Welcome to Thru the Bible, our five-year journey through the entire Word of God continues as we begin in Ezekiel chapter 28 at verse 25. Now you’ll notice immediately that Dr. McGee sounds excited. And that’s because this passage contains what he calls over and over a remarkable prophecy.
So stay tuned. I think you’re going to be fascinated by what he has to say. I’m Steve Shwetz.
And as you hop aboard the Bible bus and find your seat, here are a few letters from some of our fellow passengers who are frequent travelers with us. The first one comes from James. I am over two years into my first Bible bus journey.
I have listened daily since the beginning of Revelation and look forward to staying on the Bible bus for years to come. Please pray for my daughters that they would come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I am truly blessed to have found you and will continue to listen as a babe in Christ.
I will also be providing a yearly gift to help the word reach the whole world. So as you go about your day, would you remember to pray for James and for his daughters? I know the burden for loved ones to come to faith in Jesus Christ is something that many of us carry, including many on our staff at Thru the Bible.
So let’s pray for each other. Just know that God knows the names of our family and friends who we pray for. The next letter comes from David in Louisiana.
I am a 65 year old surgeon in Louisiana, David writes. I have been listening since November 1984, and will continue to listen as long as you and I are here. I learn new things all the time.
Thank you to all who keep this ministry going. Let’s get the whole word to the whole world. All glory to God who watches over and guards his word.
Yes, all glory to God. Thanks for that note, David. Our last letter comes from Robert, who picks up the Bible Bus in Reston, Virginia, and he writes.
I lived in sin with the mother of my children for seven years before we got married, but my job became my God, and after 13 years, she asked for a divorce. I was crushed and took it out on her physically. She got a restraining order and I had to leave.
My family was falling apart before my eyes. I took a different position at work with fewer hours and started working beside a godly man who told me about Jesus. On July 13th, 2001, I was saved, and today my wife and three sons are as well.
My journey on the Bible Bus began in 2001, and I haven’t stopped listening since. I had passed Dr. McGee’s voice on the radio before, but kept turning the dial. But praise the Lord, God kept on pursuing me.
Well, thanks so much for writing to us, Robert. And thanks also for reminding us how God will pursue us and restore us even when we make a mess of things if we turn to him and ask. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for pursuing us, and thank you for not giving up on those who refuse your saving grace. Now as we listen to your word taught, Lord, open our hearts and then show us something about yourself. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let’s open to Ezekiel 27 as we travel through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
Now, friends, we do need to think clearly. We are coming to another very wonderful prophecy, and we are in the section here of Ezekiel, where we have the glory of the Lord and the judgment of surrounding nations and we’ve already had Ammon and Moab and Edom and Philistia and Tyre and Sidon. And it was quite interesting that Tyre, the more prominent city, the great city, the capital city, it was to be destroyed, scraped like a rock, never to be rebuilt.
And that’s literally fulfilled. Now Sidon, up next to it, just a few miles, I guess 15, I’ve been there, but I didn’t notice the exact distance, but I think it’s 15 miles up the coast from Tyre. Well Sidon, no word about it being destroyed, did say the enemy would take it.
But that city and you find there, that old fortress right out on the rocks at the edge of the water, that’s been there from the early days and that city is stood, it was never destroyed, it’s there today and it’s the place where the oil is brought in from the Near East and it comes by pipeline and put on ship. There’s Sidon as a thriving port right now, whereas down the coast, you have the city of Tyre, the great city, it’s destroyed and there’s no city there. It’s a fishing village, but there’s nothing where old Tyre was.
God says it will never be rebuilt and I take it that he knows what he’s talking about and after 2500 years, wouldn’t you go along and say that apparently somebody knew what they were talking about. Now we concluded that section because in the darkest moment of the history of these people, you find the light breaking through and never is it so bright and he sees a future regathering of Israel. In verse 25 of chapter 28, he’d said, thus saith the Lord God, when I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations.
Now God makes it very clear. He’s not through with the nation Israel. One of the reasons that there are so many theologians that get by by saying God is through with the nation Israel is because God’s people are not acquainted with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the minor prophets.
The theme song of these prophets was God’s not through with the nation Israel. It sounds like a stuck record when you go through these prophecies and they should be steady because of that fact, it will throw absolutely new light on the word of God and it will no longer be a jigsaw puzzle, but everything begins to fall into place. Now, we come in Chapter 29 to Egypt, the last nation here in 29, 30, 31, and 32, it’s all about Egypt.
Now, there are many commentators that take the position, and these are conservative men, that the prophecies here concerning Egypt are of more interest than the one concerning Tyre. Now, I must confess, I do not concur in that. I think that prophecy concerning Tyre is remarkable, but we are going to find here a very remarkable prophecy, and one of these prophecies is that Egypt was to be destroyed.
Now, Egypt was a great nation, and had not been destroyed. It had maintained its integrity down through the centuries. One of the most ancient nations actually did not need to put up a wall of defense.
After all, that desert was a pretty good defense, and there was only one entrance in there, and that was through the Nile River Valley. And frankly, all they had to do was to put up a good defense there, and you will find the cities of Egypt were not walled cities. Wasn’t necessary to wall them at all.
Now, God says, though, they’re going in the captivity for 40 years. Now, will you notice here, and this is a remarkable prophecy, and I do not want to be tedious with it, but I would like to call attention to just a few things. We have here, in the 10th year, in the 10th month, in the 12th day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
Now, God here takes a very definite position against this land of Egypt that had put his people in the brickyards, had introduced them to idolatry, and had been a thorn in their flesh for years. And Israel was constantly running to Egypt for help. They seemed to lean upon it.
Now, God says, I’m against Egypt, and Egypt is to be destroyed. Verse three, speak and say, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I’m against the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, my river is mine own, and I’ve made it for myself. Now, the crocodile apparently is the sea monster here, and Pharaoh’s likened unto a sea monster.
And like the crocodile says, this is my river. And the very interesting thing is that Egypt worshiped all manner of birds and beasts and bugs, the scarab, you know. And if you’ll notice, the plagues of Egypt were leveled against actually the gods of Egypt that they worshiped.
I think that in spite of the terribleness of the plagues, that they also revealed God had a sense of humor. Imagine, friends, worshiping Hicca, the frog-headed god, and then waking up one morning and frogs are all in your bedroom. What are you going to do?
Start killing off the gods? I think the Lord must have got, you know, smiled at that anyway. Now will you notice the pharaoh that’s mentioned here is Pharaoh Hophra, and he’s called in Greek, Aparis.
He was the grandson of Pharaoh Niko, who had defeated King Josiah, that Megiddo. In fact, Josiah was slain there. And King Zedekiah, and also we find the other rulers, even before him, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, they turned to Pharaoh Hophra when Jerusalem was besieged.
This Egyptian army came up and came through Phoenicia and forced the Chaldeans to raise the siege of Jerusalem. You remember, we looked at that in Jeremiah. Now, the prophet Jeremiah, he announced the doom of Hophra also.
And we had it in Jeremiah, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra, King of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies, to the hand of them that seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah, King of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life. The critic here has found fault, and I’m not going into detail here, but I would like to recommend to many folk who listen to this that our Bible students, and they like to go into something. The critic has come along here and made the statement that this prophecy was not fulfilled at that time.
It was fulfilled 17 years later. But the interesting thing is, if you read it carefully, God made it very clear it wasn’t gonna be fulfilled then, but the prophecy was given then that later it would be destroyed. That is, Egypt was.
Now, what would happen to Egypt? I dropped down to verse 13 and I must hit high points now. Yet, thus saith the Lord God, at the end of 40 years will I gather the Egyptians from the people among whom they were scattered.
Now, 17 years later, to be exact, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar came, and he took the Egyptians into captivity at that time. And they were in captivity 40 years, not 70, like Israel. And we are told here, from among the people among whom they were scattered.
Now, I read on, verse 14 of chapter 29 of Ezekiel. I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and I will cause them to return into the land of Pathras, into the land of their habitation, and they shall be there a base kingdom. Now, I wouldn’t have you miss this for anything in the world.
Notice what he says now, in verse 15. It shall be the basis of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations, for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. Now, Egypt had been the great power of the ancient world.
They come out of the dawn of history as a great nation, and the monuments there and the tombs there reveal the fact that they had a civilization that was actually second to none. And it’s believed today by many historians that the Greeks got a great deal of their information from the Egyptians. It was a great civilization, and it was a great nation of the ancient world.
Now, at this time, God says, I’m going to let Nebuchadnezzar take you. And not only that, you’re going to return in 40 years, and when you do, you’re going to be a base kingdom. You’ll never rule over the nations, and you’re going to be the basis of kingdoms.
May I say to you, we and our tours visit many lands in the Near East. You don’t get any lower than Egypt, I can assure you that. No one can go to Cairo without your heart being sick.
And you see the poverty there, and the low level to which the people have come. You know, the Lord was accurate, friends, if you just listen to him. Now he goes on in this particular chapter to talk about that there would be a judgment on Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, but he was going to come.
He’ll cause this army to serve a great service against Tyre. That’s verse 18. You see, he’ll take Egypt, he’ll take Tyre, and we read here verse 19.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will give the land of Egypt under Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And now you find out that not only Tyre, not only Egypt, but the nation Israel will all be given over to Babylon, actually the first great world empire. Now in chapter 30 here, we have what I have actually labeled a lamentation.
You have here a lamentation. And he speaks here of the desolation of Egypt. And that is a very desolate country, by the way, very desolate nation.
Chapter 30 verse one. And again, here we go. This has been repeated.
I really do not know how many times, but I’m sure there’s already been several hundred times that we’ve had this expression, the word of the Lord came again unto me saying, son of man prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God, wail ye, alas for the day, at time of morning, you see, this is the lamentation, for the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near. A cloudy day, it shall be the time of the nations. And that was unusual.
You don’t have many clouds in the land of Egypt because they have less than an inch of rain in that section. They depend upon the river Nile. And by the way, they worship the crocodile of the Nile as well as everything else in the animal world, in the bird world, in the bug world.
Beasts, birds, bugs. And they worship them all in the land of Egypt. Now we go on here, and it shall be the time of the nations.
And we’re living actually in that time today, the nations are really stirring throughout the world. Now he goes on to say here, and the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away our multitude, and our foundations shall be broken down. I won’t go into that today, but we will be referring to Ethiopia again.
There was quite an alliance between Egypt and Ethiopia. Although, we do not consider it very much in studying the Bible, but there was a great deal of enmity and warfare between Egypt and Ethiopia. It’s believed by many conservative scholars that Moses, when he was Pharaoh’s daughter’s son, and would been the next Pharaoh, that he actually led an expedition against Ethiopia.
Now, we read here verse 5, Ethiopia and Putt are Libya and Ludd, and that’s Lydia, Libya and Lydia now, and all the Mingal peoples and Cub and Putt, Ludd and Cub. And the man of the land that’s in league shall fall with them by the sword. So that at this time, there was an alliance and they would all go down and be subject to Nebuchadnezzar.
You can see he was actually a world ruler. In fact, he is the head of gold in the four great world kingdoms. Now, we read here verse 6.
Thus saith the Lord, they all sow that uphold Egypt shall fall. You see, not only Israel had looked to Egypt for help, but these other nations had. And they’re going down just as Israel would go down in judgment.
Now, I want to drop down here and look at another remarkable prophecy that’s here in this 30th chapter. He says here, verse 12, I will make the rivers dry. Now, the rivers, as we’ve seen before, are actually those different branches down in the delta of the Nile.
And there were many of them. And there were canals down there. That was the rich area, by the way.
It’s right near there, the land of Goshen, a very rich section that the children of Israel were in. I’ll make the rivers dry, God says, and I’ll sell the land into the hand of the wicked, and I’ll make the land waste and all that’s in it by the hand of foreigners. I, the Lord, are strangers.
I, the Lord, have spoken. Now, that fell, as you know, later on. Actually, Alexander the Great took Egypt later on.
And when he died, his generals took over. Cleopatra actually was not an Egyptian. She was a Greek, but she ruled over Egypt.
And this country came in under the control of the other nations. Foreigners, strangers, control this very rich section, but it’s filled up. And I’m told today, although I’ve never gotten into that particular section, but a friend of mine that had just come from there that I met in Cairo, he told me, oh, that’s really a swamp down in that section.
God says that is what would happen. Now, here is something, another remarkable prophecy. Thus saith the Lord God, this is verse 13, I will also destroy the idols, and I’ll cause their images to cease from Memphis.
And that’s the name of this place here. And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt, and I’ll put a fear in the land of Egypt. Now, that’s quite interesting.
This has been literally fulfilled. Now, Memphis at that time was the great city in Egypt. That was a city that probably had more idols in it than any other, and it was a very wealthy city.
And along the streets, one idol right after another, that was the decoration, up and down both sides of every street. No place would ever have as many as that. Now, God says here, I’m going to make the images, the idols, to cease from Memphis.
I’ll get rid of them. Now, I’ve walked over what is supposed to be the ruins of Memphis. In fact, it’s been cleaned out so that today, they’re not even quite sure.
And the only one there is that great big statue of Ramesses that lies on its back there and its house. Now, in fact, the house is built around it. That’s the only thing that’s there.
God did exactly what He said. I’ll make the idols to cease, and there’d be no prince in the land Egypt. There’s no royal line there anymore.
I don’t think you could call Nasser a Sadat or any of the ones that had been in the past. You couldn’t say they were a royal line. And they’ve never been great rulers.
They’ve had to look to other nations today, and they do at the present moment. Now, God goes on to say here that this is the thing that would happen. I will pour out my fury upon sin.
And also, he mentioned, no, no is Thebes, by the way, and cut off the multitude of no. Thebes in the upper Nile, great city. Ruins of that, it’s disappeared.
The greatness is all gone. And God goes on to speak along that line concerning these great cities of Egypt that have now disappeared all together. Now, God says that Babylon will have a victory over Egypt.
And he’s repeating this. He’s already said it once. But just as he said concerning Jerusalem, he’s making it clear here.
And it came to pass in the 11th year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, I’ve broken the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, you know, the king holds the scepter. And if you’ll notice these pictures of the rulers in Egypt, they always got something in the hand. That says, I’ll break their arm.
That’s a token of their power. I’ll break it. It shall not be bound up or be healed to put a bandage to bind it, to make strong, to hold it.
In other words, Babylon will take Egypt. Now, may I say that that was literally fulfilled. And now, you come in chapter 31 to something that I think is quite remarkable.
Here is a chapter and we won’t have time to get into it. But this was such a great kingdom that God is reluctant to let it go. And he speaks of the Pharaoh as being here, a great tree and Egypt being a great tree.
And then we have in this chapter, the fall of the tree. And then there is a lamentation throughout the ancient world because of the fall of Egypt. We’ll see that next time.
Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
Isn’t the Book of Ezekiel intriguing? You can listen to these messages again and share them with a friend online at ttb.org or by downloading our app. You can also access all of Dr. McGee’s five-year study messages, more than 100 of his booklets, and his notes and outlines for each of our studies by purchasing our Bible Bus flash drive.
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Tell us what God’s doing in your life by writing us at box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, in Canada box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. Or you can always share your story by email at BibleBus at ttb.org. Now join me this weekend for Dr. McGee’s Sunday sermon.
This week’s message is out of Ezekiel 40-42 and it’s The Millennial Temple, Why the Sacrifices. Listen by app or online at ttb.org. Or if we can help you find a local station that carries a Sunday sermon, call 1-800-65-BIBLE.
I’m Steve Shwetz and as we break for the weekend, I pray that the Lord blesses you as you seek him in his word. Until we meet again next time.
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