Egypt
Day 418, Friday, Oct. 3
Ezekiel Chapters 29 – 31
Today’s chapters are about the judgment against Egypt and Pharaoh, its king.
Egypt always had an unusual relationship with Egypt, as the nearby ancient superpower was seen at different times as either an enemy or a friend. For both Joseph in the Old Testament and baby Jesus in the New Testament it was a place of refuge. For Moses it was more of an evil empire—a place of slavery and suffering.
Ezekiel puts that mixed picture into rather poetic language in 29:6-7. “You [Egypt] have been a staff of reed for the people of Israel. When they grasped you with their hands, you splintered and tore open their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched.”
While the people of Israel repeatedly leaned on Egypt for help, it was not a dependable source of support.
In these chapters we see that Egypt will face its reckoning not at the hands of Israel, but at the hands of Babylon.
If you remember from earlier readings, God used the king of Babylon as an instrument of his vengeance, even though he was an unbeliever. In 29:20 we read, “I have given him [King Nebuchadnezzar] Egypt as a reward for his efforts because he and his army did it for me, declares the Sovereign Lord.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Friday meditation

Job 41:25-34
When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on earth is its equal—a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”

Prayer focus
Lord, give us wisdom in whom and what we place our trust.