Read: Ezekiel 29:1-30:26; Hebrews 11:32-12:13; Psalm 112:1-10; Proverbs 27:17
God calls Pharaoh of Egypt the great monster. Egypt had been a source of slavery, torture and deception to Israel. Egypt was sentenced to 40 years of desolation and destruction. Then they would return to their land but remain a lowly kingdom in comparison to other nations.
In the 10th year of their captivity, God told Ezekiel about Babylon and Tyre. Babylon had started their 13 year siege against Tyre to no avail. God had wanted to reward Babylon for bringing Tyre down, but when they could not win, God gave them Egypt instead. Babylon took Egypt and went away with all her spoils. In the last verse of Chapter 29, God promised to cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud and open the mouth of one in the midst of them. This horn was Daniel who in the midst of Babylon began to speak forth prophesies of what was going to happen and proclaim the coming of the Messiah.
In Chapter 30, Ezekiel shifted to talk about the “day of the Lord.” This is the picture of the very end, after the rapture and during the time of Great Tribulation. It will be a day of woe and the time of the heathen.
At that time Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, Chub (a land near Egypt) would all fall. The judgment on Egypt was the beginning of a world-wide judgment on all the heathen enemies of God. Even the exiles from Israel would not escape this judgment on Egypt. The tower of Syrene means from one end of Egypt to the other. I’m guessing from that tower all of Egypt could be seen.
Egypt’s reign of terror and world dominancy was coming to an end. God had broken the arm of Pharaoh-hophra when he was attacked by the Chaleans when he tried to raise the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 37:5, 7). The next arm was Pharaoh-necho with all his conquests from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (2Ki 24:7; Jer 46:2); also to the Egyptian disaster in Cyrene.
In other words it was the end of the power of the Egyptian Pharaohs. They would be deprived of making war again.
Hebrews gives us a list of some of the judges God raised up to deliver the nation of Israel out of the trouble they got themselves in. Although they did great things, they were all looking forward to a promise that they never saw fulfilled in their lifetime. We are living in what they got a glimpse of and yet we are looking forward to our promise too. We have the manifestation of Jesus as our Messiah and salvation by faith. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower us to walk by faith. But we are looking forward to a new heaven and earth that is in our future. We need what our founding fathers left us and the stories of their lives just as generations to come need the legacy we will leave. We are all a step in the structure of the great temple in heaven. Everything we go through is to strengthen, teach and discipline us to keep walking in truth. We have a whole crowd of those that have gone before us cheering us on.
Lord, may we leave a legacy like the man in Psalm 112 who fears you and finds great delight in your commands.
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