Welcome to Thru the Bible, I’m Steve Shwetz, your host, and our Bible teacher, of course, is Dr. J. Vernon McGee. And we’re on an exciting five-year journey through the entire Word of God.
We’re studying each book of the Bible, chapter by chapter, and sometimes even verse by verse. Now we’re in Ezekiel, chapters 31 and 32, so turn there now, and I’m going to share a few letters from our fellow listeners. First we hear from a listener.
This one’s in our African English program. He writes, Hello, I’ve been longing to feel the presence of God in my life for years, though I have no idea when I lost contact with Him. This made me go to different churches, which still could not fill the void.
But about a month ago, while I was searching for a radio station with healing songs, which were the last thing I felt connected me to God, I stumbled upon you, and since then I have not been able to spend a day without listening. Though I am happy I found it, I am saddened by the fact that most of the Christians I know, if not all, don’t know what it is to truly be a born again Christian. Thank you for enhancing my knowledge and changing my life for the better.
There is so much joy in my heart. At times, I find myself smiling when I think of God’s love for me. Isn’t that a great letter?
You know, it makes me smile just to hear about it. And here’s a letter from Cherie in Florida. As we start Colossians, Book No.
33 in this five-year series that I have been so blessed and excited to be a part of, I realize I am about halfway through the cycle. Wow! I cannot believe how much I’ve learned since that fateful day in 2021 I happened to hear Jay Vernon in Genesis and committed to listen every weekday for five years.
I catch the podcast every AM. I have honestly missed very few days since then and those I have made up online. I am also a joyful partner of the World Prayer Team.
Thank you. God’s blessings and prayers to all of you. Well, thanks, Cherie.
I’m glad to have you aboard the Bible Bus with us and as a member of the World Prayer Team. I got your seat saved. Don’t worry.
And then our last letter comes from Marilyn, who writes this. I love Thru the Bible. At 85 years of age, I think I’ve been listening since the beginning.
Every book the Bible Bus rolls through is thrilling to me, but I was just recently touched by our journey through the Song of Solomon. The new insights I gleaned were special to me. I’m so grateful for these wonderful trips I can continue to make through the Bible, even at my age.
Thank you for making them possible. PS. I also love being a part of the World Prayer Team.
Well, thanks for writing to us, Marilyn. And I agree, God’s word never gets old and there’s always something new to learn. So thanks for your service on the World Prayer Team too.
What are you learning as we go through God’s word together? Well, you know, we’d love to hear your story. Write to us, would you, at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, in Canada Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1.
Or email BibleBus at ttb.org. Now to our study, but first, let’s commit this time to the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, for your whole word, even when it’s difficult to hear.
We ask that you’d give us keen understanding of what your word teaches and a soft heart to obey it. And thank you for loving us and calling us to yourself. Searching our hearts and leading us in your way everlasting.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. We’re off to Ezekiel 31 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
Now, friends, we come back today to this 31st chapter of Ezekiel, where we left off last time. And we attempted to give you a very brief outline of this chapter. We’re still talking about Egypt.
This is the section in which we have the judgment of the nations. And we began in chapter 29 with Egypt, and 31 and 32 that we’ll look at today deal with Egypt also. And four chapters given here, as well as we’ve seen in Isaiah, and then again Jeremiah, and the Minor Prophets will have it.
You see, Egypt figured large in the history of the nation of Israel. And it’s rather ironical that today, they are the real thorn in the flesh. They are the dog in the manger, as it was.
You know, they wouldn’t have the baby in the manger, so they got a dog in the manger today, and it’s still Egypt. And I should say that God said He’d make Egypt a base nation. And these four chapters reveal, though, something of the greatness of this nation.
And here, in this thirty-first chapter, we see the fall of Pharaoh, and it’s described in a parable. And of course, it’s not only a parable, but it represents the people of Egypt also. And the land of Egypt was to be judged, both Pharaoh and his subjects.
And then you have here a funeral dirge over Pharaoh. And the vision I gave last time was this. You have the greatness and the glory of Pharaoh in Egypt in verses 1 through 9.
And then verses 10 through 14, you have the fall of Egypt, and the parable is a tree. Pharaoh is likened to a tree. And now you have the fall of the tree.
And then beginning with verse 15 here, you have the lamentation over the fall of the tree, or Egypt, and the crisis that came to the world, the crisis that was among the nations of the world. It had the same effect in that day that it would have if, for instance, the United States was destroyed overnight. It would certainly change the situation in the world at the present moment, I’m sure.
Now, let’s look at this rather briefly, but it’s a very important section. Ezekiel is very important to us. I trust that I’ve been able to make that point, that this book reveals the glory of the Lord, and the fact that our God is a holy God, and he’s gonna judge sin.
Now, he’s merciful, he’s kind, he loves mankind, he wants to save, he’s not willing that any should perish, but he also judges, and he intends to judge, and he will not spare if you reject his gracious offer. And that is what has happened now to his people. And Egypt is to be judged, and they’ll be judged on the light that they had.
And they’ve been given a great deal of light, by the way. Now, listen verse 2. Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his multitude.
Whom art thou like in thy greatness? You see, God recognized the greatness of this nation over apparently a couple of millenniums. This great kingdom had dominated the world.
It was the bread basket for the world, because they did not depend on rainfall. They depended on the Nile River overflowing each year, which it did. Now, you have here a nation that has arisen, and the greatness of it is tremendous.
Verse 3. Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature, and its top was among the thick boughs. Now, God says, I liken the Assyria, the great nation in the north there, I liken it to a great cedar tree.
Now, there’s more than one tree in a forest, because one tree won’t make a forest. And this tree, Assyria, stood way above the other trees, dominated, but God brought Assyria down. And the message ought to get through to Pharaoh and to the people of Egypt.
He’s a great tree. He’s dominated everything. The people of Egypt have been great.
But now, they’re going to be brought low. And as we saw last time, it’s to become a base kingdom. And very candidly, for a period now of over 2,000 years, it’s been a base kingdom.
Never a world empire again. Now, let me drop down to verse 10. And now, we’re going to see the fall of the tree.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God. And that’s the way you indicate these divisions here, because each one of them in this chapter begins, therefore, thus saith the Lord, or thus saith the Lord. Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height.
You see, Pharaoh, a human being, is lifted up with pride, because pride is in the human heart, and his greatness, you know, it blinded him to the danger that he was in. But now God says here, I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations. Who is the mighty one of the nations now?
Well, it was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I don’t think he’s speaking here of Satan, because Satan has had Egypt for years. This wasn’t something new.
The great one was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And if you want to confirm that, read Daniel. And Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, you’re the head of gold.
The greatness of this man hasn’t been exceeded. Now he says, I’ve delivered you. That is Pharaoh of Egypt.
He shall surely deal with him. I’ve driven him out of his wickedness and strangers. The terrible of the nations have cut him off.
In other words, Egypt is to be taken. Now, well, this was a shock to the world. And now you have the lamentation over the fall of Egypt.
And here is a very remarkable section of the Word of God. And here is a place we’d like to stay for some time. But many of you that study the Word of God, here’s a place where you can do a great deal of study.
Now will you notice it? Verse 15, Thus saith the Lord God, In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning. This is Pharaoh.
Now he goes down to defeat and is killed. Now this is a remarkable passage of Scripture. Sheol that we have here actually is not the grave, although Sheol at times means the grave.
And I think the context makes that clear. But Sheol actually means the unseen world, the unknown region, the abode of the dead. Not just the grave, where the physical bodies place, but that’s where the spirit goes.
You remember, Solomon had spoken of the fact that the body returns to the grave, and actually the spirit goes to God. And that is the thing that he said in Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was.
That is, this body that you and I have got is nothing in the world but dust. And the psalmist, you remember, says, he remembers we are dust. Now sometimes we forget it.
And when dust gets stuck on itself, it’s mud. We need to remember that as far as these bodies are concerned, it’s dust. You put them in the ground, they’ll go back to dust.
And for the believer, the Lord Jesus spoke of that asleep. And also, you remember that Paul in Thessalonians speaks of that asleep. The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.
Now, where does the spirit of the lost go? To Sheol. And we find out later, that’s same as Hades in the New Testament.
And we find out the parable the Lord gave, which is a parable, but it also is a true life story of a rich man died, and he went to Sheol, a place of torment, it’s called. Not hell, not the lake of fire, but he went there. Apparently, it’s temporary.
There’s a big gulf between there and where the saved were in the Old Testament, and you have there this poor beggar, he went to Abraham’s bosom. And now, this is a picture of Pharaoh going down into Sheol. This is not his body, we’re not talking about that now.
And notice what happens here. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained his floods, and the great waters were stayed. And I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
Now, when he died, the entire world mourned up there in Lebanon, which was the great nation of Phoenicia. They mourned, the world mourned when Egypt went down. All were dependent upon it, their economy rested upon it, and its culture and also those that were allies would always be protected by Egypt.
What a picture that you have here. Now he goes on to say, verse 16, I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descended to the pit. That is, that’s the grave.
And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of left. Now the tree is cut down. And where does Pharaoh go?
Well, he’s down in Sheol. Now, what does he discover? Verse 18, to whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden?
Yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden into the lower parts of the earth. Thou shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.
Now, when he got down to Sheol, he found out that these other rulers that had been slain, they were down there, too. And he discovered something else, that there is a democracy in death. We speak a great deal today of integration.
There’s nothing that will integrate the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the male and female, those at the top of the social ladder and those at the bottom of it, like death. All are brought to the same level, not only where the body is placed, but the spirit. And I think that one of the probably startling things that’s going to happen to some people is that they’re going to find out that they’re not, as an atheist said, me and Nashville man just like a dog when he dies, he’s just like a dog dying.
He’s going to be surprised when he moves into a place and find out who all is there. It’s going to be quite a company. And quite a company of those that didn’t believe that there was an afterlife and that there was going to be a judgment of the lost.
And they’re now all on the same par. You talk about integration, that’s when you’re going to really have it, all on the same plane, all on the same basis. All have come to the same place.
And that’s where the spirits go, those that have rejected today the Lord Jesus. They are not there because they’re sinners, they’re there because they’ve rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are the ones that will be judged, I think, as no one else will be judged, of course.
To turn your back upon Him is a sin, a sin because they believe not on me. How terrible it is not to trust Christ as your Savior. Say that a great deal could be said about this passage of Scripture, this particular section here.
It opens up a new area altogether. Someone has called this the Dante’s Inferno of the Bible. It’s like that.
The lost do go to a place. The Lord Jesus called it a place of torment. And waiting for the judgment, because I think when they are there, they are all going to say, oh, I’m going to appear before God, and I’ll get things straightened out there because I was a pretty good fellow.
Then when they stand in the presence of the one that was crucified for them, they’re going to find out their puny little works. Doesn’t amount to much down here. And that they have a fallen nature.
They have no capacity for God, no interest in God at all. And where else would God put them? You think he can take you to heaven, friends?
When you’re in rebellion against him. This is, oh, this is a passage of scripture that we’re looking at here. Now on the basis of that, will you notice that we have a lamentation over the fall of Egypt now that continues on.
Verse one of chapter 32, it came to pass in the twelfth year, twelfth month, in the first day of the month that the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say unto him, thou art like a young lion of the nations and thou art like a monster, the crocodile in the seas. And they worship both the lion and the crocodile. And thou camest forth with thy rivers and troublest the waters with thy feet and foulest their rivers.
You see, they had a problem back there of the ecology. Old Pharaoh was mud in the water. Now he’s been put aside.
Thus saith the Lord, God, I will therefore spread out my net over thee. God says just as you put nets in the Nile River to get fish, that’s the way I’m going to catch you, you monster of the Nile River, you crocodile, if you please. God says I’m pulling you out.
And you are to be judged. And you are to move to a place where you don’t live in a palace. Find yourself on the same plane with your people, with everyone, is on the same plane there.
Death sure levels out humanity, does it not? Verse 11 here of chapter 32, for thus saith the Lord, God, the sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. Now, here for the last time why he covers this.
And not only the king of Babylon will take Egypt, and he mentions that first. Verse 18, this is the word of the Lord, came unto him again, saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, the daughters of the famous nations unto the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?
Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. Now, he’s going to find out the other rulers are down there. And verse 22, Asher is there, that’s Assyria.
And all her company, her graves are about her, all of them slain, fallen by the sword. And somebody else is there. Verse 24, there is Elam, and all her multitude round about her grave.
You see the body put in the grave, but they’ve gone some place, and they’ve gone to Sheol, the unseen. The Lord called it the place of torment for those that are lost, for the saved. He called it in the Old Testament Abraham’s bosom.
And then later, he said to the thief on the cross, the day you’ll be with me in paradise. Because you see, he hadn’t taken the saved of the Old Testament back to heaven. Paul mentions that in Epistle to the Ephesians.
Now we have Edom. Verse 29, there’s Edom, her kings and all her princes. And I pass by, up in verse 26, there are Meshach and Tubal, all of their.
Verse 32 now, will you listen to this? For I have caused my terror in the land of the living, and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh, and all his multitude, saith the Lord. Moves into that unseen world, gives us a glimpse here, and that’s all you’ve got, is a glimpse.
Don’t try to build a skyscraper, or a merchandise center, or a mall, or shopping area, on a place that has just a foundation big enough for a tool shed. Ain’t build that kind of a theology here, but we just get a glimpse, and that’s all. And that’s all God intended for us to have.
Now we come back again in chapter 33, actually to the responsibility now of this man. The temple now is destroyed, and you’ll notice Ezekiel is not speaking to that. Now he is going to tell the captives, you got to learn to live in the captivity.
You got to make the best of it, and he’s going to help them with that. And it’s during this time that word comes to the destruction of Jerusalem, and then he looks down the future, and never is it so bright as it is here in Ezekiel. Now again, we have the responsibility of Ezekiel as a watchman.
You remember God at the beginning when he commissioned him, said, You’re a watchman, I’m going to hold you responsible. Now Ezekiel has discharged his responsibility to the nation. He warned them.
Now from here on, the prophecies are going to get brighter and brighter until you’re going to move actually into the millennium. You’re going to see the millennial temple and the worship of it. No one ever saw it any brighter than Ezekiel, and no one ever lived in a darker day than he lived in.
And God made him a hard-boiled prophet. Why? He sets before us the judgment of God because he saw the glory of God.
And my friend today, you and I as sinners can’t rush into the presence of God. He loves us. He doesn’t save us by love.
He saves us by grace because he can’t put it on a merit basis. You and I’d miss out all together. But he has put it on the basis that his son died for us.
He did that because he loved us. But by grace, he reaches down and says, I’ll save you. But he also says, your loss, you shall not perish if you believe on the son.
What’s the alternative? Well, you are going to perish if you don’t believe on the son. It’s just that simple.
Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
If you have discovered your need to turn to God, please decide right now. Hebrews says, today is the day of salvation. You can discover more about God’s invitation at ttb.org.
Just search for How to Know God. There you’ll find many resources to read, listen to, and download yourself. Or we can send you a few of the print resources when you request them at 1-865-Bible, or email your request to BibleBus at ttb.org.
You can also write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, or in Canada Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 61. For more information or to support the Bible Bus as it rolls along in more than 250 languages worldwide, visit ttb.org/give or call 1-865-Bible. Well, we’re back next time with a study in Ezekiel Chapter 33.
I certainly look forward to traveling through God’s Word with you again, and I hope you do too. Until then, I’m Steve Shwetz, praying for God’s richest blessings on you as you walk with Him today in His Word.
Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
