Context No. 2804 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 29:6-12: in context

6“‘“All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 7When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke and paralyzed all of their thighs.” 8“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you. 9The land of Egypt will be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD. “‘“Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it,’ 10therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers. I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia. 11No foot of man will pass through it, nor will any animal foot pass through it. It won’t be inhabited for forty years. 12I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the middle of the countries that are desolate. Her cities among the cities that are laid waste will be a desolation forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.”

This oracle against Egypt names two failures at once. First, Egypt had been a staff of reed to Israel, the kind of support that looks solid and then splinters, piercing the hand and shoulder of anyone who leans on it. Nations that trusted Egypt found it gave way under real weight.

Second, and deeper, God quotes Pharaoh's own boast: the Nile is mine, and I made it. That is the sin God answers with desolation. Pharaoh claimed as his own creation the river that was in fact God's gift, taking personal credit for what he had only received. The words I made it are the ancient lie, the refusal to admit that what we have and are came to us from Someone else. Egypt did not make the Nile any more than we make the breath in our lungs.

What have I quietly claimed as my own making, forgetting that the river running through my life was given, not built by me?

Sources

Ezekiel 29:9: "Because he has said, The river is mine, and I have made it."
Deuteronomy 8:17: "You may say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth."
Isaiah 36:6: "Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it."