365 Reflections

God takes no pleasure in the death or demise of the wicked. Ezekiel makes that statement and before he does, you can see it in the message God sends him to deliver.  In Ezekiel 29, the prophet pronounced Egypt's doom; in Ezekiel 30, the 1, the prophet lamented her doom at God's command. In Ezekiel 31, the prophet pronounced Pharoah's doom and now in Ezekiel 32, the prophet once again laments. Ezekiel 32:1–2 (ESV) In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. The prophet's lamentation is not so much a song of sorrow about the judgment but the sad reality that becomes a nation or leader due to that judgment. We see that clarification after the lamentation over E...

In Ezekiel 31, the Prophet poses a question to Egypt's leader, Pharoah.  Ezekiel 31:1–2 (ESV) In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: “Whom are you like in your greatness? Spoiler alert, Pharoah thought he was pretty great. But God is about to drop some truth that will render Egypt's pride as dust. He does this by talking about someone far greater than Egypt was.  Ezekiel 31:3–5 (ESV) Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds. 4 The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field. 5 So it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from abundant water in its shoots. In the Bible, nations and leaders a...

Nations are like people because they reflect the will of those within them. And the will of most people is stubborn rebellion. That's how we are born. No one teaches a child to resist instruction; it comes standard in their makeup. Like people, nations will resist the will of God. Like people, nations will not learn the lessons of their past. Like people, nations will cut themselves down in their stubborn refusal to listen to the Lord and submit to His authority.  In the list of nations that should have learned NOT to mistreat Israel, Egypt was on the top. This was the captive nation who stubbornly refused, through her Pharoah, not to listen to the God of Israel. It was this nation that experienced the wrath of God for weeks through 10 mighty plagues, eventually cutting off the life of Pharoah's own son. It should have been this nation who should have known better than to ever touch Israel in a way that displeased the Lord who so resoundingly exposed their vain idols and powerl...

In Ezekiel 29, the prophet is in full force calling out the nations around Israel who disparaged or harmed them during their slide into abandoning God. Here, the target is Egypt.  Ezekiel 29:1–3 (ESV) In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.’ Egypt had a long relationship with Israel. It was her captivity, her incubator as she grew, and eventually the first triumph upon her birth at the Red Sea. But there was always a forlorn desire in some to return or to trust this former captor when facing challenges from other nations. Some people can leave Egypt without letting Egypt leave them.  Many of Israel's pagan kin...

Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 1:20, "Where is the wise man?" referring to his age and acknowledging that Christ Jesus and the simple Gospel message have superseded human wisdom beyond our rational thought. Who would have thought that to save the world, God would enter it, not in prominence but in poverty, and who would have thought that to save the world, God would die on a cross and rise instead of killing His enemies?  The wisdom of every age is eventually undone by the truth of God's Word. This is the case for Tyre's king, who, perhaps at the time of Ezekiel's writing, was the wisest, noblest man on Earth. But his pride brought him down. Ezekiel 28:1–2 (ESV) The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god— Thi...

Ezekiel 27 is a funeral dirge of prophecy against Tyre, a coastal city that had become the linchpin of ancient commerce. Every nation imaginable, including Judah and Israel, did business with this city. So the dirge opens with poetic language referring to Tyre as a ship.  Ezekiel 27:6–9 (ESV) Of oaks of Bashan they made your oars; they made your deck of pines from the coasts of Cyprus, inlaid with ivory. 7 Of fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail, serving as your banner; blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah was your awning. 8 The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers; your skilled men, O Tyre, were in you; they were your pilots. 9 The elders of Gebal and her skilled men were in you, caulking your seams; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to barter for your wares. Then, the prophet enumerates all the nations with whom Tyre did business.  Ezekiel 27:12–16 (ESV) “Tarshish did business with you because of your great wealth of every ...

The nation of Israel had a complicated relationship with the ancient people of Tyre, or at least their kings. David and Hiram, the king of Tyre, cooperated at one time.  2 Samuel 5:11 (ESV) And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. But Tyre, as an ancient people, was interested in its own glory far above anything else. Bible historians point out that Tyre was a political mastermind, playing Assyria and Egypt off each other to enrich itself, becoming one of the great merchant marine nations of ancient times.  Ezekiel spends a lot of time addressing this nation. Later, he will refer to the king of Tyre in satanic imagery in Eden, which elevates the content of his prophecy against this people even more.  Ezekiel 26:1–3 (ESV) In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gate of the peoples is brok...