Ezekiel 30

Ezekiel 30:1

LAMENTATION FOR EGYPTThis brings us to chapter 30, which is considered a lamentation. Ezekiel speaks of the desolation of Egypt, and it is indeed a desolate nation. Here we go again. This phrase has been repeated I don’t know how many times. Ezekiel doesn’t want there to be a doubt in any mind whose word this is.

Ezekiel 30:2

This is a time of wailing and mourning, a lamentation.

Ezekiel 30:3

A cloudy day was unusual. They don’t have many clouds in the land of Egypt because they have less than an inch of rain in that section. They depend upon the river Nile for the water they need. By the way, they worshiped the crocodile of the Nile, as well as everything else in the animal world. “The time of the heathen” is better translated the time of the nations, and we are certainly living in that day when the nations are really stirring throughout the world.

Ezekiel 30:4

At times there was an alliance between Egypt and Ethiopia, although a great deal of the time there was enmity and warfare between the two nations. It is believed by many conservative scholars that Moses, when he was Pharaoh’s daughter’s son, would have been the next Pharaoh, and that he actually led an expedition against Ethiopia.

Ezekiel 30:5

At this time there was an alliance among these nations, but they would all become subject to Nebuchadnezzar, who was actually a world ruler. In fact, he is the head of gold in Daniel’s prophecy (ch. 2) of the four great world kingdoms.

Ezekiel 30:6

Not only Israel, but all of these other nations had looked to Egypt for help, and they will all be judged together.

Ezekiel 30:12

These rivers, as we have seen before, are actually the different branches down in the delta of the Nile, and there were many of them. There were also canals in that very rich fertile area. Near there was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites settled when they first came to Egypt. “I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked.” Egypt fell later on to Alexander the Great, and when he died his generals took over the nations he had conquered. Cleopatra, who was not an Egyptian but a Greek, ruled over Egypt. “I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers.” “Strangers” are foreigners. Egypt came under the control of foreign nations, and the canals were allowed to fill up. Although I have never gotten into that delta section, a friend of mine whom I met in Cairo had just come from there, and he told me that it is really a swamp in that section. God had said that He would make the land waste, and that is what it is today. Now here is another remarkable prophecy

Ezekiel 30:13

“I will cause their images to cease out of Noph.” Noph is Memphis, and in Ezekiel’s time it was the great city of Egypt. It was a very wealthy city, and it had idols in profusionup and down both sides of the streets were idol after idol. They were the city’s decoration! No other place has ever had idols like Memphis had them. Here God says that He would make the idols to cease out of Memphis. I have walked over what is supposed to be the ruins of Memphis, and all that is left of the idols is one great big statue of Raamses. It lies on its back, and a building has been erected around it to house the statue. That is the only thing left in Memphis. God did exactly what He said He was going to do. He made the idols to cease. “There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.” There is no royal line in Egypt any more. Neither can any of the rulers be called great men. They all have had to look to other nations for aid and support.

Ezekiel 30:15

“I will pour out my fury upon Sin"which is Pelusium, now completely buried in the sand. “I will cut off the multitude of No"this is Thebes, which was a great city in the upper Nile. The ruins are there, but its greatness is all gone. In the next verses God continues to speak of these great cities of Egypt which have now disappeared altogether.

Ezekiel 30:21

God states once again that Egypt will fall. The pictures of Egyptian rules always show them holding the scepter in their hands. The scepter was a token of their power. God says, “I have broken the arm of Pharaoh.” It is hard to hold a scepter with a broken arm! And God goes on to say, “It shall not be bound up to be healed.” Babylon was going to conquer Egypt, and Pharaoh would be powerless to stop it. All of this was literally fulfilled.