Ezekiel 25–32

0:00 I don't know if you've noticed, but half the country seems over the last few days to be talking about the new movie, The Odyssey. Everybody's got opinions about The Odyssey. Some people say it's the greatest act of cinematic magic that we've seen in 50 years. Others say it's a woke piece of garbage. And I saw the movie on Friday night, and I have, like everybody else, opinions, and I am not going to share them with you.

0:36 You can catch my comments on it on my podcast and my XFeed. And actually, you can't because I don't have a podcast, and I don't really have an XFeed, and I hope that is a great blessing to you as a church. But yes, there is, though, one moment, not really from the movie, but from earlier in the same story. You know, the Odyssey is the second part of one story that Homer wrote, right? There's the Iliad, the story of the Trojan War, and then there's the Odyssey, which is one of the soldiers, Odysseus' voyage back toward home, his Odyssey to get home from the war.

1:14 And there's a moment from earlier in that story, it actually happens in the Iliad, so It's from the Trojan War, not from Odysseus' odyssey home that I think is particularly striking. And I want to talk about it a little bit this morning. So in that story, the greatest warrior in the city of Troy is a man named Hector. He's a prince, actually, of the city of Troy, the son of King Priam of Troy. And to the entire Greek army who has besieged the city of Troy, Hector is a walking nightmare.

1:45 He goes out every day, and he swings this gigantic sword that he's got, and he just wreaks havoc on the Greek armies. In fact, Achilles, the great hero of the Greek armies, is part of the force besieging Troy. He wants Hector dead more than any other person on earth. So Hector's a walking nightmare. He's like the greatest warrior in the entire city of Troy. Well, one afternoon, Hector comes back from the fighting. He goes back in the gate. He goes up to where his wife and his son, his little baby son are, and he's still dressed in his armor.

2:15 He's got the helmet of Troy on, whatever that looked at. Maybe it had one of those big horsehair things on top of it. We don't exactly know. But he's decked out in all of this armor, probably blood dripping off of it, and he reaches down in his helmet to pick up his baby son, and the baby screams. The baby's terrified because he doesn't recognize his own father under this big bronze helmet that he's wearing. So Hector, seeing that the boy is terrified, laughs, and he lifts his helmet off his head, and he sets it down on the ground, and then he picks up his boy and kisses him. And all of a sudden, the boy recognizes his father, and he's happy. Now, think about that for a second. To every single soldier outside those walls, to every soldier on that plane, that face, Hector's face, means death. But to that little baby, that little boy, that very same even blood-stained face means daddy it's the same man it's the same face

3:18 but how you react to that man and that face depends entirely on whose side you happen to be on well that's what I want you to see this morning as we open up to a few chapters of Ezekiel I want you to see that the very same face can be both the terror that a whole army flees and also the joy that a child runs to. It just depends which side of it you're on. Well, our text this morning in Ezekiel 25 through 32 is about a God who is exactly like that. It's about a God who takes up his sword and goes to war. And the only question that finally matters is this. When he does that, when he picks up the sword and puts on the helmet, which of those two faces is he going to turn toward you. Which of those two faces are you going to see? The one that's a terror or the one that's joy and salvation? Are you going to see enemy or are you going to see father? Well, so we're continuing this study of the prophet Ezekiel today. We've been in it for the last few weeks.

4:19 If you have a Bible, turn over to page, well, if you're using this Bible anyway, you can turn to page 712. That's where you're going to see Ezekiel 25. And again, just like last week, we're going to be looking at eight chapters of this book. If you've been here for the last few weeks and you kind of know the structure of it, you know, this will be a little bit redundant to you. But if you're new to Third Avenue, or maybe it's been a few weeks since you've been here, something like that, I want to give you a reminder of where we are. Because we're sitting at one of the two main sort of inflection points in the book, the section breaks. The book is made up of three sections.

4:57 So you've got chapter 1 through 24, then you have 25 to 33, and then you have 33 all the way to the end. Those are the three sections. They're very clearly sort of, you know, known by scholars. That's just how the book breaks down. But here's how it works. In chapters 1 to 24, you just have this unrelenting drumbeat of judgment against the nation of Israel. They've broken God's covenant, they've worshiped other gods, they have wicked kings. I mean, the whole deal. And so 1 through 24 is just unbroken judgment it's God saying Israel my people I am going to destroy you I'm going to destroy you that's that's the whole book and it kind of happens in two phases so in about 600 BC so we're talking 2600 years ago or so the armies of Babylon come across the desert and they besiege Jerusalem but they don't destroy it in 600 BC they actually let the city remain they take the current king and pluck him off take him to Babylon along with a whole bunch of other people, Ezekiel among them, the prophet. They take them all off to Babylon, but they install this puppet king named Zedekiah. He's the last king of the nation of Israel. They install him as a puppet

6:02 in Jerusalem, but they let Jerusalem survive. Well, 14 years later, in 586 BC, so a little bit later, Zedekiah gets a little uppity, and he decides he's going to rebel against King Nebuchadnezzar over in Babylon. So he starts fishing around for allies in his own world. Nebuchadnezzar gets wind of it. And what does Nebuchadnezzar do? Well, he just goes apoplectic. He sends his armies back across the desert. They besiege Jerusalem again. And this time in 586 BC, they utterly destroy it.

6:35 Every wall comes down. The palaces go down. The people are killed. Men, women, children, all of it. They go into the temple and they absolutely destroy and burn anything that'll burn and take everything else down until not one stone is sitting on top of another. They absolutely raise the city to the ground. So chapters 1 to 24 of Ezekiel's book are just Ezekiel saying, that's going to happen, guys. That's going to happen. Well, it happens at the end of chapter 24. That's when the siege happens. You can see it there in the last few verses of chapter 24. Ezekiel has a vision.

7:08 He knows it's happening. And that's when the city falls. Chapter 25, a new section starts. And it runs all the way through chapter 33. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So I don't want to say anything about that right now but the third section 33 is where everything changes so if 1 to 24 is all judgment this is about to happen once it does happen in chapter 24 then in chapter 33 the whole tenor of the book changes you move from judgment to hope and restoration and the whole rest of the book is about hope and restoration from 33 all the way through 48 or whatever it is, right? It's chapter after chapter after chapter of hope and restoration. It all changes. So judgment here, hope here, and then you got this middle section that we're looking at today, 25 to 33. Because right in between those two, right in the gap between the judgment and the hope is our text this morning, 25 to 32. So, and here's the picture of what's happening in 25 to 33.

8:13 Jerusalem is burning, but this one little guy, this little fugitive, makes his way out of the city. He escapes. We don't know who he is. We have no information about him at all, but at the end of chapter 24, he escapes, and he begins to make his way across the desert to the exiles in Babylon in order to tell them now the city has fallen, because they don't have email, they don't have phones, nothing like that. If you want to get information across the desert, somebody's got to walk across the desert and so that's what this guy does and in chapter 33 that's when he finally arrives staggers into Babylon and falls down and says the city has fallen and that's the trigger that causes the hope and restoration to start but as he's moving across the desert here's what happens the camera so to speak of the book of Ezekiel pans out from the destruction of Jerusalem and it pans out. And what happens is that you see God turning to judge all the nations who for centuries have

9:15 been the enemies of Israel. And so it works sort of like, it starts kind of here around Jerusalem, or you know, if this is the map, starts like here. And God swings a sword that goes all the way around Jerusalem and then cuts back down so that Egypt is the last one that receives the sword. and that's what you see in 25 to 33. It's this long, broad sweep of the sword of God's judgment that takes out all the ancient enemies of Israel. That's what's going on. But the question is, why? Why does God do that? Why does he suddenly wheel around and train his fire on all these neighboring nations?

9:59 Well, here's the answer. You remember all those aching and yet tiny promises that we saw over and over again back in chapters 1 to 24? Because every time we looked at one of those judgment oracles in 1 to 24, there's always somewhere in it this little note of grace. There's a tiny little note of hope and of restoration. Almost gets swamped every time, and yet there it is. These little promises that God is finally going to save his people. 25 to 33 is where all that grace starts it just doesn't start in the way you might have expected it to the judgment on jerusalem has fallen the sentence has been carried out the covenant has been executed against the israelites and now now as he begins to swing that sword god's heart turns with ferocious defending love in order to defend and vindicate and restore his people And that turning of his heart toward his people now that judgment has fallen starts with him settling accounts with all these various nations

11:01 that have been setting themselves against her. So for the first time in the whole book, God picks up his sword, but this time it's not against his people, it's for them. It's on their behalf. And what he does with it is just spectacular. So here's the main idea this morning, and it's simple. It's really simple. You do not want this God standing against you. You do not want this God standing against you. You want him standing for you.

11:32 Or it's all lost. You do not want this God standing against you. You want him for you. And the reason you want him for you is because what we're about to see in these chapters is an unleashing of divine omnipotence. This is going to be God finally asserting the prerogatives of the crown of the universe, first against Israel's enemies and then against, we'll see, the great enemy himself, capital E, singular. Now, we're going to do things a little bit differently this morning. Normally, when I'm preaching, what we'll do is take a big text like this and we'll divide it into chunks, right?

12:06 I'll make a point out of each chunk. We're not going to do that this morning. We're going to do it a little bit differently. Instead of breaking it into pieces and applying every one of them, we're going to sort of take a tour of the whole text all eight chapters all at once and then once we're done with that I'm going to give you two sort of application points to take on with you but in order to do this tour of the text I'm not just going to walk through it we're going to do two points of exposition to start the whole thing and then two points of application so I have no idea how you want to number that in your notes you can do one two three four you can do one two 1-2. You can do 1-2-A-B. I don't know. You can figure that out. But two points of exposition.

12:46 Number one, when we look at these eight chapters, what we see on the surface of it is God destroys his people's enemies. Enemies. Little e, plural. The nations that are around Israel. Number two, The sort of subtext of the whole thing is that God destroys his people's enemy. Now, you see the difference? Capital E, singular. So God destroys his enemies. That's on the surface. Underneath it is God destroys his people's enemy.

13:20 Singular, capital. So here we go. Number one, I just want you to see what's on the surface of it. God destroys his people's enemies, the nations that surround Israel. So look first down at chapter 25 and look at how it opens up because the pattern is going to repeat itself all the way through. And in fact, this refrain that runs through chapter 25 is really supposed to be kind of this low-level drumbeat underneath your understanding of this entire text. So look at that very first oracle against Ammon.

13:52 25 verse 1. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. Say to the Ammonites, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God, because you said, Aha, over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when they went into exile, therefore, behold, I am handing you over. You see what's going on there? In verse 3, you've got a single word that explains why God is judging Ammon, but also all the other nations in this section.

14:29 It's because. And what's the because in verse 3? It's because you said, aha, over my sanctuary when it was profaned. You said, aha, over the land of Israel when the armies came through and made it desolate. Well, you look down to verse 8, Moab, same thing happens. Because Moab said, behold, the house of Judah is just like all the other nations of the earth. Same kind of thing. Verse 12, Edom. Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah.

15:01 Then verse 15, against Philistia. Because the Philistines acted revengefully with never-ending enmity against my people. So you see what's going on? You see this drumbeat that happens throughout chapter 25? In chapter 25, you've got four nations, you've got four oracles of judgment, and every single one of them opens with that same word, because. There's a reason that God is judging these nations, And it turns out that the reason in every one of them is exactly the same thing. It's because of what they did to God's people.

15:34 It's because of how they treated God's people. That's the thread that runs through the whole thing. So God in chapter 25 works his way all the way around the ring of them like a sword cutting through all of Israel's enemies. You got Ammon, that's an ancient enemy from the story of the Old Testament. You got Moab, who's the nation that first dragged the Israelites into idolatrous worship of Baal, the false god. You got Edom, this ancient sort of cousin of Israel, who's always, always, they tend to be turning up on the side of anybody who's attacking Israel.

16:06 If the Philistines are attacking Israel, they're helping. If Egypt is attacking, they're helping. Anybody attacking Israel, Edom is helping. And so they get this reputation of just being a bad family member, right? A bad cousin. And then you've got Philistia. These are the famous Philistines. I mean, their story is told throughout the book of Kings. This is the one David wrestled with all the time. And in fact, even one time, they even stole the Ark of the Covenant and carried it off back to one of their cities. So that's the sword swing that goes through. That's the whole story of chapter 25. Well, then in chapter 26 and 27 and 28, God fixes his aim on Tyre, which is this just fabulously wealthy, seafaring, trading city.

16:51 It's up far in the north, right on the coast, and it's fabulously wealthy. And then you've got, at the very end of 28, you've got a judgment against Sidon, which is another little city right next to Tyre, famous for the same stuff, right? They did trading sort of all over the Mediterranean world, and so they got crazy rich. That's what's going on in 26 through 28, prophecy against those two trading cities. Well, starting in 29, and this one gets four chapters, you have Egypt, this great superpower that everybody, including Israel, was always tempted to run to.

17:26 You need help against the Assyrians, you go to Egypt. You need help against the Babylonians, you go to Egypt. And Israel does this over and over again. And the Lord and his prophets are constantly telling them, stop going to Egypt. Egypt is not going to help you. And yet they do it again and again. And Egypt betrays them again and again and again. So from 29 to 32, you get this prophecy against Egypt and especially against Pharaoh. So you got seven nations here, right? You got seven nations, seven ancient enemies of Israel being judged.

17:56 Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. And God sets himself against every single one. But why does he do it? Why does he do it? Well, again, the reason over and over again is that they laid hands on God's people. And think back to those four becauses in chapter 25, stacked one on top of another. It's because they gloated, aha, over my people. It's because they rejoiced to see my people torn down.

18:28 That's why God is pouring out his judgment. The two big ones are no different either, Tyre and Egypt. If you look at chapter 26, verse 2, you can see Tyre gloating over the people too. The moment Jerusalem falls, Tyre kind of rubs its hands together. Aha, right? The gate of the peoples is broken. I shall be replenished now that she has laid waste. In other words, they're thinking about going in and looting the fallen Jerusalem. They're going in and trying to see what sort of treasure they can get.

19:01 There's a funeral going on for the whole people of Israel. And Tyre's getting in there and seeing what they can get out of it. They're gloating over the people of God. Egypt, if you look at chapter 29, turns out to have been a reed that Israel leaned on. Look at verse 6, kind of middle of 6 there, 29-6. Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel when they grasped you with the hand.

19:34 In other words, when they tried to lean on you, what happened? You broke and tore their shoulders. And when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. In other words, they tried to lean on Egypt, right? But the stick broke and stabbed them in the shoulder. Egypt was an unfaithful ally. So here's what I want you to see. God takes every bit of that gloating, every bit of that unfaithfulness toward his people. He takes it personally.

20:05 To lay a hand on God's people is to lay a hand on God. And he will not let that stand. Now friends, that's a terrifying thing. If you happen to be Ammon or Egypt or one who sets yourself against the people of Jesus Christ. But if you belong to Jesus Christ, if you're one of his beaten, exiled, gloated over people who's reading this, then this is the first sound of hope you have heard in the entire story.

20:40 for 24 chapters you've heard nothing but judgment but now now that the judgment has fallen guess what happens God picks up his sword and his eyes light up and he now goes after your enemies but Ezekiel's not finished and this is where you have to look sort of under the text to the subtext it's because as Ezekiel walks you through these two greatest of these nations, so Tyre from 26 to 28 and then Egypt from 29 to 32. He does something really strange in a couple of places in both of those judgments. It's a little bit voodoo what he does here with his language because he looks into the faces of the king of Tyre and the pharaoh of Egypt and he lets those two faces, for just a moment in both of them, he lets their faces kind of go transparent. You ever seen a movie where that kind of thing happens? Like one face goes transparent to show you another face or it flickers a little bit. That's what happens. He lets the faces of the

21:44 kings of Tyre and Pharaoh go transparent. They flicker for just a second in order to show you who is standing behind the great evil in the first place. And that's the second expositional point I want to show you. God destroys his people's enemies. Yes, on the surface, plural, little e, but he also destroys his people's enemy, singular, capital E. That's number two. God destroys his people's enemy. So turn with me to chapter 28, and I'll show you. So look at chapter 28.

22:16 You can use your Bible's sort of subheadings if you want to. But how many oracles are there in chapter 28 against the ruler of the city of Tyre? Now, you got prophecy against Sidon. That's a different city at the end of that chapter. But in the first part of the chapter, how many oracles are there against the ruler of Tyre? There's two, right? And what's the difference between the two? I mean, one from verses 1 to 10 is against the prince of Tyre.

22:51 So 28.1. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God. But if you go down to verse 11, it's not against the prince anymore. It's against the king. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God. So what's going on? Why do you have two? I mean, is one against the king's son, the prince, and the other one's against the king himself? Nope, that's not what it is. In the Bible, when you see the word prince, it usually doesn't mean specifically son of the king. It means the ruler. You're the prince of that city. So why do two?

23:21 And why call him prince in one and king in the other? Why does Ezekiel do that? Well, let's look at the differences. So the first one, this is the first oracle that's aimed at the prince, verses 1 through 10. It's pretty clear that what you've got here is just a really proud man, right? So look at verse 2. I mean, the Lord says it real straight. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God, because your heart is proud. That's why I'm judging you. And that's the theme that runs through those first 10 verses.

23:53 Because your heart is proud and you've said, I am a God. I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas. yet you are but a man and no God, though you make your heart like the heart of a God. And he just goes on and on and on and says, because you have set yourself up as a God, I'm going to lay you down in the heart of the sea, right? So he kind of mocks him and lays him down because of his pride. But there's nothing super unusual about that, right? He thinks he's a God. Fair enough. You've got just a petty king here with a God complex. That's all you've got. It is nothing that just about every king in the history of the world hasn't dealt with. But when you read the second one, starting in verse 11, it's something entirely different. Look with me at verse 11.

24:42 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the signet ring of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty you were in eden the garden of god every precious stone was your covering sardius topaz diamond it just lists them all off on the day that you were created those things were prepared now look at 14 you were an anointed guardian cherub a cherub that's the kind of that's the angels that showed up with the throne chariot back in chapter one that came with god into Babylon. That's what a cherub is. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire. You walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned. So I cast you as a

25:44 profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. I mean, look at that language. You were in the garden of God. You were in Eden. I anointed you. You were a guardian cherub, and I placed you on high amidst the stones of fire, but you got proud, and I cast you down. That is not just describing some petty Phoenician king. It's utterly different. It's the face of the king of Tyre, the prince of Tyre.

26:21 But in this second oracle, it's flashing with another face. Whose face is that? Satan's. It happens again in the next chapter in 29 with Egypt. Look at chapter 29 verse 3. Speak, Ezekiel, and say, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon, dragon, that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, my Nile is my own.

26:56 I made it for myself. Well, I will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales as I jerk you out, is what that means. and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales, and I will cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams. You shall fall in the open field and not be brought together or gathered to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens. I give you as food, and then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.

27:28 Okay, so Pharaoh's the dragon. Some of your English Bibles may translate that as crocodile, the crocodile of the Nile, but that's not what it says. It says, you're a dragon. Same thing is said again in chapter 32, verse 2, talking to Pharaoh. You are the dragon in the seas. Now, hold up. Why does dragon sound familiar? What's that about? Well, in the old sort of imagination of the ancient world, the dragon, the monster of the waters, was this great force or god of chaos, the twisting serpent that they called Leviathan.

28:05 And there's a reason that that imagination was in people's minds. Here's what Isaiah 27.1 says. In that day, the Lord, with his hard and great and strong sword, will punish Leviathan. Now listen to the way these titles for Leviathan are stacked up. He will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. Do you see how all those titles are stacking up?

28:38 Leviathan, the serpent from Eden, the dragon. So who is that? Well, Revelation finally locks the door on it. Revelation finally just says it right out loud. The great dragon that we're all talking about here is, Isaiah 27, 1, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan. So Pharaoh's called the dragon, but again, Ezekiel means, the Holy Spirit means for his face to be flickering.

29:10 And for you to recognize that behind Pharaoh, the dragon, stands the dragon, the serpent, Leviathan of Eden. The very same enemy that stood behind the king of Tyre. See, what you got here are two of the proudest powers on the face of the earth. And when Ezekiel kind of pulls back the curtain on both of them, there is one face looking out. satans you know where the sword finally falls when we realize that behind all the structures behind all the economies behind all the governments and the powers of the world there is satan trying his best to manipulate them against the people of god you know where the sword finally falls and all that it falls in revelation chapter 18 19 and 20 when God finally judges the whole complex of human society social structures economic structures government structures it all falls under God's sword friends you you need to feel the size

30:18 of what Ezekiel's showing you here our God is not interested in merely swatting away the little gnat nations that harasses people that's not what he's doing no he goes all the way up, or all the way down, if you want to think of it that way. He goes past Ammon, past Tyre, past Egypt, to the throne of evil itself, to the ancient serpent that stands behind every enemy that the people of God have ever had, and he brings the whole thing crashing down. That is the God who fights for you. Why does he do it? Why does he do it? Well, it's in that little phrase that I just said, for you. God unleashes all the resources of omnipotence for his people. Let me show you.

31:05 Look at the end of chapter 28. End of chapter 28. So you got this whole thing going on in 28, these oracles against first the prince and the king of Tyre, same person, right? Satan standing behind him. Then another prophecy against Satan. It's all judgment, but look why he does it. Look why he does it. 24, verse 24 of chapter 28. For the house of Israel, there should be no more a briar a prick or a thorn to hurt them among all their nations or their neighbors who have treated them with contempt they will know that I am the Lord God thus says the Lord God when I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave my servant Jacob they shall dwell securely in it they shall build houses and plant vineyards they shall dwell securely when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And then they will know that I am the Lord God. Why does he do it?

32:02 Why does he judge all the enemies of the people of God? It's so that the people of God can rest finally secure. He pours out his wrath for you. You can feel the passion in that, can't you? You can feel You can feel God's passion for his people. There's nothing held back here. It's like a father standing over his children when somebody is threatening his children. Friends, what do we do? What do we do with the knowledge that our God is like this for us?

32:36 What do we do? Well, two things. This is where we move to two application points. Number one, here's what you do. You rest. You rest in the sovereign God who fights for his people. Let me rephrase that a little bit. You rest in the absolutely unstoppably sovereign God who fights for his people. You start with that word sovereign, right? Because that's kind of the base on which everything else is built. If you don't have sovereignty, none of this matters, right?

33:08 If there's somebody out there who could beat God, who could stop his judgment or turn it back against him, then it doesn't matter how much we trust him. But he is absolutely unstoppably sovereign and that's the floor that everything else rises on our God isn't just stronger than the nations that's not the point the point is that he owns them they are his and he moves them around in these chapters and all over the Bible he just uses them like pocket change I mean look with me at chapter 29 there's this astonishing thing that he says in 29 17 look what he says about this this great nation of Egypt the superpower of the world look what he says about them in the 27th year in the first month on the first day of the month the word of the Lord came to me that's Ezekiel son of man Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare yet neither he nor his army got

34:11 anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he performed against her. Poor things. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, here's what I will do. Here's what I'll do. I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it, and it, the whole empire, will be the wages for his army. You think you're a big deal?

34:46 God will reach into his pocket and take you out like a quarter and flick it to somebody who did his work. He moves the nations around like pocket change. Look in chapter 30. He says he's going to totally destroy Egypt. He's going to wipe out the idols of Memphis. You see that? Chapter 30, verse 13. It kind of runs through all the cities, but look at 13 in particular. I will destroy the idols. I will put an end to the images in Memphis. And so there will no longer be a king from the land of Egypt, and I will put fear in the land of Egypt. Now, you got to see what that's doing. That's not just talking about the little idols, right? The little statues. That's not the point of that. It is that he is overthrowing Egypt's gods. They are nothing to him and he overthrows them. I will take down the gods of Egypt. Yahweh is absolutely, totally, unstoppably

35:50 sovereign over every nation and every so-called god on the earth and what finally matters there is that this sovereign god fights for his people he takes all the resources of heaven all the resources of omnipotence and turns them for the good of his people i mean try just try to put yourself in the you know on the kibar canal over in babylon with those exiles try to try to imagine yourself there with Ezekiel thundering, thundering, thundering judgment against you. You get word about the armies of Babylon leaving to go invade your homeland again. Think about what these eight chapters would have felt like to that little band of exiles on the Kibar Canal. Every one of these nations that is mentioned in these chapters had beaten them and gloated over them and kicked them while they were down. And now, one after another, God levels the whole ring of them.

36:45 Total defeat turns in an instant, right in front of their eyes, into total victory because God has stepped into the fight on their side. And you know what matters for us? He still does that. He still steps into the fight on our side. Friends, have you ever just stopped and reckoned with the fact that the God of the universe fights for you? He's not standing off to one side, sort of politely uninvolved and just seeing what you're going to do.

37:22 No, he is galvanized and fierce. And the helmet is on and the sword is drawn and it is for you. You know, Jesus did that. He did that throughout his entire life. He stepped into the gap as the champion and the king of his people, and he fought battles that you could never win.

37:56 You remember what he did in the wilderness, right? He goes out into the wilderness and he faces Satan, the temptation of Jesus. And Satan takes his best three arrows. I don't want to spend too much time explaining them all, but he takes basically his best three weapons, the three things that worked in Eden, the things that worked against Israel, the things that worked against Judah, against David, against Moses, against all of them. And he fires them all at Jesus. And they're supposed to work, but they don't. He knocks them all away with the sword of the Spirit. See what he's doing there? You see what he's doing? He's not just fighting for himself. He's picking up the sword that you and I dropped. He's fighting a battle that we already lost.

38:43 Paul says that when he died on the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. He says through his death, he destroyed the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. And on the third day, he beat the last enemy standing, death itself, and walked out of the tomb. The whole idea is something the Bible's been trying to teach you from the very beginning, right? because this whole thing is like the army of Israel who stood stuck still and terrified as little David, the rightful, anointed, but still unknown king of Israel, walks out onto the plains to face this gigantic enemy who's dressed, have you ever noticed this, in armor that has scales like a snake, a serpent, a dragon.

39:33 He takes his little rock and he slings it around, right? And he fires it off. And you know where it hits? It crushes the head of the serpent. Crushes his head. And David wins the victory. See, that's why the word that I use for this point is rest. You don't rest because the war is small. It's not.

40:04 You rest because the war is finished. And it's finished by somebody else, not by you. He won it alone. He won it in your place. And because he won it, all the daily skirmishes that you fight, all the resistance that you have to put up against the word, when you fight those little skirmishes, the cleanup effort, right, in the wake of the war, when you fight that stuff, you're fighting now not in order to win the victory, You're fighting from the victory already won.

40:36 So brothers and sisters, whatever it is, whatever skirmish you happen to be fighting, when you get to heaven, no matter how big it is, you'll realize it was just a skirmish compared to what Jesus fought. But whatever skirmish you're fighting, and however big it might seem to you, don't you dare quit in the fight. Don't you dare stop raising those children in the nurture and admonition and the gospel of the Lord. Don't you dare stop speaking to that person who needs to know the gospel. Don't stop praying for that spouse or that child who's rejected the gospel.

41:09 Don't stop. Fight on. But as you fight, rest in the sovereign God who fights for his people. Second, number two, application point number two. Surrender your pride. Surrender your pride. and trust the only one who's worthy of your trust. Surrender your pride and trust the only one who's actually worthy of your trust.

41:43 And think back just one more time to why all these nations fell, because underneath every single last one of them is that one little word, pride. They were proud, and they were proud against the people of God and against God himself. They were proud. You can see it if you read the chapters about Egypt. There's one point when the Pharaoh says, my Nile is my own. I made it. I am a god.

42:14 I sit in the seat of the gods. The prince of Tyre says. Friends, that's the deadliest posture that a creature can take in the presence of the god of the universe. is some kind of settled foolish conviction that what you have you made and that you hold it by the strength of your own hand and it gives you the right to lift your chin in the presence of omnipotence that is a dangerous place to be but i want you to listen to me before you just kind of bat that away and say well that's a that's a problem for ancient kings i want you to take Just a moment to look in the mirror.

43:03 Maybe your confidence is in what you built. The career, the savings, the reputation. Maybe you earned the hard way. The family, the friends, the social circle, whatever it is. And down deep, you look at all that good stuff in your life. And like Pharaoh, you say, my Nile is my own. I made it. Maybe it's not that for you. Maybe you're religious. And your pride is quiet.

43:38 You show up, you serve. You're not like those other people. But right down deep, you've turned your own goodness. You've turned your own service. You've turned your own position into a nile that you think is your own. maybe it's subtler than all of that maybe you don't feel proud at all maybe you don't think you have anything to be proud of but you're fine, thanks and feeling fine has become the last idol you would ever have thought to expect but you worship the feeling you want to see where all of that finally goes You want to see where human pride and arrogance finally wind up?

44:32 Let me show you. Look how this whole section, this whole eight chapters, look how it ends. Turn to chapter 32. Verse 17. Chapter 32, verse 17. It's the last section of this whole section. 32, 17. In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me.

45:06 Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit of death. Whom, Egypt, now in the pit of death, Do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest with the filthy. They shall fall amid those who are slain by the sword.

45:37 Egypt is delivered to the sword. Drag her away, all her multitudes. The mighty chiefs shall speak of them with their helpers out of the midst of Sheol. They have come down. They lie still, the filthy, slain by the sword. Oh, Assyria is there, all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword. Elam is there, all her multitude around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword. Meshech-Tubal is there, all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them filthy, slain by the sword.

46:09 Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid down with those who are killed by the sword. They lie down with the filthy, with those who go down to death. Now, the princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians who have gone down in shame with the slain. When Pharaoh sees them, he shall be comforted by all the multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword.

46:47 That's a grim picture, isn't it? Pharaoh's brought down to the pit he's brought to the world of the dead and he's laid in the dust among the filthy slain by the sword and they're all there they're all there Assyria, Elam, Meshach, Tubal Edom, the great princes of the north the Sidonians every one of those proud powers that ever trusted in its own strength they're all stretched out together in one grave and then 31 my goodness it might be the bleakest verse in the whole book of Ezekiel when Pharaoh sees all of these people slain and filthy and lying in the grave as he himself is being laid down he's comforted by the multitude he looks around and the only comfort he's got in the grave is that he's not down there by himself my friends that's the coldest comfort in the whole bible

47:52 the comfort of having company in the grave but that's exactly what misplaced faith misplaced confidence and pride will buy you in the end whatever you've trusted whatever you are trusting in your life when it fails when it breaks the best that thing is ever going to offer you is Pharaoh's comfort a whole great deal of company on your way down everybody I respect lives this way none of my friends are Christians so why should I be I won't mind being in hell because that's where all my friends

48:55 will be it's just Pharaoh counting the graves around him but one more thing I want you to look what God is doing at the very same moment he's burying the proud. Flip back a page or two to chapter 29, verse 21. Right in the middle of all these oracles against Egypt, you get this, 29, 21.

49:30 On that day, I will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them, And then they will know that I am the Lord. And what does that mean, a horn springing up? Well, a horn is a king in the Bible. It's a symbol of power, and over time it eventually comes to mean just a king that comes up. But there's a very special word that's used to talk about this horn springing up. It's the word branches up. On that day, I will cause a horn, a king, to branch up for the house of Israel.

50:02 Now, why does that word branch sound familiar? Well, if you know your Old Testament, you know that again and again and again, the coming Messiah is called a branch from the dynasty of David. This is talking about Jesus. It's talking about Jesus. I mean, follow this out. Right there in the graveyard of the nations, with every proud power on earth being laid in the dust, what is God doing? He's not just laying people in the dust. He's raising up a king for his people. So friend, here's your choice.

50:35 When it all comes down to it, here's your choice. You can be like Pharaoh. And you can be laid down in the pit of the dead. And you can take cold comfort that there are some other people there with you. Or you can embrace the king who went into the grave but didn't stay there. But rose up out of it. Oh, friends, that king, that king who went into the grave but didn't stay there, he is the only one in the universe worthy of your trust because he's the only one who's still going to be standing when everything else is in the ground.

51:11 Trust in him. You know, there's one sentence that keeps tolling like a bell through these eight chapters. That phrase is, and then they will know that I am the Lord. Over eight chapters, that shows up 19 times. Everyone, God says, everyone is going to know that I am the Lord. The trouble is that there are two ways of knowing that. Everybody in the grave, everybody in hell on the last day is going to know that he is the Lord.

51:44 No one's going to dispute it. They're just going to learn it under the iron rod of judgment. But there's a different way to know that. There's a different way to know it, and that's to hear the word of God calling you to put your faith in Jesus. and to know that he is the Lord and the Savior and embrace him. You're going to know one day that the Lord is God. You're going to confess that on bended knee one day. The only question is whether your knee is going to be broken when it bends or whether you're going to bend it in joy.

52:24 I'm going to think back right here at the end to Hector. That great Trojan warrior. Do you know how the story of Hector ends? How the Iliad ends? It doesn't end in great victory for Hector. It ends at his grave. And the mightiest warrior that Troy ever produced, the gentlest father of his little son that the ancient world ever knew, is lowered into the ground, and everyone knows he's dead. He's not coming back. That's how every story like Hector's has to end.

53:00 Even the strongest, most loving father in the world goes down to the grave in the end and can't ultimately even keep his own son from following him there. But you know, our story as Christians also goes to the grave. It just doesn't end there because we find the grave of our champion empty. Our king, Jesus Christ, went down into death itself the last and deepest enemy the one that swallowed Hector and every other champion in the history of the world and then he walked out of the grave with death lying on the ground behind him so this morning, last thing, I want you to look somewhere, I want you to look at the throne of the universe I want you to look into the face of the king of kings and lord of lords and I want you to answer the question is that face a terror to me or is that face a joy if you're an enemy of his if you're one who turns your back on him

54:01 it ought to be a terror but brothers and sisters if you belong to him you get to look at that very same face you get to look up at that very same throne at the king who took up the sword and actually one and you don't tremble at all you point with your face radiant and a smile on your lips and you say the truest thing that you are ever going to say you say that's my dad up there don't wait don't wait to know him when you're already laying in the pit come and rest on the king who fought for you trust him and let him save you once and for all let's pray our Lord Jesus we praise you and honor you as the king of kings and the lord of lords the one who conquered death

55:01 and sin and the grave and Satan the great enemy of your people our father we pray that there wouldn't be a single person in this room at the end of time who looks into your face and is terrified. But God, we pray that you would bring every single person, man, woman, child, visitor, member, everyone, we pray that you would bring them to faith in Jesus so that on the last day when they behold your face, it will be joy to them and not terror. We pray all of this in the name of our Redeemer, our Savior, our King, and our Champion, Jesus Christ, amen.

55:39 Thank you.