Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. Speak to him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,
    you great monster lying among your streams.
You say, “The Nile belongs to me;
    I made it for myself.”
But I will put hooks in your jaws
    and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales.
I will pull you out from among your streams,
    with all the fish sticking to your scales.
I will leave you in the desert,
    you and all the fish of your streams.
You will fall on the open field
    and not be gathered or picked up.
I will give you as food
    to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky.

• Ezekiel 29:2-5

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘Wail and say,
    “Alas for that day!”
For the day is near,
    the day of the Lord is near—
a day of clouds,
    a time of doom for the nations.
A sword will come against Egypt,
    and anguish will come upon Cush.
When the slain fall in Egypt,
    her wealth will be carried away
    and her foundations torn down.
Cush and Libya, Lydia and all Arabia, Kub and the people of the covenant land will fall by the sword along with Egypt.

• Ezekiel 30:1-5

“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:
“‘Who can be compared with you in majesty?
Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon,
    with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest;
it towered on high,
    its top above the thick foliage.
The waters nourished it,
    deep springs made it grow tall;
their streams flowed
    all around its base
and sent their channels
    to all the trees of the field.
So it towered higher
    than all the trees of the field;
its boughs increased
    and its branches grew long,
    spreading because of abundant waters.

• Ezekiel 31:2-5

“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because the great cedar towered over the thick foliage, and because it was proud of its height, I gave it into the hands of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with according to its wickedness. I cast it aside, and the most ruthless of foreign nations cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys; its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it. All the birds settled on the fallen tree, and all the wild animals lived among its branches.

• Ezekiel 31:10-13

“Son of man, take up a lament concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:
“‘You are like a lion among the nations;
    you are like a monster in the seas
thrashing about in your streams,
    churning the water with your feet
    and muddying the streams.
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘With a great throng of people
    I will cast my net over you,
    and they will haul you up in my net.
I will throw you on the land
    and hurl you on the open field.
I will let all the birds of the sky settle on you
    and all the animals of the wild gorge themselves on you.
I will spread your flesh on the mountains
    and fill the valleys with your remains.

• Ezekiel 32:2-5

“She sailed away on a sunny summer day
On the back of a crocodile.
“You see,” said she, “he’s as tame as he can be.
I’ll ride him down the Nile.”
The croc winked his eye as she waved them all good-bye,
Wearing a happy smile.
At the end of the ride the lady was inside
And the smile was on the crocodile.”

• She Sailed Away, old folk song

I wrote this about a month ago.  I do not know the resolution of the Egyptian military that is setting up residence in the Sinai, against the Camp David accords. If I remember, I will place an update.

But as I wrote this, I was praying about the present Middle East Crisis, and I was preparing a Sunday school lesson on Ezekiel 29-32, God’s Judgment of Egypt.

Egypt the person was a son of Ham.  Only Canaan is included in the curse, and Put is hardly mentioned, but Cush and Egypt are mentioned quite often in Scripture.  Egypt was the “go to” place for refuge when there was a famine.  Abram went there (Genesis 12).  Note, this was early in Abram’s story, before his name was changed to Abraham.  Joseph’s brothers hear that Egypt has food and they go there twice (Genesis 42-45) which leads to Jacob and his household moving there (Genesis 46).  In 1 Kings 12, Jeroboam rebels against Solomon and flees to Egypt, staying there until Rehoboam becomes king and then returns to finish his rebellion.

But while Ezekiel is proclaiming these prophecies against Egypt from where he stood in exile, Jeremiah is telling the revolving door of kings once good king Josiah died, that making an alliance with Egypt was against what God wanted.

Instead of relying on God, they relied on Egypt.  Just look at the multitude of whining laments from the Israelites between the Exodus and when Jeroboam returned there.  “Slavery was not that bad.  We had food on the table. And so on.”  Whether in the forefront of their minds or stored away in the back, they had more faith in Egypt than they did in God.

But before we can look at how we fail in the same way, let’s look at the ten plagues of Egypt.  Egypt, parroted in these chapters of Ezekiel thought that Pharoah himself had created the Nile River, but God turned the River, all the surface water, into blood.  Scarabs were important in Egyptian culture, but God brought Gnats, Flies, and then locusts ate their crops.  Frogs were worshipped.  The second plague was that of frogs.  And everyone probably knows about the mighty sun god, Ra, but where was Ra when the lights went out for the Egyptians, but not for the Israelites?

God directly attacked their religion, showing how false and powerless their gods were.  And now in the judgment of Egypt, Ezekiel brings up their water god, the crocodile.  Not by name, but the sea monster who swims in the streams.  But they put a hook in his mouth and throw his flesh across the mountains where wild beasts eat his flesh.

I added the folk song about the crocodile.  The Egyptians might have worshipped the crocodile, but they knew not to ride the crocodile down the river.

Ezekiel is in Babylon, but he proclaims no curse on the Babylonians.  The two curses that stretch over a few chapters are the curses on Tyre and Egypt.  Basically, the gun runner and the user of the guns, although they had no guns in those days.  Tyre profited and remained as an offshore island, buying and selling to both sides in all the conflicts.  While Tyre was badly torn apart by the Babylonian siege, it was not until the time of Alexander the Great when the city was reduced to a pile of stones, and then the stones used to build a causeway to the city of Tyre, so that if anyone rebuilt the city (cursed to never be rebuilt in Ezekiel), Alexander wanted there to be no safety for them by being an island with high walls on all sides.

But then, God had a bone to pick with the Egyptians.  There would be no thought of running into the waiting arms of big brother Egypt.  The Israelites would collapse as a nation or they would trust in God.

It was their choice.  It is our choice also.

Are there political leaders that support Christian causes and Christian principles?  Yes.  Are there others who get angry if you even mention God in public forums? Yes.  So, Christians should vote accordingly.

But to base our faith and trust in those politicians is pure folly.  Every politician that I know of is a sinner.  Whether they are saved by God is another thing.  Whether they have the power to change things is another thing.

But God never changes.  God is faithful.  We can count on Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.