Pharaoh to Be Slain

 

 

Ezekiel 31:1-18

 

November 15, 2023

 

Pharaoh to Be Slain

In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: “Whom are you like in your greatness?  Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade and of towering height, its top among the clouds. The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field.  So, it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from abundant water in its shoots.  All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations. It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down to abundant waters.  The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor the fir trees equal its boughs; neither were the plane trees like its branches; no tree in the garden of God was its equal in beauty.  I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.

“Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out.  Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. On its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field.  All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they’re all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit.

“Thus says the Lord God: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.  I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below.  They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations.

“Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.

“This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.”

The title is; Pharaoh to Be Slain, and yet God is telling Ezekiel about a great tree, and most of us wonder why?  We also must understand this had great meaning to the people of Ezekiel time, and it was about what was going to happen to Egypt and Pharaoh.  I ran across this Commentary by Paul Macisker.

“This chapter portrays the fall of the Assyrian empire, and uses it as a warning of what will one day happen to Egypt. Assyria is metaphorically portrayed as a magnificent cedar tree that ended up being cut down by foreign nations, and thrown down to the pit of Sheol. Ezekiel received this revelation in 587 BC, just 18 years after Assyria and Egypt had been defeated at the Battle of Carchemish. This continues Ezekiel's previous oracles against Egypt, as recorded in chapters 29 and 30.

The Assyrian capital, Nineveh, fell to an alliance of Babylonians, Medes and Scythians in 612 BC. The city of Harran fell in 609 BC, and the Assyrians retreated to their last remaining stronghold at Carchemish. Egypt was a vassal state of the Assyrian empire and marched to defend Assyria. Pharaoh Necho II was delayed for some time by King Josiah of Judah, who ended up being killed at the battle of Megiddo in about 609 BC. The Assyrian and Egyptian armies were decisively defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and his allies at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC. This marked the end of the Assyrian empire, the end of Egypt's intervention in the Near East, and the establishment of the Babylonian Empire. So, in 587 BC when Ezekiel received this revelation, the fall of Assyria was a recent and painful memory for Egypt.

Egypt was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar in 568 BC, although the extent of his conquest is not clear, as only minimal historical records of it survive. It was again conquered by the Persian king Cambyses in 525 BC. Neither conquest seems to have completely fulfilled the prophecies of Ezekiel 29 to 30 and Jeremiah 42 to 44. However, in the end times, Egypt is one of the countries that will fall to the Antichrist according to Daniel 11:42. So it is likely that this chapter in Ezekiel has an end-time fulfilment, and not just an historic one.

In verse 18, Ezekiel warns that Egypt will end up being thrown down into the pit, just like Assyria. In chapter 28.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

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