God Humiliates Vain Idols

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 kings turned to Egypt for help. As early as Rehoboam, the son of Solomon (1 Kings 14) to Zedekiah in the last days of Israel's independence (2 Kings 24), the nation offered a vain hope that strength could come from worldly means. The problem was that Egypt failed Israel on a repeated basis. The last king of the northern kingdom, Hoshea, tried to stop paying tribute to Assyria and turned to Pharoah, who failed them and led to the three-year siege by Assyria and her eventual fall. Rehoboam in the south was betrayed while Egypt's Pharaoh stole temple treasures (see 2 Chronicles 12). And when Zedekiah faced Babylon's threats, Egypt's support proved to be a temporary speed bump for Judah's eventual captivity. 

So Ezekiel prophesies:

Ezekiel 29:7–9 (ESV) when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. 8 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, 9 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD. “Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I made it,’

Commentators date chapter 29 happening 7 months before Judah's captivity. The Lord has a promise for Egypt as His own people face punishment. Judgment for Egypt is certain. The temporary offering she gave to God's people would be judged for what it was - a false hope for which these pagans would pay the price. 

Ezekiel 29:12 (ESV) And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries.

Astonishingly, however, the nation of Egypt is offered hope after the judgment, albeit to a place far below her original status in the eyes of Israel. 

Ezekiel 29:13–16 (ESV) “For thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, 14 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15 It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 16 And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.”

Here, we have a spiritual lesson. The world offers us safety from the inevitable demise of the human condition. In our attempts to cheat death or avoid it, we will turn to her pleasures in order to anesthetize ourselves from the reality of our own mortality. Like Israel, in our spiritual battles, we will turn to the false hopes of alcohol or drugs, numbing the pain. These are all worthless endeavors. And in His grace, God will NOT let it work out. He will humiliate that false hope so we stop looking to it for what only God can give us. 

Now, this process can be hard. We can be stubborn, returning to the empty well thinking "this time it will be different". But God is faithful. He will not let His holy ones be taken captive to the vain glories of this world. In Christ, we find the truth of these things and the freedom to walk away from them. In Christ we have the firm commitment of a Father intent on silencing the desires of the flesh so that He might make our spirits live.