Scripture Daily

Context No. 1204 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 30:20-26: in context

20In the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 21“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it may become strong to hold the sword. 22Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong arm, and that which was broken. I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before the king of Babylon with the groaning of a mortally wounded man. 25I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall down. Then they will know that I am the LORD when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretches it out on the land of Egypt. 26I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

God gives Ezekiel a word about Egypt and its Pharaoh, using the image of a broken arm. I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, God says, and it has not been bound up to heal so it could hold a sword again. I am against Pharaoh; I will break both his arms, the strong one and the one already broken, and make the sword fall from his hand. Meanwhile, I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand. When I break Pharaoh's arms and strengthen Babylon's, then they will know that I am the LORD.

The controlling image is arms, and who strengthens or breaks them. Egypt was a great power, its Pharaoh a figure of enormous force, and yet God speaks of breaking his arm so it cannot hold a sword, and of strengthening Babylon's arm instead. The point is that the real power behind the rise and fall of empires is God. Babylon would defeat Egypt, but the deeper truth is that God was the one strengthening Babylon's arm and breaking Egypt's; the visible clash of nations was God moving the pieces. It is a bracing reminder that the strength of the strong is not their own. The Pharaoh who seemed unbreakable had an arm God could break, and the king who prevailed did so only because God put the sword in his hand. Behind every human strength stands the God who gives it and can withdraw it. For a people tempted to fear the great powers or to envy them, this word relocates all real strength in God: he lifts up and he breaks down, and the arm of the strongest ruler is his to strengthen or shatter. Whatever power looms over you, its arm is one God can break.

Do I fear or envy the strength of the powers around me as though it were their own, when scripture says God is the one who strengthens or breaks the arm of the strongest ruler, and every strength is finally his to give or withdraw?

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