The Gospel According to Ezekiel, Chapter 29

Context of Judgment on the Nations

We are in the midst of a context that has been dealing with God's judgment of the nations since around chapter 25. He is pronouncing judgment against the surrounding nations. Some focus remains on the Israelites, the exiles. In fact, we could argue that all focus is really on the exiles. God is teaching these prophecies to bear on the lives of the exiles and Israelites. God's primary concern is the remnant, the elect, Israel, the exiles, even the remnant scattered abroad that he will gather together. We are marching toward the restoration of Israel, God's people, in the chapters ahead.

As we come to chapter 29, the focus shifts from the King of Tyre. Judgment was given to Ithobal, enacted by Nebuchadnezzar, and fully fulfilled in Alexander the Great centuries later. Now God turns his gaze to Pharaoh, King of Egypt. Ezekiel pronounces this prophecy. Ezekiel is in exile, yet God has him prophesy against these nations. These prophecies will reach the nations, as God holds Ezekiel morally culpable if he does not pronounce judgments against the wicked. The main emphasis is for the Israelites to learn from God's judgment on these reprobate nations.

In chapter 29, God shows the Israelites the downfall of pride in Egypt and the necessity of trusting in God seriously. We saw pride in the King of Tyre, exalting himself to deity or lordship. Ezekiel showed he was merely a man, judged for his pride. The same holds for Egypt and Pharaoh. God judges Egypt for pride, teaching exiles in 587 BC—and us today—that pride is as ugly as it is.

Pride opposes trusting in God. The prideful trust in something else, often pragmatic—something that works practically but not biblically, a quick fix. Egypt lived pragmatically; Israel used Egypt as a pragmatic solution, provoking rebellion against Babylon as Egypt's cat's paw for relief and status. Israel trusted pragmatically, not in God for protection. Egypt, in pride, saw itself as its own pragmatic means.

Prophecy Against Pharaoh

Ezekiel 29 begins:

Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh King of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. Speak and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, that says, “My Nile is mine, and I made it.”

Egypt's sin mirrors Tyre's. Kings often elevated themselves to deity. Pharaoh is allegorically a crocodile—the Hebrew for "monster"—lying in his rivers. Egypt revered Sobek, the crocodile god, incarnate in Pharaoh. He claims god-king status. The Nile is Egypt's lifeblood, its nation-state; the fish are its people.

God uses Pharaoh's self-understanding against him: if you are a crocodile god in the Nile, I will hook you like one. H.L. Ellison notes: man's control of nature leads him to believe he is lord of nature, dispensing with its true Lord. Pharaoh claims to create and rule the Nile, exalting himself as lord of nature in pride.

The Ugliness of Pride

Why is pride so ugly and wrong? Pride brings God's judgment, but let's define it: Pride is the anti-God attitude that leads to discontentment with God and self-exaltation. It says no to God, fostering discontent—like Satan's fall (Jude) and Adam and Eve's in paradise, tempted by self-exaltation as "like God."

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5-6, quoting Proverbs 3:34)

"Opposes" means anti—pride makes you anti-God; God becomes anti-you. Enmity arises. Pride blocks progress; God actively opposes the proud. Humility, conversely, leads God to exalt you.

Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool... But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:1-2)

Humility—as low as dust—attracts God's attention, like an eye-catcher. God passes over the proud. Humility is the pro-God attitude content with God, not self.

Judgment on Egypt

I will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales... I will abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers... Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins shake. (Ezekiel 29:4-7)

Egypt was Israel's unreliable reed staff from the Nile—pragmatic but breaking, injuring Israel. Egypt exploited Israel's reliance.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you... The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste... No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations... It shall be the lowliest of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And it shall never again be the confidence of the house of Israel. (Ezekiel 29:8-16)

Judgment spans Migdol to Syene, the whole land, desolate 40 years, then a lowly kingdom—never Israel's confidence again, reminding of iniquity in turning to Egypt.

Interpreting the Fulfillment

Interpretive issues arise: no clear historical record of 40-year desolation. Nebuchadnezzar fought Egypt (605 BC, 567 BC) but did not fully conquer. Critics claim unfulfilled prophecy; others ignore history.

Egypt's records boast in success, silent in failure—like post-Exodus silence despite Amarna letters showing desperation. Jeremiah 18 shows prophecies conditional: God relents if nations repent.

If at any time I declare... that I will pluck up and break down... and if that nation... turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster. (Jeremiah 18:7-10)

Egypt's lowly state fulfilled: never regained glory, conquered by Persians, Hellenized. Yet allegorical elements suggest spiritual fulfillment—desolation among desolate nations (chs. 29-32), exiled in Sheol with uncircumcised (heart sense), amid destroyed nations. This marches to dry bones' spiritual restoration.

Main thrust: for Israel (and us), remember sin of trusting other than God. God dismantles pragmatic trusts. Pride brings opposition; trust God.

Nebuchadnezzar's Wages

Seventeen years later:

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre... but he and his army had no wages from Tyre... Therefore... I have given Egypt as wages... because they were his army's payment. (Ezekiel 29:17-20)

Thirteen-year Tyre siege bald heads, raw shoulders, scant plunder—yet Nebuchadnezzar served God's judgment (Jeremiah). God gives Egypt as wages. Alternate trusts become wages for God's judgment.

Avoid worldly fixes like psychology over biblical. Moses chose wilderness reproach over Egypt's pleasures, seeing Christ's reproaches greater (Hebrews 11). Faith trusts God, not Egypt. Pride and pragmatism are wrong; trust God's gospel. ```