, it will be inhabited as in the days of old,” declares the Lord. ^[3]

Israel had previously struck up an alliance with Egypt, which the Egyptians chose not to honor.  This happened first with the Assyrians, and now the judgment for their actions was called for.  There isn't any evidence of an Egyptian captivity outside of the biblical account, refer to Jeremiah 46:1-25. 

According to the biblical records, Egypt was carried off into captivity and God allowed Babylon to take all of her wealth.  According to the thought in this passage, the riches that were not attained in the conquest of Tyre were paid in the conquest of Egypt.  Since it took 13 years for Babylon to conquer Tyre, it is thought that they spent the money and wealth that was on the island supporting themselves, or they simply shipped off the riches before being taken captive.  The reference to "every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare" gives a graphic picture of a soldier who wore his helmet and armor way too long in battle.

One other prophecy that makes this interesting is that Egypt was never again listed as a world power.  It seems that Egypt forgot the ancient message that God rules, and they needed to be taught the lesson again.  Unfortunately for them, it was also the end of their status as a world power.

Short study today, I ran 8.5 miles today to bump my mileage up, it literally exhausted me.  Summer runs are coming up and I would like to run a few of them.  If you have any suggestions on the study, write in.  Erik wrote in with a great comment, I will post it and a response tomorrow per his request. 

Father, as we consider the way that You are faithful with Your word, inspire and motivate each one of us to walk in holiness.

In Him,

Joe Turner.