A Weak Staff to Lean On

Ezekiel 29:1-21 

1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 "Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt. 3 Speak, and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:

"Behold, I am against you,
O Pharaoh king of Egypt,
O great monster who lies in the midst of his rivers,
Who has said, 'My River is my own;
I have made it for myself.'

4 But I will put hooks in your jaws,
And cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales;
I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers,
And all the fish in your rivers will stick to your scales.

5 I will leave you in the wilderness,
You and all the fish of your rivers;
You shall fall on the open field;
You shall not be picked up or gathered.
I have given you as food
To the beasts of the field
And to the birds of the heavens.

6 "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.

7 When they took hold of you with the hand,
You broke and tore all their shoulders;
When they leaned on you,
You broke and made all their backs quiver."

8 'Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will bring a sword upon you and cut off from you man and beast. 9 And the land of Egypt shall become desolate and waste; then they will know that I am the LORD, because he said, 'The River is mine, and I have made it.' 10 Indeed, therefore, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. 11 Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor foot of beast pass through it, and it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12 I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and among the cities that are laid waste, her cities shall be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries."

13 'Yet, thus says the Lord GOD: "At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered. 14 I will bring back the captives of Egypt and cause them to return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15 It shall be the lowliest of kingdoms; it shall never again exalt itself above the nations, for I will diminish them so that they will not rule over the nations anymore. 16 No longer shall it be the confidence of the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity when they turned to follow them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord GOD."'"

17 And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18 "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they worked for Me,' says the Lord GOD.

21 'In that day I will cause the horn of the house of Israel to spring forth, and I will open your mouth to speak in their midst. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.'"

Egypt was a weak staff (2 Kings 18:21-22) for God’s people to lean on to support their resistance to the Babylonian invaders.  Ezekiel therefore brought God’s word of judgment against Egypt and her leader for the arrogant pride to rely on their kingdom for power and the great Nile River as a symbol of their wealth in trade like Tyre had done.  God spoke against the monster fish of Egypt in that river to say He would hook him and his people and throw them on dry land to wither away and provide food for the animals and birds to devour at will.  This would expose the weakness of Pharaoh to all his followers and to the rest of the world , especially to Israel who had relied on a weak staff to wage war instead of the Almighty God of their fathers.  God’s people would then discover how frail it was to lean on any other as a reliance for defense or support.  Only the LORD God Almighty can lend His omnipotence to deliver His chosen ones.  We can find no army on earth that can deliver us from harm or through the adversity we face.  That is our lesson for we who are in Christ today, Jew and Gentile, male or female (there is no third gender), slave or free (Galatians 3:28) - we are all called in Jesus Christ as one people whom he delivers forever in His strength and not from any other.  Egypt was judged and laid waste for forty years for helping Israel and then was a broken nation with little power or influence again in history to remind God’s people of their sin and who they must turn to and rely on for deliverance.  No nation, political party, government system, armaments of war can save us from judgment, only the Judge Himself.  May we not repeat the error of leaning on any such weak reed staff instead of the Lord alone for our salvation and keeping until His return.  Babylon was plundered by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon who God used as His instrument of judgment until He judged Babylon as well when He was through with them.  Egypt lost much as His tool against Tyre and recouped their losses in plundering Egypt until God brought them low as well.  As for God’s people, they would hear the word of God in all these judgments by the mouth of Ezekiel.  Then they would know and honor God as their LORD again.  May we know and confess His sovereignty to avoid such suffering as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13) and not look to the world for direction or deliverance from adversity.