I knew the storms were coming. I’m a weather radar junkie, but I also could see the cat’s expression – ten minutes before the front, she was already alarmed, ready for hiding in the back of the smallest space she could find – but rather stuck with me on the couch – looking at the windows…  cool…  summer… power and intensity. 

Now the storms have passed, the heatwave broken, and ‘regular’ summer back.

I wonder in the book of Ezekiel if the Egyptians and the Pharaoh understood the intensity and sincerity of God’s decree against them. I wonder if they were alarmed when hearing about the coming wrath of God. Hid or didn’t – I would guess they didn’t. And did Ezekiel’s fellow Israelites have ears perked knowing this big situation would go down and watch like the radar or hide or best, listen to God to what they should do. They were in exile and were told to wait it out. I know Ezekiel told them to know the storms would pass. God’s mercies fresh in the times to come. But they best keep their ears perked!

We always know that God means business – and we should also know that in preparation to His doing His business, He advertises what He will do – and He tells whom is going to do the work needed too…  There is no bigger sense of “You are going down” given that than to Egypt in this section of the book of Ezekiel – Egypt is being prophesied against. Egypt also will become the spoils for the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzer, hook, line and sinker. 

And when God is talking about Pharaoh with the fish of the river to stick to one’s scales (twice) – the Lord knows His punishment will be severe and purposeful – to let folks KNOW He is God. The river and all in it are God’s and Pharaoh making himself a god-like ruler doesn’t mean he was one.

God said so then showed so, with Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar ready to ruin Pharaoh. 

The chapters devoted to this crush (chapters 29, 30, 31, 32 link below) are a sense of many years of war. And reinforcement of the truth that God DID bring the Babylonians over Egypt. Now with ears perked, hearts petitioned to listen, may the Israelites (and we) know God is Sovereign. 

Amen 

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All 4 chapters 29 to 32:https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+29-32&version=NIV;NKJV

Ezekiel 29 – Proclamation Against Egypt

In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “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,
O Pharaoh king of Egypt,
O great monster who lies in the midst of his rivers,
Who has said, ‘My [Nile] River is my own;
I have made it for myself.’
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.
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.

“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 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.”

‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will bring a sword upon you and cut off from you man and beast. 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.’ 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. Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor foot of beast pass through it, and it shall be uninhabited forty years. 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.”

‘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. 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. 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. 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.” ’ ”

Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt
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, “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. 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. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they worked for Me,’ says the Lord God.

‘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.’ ”