Ezekiel 31

of what the Lord was doing, and this was the most painful and costly of all his “action sermons.” In order to preach one sermon, Ezekiel had to lose his wife. But Ezekiel commanded the Jewish exiles to mourn over the loss of the temple just as he had mourned over the loss of his wife, without loud wailing, copious weeping, or any change in their dress or eating habits. The death of the prophet’s dear wife was an act of God, and so was the destruction of the temple. The woman who had died was innocent of any gross sin, but the temple had become a den of thieves. God gave Ezekiel only one day’s notice that he would become a widower, but He had been speaking to sinful Judah for many years and they had not listened. The destruction of the temple and the city should not be a surprise to anybody.

But how did the people know that the prophet was telling the truth? They didn’t have instant news service as we have today, so perhaps the whole thing was only Ezekiel’s way of dealing with his wife’s death. But God said that a messenger would arrive in Babylon with the news of the fall of the city and the destruction of the temple, and this occurred five months later, on January 8,585 BC (33:21–22).

The next day, God opened the prophet’s mouth and removed the discipline He had imposed at the beginning of his ministry (3:25–27). From this point on, the prophet was free to speak as he felt led, and at the same time, the focus of his ministry shifted. He had exposed the nation’s sins and announced her judgment. Now he would announce God’s plans for the Gentile nations, including victorious Babylon; and then he would minister hope to the Jewish exiles and share with them visions of the kingdom yet to come.

Ezekiel has been a faithful servant of God, even to the point of sacrificing his beloved wife so he could declare the word of God. What an example of dedication!

Egypt is the seventh nation in Ezekiel’s “judgment cycle” and receives more attention than any of the other nations the prophet addressed. Centuries before, Egypt had made the Jewish people suffer greatly as slaves, and even after the division of the Jewish kingdom, the Egyptians were a thorn in the flesh to the Jews and a most undependable ally. But the Jews were like their father Abraham (Gen. 12:10–20) and their ancestors (Ex. 14:10–12; 16:1–3; Num. 11:4–9, 18; 14:1–5) in that, whenever a crisis loomed, they were prone to look to Egypt for help. The longer the Jews were away from Egypt, the more they idealized their experiences there and forgot about the slavery and the toil. Of course, King Solomon had married an Egyptian princess and did a considerable amount of business with Egypt, but after he died, those bonds began to unravel. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,” warned Isaiah during an international crisis (Isa. 31: nkjv; see 30:1–2), and he would give the same warning to God’s people today. Believers who look to the world for help, instead of trusting in the Lord, commit the same sin that the Jews often committed.

These four chapters are composed of seven messages (or oracles) that God gave to Ezekiel to deliver to the Egyptians and to the Jewish exiles. The phrase “the word of the Lord came,” or a similar statement, marks off each message. Six of these seven messages are dated (the third one is not—30:1–19), so we are able to fit them into the chronology of the book. Each of the messages presents a picture—or metaphor—of the impending judgment of Egypt.

The date of this message is June 21, 587 BC, and the image in the message is that of a great tree that is cut down. In Scripture, a tree is sometimes used as the image of a nation or an empire (chap. 17; Dan. 4). The argument the prophet presented was simple. Egypt boasted in its greatness, yet Egypt wasn’t as great as Assyria, and Assyria was conquered by Babylon. Conclusion: if Babylon can conquer Assyria, Babylon can conquer Egypt.

Assyria’s greatness (vv. 1–9). Egypt boasted of its greatness, so the prophet asked Pharaoh to name a nation that compared with Egypt. “Who can be compared to Egypt?” Ezekiel asked, and then he answered his question: “Only Assyria!” The Egyptians would agree and be happy to have their country rated so high.

The cedars in Lebanon were widely known for their quality and their height. Assyria was like one of those cedars, impressive in height and expansive in growth. It was nurtured by many waters, which symbolize the nations under Assyria’s control that contributed to her wealth. (These nations are also symbolized by the fowl and the beasts that had security because of the tree.) The Lord allowed Assyria to achieve greatness because He had a work for her to do. The northern kingdom of Israel had rebelled against the Lord, so He used the Assyrians to chastise them and conquer their land (722 BC). In the days of King Hezekiah, the Lord used the Assyrians to discipline the kingdom of Judah, but He didn’t allow them to take Jerusalem (Isa. 37; 2 Kings 19; 2 Chron. 32). God is sovereign over the nations and is able to use even the pagan peoples to accomplish His purposes.

No other kingdom could compare with Assyria. In a burst of poetic exaggeration, Ezekiel said that even the cedars and other trees in the Garden of Eden paled into insignificance beside Assyria. But it was the Lord who made Assyria beautiful and great (v. 9), yet the Assyrians did not recognize or acknowledge this fact.

Assyria’s fall (vv. 10–14). As we have seen before, God hates pride and judges it severely. He judged the pride of Judah and Samaria (chap. 16), Ammon, Moab, and Edom (chap. 25), and especially Tyre (23:3; chaps. 26–28), and also Assyria, and He would eventually judge Egypt. The logic of this judgment, what hope was there for a lesser kingdom like Egypt? God would call “the mighty one of the nations” (v. 10) to humble Assyria, and this is, of course, King Nebuchadnezzar (30:11).

The tree was very tall and stately, but it would be cut down and left on the land to decay. The smaller nations would abandon Assyria and seek help elsewhere. From the highest heights, Assyria would end up in the deepest depths of the underworld (sheol). From a position of great strength, the kingdom would fall into utter weakness, and from sustaining the lives of others to experiencing death and decay. Whereas once Assyria was admired and praised, it would end up being mocked. God had to teach Assyria a lesson (v. 14), that those who exalt themselves will eventually be abased, a lesson nations and individuals need to learn today (Prov. 29:23; Isa. 2:12; Mal. 4:1; Matt. 23:11–12; 1 Peter 5:5–7).

Assyria’s burial (vv. 15–18). As with Tyre in chapter 28 and Babylon in Isaiah 14, Assyria was brought down to the underworld along with all the other rulers and nations that rebelled against God. When Assyria fell, a shock wave went through the nations, but the king of Assyria had this comfort: he wasn’t any different from the rulers who had preceded him. They were all in the same place. In verse 18 the prophet addressed the ruler of Egypt: “To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down … to the depths of the earth …” (nkjv).

The Egyptians were very careful in their practice of circumcision, but their ruler would be lying in sheol with the dead from nations that didn’t practice it at all. What humiliation! (See 28:10.) He thought he and his kingdom were as great as Assyria, so God humbled him by putting him with the Assyrians in the world of the dead.