Ezekiel 31
McGeeCHAPTERS 31 AND 32THEME: Judgment against Pharaoh; Pharaoh’s greatness and glory; Pharaoh’s fall; lamentation over the fall
Ezekiel 31:1
JUDGMENT AGAINST PHARAOHThese two chapters conclude the section regarding the judgment of Egypt (chapters 29-32). It is interesting that Ezekiel devotes four chapters to Egypt and also Isaiah and Jeremiah and the minor prophets deal with Egypt. Egypt looms large in the history of the nation Israel. It is rather ironic that Egypt is such a thorn in the flesh to Israel at the present time. Egypt, in fact, is a dog in the manger. Israel didn’t want the Baby in the manger, so it got the dog in the manger! In chapter 31 we see the fall of Pharaoh. It is described in a parabolic form and represents both Pharaoh and his subjects. Verses Eze_31:1-9 give the greatness and glory of Pharaoh in Egypt; verses Eze_31:10-14 give the fall of Egypt in the parable of the tree; and verses Eze_31:15-18 give the lamentation over the fall of the tree and the crisis which came to the nations of the world because of it. It had the same effect in that day as it would at the present time if the United States were destroyed overnight. That would certainly change the situation in the world, I am sure. I trust you have seen how important the Book of Ezekiel is. It is a book that reveals the glory of the Lord and the fact that our God is a holy God who will judge sin. Now God is merciful, and He is kind. He loves mankind; He wants to save the human family, and He is not willing that any should perish, but He also judges sin. He intends to judge, and He will not spare you if you reject His gracious offer. That is what happened to Israel, and that is what happened to Egypt. Egypt was judged on the basis of the light she had, and she had been given a great deal of light. THE GREATNESS AND GLORY OF PHARAOHGod recognized the greatness of Egyptprobably over a couple of millenniums this vast kingdom had dominated the world. It was the breadbasket for the world because it did not have to depend on the rainfall. The Nile River overflowed each year to water their crops. It was a nation of tremendous power.
Ezekiel 31:3
God says, “I liken Assyria, that great nation in the north, to a great cedar tree.” Now there is more than one tree in a forest because one tree won’t make a forest. Assyria stood way above the other trees and dominated. But God brought Assyria down. This message should have gotten through to Pharaoh and his people. Pharaoh, too, is a great tree. He has dominated everything. The people of Egypt are great, but now they are going to be brought low. As we saw in chapter 29, Egypt is going to become a base kingdom. Well, for a period of over two thousand years now it has been a base kingdom. It will never be a world empire again.
Ezekiel 31:10
THE FALL OF PHARAOHThe phrase, “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD,” indicates the divisions in this chapter. In this division we see that Pharaoh is lifted up in pride. Pride is in the human heart, and his greatness blinded him to the danger that he was in.
Ezekiel 31:11
At this point in history who is the mighty one of the nations? It is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I don’t think Ezekiel is speaking about Satan because Satan has had Egypt for years, so this wasn’t something new. If you want to confirm the fact that this “mighty one” was Nebuchadnezzar, read the Book of Daniel. Daniel said to king Nebuchadnezzar, “You are the head of gold"the greatness of this man has not been exceeded. “I have therefore delivered him,” he is talking about Pharaoh of Egypt. God is going to deal with him; He is going to drive him out because of his wickedness.
Ezekiel 31:12
Egypt would be taken, and it would be a shock to the world.
Ezekiel 31:15
LAMENTATION OVER THE FALL OF PHARAOHThis is a very remarkable section of the Word of God. If you are a student of the Word, I recommend that you spend a great deal of time here. The word “grave” in this verse is sheol. This verse speaks of Pharaoh who is going to go down in defeat and be killed. Sheol, although at times does mean the grave, means here the unseen world, the unknown region, or the abode of the deadnot just the grave where the physical body is placed after death. It is the place where the spirit goes. You remember that Solomon spoke about the fact that the body returns to the earth, and the spirit goes to God: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc_12:7). The human body is nothing in the world but dust.
Speaking of man the psalmist says, “For he [God] knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” (Psa_103:14). Sometimes we forget we are only dust, and when dust gets stuck on itself, it becomes mud! We need to remember that as far as our bodies are concerned, they are dust. When we put our bodies in the ground, they will go back to dust. The Lord Jesus spoke of the fact that when a believer dies his body sleeps. And Paul speaks of the physical body as sleeping in 1Th_4:13. Where do the spirits of the lost go? They, too, go to sheol, the unseen world. We know from a parablewhich is also a true-life story which Jesus told (Luk_16:19-31) about two men who diedthat sheol is divided into two compartments. One is called the place of torment, and that is where the rich man went. The other is called Abraham’s Bosom, which is the place where the beggar went when he died. The place of torment is not to be confused with hell or the lake of fire of the New Testament.
Apparently sheol was a temporary “abode of the dead,” as the Lord Jesus emptied the section called paradise or Abraham’s Bosom when he ascended (Eph_4:8-10). The section called the place of torment will not be emptied until all who are there will stand before the Great White Throne for their final judgment (Rev_20:11-15). With this background in mind, notice that Ezekiel gives a picture of Pharaoh going down into sheol. Remember that God is not speaking of Pharaoh’s body here. The grave receives the bodies, but the immaterial part of man, that which has endless being, goes to sheol. “I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him.” When he died, the entire world mourned. Up there in Lebanon, which was in the great nation of Phoenicia, there was great mourning. The nations of the world mourned when Egypt went down. All were dependent upon ittheir economy rested upon it, and its allies were protected by it. What a picture this is!
Ezekiel 31:16
“When I cast him down to hell [sheol] with them that descend into the pit [the grave].” Now the tree, representing Pharaoh, is cut down. And where does Pharaoh go? To sheol. Now notice what he discovers:
Ezekiel 31:18
When Pharaoh got to sheol, he found other rulers that had been slain were there too. He discovered something else: there is democracy in death. We talk a great deal today about integration. There is nothing that will integrate the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the male and the female, those at the top of the social ladder and those at the bottom of it, like death! Death will bring them all to the same level, not only the placing of their bodies in the grave, but also their spirits. Probably one of the startling things to some people will be the realization that they haven’t died as an animal dies. An atheist said to me, “When a man dies it is just like a dog that dies. He simply ceases to exist. There is no life after death.” Well, he is going to be surprised when he moves into sheol and finds out who all is there. It will be quite a company of people who did not believe that there was an afterlife or a judgment to come. They will all be on the same par.
This is total integration! The spirits of all those who have rejected the Lord Jesus will be therenot because they are sinners but because they have rejected Christ as their Savior. It is the sin of rejecting Christ that will take them to sheol and finally to the Great White Throne of judgment and the lake of fire. The Lord Jesus made this clear when He said, “Of sin, because they believe not on me” (Joh_16:9). How terrible it is not to trust Christ as your Savior. This passage of Scripture opens up a new area altogether. Someone has called this the “Dante’s Inferno of the Bible.” And it is like that. The lost do go to a definite place. The Lord Jesus called it a place of torment and a place where the lost wait for judgment. Some people say, “Oh, I am going to appear before God all right, but I will get things straightened out there because I have been a pretty good fellow.” But when they stand in the presence of the One who was crucified for them, they are going to find out that their puny works did not amount to much. They will discover that they have a fallen nature with no capacity for God, and no interest in Him at all.
Where else could God put them? Do you think He could take anyone to heaven with Him who is in rebellion against Him? My friend, this is a very important passage of Scripture. In chapter 32 the lamentation continues