During the horrible siege of Jerusalem that continued for two and a half years from January 588 B.C. to July 586 B.C. Ezekiel was giving prophecies of the fate, the doom of the surrounding nations that had particularly targeted Israel and Jerusalem for destruction. We have seen already God's judgmental final statements against Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, Sidon, to the north of Tyre. And now we swing down to the deep south, to the land of Egypt, one of the greatest empires in the ancient world. It's almost as if God is saving Egypt for the last, on the greatest denunciations of all, covering seven distinct prophecies through chapters 29, 30, 31, and 32. We will see these distinct prophecies, two of them in this 29th chapter, verses 1 to 16 and then 17 to 21 is the second one, which we have already discussed in our previous lecture, because it was relevant to what happened in the destruction or the attack against Tyre, the siege that lasted for 14 years and ended with only incomplete success for Nebuchadnezzar. Then when we get to chapter 30, we will see two more of these oracles. verses 1-19, and then verses 20-26. In chapter 31, the entire chapter is a comparison between Assyria and Egypt, so that Egyptians could learn the lesson of what God did to Assyria. And then finally, in chapter 32, we have two separate oracles verses 1 to 16, and then 17 to 32. A lamentation for the final collapse and eternal destruction in Sheol, Hades, of one of, if not the mightiest empire that ever existed in the ancient world, and the first great oppressor of the people of Israel. That brings to focus a question that we need to answer up front at this point, as we look at chapter 29 of the book of Ezekiel. It was in the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, about January of 586, just about six months before Jerusalem fell, that the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. Instead, some of man set their faith against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesied against him and against all Egypt." Why did God focus such attention on Egypt? I would like to begin our little survey of the relationship of Egypt to the Jews, to Jerusalem, by looking at a marvelous and mysterious prophecy in the book of Revelation. We are told in Revelation 17 that when the Antichrist appears on this earth, he will be the seventh of the world rulers that have attacked and oppressed God's chosen people. He will have the unique experience, though, of being killed As we will see by Gog from Magog, in the middle of the Seventy Feet of Daniel, he will have a deadly wound, mentioned three times in Revelation 13. He will descend into the abyss, the place of departed spirits, according to Revelation 11. And he will have his deadly wound healed and come back from the dead. And he will begin his second career, lasting exactly as long as his first career, namely three and a half years. and therefore he will not only be the seventh, he will also be the eighth of the great anti-Israel rulers of world history, and then it says he will go to his destruction. That raises an interesting question, doesn't it? Who are these seven rulers, or seven slash eight, ending with the Antichrist? I believe that the first of these is Egypt, because we read in Revelation 17, 10, that of the seven rulers, five have fallen, and one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he will remain a little while, three and a half years. The others last much longer. than the Antichrist in his first phase or even the second phase of his blasphemous satanic hatred of God and God's people. It says five have fallen. I believe that these five would be first Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon, then Medo-Persia, and then Macedonian Greece, five. At the time the book of Revelation is written, one of these kings still is dominant, namely Rome. And then will come at the end of the age, the final Roman emperor, as it were, who will come out of the Roman Empire, the little horn, the eleventh horn, the mouth speaking great things, that has eyes like the eyes of a lamb, and that's the beast. Now, on what basis do we say Egypt is first in God's list? Consider, first of all, Isaiah 10. Here we are told in the great writing ministry of the prophet Isaiah, In verse 24, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, all my people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrians, who strikes you with a rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. So you see, Assyria follows the example of Egypt in lifting up a rod to strike God's people, Zion, the chosen people of God. Compare that now, please, secondly, with Isaiah chapter 52, verse 4. For thus says the Lord God, My people went down at the first into Egypt, to reside there. Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. And that's sort of like a parallel statement, you see. The point is, Egypt was the first country to oppress them, and then the Assyrians, number two. So in those passages we begin to get a picture, don't we, of the enormous significance of Egypt in the mind of God as the first great instrument of Satan. to persecute, to torment, to oppress his people, and remember that went on generation after generation until the people cried out to God for mercy and were ready for and desperate for the exodus from that land of oppression. Now, after the exodus and God's release and rescue of his people from that iron furnace of affliction, One would think that Egypt forevermore would be a threat, a nightmare to the people of Israel. But no, turning away from the Lord over and over again, they thought of Egypt as the place from whence they could get help in time of need. As a matter of fact, it went on even during the wilderness wandering. When they realized the ruggedness and the horror of that wilderness region, and what they thought was the monotony of the diet of manna day after day, and the lack of luxuries that they began to exaggerate in their memories, Oh, that we could go back to Egypt, where we had the leeks and the garlics and the onions and the melons and all those wonderful things, and we just put our foot in the ground and out came these beautiful vegetables and fruits. That was the beginning, you see, of disaster for them. They even set up a golden cap in memory of the pagan forms of idolatry in Egypt from whence God had graciously delivered them. And now, through the centuries, it got worse and worse. The love for Egypt, the fascination with that mighty, prosperous, wealthy, powerful land to the south of them, just gripped their imagination and became an obsession to the Jews, exactly in proportion to their taking their eyes off of God. Now you understand the application of this to our own Christian lives. God has rescued us by his grace from the world, and the Bible warns us that whoever loves the world, the love of the Father cannot be in him. And we are to have a renewing of our minds and not be conformed to this world. And the world, the flesh and the devil are constantly pressuring us to find our our hope, our gratification, our joy, our pleasure, our fulfillment, there, rather than in the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, you can't see him. Moses came out of Egypt seeing him who is invisible, and God never forgot that. And enshrine those things in the Hebrews 11 hall of fame, the people who simply believe God because he that comes to God must believe, not see. not feel, taste, touch, but see who he is, must believe who he is, and that he is a reward of them that diligently seek him. So the application here is enormously powerful to your life and my life, day by day, and all the pressures the world puts upon us to find our gratification and fulfillment there, rather than in the Lord. Now, listen to Isaiah chapter 30. Here becomes comes the saddest thing in the Old Testament as far as what happened to the chosen people of Israel, now remember, already for centuries in their promised land, having experienced marvelous miracles of God's blessing in the times of the Judges, or Joshua, the Judges, King David, Solomon. Look what's happening now. Isaiah 30 verse 1, Woe to the rebellious children, declares the Lord, who execute a plan, but not mine, and make an alliance, but not of my spirit, in order to add sin to sin." You say, what plan? What alliance? Here it is, verse 2, "...who proceed down to Egypt without consulting me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation. For their princes are at Zohan, and their ambassadors arrive at Hannes, and everybody will be ashamed because of a people who cannot prophesy, who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach." In other words, dear people of Israel, I'm going to absolutely shame you because of your in that broken lead called Egypt. They didn't hear Isaiah say that, apparently, so he says the same thing in the next chapter. Isaiah 31.1, Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong. But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord. He also is wise, after all. What kind of a God do you think the God of Israel is? Can't he help in time of need, if you ask him? Now what's the difference between Egypt and God? Verse 3. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Can anything be more obvious than that? And yet, friends, we have the same problems today. We want to look big, important, prestigious, popular in the world, even among churches, and we want the wealth and the fame that others seem to have and to enjoy and bask in popularity and acceptance and recognition. God says, I'm sufficient for you. You keep your heart fixed on me, and you obey my will and my word, and I'll take care of your ultimate fame and your significance, and you will never be ashamed. When you do my will, my way." Now, when it came down to the time of Jeremiah, shortly before Ezekiel, and we've referred to him many times, haven't we, as the as the one who coordinated with Ezekiel under the Holy Spirit's direction, the messages of dementiation not only to Israel for her compromises and her apostasy, but also the dementiations of all the surrounding nations, including Egypt." Now, what happened when Babylon finally began to besiege Jerusalem? Consider Jeremiah, now chapter 37. Verse 5, in the reign of Zedekiah, during the siege of the Babylonians, what happened? Amazing! Pharaoh came to the rescue of Israel at last. Now we've seen that Zedekiah had tried over and over again to get the Egyptians to please come to their help. Ezekiel 17.15, you remember. Please come help us, you Egyptians. After all, you'll benefit, won't you, if Babylon is destroyed. They're the ones that delivered a staggering blow to Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar II back there at the Battle of Carchemish in 605. Remember when Nebuchadnezzar smashed the Egyptian armies that were up there trying to prop up the remnants of the Assyrian army to keep Babylon out of what she considered her proper domain. the Holy Land of Israel. Now look, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar is coming back here, and here's your chance. You've had a time now to regroup your forces, haven't you? Pharaoh Necho had died, and now Pharaoh Hothrop is in charge of Egyptian armies, and surely now, the Eastern 605 are all the way down to what? about 586 now. You've had 19 years to recuperate, haven't you, Pharaoh? And you're a prosperous, wealthy, mighty land. And we wouldn't want anybody to think that you couldn't help a tiny little nation like Israel and a little city here like Jerusalem. So please come. Please come. And guess what? Pharaoh came. And look what happened. Jeremiah 37.5. Meanwhile, Pharaoh's army had set out from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans, that's the Babylonians, who had been besieging Jerusalem, heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem and they left. At last, great, the Babylonians are gone, the Egyptians have rescued us. And so what happened? Well, friends, when you turn back here to Jeremiah chapter 34, you will see a horrible thing happen. Just before the Egyptians came, Zedekiah chapter 34 made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them, that each man should set free his male servant, his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, so that no one could keep them Jew, his brother, in bondage. And all the officials obeyed. Wonderful! Well, how did they make this covenant, this agreement? Verse 18. You cut the calf in two and pass between the parts. That's right. End of verse 19. You pass between the parts of the calf. What's that? That's exactly what God did in Genesis 18 for Abram. He said, I want you to take these birds and animals and cut them in half, and put them on either side of an imaginary pathway here, and this bloody pathway, you are going to see me walk down through here, because it's an unconditional covenant, and I'm going to cut the covenant, the karat b'rit. That's how covenants were made, in extreme, significant situations. And the idea was this, that the two parties of the covenant would walk through this bloody and they'd look up and say, may the gods do so to me, and more also, if I break my part in this covenant. May God kill me, shed my blood, destroy me. That was very vivid. That was a spectacular visual aid to encourage faithfulness, loyalty to the covenant, wasn't it? And Zedekiah went to this elaborate way to say, I will please We're going to get God off our backs and the Babylonians, hopefully, too, could just start obeying the law now. Wasn't that nice? Remember, he was a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, James 1.8. He was fickle, nice at one moment, wicked at the next, totally unpredictable, and he's making a great covenant to keep the law and to let the Jewish slaves go free. Wonderful. Except this. No sooner did the Egyptian army show up to rescue them than they took all the slaves back and broke the covenant. In other words, now that we are free and the Babylonians are off our backs, we really did not intend to keep the covenant anyway. That is one of the major reasons God tells us that he confirmed his purpose to destroy Jerusalem. Then what happened? Well, Pharaoh and Echo showed up, the Babylonians withdrew, and then the Egyptians figured, you know, this really isn't going to work for us. It isn't worth all our time, money and energy to just rescue this little city of Jerusalem. We think we'll all go back to Egypt. and they did. They broke their promise, and the Babylonians came right back in, exactly as Jeremiah said, even if they are all crippled, they will all come back and seize the city and destroy it totally, and they did. So far from being a help, Egypt was in a sense the instrument of Jerusalem's final destruction. Why? Because it gave them hope, see? Hope against hope. Egypt will help. Let's keep fighting the Babylonians. Let's disregard Jeremiah. Let's not surrender. And then Egypt left them in the lurch. Now that's what the Assyrians had said, remember, to Hezekiah a hundred years earlier. Don't you dare lean on Egypt, sir. They're a weak, bruised, broken reed, and they'll pierce through the hand of anyone who leans on them. Don't you trust Egypt. And the Assyrian Rabshakeh, the ambassador of Sennacherib was 100% correct. Egypt was notorious for doing what? Making great promises to allies and then breaking them. And so the Jews of course, closest to Egypt of all the nations, who should have known all of this, demonstrated their incredible stupidity. In fact, that's true of all of us today. For you see your calling, brethren, there are not many wise among you, not many noble, not many mighty are called. God seems to specialize, friends, as we look in the mirror, at calling to himself the foolish things, the weak things, the things that really don't seem to amount to much. That if anything ever happens in terms of the true church of Jesus Christ, it's God, not us. It's Christ the Lord. not our wisdom that accomplishes it. Can I say it this way? Israel goes down in history as probably the most stupid nation that ever existed. They never, ever learned their lessons. You say, well, we always learn our lessons. Oh, really? Wait until we see the Lord some day and find out what he has put up with, what he has endured in our sickle double-mindedness and our lack of faithfulness to Him. These chapters just reek with application and relevance for us today. When therefore God told Ezekiel to denounce Egypt and Pharaoh, look, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of background to what's going to happen to them now, it isn't some last minute decision, oh yes, there's Egypt down there, as long as we're denouncing everybody, add them to the end of the list. No, they are the greatest monster of them all. That will help us, I think, to get the picture clearly in mind. Chapter 29, verse 3. Pharaoh Hothbrock took over the throne in 588 and lasted, friends, about nineteen years, until Nebuchadnezzar destroyed him. And speak and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of the rivers. that has said, my Nile is mine and I myself have made it. I have created the Nile River. Oh, I thought God created the world. You see, we live in a generation, friends, of insufferable, arrogant, blasphemous evolutionism in which we dismiss God as creator and we are worshipping the world, the earth, the ocean from which we supposedly evolved And our Lord is infinitely displeased. Oh, you think I am not the creator of your river, of your land, of your people, of the world? Well, then I'm going to give you a little lesson as to who's in charge. Verse 4. I shall put hooks in your jaws, and I shall make the fish of your rivers cling to your scales. You great big monster, watch what's going to happen. And I shall bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, and all the fish of your rivers will cling to your scales, and I'll abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You will fall on the open field. You will not be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky, and that's the reverse of the original plan of God for mankind." Then we're to eat plants. And after he cursed them and destroyed the world by the flood, they could eat animals. God never intended animals to eat human beings. But you're special, Pharaoh, as an object lesson of my wrath. Verse 6, that all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord. You know, that sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? Remember the ten plagues by which God finally bludgeoned the Pharaoh into submission? And he finally said, get out of this land of mine, you Israelites and your God. And of course, although we've never yet found one single hieroglyphic inscription on the walls of an Egyptian temple saying, the God of Israel destroyed us and then left the land under Moses, they were notorious for only putting on their inscriptions things about their victory, never their defeat. But God says, by the time I'm through with you, you won't need inscriptions and walls. I'm going to inscribe on your memory forever what I've done to you. Why? Because they have made only a staff made of reeds to the house of Israel. You pretend to be a help and somebody leans on you and they collapse. And when they took hold of you with a hand, you broke and tore all their hands. And when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins quake. And therefore, says the Lord, God, behold, I shall bring upon you a sword, and I'll cut off from you men and beasts. And the land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste, and they will know that I am the Lord." How many centuries did God have to bludgeon Egypt until he would ever wake up to find out who God really was? By the way, they still haven't found out to this day. What a tragic land today, considered by some even to be a fourth world, a cesspool of corruption and poverty and filth. But God isn't through with Egypt yet, as we shall see in these remarkable prophetic scriptures of what's going to happen to them at the end of the age. Now friends, as you look at these words, you begin to realize that God has a case against this proud and arrogant monster called Pharaoh. Why? Look again at the end of verse 9. Because you said the Nile is mine, and I have made it. You see, in a sense they thought that the Nile was the bloodstream of Osiris their god, and that Pharaoh was the visible representation of God himself. and they felt that the whole destiny and significance of the nation was all wrapped up in that man who sat on that throne. His whole life was spent building, in the earlier dynasties, stupendous pyramids to provide for him the great Pharaoh God, an appropriate environment for the afterlife. It is now estimated that for 30 years, 30,000 dedicated workers built that pyramid What a magnificent structure, the like of which could never be repeated in the world today with similar technology and tools, because the dedication for such things is gone. 2,500,000 blocks of stone, 5,000 pounds each, perfectly fit together, you can't even put a knife blade between them today, and it was built before wheels were ever invented. You said the Nile is yours, and you made it. Therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdal to Siena." In other words, from the delta 2,000 miles up the river to Aswan, where now there is a great dam that has been built on the border of Ethiopia. A man's foot will not pass through it. and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years." Really? Forty years? When does that start and stop? Look at verse 12, "...so I shall make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated lands, and her cities in the midst of the cities that are laid waste will be desolate forty years. And I shall scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the land, You're going to have a wilderness wandering, you Egyptians, that will put the wilderness wanderings of Israel into the shadow by comparison. You mean literally 40 years? Look, verse 13. For thus says the Lord God, At the end of 40 years I shall gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, and I shall turn the fortunes of Egypt, and shall make them return to the land of Papros, that's Upper Egypt, to the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and it will never again lift itself up above the nations. And I shall make them so small that they will not rule over the nations, and it will never again be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned to Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God." I know that there is speculation here, friends, that this 40 years began when Nebuchadnezzar came down in 569 B.C. and smashed Egypt, and therefore the 40 years would go down, you see, from that time to about 529 or so B.C., but we just do not see any clear evidence, number one, that anything significant happened after that 40-year interval, or that Egyptians were scattered all over the world. And that's why I personally have come to the conclusion that this will happen at the dawn of the kingdom age of the millennium. I have incorporated this point in my chart on the thousand-year reign of Christ, showing that there are several things that will happen as chronological time blocks at the beginning of the thousand-year kingdom. The first of those time blocks is the 30-year period God will set aside to cleanse the Temple. That's the 1290 days, namely 30 days after His Second Coming, which is the 1260th day after what? After the abominations and desolations were set up by the Antichrist in the Temple in the middle of the seventies week. Second time block, an additional 45 days during which all the nations of the world are purged, including Israel, and the goats and the unbelievers and the tares are removed by the angels to eternal death, and only the wheat will remain. The good fish out of the net will be kept, and two will be in the field, and one taken out, the other left to enter the kingdom. So blessed is he who comes to that 1335th day," says Daniel, chapter 12. But there's another time block here. Remember that 40 years after the second coming, God will see to it that whatever Egyptians are still on earth. You say, now wait a minute, how can you have any Egyptians left on earth if God has made a clean sweep first of the military forces at Armageddon, and has eliminated all the leaders at the sheep and goat nation judgment? and eliminated all remaining individual unbelievers of two in the field and two in the bed and two at the mill. Well, who is left in Egypt? And the answer is surprise, surprise of all surprises. Egyptians by the end of the 73rd of Daniel, in large numbers, will have acknowledged Jesus as their Lord and Savior through the witness of the 144,000 who have covered the world with the gospel of the kingdom." You say, really? Where do we get that idea? Well, in Psalm 87 it says so. Listen to this remarkable statement, often overlooked and neglected. It is described in the Sheep Nations, the believers in the New Covenant era of the kingdom. It says, that his foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God." And here's one of the most glorious things God will ever say of Jerusalem. Namely, the people who come to the Lord from all the nations of the world through the witness of those who come forth from Jerusalem, where the two witnesses will be established. And what nations will have believers represented in the kingdom? I shall mention Rahab." Guess what that is? Egypt, as you see in many passages of the Old Testament. And what else? Who else? Babylon. You mean there will be Babylonian believers? Yes, among those who know me. Who else? Behold, Philistia. Yes, and Tyre and Ethiopia. We saw, didn't we, the Philistine remnant that will be saved according to Zechariah, chapter 9. And what will be said of those people? This one was born there. Where? In Zion. Born again. But of Zion it should be said, this one and that one were born in her. And the Most High himself will establish her, and the Lord will count when he registers the people. This one was born there. And you know what all the Babylonians and Egyptians and the Philistine survivors, the remnant that comes out of the tribulation, born again, will say, verse 7, then those who sing as well as those who play the flute will say, all my springs of joy are in you, Zion, city of God. But that's not all. Isn't it also amazing, friends, to realize that according to Isaiah 19, Egypt will be among the born-again ones at the dawn of the millennium? Isaiah chapter 19. Truly one of the most remarkable prophecies of what is going to happen in that kingdom age. with verse 16, Isaiah 19, 16. The chapter here has been speaking about Egypt and how God is going to destroy its idolatry. Now listen. Verse 16, And that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread, because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which is going to wave over them, and the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Oh, that sounds like a reversal, doesn't it? I thought Egyptians were a source of terror to Israelites. Oh no, because when the kingdom comes, it will be different. By the way, I would remind you, in the 1967 war, the seven-day war, Judah was a terror to Egypt. It'll never forget, it'll never recover from the blow that Israelite, Israeli war planes delivered to it. That's just nothing compared to what's coming. Everyone to whom it is mentioned, that is, just name Judah, Israel, and what will happen in Egypt. they'll be in dread because of the purpose of the Lord of Hosts, which is purposing against them. As a result, many Egyptians will accept the Lord. Look at verse 18. In that day, five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of Hosts. One will be called the City of Destruction, and in that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border. I don't think that's the Pyramid. That's a special worship center Egyptians will have at the border of Egypt to honor the God of Israel. And what's it going to be like? Verse 20, It will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, that they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and he will send them a Savior. and a champion, and he will deliver them. And thus the Lord will make himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and they will even worship the sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so they will return to the Lord, and he will respond to them and will heal them." This is unbelievable. You mean God, after these thousands of years of warning and threats and judgments, will finally somehow manage to save Egyptians? Oh, yes, and Assyrians, too. Look at verse 23. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt, and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. Worship whom? Next verse, 24. In that day Israel will be the third party, with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, Are you ready for this? Blessed is Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance." Do you know what I've decided? God's grace and mercy are beyond comprehension. And if God could save people like that friends as hope for us. Now, what did Jeremiah say about Egypt? Turn to Jeremiah 46.26. What future did he offer for them? What hope? After denouncing Egyptian idolatry, he says in verse 26, this is Jeremiah 46, 26, "...I shall give them, the Egyptians, over to the power of those who are sleek in their lives, even unto the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and unto the hands of his officers. Afterward, however, it will be inhabited as in the days of old," declares the Lord. What will be inhabited? Egypt. By whom? A remnant of born-again people. But you know, God has not forgotten his case against Egypt, and here is the thing that has amazed me. Born-again Egyptians will enter the Millennium. They will be among the sheep nations that he will welcome into his kingdom. But because of what they did to Israel for thousands of years, He will say to these Egyptians, you can't enter your land yet now, as if nothing has ever happened before. I'm going to make you an object lesson to all the Gentile people of the world, and you're going to have to move out of the land and scatter all over the world, and you can tell everybody in the world what part you had in Israel's history of affliction. You were number one. But after 40 years of wandering, which is what you inflicted on Israel in the wilderness, 40 years. I'll let you come back and settle in your land again." And you know how much time they'll have to settle in their land? 1,960 years. 40 years short of 1,000 years. To me, friends, this is absolutely astounding. Grace in the midst of judgment. We have seen evidently already in verse 17 how Ezekiel put into this section the last prophecy God ever gave him. Like 15 years later, God added this footnote on Egypt. And so Ezekiel felt it appropriate, apparently, under God's leading, to add it right here. Namely, I am going to turn you over to the tender mercies of Nebuchadnezzar, because you see, you Egyptians, Nebuchadnezzar worked for fourteen hard years trying to conquer Tyre for me, and he didn't quite make it, and his soldiers are hungry, tired, and impoverished, and I just will give everything you have to pay them." Now that, dear friends, is an amazing example, isn't it, of how God is in total control of the nations and He will move one nation here and another there and accomplish His mysterious purposes through it all? And they will recognize, you see, who is in charge of the world, won't they? on that day I'll make a horn sprout for the house of Israel and shall open your mouth in their midst, Ezekiel. And then they'll know that I'm the Lord." In other words, in the kingdom age, Ezekiel's mouth will be opened, in the sense, I'm sure, that people will say, we did have a prophet among us, didn't we? He was enigmatic, frustrating, mysterious. We couldn't understand all of his parables. and all of his allegories, and all of his figures of speech, and all of his dramatizations. But my, everything Ezekiel said really took place, it was really fulfilled in the letter, and in that sense I believe it means here, in that kingdom age Ezekiel is coming. I'm going to open your mouth. After all, don't you think that Ezekiel will be raised from the dead? Don't you think he'll be, therefore, to that extent, a participant in the kingdom age? Won't he see the Egyptians wandering around the world for forty years and everything he ever said about the Millennial Temple in chapters forty to forty-eight and the redistribution of the tribe and the great river coming out of the temple to heal the Dead Sea? He'll be there to see it. He'll say, Thank you, Lord, for using me. as your instrument to record these marvelous, precious, mysterious truths. You know, it will be worth it all, won't it, friends, when we meet the Lord? Because our sufferings and our afflictions in serving Jesus Christ in our generation are next to nothing compared to the afflictions this man of God endured. All these things in which he became publicly notorious among the Jewish exiles. God killed his wife to make that a visual aid of the horror of having to kill his wife, Jerusalem, and her temple. But someday Ezekiel, like all of us, will look back and say, Our light affliction was but for a moment compared to the eternal weight of glory. Thank you for using me in spite of me for your truth. Chapter 30. The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, And here we are, still in the early part of 586, maybe six months before the destruction of Jerusalem. Remember, his mouth is still shut toward the Jewish exiles, because he has said everything he is going to say to them, and is just waiting now for the systematic destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar before he begins his marvelous prophecies of Israel's destiny. Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God, Woe alas for the day! For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near." Now, when you read the description of this day of the Lord, it does raise an interesting question as to which day of the Lord it is. You see, friends, in the Old Testament There is such a thing as a foreshadowing of the final events at the end of the age in contemporary catastrophe. Like in the book of Joel, the great invasion of grasshoppers that gobbled up all the crops and the great disaster agriculturally brought to the land was viewed as sort of a day of the Lord for the nation then. And so every time God brings a massive judgment on the nation, It serves as a foretaste, you see, a little reminder, an illustration of what's coming at the end of the world. And Jesus said that can seem true, didn't he? The disciples were deeply shaken when they heard that Pontius Pilate had mixed the blood of Jews with their sacrifices as he wreaked vengeance on them, which is typical of his cruel reign and rulership. They came and told Jesus about it. And what did he say? Are those men any worse than others? No, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish. You see, every global disaster, friends, and we hear about it over and over again today, earthquakes here, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, disasters of all kinds, even worse ones, AIDS, drugs, alcoholism, corruption, terrorism, violence. It's sort of for individuals and communities and families, kind of a day of the Lord, you see, in which God draws near and says, Are you trusting in yourself rather than me? And you see the time will finally come when men resist, resist, suppress, suppress those warning signals until the end does finally come and it's too late forever. The reason why we suggest that this may have been a contemporary foreshadowing in the experience of Egypt is because here in verse 9 in this chapter, "...on that day, it says, messengers will go forth from me in ships to frighten secure Ethiopia, and anguish will be upon them as on the day of Egypt. For behold, it comes." Egypt, in other words, will get its day to Nebuchadnezzar, and the Ethiopians to the south will get all their security. This buffer state between them and Nebuchadnezzar, namely Egypt, will have collapsed totally. And Ethiopia will be in terror when they see the day of the Lord has struck Egypt. Now, what is God going to do to Egypt that is so terrifying? end of verse three. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations, and a sword will come upon Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia when the slain fall in Egypt. They take away her wealth, and her foundations are torn down. Ethiopia, Put, Luz, all Arabia, Libya, and the people of the land that is in league will fall with them by the sword." These are doubtless mercenaries, you see, that were serving in the great, mighty Egyptian army. And all the nations that sent these mercenaries to help the Egyptian army be strong and powerful will be terrified when they see mighty Egypt collapsing. Thus says the Lord, verse 6, Indeed, those who support Egypt will fall, and the pride of her power will come down from Migdol to Sinai. from the north to the south. They will fall within her by the sword, declares the Lord God, and they will be desolate in the midst of the desolated land, and their cities will be in the midst of the devastated cities, and they will know that I am the Lord. When? When I set afire in Egypt, and all her helpers are broken." All you have to do, you see, to say to the Egyptians who have vivid memories is, do you remember the lightning mixed with fire that I sent upon you in the final plagues in the days of Moses and Aaron and the Exodus? Oh, yes. Well, that was a day of the Lord for you then, and it's going to come again and come again and again. As God's gracious warning to this stubborn, insensitive in its pride and arrogance and idolatry, that there is a God in heaven who is watching and who will bring them to their knees in final repentance so that their descendants will at last enter his glorious kingdom.