Chapter 31
This chapter and the next continue the prophecy as to Egypt. (2024 - I note for the first time that there are more chapters devoted to the fall of Egypt than to the fall of Babylon. Now that is interesting!) This chapter is time stamped 11th year, 3rd month, 1st day, since the King (Johoiakim?) was taken into captivity. A prophecy addressed to Pharaoh directly and to "his multitude". Changes to poetry/verse format, as if set off in some way in the original. MSB has not pointed out the reasons for this format at any point I have noticed. But it shows up there in NKJV, as it does in ESV.
Pharaoh is asked "Who are you like"? and then a comparison is made to Assyria. Assyria is described as a cedar in Lebanon, an huge healthy thee giving homes to all who came to her, and reaching deep to the water that sustained it. It says the cedars in the garden of God could not rival it. In vs 9 God says He made Assyria beautiful:
9 I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God. [Eze 31:9 ESV] Twice in the first 9 it says the trees in Eden itself could not rival the "cedar" that was Assyria. Seems like some metaphor mixing going on. Assyria was a nation, a great nation. I get that. But to say it is a tree, and then compare the tree that symbolizes Assyria to trees that actually grew in Eden...Seems a bit of a strange way to do it. It uses the word "beauty" to describe Assyria. Perhaps they were an extraordinarily gifted people when it came to art and architecture and such things as that. Maybe that is the cultural characteristic that is in view with these descriptions. MSB says that Assyria was actually in the same geographic location as Eden, and this is the source of the analogy. Well...maybe...
Found this at this site: http://www.privateerdragons.com/images/ninevehmap.jpg
Assyria was just before Babylon. Tyre was already there. So do I add the kingdom of Assyria with it's earthly accomplishments to the list of timelines that will hit critical mass in 586 BC, or is it a separate entity? Maybe a description of the "sins of Assyria" will answer this question. Assyria raised up to destroy Samaria maybe. It was a powerful state, a world power, and it was used by God to devastate Samaria and the northern kingdom. But then it was thrown down by Babylon, which was raised up to devastate Israel - and Tyre and Egypt and all Israel's neighbors in the bargain. Assyria had to be thrown down, despite it's accomplishments and power, for what it did to God's own people. Same then with Babylon. Only a world power could be "allowed" to overcome God's people, and the price for being allowed to do that was the end of that nation also. And Egypt fits into this scenario...how??? It was great before the Exodus, but not really since. I guess it was pretty powerful since Assyria and Egypt were occasionally at war. And looking at the map above, Assyria did invade and conquer the most productive parts of Egypt. But the reason Egypt was given to Babylon was because they were a "false support" to Israel. They did not succor them in their time of need.
So what would be extremely informative would be reading about Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon from about 1250 BC to the fall of Tyre to Alexander the Great in 332 BC.
Verse 10 starts with "Therefore...":
10 "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11 I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. [Eze 31:10-11 ESV] This beautiful tree that was Assyria, thought too much of itself, and elevated itself in its own opinion all the way into the clouds. So God delivered it to another nation. To Babylon in fact, the most ruthless of nations. The tree is fallen, broken, no longer proud. This is similar to what was said about the Prince of Tyre. He was too consumed with how own greatness. God does not like arrogance, does not like any one or any nation that begins to think it doesn't need Him. But there seems to be so much more here in these chapters of Ezekiel. A bigger purpose of God, showing that He alone can bring down the greatest nations, the most powerful rulers and their armies, His own chosen nation, and those who would not aid His nation, all in a fantastically compressed span of time. There is just a lot here, enough to keep one busy reading history books for years and tying them to these prophecies.
This verse is interesting:
14 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit. [Eze 31:14 ESV] A bit of a long verse, but it says that the things of this earth - nations, kingdoms, persons - are all given over to death. None can last. I believe this is so because this world has been utterly corrupted by Adam's sin. Only in Christ can that sin be overcome, and in the case of earthly things, only complete destruction followed by re-creation can they be made right. All that is on this earth is transient. Everything.
2024 - But...could this also mean that up until Assyria, these powerful nations were in fact "heavenly" instead of earthly? Presided over by principalities and powers instead of men only? As we saw in Tyre, the King there was somehow connected directly with a cherub - I think a fallen cherub. Maybe, in the world of that time, Assyria was also dominated by angelic forces. But with the fall of Assyria - which needed God's own hand on Nebuchadnezzar, his chosen one, this practice was prohibited and will not come again until Babylon in Revelation? I do not think Assyria was one of the beasts in Daniel...but I will check that. Also, even without Assyria, I might be able to contrast the beasts before the fall of Assyria with those that will come after. And remember that the Bible says that last beast, the eighth, in Revelation, will be unlike anything that came before, perhaps because the most successful combination of men and angels to dominate the world was prohibited after Assyria.
It continues with these verses, long but look at all that is here:
15 "Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below. [Eze 31:15-16 ESV]
"the day" the cedar went down? Hard to say. Is that the day Alexander took it? Or the day Nebuchadnezzar walked away after 13 years? There were no rivers on the island, so is this a reference to nearby mainland or are we back to the tree analogy? Tyre is in present day Lebanon. It goes on to say Eden's trees were comforted by this fall. I don't get all this...especially in light of Tyre's history. The King of Tyre when Alexander took it was allowed to live. I don't know if Neb's siege even took captives. Don't think they ever got into the city. So that makes me think the Prince of Tyre is on the order of Daniel's Prince of Persia. A high ranking demon who was purveying evil throughout the world by accumulating riches and arrogance in the city of Tyre. Perhaps lesser demons were working with Assyria and Babylon...I don't know. Too complex. Moving on....
In 18, the words turn back to Egypt, and ask again "Who are you , then?" if this could happen to Assyria? The chapter ends with:
18 "...This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD." [Eze 31:18 ESV]
Once again, too much time on the first chapter, nothing left for the last two. Reading through these pretty quickly.