Having spent three chapters on Tyre, God now devotes four chapters to Egypt. Egypt was the place that Israel had spent many years in captivity in. Very soon after escaping she longed to go back, and Egypt had an enduring pull on Israel. Israel frequently went back to Egypt for help, and this nearly always ended in disaster. This, of course, is a pattern that we see repeated in the lives of individuals, including ourselves.
Egypt relied on the Nile for its well being, but began to think that the Nile belonged to her. God would show her that she had no control over it. God would show himself to Egypt. One of the reasons was that Egypt had let Israel down. Now Israel was never meant to have relied on Egypt, but Egypt is still judged for letting her down. We are meant to be people of our word at all times.
Egypt would suffer badly, but would then be restored to a degree. However, she would not be a major power again, so that Israel was not tempted to trust in her again.
Nebuchadnezzar would be given Egypt as a reward. I think this has to be viewed as how it would seem to the nations, rather than as a “reward for good behaviour”.
No comments:
Post a Comment