Ezekiel chapter 29

Got some catching up to do. Go, speed racer!

vs 1

Word.

vs 2

This I think is the first of many things God has to say to Pharoah. Of course, what we need to think is that it's very unlikely it ever actually got said to Pharoah, but it did get said to Jews. So this is as much to foretell Egypt's falling as it is to tell Jews, "Hey, don't rely on Egypt, that's just national idolatry."

vs 3

Of course, Pharoah said he was a God-man.

vs 4

The fish are apparently other nations stuck to Egypt, like Cush and Put and stuff I guess.

vs 5

Not the nicest place for a river creature to end up.

vs 6

Stupid verse parsing here, but Egypt will know God is God when he has punished them thoroughly. Now we go on to see that Egypt has had a big historical part to play in Israel's history.

vs 7

Basically, whenever they trusted Egypt instead of God, they got hurt.

vs 8

And this is the reason for God's judgment, which again takes into account both people and animals.

vs 9

Some people would say this definitely happened. Did you know the nile delta used to be a forest? Apparently it's not now. Still looks pretty green to me though.

vs 10

More stupid parsing. It's interesting, though. Because he claimed the Nile as his own, so God will curse what he says is his. Then, can he bring it back, since he made it? Nice.

vs 11

That's a long time. It may not be literal - remember, 40 is a pretty important number - number of years in the wilderness, number of days of rain. Number of days on Sinai, if I recall. It seems to represent a period of God's working, like "it will be done after 40". So this punishment of desolation will be done after 40.

vs 12

It will seem so bad that even people who live in wastelands will be like, "Yeah, but at least I don't live in Egypt."

vs 13

They get scattered too. I spoke to someone once who was from Egypt, and I wish I'd paid more attention to what they said about native people and arabs and different cultures and stuff.

vs 14

And they never really were the same sort of empire they had been again. The greeks get involved, and Napoleon later on, it's not really happy for them.

vs 15

Is this exactly, 100% true? I don't know, honestly, but I wouldn't be surprised. I can't imagine the Babylonians left it in a good state. You don't tend to give your most powerful enemies enough to restart their war machine once you crush them.

vs 16

And now we see part of the big picture of God's plan. Yes, God is punishing Egypt for bad things they've done, but also it's a huge message to Israel - don't go back there. It's rubbish now. It was always rubbish compared to God, but now it will be a lot less tempting.

vs 17

This prophecy is a lot later dated than the other Egypt ones, yet it comes in the middle. Kind of weird.

vs 18

No doubt there was plunder in Tyre, but after 18 years of seige, it was spoiled, or spent, or not really worth the effort.

vs 19

His army must be damn hardcore if he decides, "I need to pay my men with pluder, let's go destroy Egypt". Just imagine the amount of plunder there would be in invading America or Australia. It's disturbing to think about.

vs 20

God is saying that he is allowing what is going to be a bloody, devastating, horrendous cash-grab. Why? Because his workers get their reward. Does that make it right? Gosh, I don't know. God allows it, actually calls it a reward. An ungodly nation punishes an ungodly nation, then gets rewarded by punishing another ungodly nation. I'm sure God has it all worked out. It's not like Babylon gets off scott free.

vs 21

When Egypt falls, Israel will receive more power (or perhaps a powerful person will be born, or something), and Ezekiel's mouth will open before them. I can't say I know who or what the horn is, but it definitely is something of power. That's a nice message to a people who are basically enslaved. There's hope there.