Ezekiel 29:1–30:19

IN THE TENTH YEAR, in the tenth month on the twelfth day, 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. 3Speak 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 is mine;

I made it for myself.”

4But 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.

5I 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 air.

6Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the LORD.

“ ‘You have been a staff of reed for the house of Israel. 7When they grasped you with their hands, you splintered and you tore open their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched.

8“ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will bring a sword against you and kill your men and their animals. 9Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

“ ‘Because you said, “The Nile is mine; I made it,” 10therefore I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate waste from Migdol to Aswan, as far as the border of Cush. 11No foot of man or animal will pass through it; no one will live there for forty years. 12I will make the land of Egypt desolate among devastated lands, and her cities will lie desolate forty years among ruined cities. And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries.

13“ ‘Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they were scattered. 14I will bring them back from captivity and return them to Upper Egypt, the land of their ancestry. There they will be a lowly kingdom. 15It will be the lowliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the other nations. I will make it so weak that it will never again rule over the nations. 16Egypt will no longer be a source of confidence for the people of Israel but will be a reminder of their sin in turning to her for help. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.’ ”

17In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month on the first day, the word of the LORD came to me: 18“Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon drove his army in a hard campaign against Tyre; every head was rubbed bare and every shoulder made raw. Yet he and his army got no reward from the campaign he led against Tyre. 19Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth. He will loot and plunder the land as pay for his army. 20I have given him Egypt as a reward for his efforts because he and his army did it for me, declares the Sovereign LORD.

21“On that day I will make a horn grow for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

30:1The word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“ ‘Wail and say,

“Alas for that day!”

3For the day is near,

the day of the LORD is near—

a day of clouds,

a time of doom for the nations.

4A 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.

5Cush and Put, Lydia and all Arabia, Libya and the people of the covenant land will fall by the sword along with Egypt.

6“ ‘This is what the LORD says:

“ ‘The allies of Egypt will fall

and her proud strength will fail.

From Migdol to Aswan

they will fall by the sword within her,

declares the Sovereign LORD.

7“ ‘They will be desolate

among desolate lands,

and their cities will lie

among ruined cities.

8Then they will know that I am the LORD,

when I set fire to Egypt

and all her helpers are crushed.

9“ ‘On that day messengers will go out from me in ships to frighten Cush out of her complacency. Anguish will take hold of them on the day of Egypt’s doom, for it is sure to come.

10“ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“ ‘I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt

by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

11He and his army—the most ruthless of nations—

will be brought in to destroy the land.

They will draw their swords against Egypt

and fill the land with the slain.

12I will dry up the streams of the Nile

and sell the land to evil men;

by the hand of foreigners

I will lay waste the land and everything in it.

I the LORD have spoken.

13“ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“ ‘I will destroy the idols

and put an end to the images in Memphis.

No longer will there be a prince in Egypt,

and I will spread fear throughout the land.

14I will lay waste Upper Egypt,

set fire to Zoan

and inflict punishment on Thebes.

15I will pour out my wrath on Pelusium,

the stronghold of Egypt,

and cut off the hordes of Thebes.

16I will set fire to Egypt;

Pelusium will writhe in agony.

Thebes will be taken by storm;

Memphis will be in constant distress.

17The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastis

will fall by the sword,

and the cities themselves will go into captivity.

18Dark will be the day at Tahpanhes

when I break the yoke of Egypt;

there her proud strength will come to an end.

She will be covered with clouds,

and her villages will go into captivity.

19So I will inflict punishment on Egypt,

and they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Original Meaning

AFTER THE SIX ORACLES against Israel’s immediate neighbors (chs. 25–28), we reach the seventh, climactic oracle, which is delivered against Egypt (chs. 29–32). This oracle is itself made up of seven subunits (29:1–16; 29:17–21; 30:1–19; 30:20–26; 31:1–18; 32:1–16; 32:17–32).1 Like the substantial oracle against Tyre that preceded it, the word against Egypt addresses both the land of Egypt and its ruler and threatens judgment on both.

The First Oracle (29:1–16)

EZEKIEL 29 OPENS with a word of judgment against Pharaoh, who is addressed under the figure of a great sea monster (tannîn).2 This sea monster was a well-known element of ancient Near Eastern mythology, a force of chaos that had to be tamed before the world could be created.3 The prophet Isaiah had already utilized the imagery of the sea monster to describe God’s defeat of Egypt at the time of the Exodus (Isa. 51:9), while in Genesis 1:21 the great sea monster appears in demythologized form as simply another of God’s creatures.

In Ezekiel, the mythical picture blends with the geographically appropriate image of Pharaoh as a great crocodile, resting secure amid the Nile streams, to give a picture of the ruler of Egypt as a superhuman, supernatural force of destruction. Thus far, Pharaoh would probably not have disputed the description. According to Egyptian records, the god Amon-Re said to Pharaoh Thutmoses III, “I cause them to see thy majesty as a crocodile, the lord of fear in the water, who cannot be approached.”4 But just as the positive metaphor of the ship of Tyre in full sail lends itself to the negative picture of the ship of Tyre catastrophically wrecked, so also the image of Pharaoh as a powerful crocodile, even one of mythical proportions, lends itself to the picture of Pharaoh as the trapped crocodile, subdued by the Great Hunter. For both the ship and the crocodile, their watery fortress proves to be less than impregnable. Tyre’s home “in the midst of the seas” (betôk hayyām) was no secure defense, and neither will Pharaoh’s abode “in the midst of the Nile/streams” (betôk yeʾōr).5

Thus, for all Pharaoh’s boasts of divine power, claiming to have created for his own purposes the Nile, the source of all of Egypt’s prosperity, he will be trapped with hooks like an ordinary crocodile (Ezek. 29:4). He will be brought out into the desert, the place of judgment (20:35), and there executed along with “all the fish of your streams,” that is, either the nations allied to him or the members of his armed forces. Their bodies will be left dishonorably exposed to become food for wild animals, rather than being gathered for decent burial.6 Such a fate was commonly invoked as a curse in ancient Near Eastern treaties.

The reason for this act of judgment becomes clear in verses 6–7. Egypt has been an unstable support, a “staff of reed” to Judah. The term “staff of reed” is an oxymoron: A staff needs to be strong and reliable to support the weight placed on it, while a reed is by definition something thin and fragile (1 Kings 14:15). Egypt’s sin was to appear to be a source of military support in Judah’s struggle against Babylon, encouraging her to rebel against her overlords. Once the battle was joined, however, she stood at a distance, leaving Judah to her fate.

The image of Egypt as a “splintered reed of a staff” was already used centuries earlier in the Assyrian field commander’s speech to Hezekiah’s emissaries (2 Kings 18:21; Isa. 36:6). In that instance, it was an unfair and inaccurate assessment of the situation since Hezekiah had placed his trust in a much firmer support, the Lord (2 Kings 18:5). Nevertheless, as a judgment of the political dangers of trusting in Egypt, it was a true statement at most points in Israel’s history.7

Though the sin of trusting in the staff of reed was primarily Judah’s sin, yet the object of that trust is judged along with her. God’s people should indeed have known better than to trust in Egypt, but Egypt too is not guiltless for soliciting their trust and then proving dangerously unstable, causing (in the imagery of leaning on an unstable support) their shoulders to become shattered and their hips to totter (Ezek. 29:7). Egypt’s arrogant claims to creator status are a contributory factor in Judah’s sin (29:9). As a result, she too will be judged by God and turned into an utter devastation, a devastated land in the midst of devastated lands. This total destruction will extend from Migdol on the northeast frontier all the way down to Aswan in the far south (29:10). The whole of Egypt will be uninhabited for forty years (29:11), which is not only the standard length of a generation in biblical terminology but is also the length of the Judean exile Ezekiel had prophesied in 4:6.

To underline the symmetry of Egypt’s fate with those who trusted in her, her people will be scattered among the nations and dispersed among the peoples, just like Judah (12:15; 20:23; 22:15). Even more strikingly, they too will be gathered by the Lord from among the nations, brought back from captivity, and returned to the land from which they originated (29:14). But these similarities only serve to highlight the differences in their ultimate fates. Egypt will not be fully restored but merely reestablished as a shadow of her former self, confined to the distant areas of Upper Egypt (29:16). There it will no longer act as a source of temptation for Judah in her foreign policy. In their weakened state, they too will come to an awareness of God’s sovereign power. Her “restoration” is not so much an act of grace on the Lord’s part for Egypt’s sake as it is a reminder of Israel’s past faithlessness, which will never again be repeated.

The Second Oracle (29:17–21)

THE SECOND ORACLE in the sequence against Egypt is the latest of all the dated oracles, coming from the beginning of the twenty-seventh year of the Exile (29:17). It recognizes the relative fruitlessness of Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Tyre, of which Ezekiel had spoken in chapters 26–28. Though the effort expended was great, with both helmet and shield leaving their marks on the relevant parts of the anatomy, the booty achieved at the end of the campaign was minimal (29:18). In compensation, since they were working for the Lord (29:20), the Lord will give Egypt’s wealth as plunder for Nebuchadnezzar’s army (29:19).

It has become almost a shibboleth in commentaries to see the purpose of this oracle as Ezekiel’s explaining away the failure of his earlier prophecy against Tyre.8 According to Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar did indeed besiege Tyre for some thirteen years (586–573 B.C.).9 By the end of that time, Tyre’s economic and political importance was destroyed, and the king of Tyre became a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar.10 The siege appears to have been a success, as Ezekiel had prophesied. However, the material rewards were not, according to Ezekiel, appropriate to the energy expended. It is this imbalance that the Lord now promises to redress.

If the passage had been intended as an apologetic against a failure of literal fulfillment, it is extraordinary that the prophet chooses such a minor part of his prophecy to defend. If he were confronted by literalists, insisting on a word-for-word fulfillment of his prophecy, one would have expected them to press Ezekiel on the major point that Tyre had not actually been reduced to a bare rock (26:4) but was still a viable city, rather than on the minor point that Tyre had not provided significant booty for her captors. In addition, an oracle with such a purpose would belong properly after the Tyre oracles, not in the middle of the oracles against Egypt.

In fact, the purpose of the oracle is quite different.11 There is no mention as such of any “failure” of an earlier oracle; on the contrary, the essential success of the oracle against Tyre is presupposed. Nebuchadnezzar did indeed, as Ezekiel prophesied, assault Tyre and bring her to ruin. The point being made here is simple: The worker is worthy of his hire, and Nebuchadnezzar is acting as the Lord’s worker in his conquests, both of Tyre and Egypt. Just as he had succeeded against Tyre, so also he will succeed against Egypt, and this time he will receive payment in full.

Chapter 29 then closes with a brief oracle that reminds us that Israel remains the central focus of the prophet’s interest, even in the oracles against the foreign nations. Commensurate with Egypt’s reduction in significance will be a strengthening of the house of Israel. This turn in Israel’s fortunes will result both in a recognition of the Lord as the agent of this change and in a recognition that Ezekiel has been the Lord’s prophet: The Lord will “open your mouth”; that is, Ezekiel’s testimony will be validated (29:21).12

The Third Oracle (30:1–19)

IN THIS THIRD oracle, the content of the prophecy of the first oracle (29:1–16) is essentially replayed in the form of a lament. The prophet is instructed to wail and mourn for the coming of the day of the Lord’s judgment on Egypt (30:3–4). Egypt’s allies, which were mentioned as sharing her downfall in the first oracle under the image of the “fish of your streams” (29:4), now come into focus as distinct nations. Ethiopia (Cush), Libya (Put), Lydia, all Arabia, Cub,13 and the people of the land in covenant with them14 will fall along with Egypt (30:5–6). The entire confederacy will be reduced to a shattered and burned ruin (30:6–9), made desolate at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and his ruthless army (30:10–12). From Memphis, Tahpahnes, and Heliopolis in the north of Egypt to Thebes in the south, the cities of Egypt will be destroyed (30:13–19).

The summary statement in 30:19, “So I will inflict punishment on Egypt, and they will know that I am the LORD,” evokes repeated themes of the Exodus narrative, where both “doing judgments” against Egypt (Ex. 6:6; 7:4; 12:12; Num. 33:4) and the knowledge of God (Ex. 7:5; 14:4, 18) are prominent. As in the Exodus, this act of judgment will strike at both the gods of Egypt and their earthly rulers (Ezek. 30:13). In the imagery of the cosmic Day of the Lord, the light will be turned to darkness and the proud strength of Egypt brought to an end (30:18). By this means, God will demonstrate conclusively his existence and power in front of a watching world.

Bridging Contexts

COMFORTING THE AFFLICTED. One of the dangers against which I warn aspiring preachers in our seminary is that of preaching against all the sins with which no one in their congregation struggles. It is relatively easy to warn the heterosexuals about the dangers of homosexuality, the teetotaler about the snare of alcoholism, the politically conservative about the hazards of liberalism, the rigidly orthodox about the perils of false teaching. All of these are indeed real concerns, but insofar as they are not a part of your congregation, to preach against them will merely instill a comfortable sense of “us” versus “them.” “We” are those who are righteous, holy and free from sin (at least, from those sins); “they” are the filthy, abhorrent sinners. Like the Pharisee in the temple, we continually remind God and ourselves of the sins of others, rather than recognizing the reality of our own sins (Luke 18:11). In the meantime, our more subtle sins of pride, self-centeredness, and lack of love may go completely unchallenged.

At first sight, it may appear that the oracle against Egypt falls into this category of sermon. Does it not address someone else’s sins and threaten judgment on them, to the exclusion of any interest in Judah’s misdeeds? Is Ezekiel selling out his responsibility as a prophet? Those who have read this far through the book will hardly think that a likely scenario. If the preacher’s task is both to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted, few will accuse Ezekiel of unduly sparing the comfortable. But now it is time for Ezekiel to turn to the task of comforting the afflicted. The foreign nation oracles are part of that ministry of comfort.

But how precisely does this oracle against Egypt encourage the exiles of Judah? The first way is by assuring them of God’s continuing concern for his own people. Egypt’s fault lay not in a general tendency to raise false hopes of deliverance in people, but specifically in having falsely raised the hopes of God’s people. Presumably, the Egyptian policy of encouraging rebellion against Babylon extended to all of the small nation states of the Levant. Indeed, the oracle mentions a number of nations who had, like Judah, thrown their lot in with Egypt, with what would prove to be fatal consequences. Yet God is not equally concerned with all of the peoples. It is not because Egypt had been a source of false hopes to Libya or the Arabians that she is judged, but because she had been the source of false hope to the house of Israel. God has a special concern with the fate of his own people.

God’s concern for his covenant people. In the New Testament, the covenant people with whom God is concerned is no longer merely national, ethnic Israel but the spiritual “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), a new creation in which circumcision and uncircumcision are no longer of importance (6:15). In one sense, nothing has changed. God’s people remain those whom he has called, claimed as his own, and redeemed out of bondage. The Old Testament people of God had experienced his salvation in the liberation from Egypt; the New Testament people of God are those who have experienced the new exodus accomplished by Jesus, leading his people out of their bondage to sin.

But the fullness of blessing achieved in Jesus is too great to be contained within ethnic lines. His calling is to be a light also to the Gentiles (Isa. 42:6; 49:6). He came so that those who were afar off under the old covenant might be brought near in him (Eph. 2:13), made heirs of the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38–39), and ingrafted into the olive tree that represents the covenant community (Rom. 11:17–24). Now the Gentiles are no longer strangers and aliens but in Christ are fellow citizens with the Jews as God’s people (Eph. 2:19). Israel has not been abolished or sidelined with the coming of Christ but rather has been eschatologically expanded by the inclusion of Jews and Gentiles together into the one new people of God, the church.15

God’s anger continues to be expressed against those who lead his people astray. Egypt acted as a source of temptation for Judah; therefore she, along with Judah, will experience the weight of God’s wrath. Similarly, Jesus warns his disciples, “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves” (Luke 17:1–3). Peter speaks of the swift destruction that awaits those who are false teachers (2 Peter 2:1). It is a fearful thing to lead astray from the true paths one of Christ’s sheep, whether by our words or actions. God’s action against Egypt will be swift and decisive, and will result in her removal as a source of temptation; even after her “restoration” she will never again be a stumbling block for God’s people.

Factors in Egypt’s downfall. But God’s motivation to act against Egypt is not merely concern to punish those who led the house of Israel astray. He is also motivated by a concern for his own glory. Egypt, in the person of Pharaoh, had set herself up as a rival to the true God. Pharaoh depicted himself in semimythical terms as a godlike creature, who made and controlled the forces of blessing in nature, namely, the Nile. Such claims cannot be tolerated. God must and will act to cut the idols of Egypt down to size, just as he did earlier during the Exodus.

This time, however, it is not Israel but Egypt who will be brought up through the waters out into the desert, which will prove for them a place of judgment rather than salvation (Ezek. 29:4–5). Pharaoh’s creatureliness will be demonstrated in the most incontrovertible of ways, death, followed by the dishonorable exposure of his body to the appetites of scavenging beasts. To a culture like Egypt, where postmortem care of the body, especially the body of a pharaoh, was regarded as a matter of nothing less than cosmic significance, this was the ultimate judgment.

Egypt’s downfall will also provide the rewards for God’s worker in the judgment, Nebuchadnezzar (29:17–21). God will be in no one’s debt; even the unrighteous laborer is worthy of his hire. How much more, then, may the righteous and faithful servant expect to see a reward! Ezekiel himself serves as an example of this. His words of hope of restoration for Israel will be fulfilled, and then he will be honored accordingly as a true prophet (29:21). God’s ultimate purpose will be seen to be not merely the destruction of the unrighteous but the salvation of a people for himself, through the fulfillment of the prophetic word.

The lament over Egypt. But what does chapter 30 add to Ezekiel’s argument? We have noted above that in terms of content it essentially repeats the message of chapter 29. However, the format is different, in that the message is expressed in the form of a lament. Repetition is a device used frequently in the Bible to underscore the importance of a point and to drive it home. But this is not simply repetition, it is repetition with a twist: By repeating the threat of Egypt’s downfall in the form of a lament, the message gains affective strength, impacting the emotions as well as the mind.

Because of the association with death and the sense of pain and loss that that event brings, laments carry strong emotional overtones. In this case, the playing of the funeral dirge before the actual death is a token and surety that the death will ultimately occur. Egypt and all her allies will certainly fall. This message is particularly important for the exiles to hear and learn because it underlines once again the reason for Judah’s demise. Instead of trusting in the Lord as her strength and Redeemer, she turned to other supports, allying herself to Egypt. She is therefore directly comparable to Egypt’s allies who are mentioned here by name, for the fate of all those in covenant with Egypt is to fall by the sword (30:6).

Contemporary Significance

THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF the world. Egypt was always an attractive place, seen from an Israelite perspective. In the minds of those in the desert generation, it was the place of a varied abundance of food: of meat and fish, of cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic (Num. 11:5). Nostalgia overcame reality in painting the glories of their past existence before the Lord stepped in and saved them. Somehow the memories of the overseer’s lash faded, drowned out in the aroma of spicy food. By comparison, their “saved” existence in the desert, with only manna to eat, seemed altogether bland.

The dangerous attractiveness of Egypt is a theme even as early as the patriarchal narratives. When there was nothing to eat in the Promised Land, there was food enough in Egypt (Gen. 12:10). When Lot chose the most promising land (even though it was outside the Promised Land), it bore a striking resemblance to Egypt (13:10). When the wife of promise was barren, her Egyptian maidservant turned out to be easily fertile (16:1–4). The way of obedience was always hard, while the way of Egypt always seemed easy.16 Similarly, when danger threatened during the period of the monarchy, Egypt was never far from Judah’s thoughts as a potential savior. She, after all, had virtually unlimited resources of chariots and horses and men at her disposal, as Israel had experienced firsthand. Pharaoh Shishak, for instance, was once able to muster against Rehoboam twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and men without number (2 Chron. 12:3). In comparison to the Egyptian option, what had the Lord to offer?

So too for us, the world has many powerful attractions, many idolatries that seem to offer us easy routes to security and success. There is the pursuit of political power, which says to us, “What could you not do if only you controlled the legislative process?” There is the pursuit of financial gain, which seems to offer personal comfort and the power to control your own destiny. There is the pursuit of fame and personal importance, which is perhaps a particular temptation to preachers and teachers. “What great things you could accomplish,” it whispers, “if only you could preach in a larger church, where your message would be heard by more people.”

Like Egypt, each of these idolatries promises us safety and success, if we will only throw in our lot with them. Like Egypt, however, if we place our trust in them, each of these will prove to be a broken reed, twisting and destroying our lives. For all their godlike claims to be able to create and sustain a prosperous universe, the reality never matches up to the prospectus.

How not to be deceived by Satan. Like Israel before him, Jesus faced the alluring attractiveness of the ways of the world. During a forty-day spell in the desert, Jesus was tempted to trust in alternative means of reaching his goals (Matt. 4:1–11). Even the form of the temptations that he faced echoed the temptations of Israel in the desert. Jesus’ hunger paralleled Israel’s need for bread in the desert, which the Lord answered by providing manna (Ex. 16). Unlike the grumbling response of his ancestors, Jesus replied to Satan, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4, citing Deut. 8:3).

Next the Israelites were thirsty, and we are told that “they tested the LORD” at Massah (Ex. 17:7); Jesus responded to Satan’s second temptation by saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matt. 4:7, citing Deut. 6:16).

Then the Israelites made for themselves a golden calf and bowed down to it (Ex. 32), exactly what the devil wanted Jesus to do to him. Unlike his ancestors, Jesus was not willing to comply with Satan’s request. He replied, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (Matt. 4:10, citing Deut. 6:13). Whereas Israel failed in the desert, striking out three times, Jesus endured faithfully, resisting the attractive but fatally flawed “Egyptian option.”

He did so because he was not deceived by Satan. He saw clearly that things are not always as they appear. Satan offers a solution for our felt needs, immediate relief for the blister points of life. However, our felt needs are not always our real needs. Sometimes what offers temporary relief causes long-term problems. Jesus rejected Satan’s quick-fix solutions in favor of a life lived in obedience to God’s call, a path that led all the way to the cross. Why did he do so? Because he saw the ultimate realities of life: that men and women would be eternally lost without a Savior, someone who lived the life of perfect obedience in their place and who died the death their sins deserved. For Jesus, there was no “Egyptian option” in accomplishing our salvation, and so he followed the hard road.

Our thinking is often much more clouded. We feel the pain of the blister points of life and are tempted to find relief in whatever form it may be offered. Yet all too often that “relief” involves a compromise with the world. When danger threatens, we run to Egypt, not to the Lord. We do so only because we have forgotten the ultimate realities of life—that sin never ultimately delivers what it promises, that those who make a compact with the world will see the source of their hopes burned up. Like most purist anglers, Satan prefers fly-fishing to bait-fishing. He would rather hook you with something that looks good but is an absolute lie than allow you even the pleasure that he promised you while he is reeling you in. But if he has to, he will place a real worm on the hook and offer you “real” relief—a relief that lasts only until the hook is firmly embedded in your jaw.

Surviving the Day of the Lord. For the destiny of this world is ultimate destruction, just like Egypt. The Day of the Lord is coming, when this present world will be burned up, a day of judgment and destruction for the ungodly (2 Peter 3:7). The true nature of all things will be revealed. The “staff of reed” in which we have placed our trust will be shown up as a false hope. The remembrance of this judgment to come should have the same salutary effect on us as Ezekiel’s prophecy of Egypt’s destruction was intended to have on his original audience: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives . . . mak[ing] every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:11, 14). Egypt and all who trust in her will be destroyed.

Those who trust in the Lord will endure, however. The true prophet and the faithful servant of God may have to endure mockery and disbelief in the present. In the long run, however, God is not mocked, and he will be in no one’s debt. At the same time as the true nature of the fickle reed is revealed, so also will be revealed the solid refuge that Christ represents for his saints. What he began with his obedience in our place in the desert, he completed with his obedience in our place on the cross, establishing redemption for his people and raising a horn of salvation for us, just as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied (Luke 1:68–69).