Ezekiel 29:13-21: a reflection

13“‘For the Lord GOD says: “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered. 14I will reverse the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth. There they will be a lowly kingdom. 15It will be the lowest of the kingdoms. It won’t lift itself up above the nations any more. I will diminish them so that they will no longer rule over the nations. 16It will no longer be the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.”’” 17It came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 18“Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet he had no wages, nor did his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it. 19Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off her multitude, take her plunder, and take her prey. That will be the wages for his army. 20I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he served, because they worked for me,’ says the Lord GOD. 21“In that day I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

Two threads run through these verses, and both are about who really governs the world. First, God says Egypt, once a great power, will be brought low, made a lowly kingdom, so that it will no longer be the confidence of the house of Israel. Egypt was the ally Israel kept running to for help instead of trusting God, and God removes the prop.

Notice that mercy can look like the removal of a false security. Israel had a habit of leaning on Egypt, of putting its confidence in a foreign power rather than in the Lord. So God diminishes Egypt, not out of spite, but so that his people will stop trusting the wrong thing and turn back to him. Sometimes the thing we lean on is taken away precisely so we will lean where we should.

And the second thread: God gives Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as wages for the hard, unpaid service his army had done against Tyre. Even a pagan king's labor is reckoned and repaid by the God who governs the affairs of nations. Nothing escapes his accounting. So if you have made some Egypt your confidence, some power or person or plan you run to instead of God, do not be surprised if it is quietly diminished. He would rather have you lean on him. Then, the passage says again and again, you will know that he is the Lord.

Lord, I so often run to lesser things for my security instead of to you. When you diminish what I have wrongly leaned on, help me turn back and lean on you, and know that you are the Lord.