Context No. 2947 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 30:1-5: in context

1The LORD’s word came again to me, saying, 2“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ 3For the day is near, even the LORD’s day is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of the nations. 4A sword will come on Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt. They take away her multitude, and her foundations are broken down. 5“‘“Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the mixed people, Cub, and the children of the land that is allied with them, will fall with them by the sword.”

This oracle sounds an alarm: wail, for the day is near, the day of the LORD, a day of clouds, a time of reckoning for the nations. A sword will come upon Egypt, and anguish upon Ethiopia; Egypt's allies, Put, Lud, and the rest, will fall together with her.

The oracle announces a coming day of the LORD against Egypt and everyone allied with her. Egypt had long seemed a secure refuge, the place Israel was forever tempted to run to for help, and here God declares that even Egypt and all her confederates will fall in his day. The lesson underneath is plain: no earthly power, however impressive it looks, is a safe refuge against the day of the LORD. The very nations people trusted in place of God are themselves under his judgment. Only God is a refuge that the day of reckoning cannot topple.

Am I trusting some "Egypt," an impressive but earthly security, that cannot stand in the day of the LORD, instead of trusting God alone?

Sources

Ezekiel 30:3: "For the day is near, even the LORD's day is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of the nations."
Isaiah 31:3: "Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit."
Psalm 20:7: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."