30:5-8
A list of nations is given. This is a common prophetic device, indicating that the actions will encompass many lands. Egypt often enlisted several peoples in her battles, but none of this would help her. They would all fall by the sword. The phrase “they will know that I am the Lord”, a favourite of Ezekiel, occurs yet again. We should not take this to mean that in the immediate context they would come to know Him in the sense that a believer in Jesus Christ knows the Lord. Rather, it means that they would come to realise that they are not in control of their own destiny, that there are forces at work that they cannot control.
30:9-12
Pride and complacency were not limited to Egypt, but also applied to Cush. At one point Egypt went up to help Judah, but was heavily defeated in battle. The Babylonians would defeat the Egyptians. Babylon was used by God as an instrument of judgement. Now we might ask how can this be? It doesn’t fit with our picture of God. One important thing to do is to note that here we are getting one aspect, the whole picture is multi-dimensional. History happens according to God’s purposes, but man is still responsible for his actions, and what we do with our lives matters. We get a typically graphic description of the coming slaughter.
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