God Speaks to America

God Speaks to America

April 28th, 1985 @ 10:50 AM

Ezekiel 25-32

The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them; And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity; Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couchingplace for flocks: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel; Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen; Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim, Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations. And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them; Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred; Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations. And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. For thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee; When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living; I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD. The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus; And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim. Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots. The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise. They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules. The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate. Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market. Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants. These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas. Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin. The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots. And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land; And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea? When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise. In the time when thou shalt be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy company in the midst of thee shall fall. All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance. The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more. The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD. And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. 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 heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God. In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth 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: Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee. And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it. Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered: And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom. It shall be the basest 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. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD. In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD. The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day! For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. 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 her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed. In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken it. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily. The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity. At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the LORD. And it came to pass in the eleventh 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 have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man. But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the LORD. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness? Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; 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; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. 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 unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the 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 as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net. Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee. And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD. I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known. Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall. For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD. When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD. This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord GOD. It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword: Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living. There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit. They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain. There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword. There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit. There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
Print Sermon
Downloadable Media
Share This Sermon
Play Audio

Show References:
ON OFF

 

GOD SPEAKS TO AMERICA

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

Ezekiel 25-32

 

4-28-85   10:50 a.m.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we are going to look at chapters 25 to 32 in the Book of Ezekiel.  It is entitled God Speaks To America.  We sometimes fall into the persuasion that the prophets of the Bible address their words to Israel alone, but nothing could be further from the truth.  The Lord God who sits above the heavens and on the throne of the universe addresses His message through the prophets to all the peoples, and kindreds, and tribes, and nations of the world.  The reason we think that God speaks to Israel alone through His prophets is that they were first in the judgments of Almighty God, because they were the chosen family, and the chosen people God judged them first.

 

 Amos chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, says, “Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken O children of Israel…You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” [Amos 3:1-2].  But the Lord God of the nations of the earth through His prophets addresses all of the cities and peoples of the planet.

 

Isaiah, for example, in chapter 10, addresses Assyria [Isaiah 10:5-34];  in chapter 13, Babylon [Isaiah 13:1-22];  in chapter 14,  Philistia [Isaiah 14:28-32]; in chapter 15, Moab [Isaiah 15:1-9]; in chapter 17, Damascus [Isaiah 17:1-14]; in chapter 18, Ethiopia [Isaiah 18:1-7]; in chapter 19, Egypt [Isaiah 19:1-24]; in chapter 21, Edom and Arabia [Isaiah 21:11-16]; and in chapter 23, Tyre—the great city of Tyre [Isaiah 48:1-47]. 

 

Jeremiah in chapter 46 addresses the prophecy from God to Egypt; 47 [Jeremiah 46:1-24], to Philistia [Jeremiah 47:1-7]; 48, to Moab [Jeremiah 48:1-47]; and in chapter 49, to Ammon, to Damascus, to Arabia, and to Elam [Jeremiah 48:1-39]. 

 

Daniel addresses his message to all the nations of all time to the consummation of the age [Daniel 2:27-45].  Joel speaks of the day of the Lord [Joel 1:15], and the end of history.  Obadiah’s prophecy is to Edom alone [Obadiah 1:1-21].  Jonah is sent from God to a heathen nation and to a pagan city, Nineveh [Jonah 1:1, 3:1-10].  Nahum concerns Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria, alone [Nahum 1:1-3:19].  Habakkuk speaks of the Babylonian invasion [Habakkuk 1:5-11]. 

 

And Zephaniah is addressed to Philistia, to Moab, to Ammon, to Ethiopia, and to Assyria [Zephaniah 2:4-15].  The whole gamut and spectrum of human life and destiny are presented in the Prophets, the message from God to the nations of the world.

 

So it is in Ezekiel.  Ezekiel 25 speaks of Ammon, of Moab, of Edom and Philistia [Ezekiel 25:1-17].  And from 26, 27, and 28, the prophecy concerns the mighty, merchandising, marine city of Tyre [Ezekiel 26:1-28:19].  Verses 20 to 26 concerns Sidon [Ezekiel 28:20-26]; chapters 29, 30, 31, and 32 concerns Egypt [Ezekiel 29:1-32:32].

 

When we, therefore, look at the message of God to the nations of the world, we are looking at the message of God to us.  Why were these nations brought under such severe condemnation?  For the same reason that God shall judge us today.  The two great sections of this prophecy in Ezekiel are composed of messages to Tyre and to Egypt [Ezekiel 26:1-32:32].  Now, why are they brought under such severe judgment and condemnation of God?  Well, look at that: in chapter 28, verse 9, Tyre says: “I am God.  I am God.”  But God says: “Thou art a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee” [Ezekiel 28:9]. 

 

Or look again in the next chapter, chapter 29, verse 9: the Pharaoh of Egypt, the king of Egypt, says, “I made the River Nile.  The river is mine, and I made it” [Ezekiel 29:9].  You stagger at those things!  They usurp the place of Almighty God!  We are no different: we read God out of our political life, out of our educational life, out of our merchandising life.  And any gesture that there might be the imponderables of God in our deliberations of state is a sop.  We assume the prerogatives of God, and God shall surely judge us.

 

So we are going to look at the two great parts of this prophecy, the first that concerns Tyre [Ezekiel 26:1-28:19], and the second one that concerns Egypt [Ezekiel 29:1-32:32].  Tyre was a mighty, majestic, powerful, rich, mercantile, merchandising, marine city located on the eastern edge, eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.  With one hand, she beckoned all of the trade of that vast inland Orient beyond her, and with the other hand, she included the great merchandising fleets of the world.  Her mighty masts guiding her ships to all of the ports of the civilized world brought riches beyond compare to the great city of Tyre.  It was built in two vast areas: one was on the mainland, and the other was on an island just beyond the mainland—and seemingly impregnable.

 

But the prophecy in Ezekiel chapters 26, 27, and 28 [Ezekiel 26:1-28:19]—but especially 26, the prophecy in Ezekiel beginning at verse 7 and concluding at 14—announces the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and finally the entire destruction of the city with the announcement that it will be destroyed forever.  It will never be built again [Ezekiel 26:7-14]. 

 

That was unthinkable when Ezekiel uttered those words!  But Nebuchadnezzar came, and for thirteen years he besieged and battered the Tyrean port on the mainland, and after thirteen years he destroyed it completely.  But he was not able to touch the city on the island out there on the Mediterranean.  Their fleets were too massive, and their defenses were too impregnable, and Nebuchadnezzar was never able to touch the marine city in the sea. 

 

 But the prophecy of Ezekiel said the entire city would be destroyed, all of it, and its timbers and its stones would be cast into the waters [Ezekiel 26:12].  God’s word never falls to the ground! [Isaiah 55:11]. Give it time; give it time—God is not hastened.  God’s word is forever enduring.  It is fixed in heaven forever [Psalm 119:89].  God said the city shall be completely destroyed [Ezekiel 26:7-14]: and two hundred forty years later—after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the mainland—two hundred forty years later, Alexander the Great came with his army, and he took—just exactly as Ezekiel had said hundreds and hundreds of years before—verse 12: ”They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water [Ezekiel 26:12] . . . And I will make thee like a top of a rock: Thou shalt be a place to spread nets; and thou shalt be built no more” [Ezekiel 26:14].

 

 Alexander the Great came, and he took the stones and the timbers and the debris of the city of Tyre that had been built on the mainland and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; he took that vast destructive debris and made a massive mote, a causeway from the mainland out to the city in the ocean, in the Mediterranean.  And Alexander the Great destroyed the city forever.  It is today, it is today a barren rock on which fishermen dry and mend their nets [Ezekiel 26:14], just exactly as Ezekiel had said.

 

Where are the gleaming towers of Tyre?  The island city after the destruction of the mainland was more glorious, and pompous, and majestic, and rich, and wealthy than it had ever been before.  Where are those gleaming towers today?  Where are those chariots that roared through her city?  Where are those masts of her great shipping and merchandising fleet?  They are gone—“Sic transit gloria mundi,” thus passeth the glory of the world.  That is the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Tyre [Ezekiel 26:1-28:19].

 

 We turn now to the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Egypt: 29, 30, 31 and 32 [Ezekiel 29:1-32:32].  There are some things about this prophecy that amaze me because it concerned a nation that we can look at today.  Ezekiel said Tyre would be utterly and completely annihilated.  It will cease to exist from the face of the earth [Ezekiel 26:7-14], but not so Egypt.  What the prophet says about Egypt is seen in verses 15 and 16 of chapter 29.  He says concerning Egypt there shall be there a low nation: “It shall be the lowest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself anymore above the nations, for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations” [Ezekiel 29:15-16].

 

Now when Ezekiel said that, Egypt was one of the great, mighty, governing, ruling, conquering kingdoms of the world!  But Ezekiel said she will be down here at the bottom [Ezekiel 29:15].  Well, look at Egypt today.  If you were naming the great powers of the world today, would you name Egypt?  It would never occur to you.  There are so many nations mightier than Egypt—Egypt is down here.

 

 There’s another little incidental thing in Isaiah chapter 19, verse 17: “The land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt” [Isaiah 19:17].   Now when [Isaiah] wrote that, Egypt was one of the great kingdoms of the world; the greatest kingdom in the world, and little Judah, little Judah down here, little tiny Judah—how many of you were alive in 1967, would you hold up your hand?  I was alive in 1967.  Well, that’s a lot of us; most of us.  Do you remember, 1967, the Six-Day War in June of that year?  Little Israel came down after the attack of those Arab neighbors, little Israel came down and cut the armies of Egypt into shreds, and stopped at the Suez Canal, and could have crossed over that small water barrier, and have destroyed the entire land of Egypt—just as Ezekiel said.

 

 It staggers me!  These things were written thousands of years before 1967.  “Little Judah shall be a terror to Egypt” [Isaiah 19:17].  One of the most unusual things you’ll ever read in the Bible is Ezekiel 32, beginning at verse 17 to verse 32, the end of the chapter.  That is a funeral dirge, a funeral dirge.  It is a description, and a vivid one, of all of these people in Hades, down there in hell, as they are welcoming the Pharaoh and the people and the armies of Egypt down into the nether world—an amazing, an amazing prophecy!  [Ezekiel 32:17-32].

 

 But may I turn myself now to one thing in this prophecy concerning Egypt; and that encompasses the great and mighty cities of ancient Egypt.  We’re going to look at chapter 30, chapter 30, beginning now at verse 13, “Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph” [Ezekiel 30:13].  Noph is ancient Memphis, and Memphis is the first capital of Egypt; the ancient and glorious city of Memphis.  Now let’s continue: “And I will make Pathros”—don’t even know where that is—“desolate, and will set fire to Zoan” [Ezekiel 30:14]—that was an ancient capital up there next to the Mediterranean Sea; doesn’t even exist anymore—“and I will execute judgment on No” [Ezekiel 30:14]—that’s Thebes, the ancient, ancient, ancient, and great, mighty city of Thebes; all you see there now are the ruins of those vast temples of Luxor and Karnak at Thebes.  “And I will pour My fury upon Sin”: that’s Pelusium, Pelusium on the sea, and Sin [Ezekiel 30:15]; Thebes down there at the other end where the Nile enters that country of Egypt; from one side to the other, He is saying. 

 

Now look in verse 17: he mentions the men of Aven [Ezekiel 30:17].  Aven is Hierapolis, the city of the sun—these cities do not exist anymore—and Pibeseth [Ezekiel 30:17], that was a city in the Delta.  And he speaks of, in verse 18, Tehaphnehes [Ezekiel 30:18]; Herodotus describes that city.  He visited Tehaphnehes in Egypt.

 

Well, what of these vast cities, tremendous cities?  Look at verse 4: “Her foundation shall be broken down,” chapter 30, verse 4 [Ezekiel 30:4].  Look at verse 6: “The pride of her power shall come down” [Ezekiel 30:6].  Look at verse 18: “The pomp of her strength shall cease” [Ezekiel 30:18].  And look at verse 21, “I have broken the arm of the king of Egypt; and it shall not be bound up to be healed” [Ezekiel 30:21].  Those cities are gone! 

 

When I was last in Cairo, I said to some of those people there who were conducting the tour of the city, “I want to go to Memphis.” 

 

“Memphis?  Where would that be?” 

 

“ Why, it is just outside of Cairo; Memphis.” 

 

“But there is nothing there to see.  Memphis, it is gone.”

 

After the 8:15 service, one of my wonderful deacons came up to me.  Pilot—retired from Branniff for a generation—Orval Rogers said to me, “I was in a plane following the Nile River over Egypt.”  And he said, “I said to the pilot, ‘I want you to show me Memphis.’  And the pilot said, ‘I never heard of it.’”  The great mighty capital of ancient Egypt: “I never heard of it.”  You can’t see it. 

 

Did you ever read in literature, in English literature, this magnificent sonnet by Shelly, “Ozymandias”?

 

 

 

I met a traveler from an antique land,

 

Egypt—

 

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

 

Stand in the desert . . . Near them on the sand,

 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things…

 

And on the pedestal these words appear:

 

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

 

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

 

Nothing else remains.  Round the decay

 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

 

The lone and level sands stretched far away.”

 

 

 

Sic transit gloria mundi, thus passeth the glory of the world—the judgment of God upon the nations and the cities that forget Him; that usurp His place.

 

Do you ever think of the great, mighty cities of the ancient world and what has become of them?  Where is Nineveh, the vast capital of the Assyrian Empire?  The armies of Alexander the Great marched over Nineveh and never realized that a mighty city and a great civilization were buried beneath their feet.  If you were to visit the ruins of Babylon today, it’s a heap of dust in the desert.  Where is Ephesus, the great Greek city of Asia, the Roman province of Asia? 

 

I was walking down the streets of Rome and paused to look in a vast excavation, such as you would see down here in the middle of Dallas, digging down.  Not being able to speak Italian, I couldn’t find out why the excavation.  It was a vast thing, and deep.  And to my amazement, down there on the bottom of that excavation, a hundred feet down it seemed to me, there were great, mighty arches buried there—a civilization lost, destroyed, gone.

 

The scepter of the world is held in the hands of our cities.  Samaria was the ancient nation of Israel.  Jerusalem was the ancient city of Judah.  Nineveh was Assyria.  Babylon was Chaldea.  Carthage was North Africa.  Rome was the empire.  Today, London is England.  Paris is France.  Tokyo is Japan.  Mexico City is Mexico.  New York and Los Angeles are America.  And Houston and Dallas and San Antonio are Texas.  As these cities turned, and as they moved, and as they choose, and as they go, so goes the state and the nation and the destiny of the peoples of our land.

 

 O God, standing here in the midst of a great metropolitan city, the radio and newspaper last week said that Dallas is growing at the rate of five-thousand new people a week.  Standing here—great God in heaven—we who live by the imponderables, what shall be the destiny in the judgment of God upon us and our people?  Could it be that our great banks could ever fail?  Could it be that our mighty institutions could ever be destroyed?  Could it be that from the blue skies above us there might rain down terror and flaming fire from the heavens?  Could it be?  He is someone blind to history, who cannot hear these great cities of the past speak to us, who thinks that it could not happen to our great cities in America.  We live in the imponderables of Almighty God, living in the judgments of the Lord.

 

I want to close the message, if I may, with an appeal: that we above all others, we here in the heart of this city, under God, seek its salvation, its life and destiny in the will and purpose of the Lord Almighty, the great masses of people in the city, thousands and thousands, and then finally millions. 

 

 

 

Where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet

 

My window-sill is level with the faces in the street—

 

Drifting past, drifting past,

 

to the beat of weary feet—

 

While I sorrow for the owners of those faces in the street.

 

 

 

And cause I have to sorrow, in a land so young and fair,

 

To see upon those faces stamped the marks of Want and Care;

 

I look in vain for traces of the fresh, and bright, and sweet

 

In sallow, sunken faces that are drifting through the street—

 

. . .

 

Sinking down, sinking down,

 

. . .

 

to a drum’s dull, distant beat

 

. . .

 

In dens of vice and horror that are hidden from the street…

 

 

 

I wonder would the apathy of affluent men endure

 

Were all their windows level with the faces of the Poor?

 

Ah, we at ease in Zion, our hearts in turn shall beat in terror

 

When God demands a reason for the sorrows of the street.

 

The wrong things and the bad things,

 

And the sad things that we meet,

 

In the filthy lane and alley of the cruel, heartless street.

 

 

 

I left the dreadful corner where the steps are never still,

 

And sought another window overlooking rill and hill;

 

And when the night came dreary with the driving rain and sleet,

 

They haunted me—the shadows of those faces on the street,

 

Passing by, passing by,

 

Passing by with noiseless feet…

 

. . .

 

In that pent track of living death—the city’s cruel street.

 

    [adapted from “Faces In The Street,” Henry Lawson, 1888]

 

 

 

 These thousands and thousands that live in the city, that walk on those streets—where, how, when the destiny of those uncounted multitudes of people, Lord God—and You placed us in the heart of it, in the midst of it, in the very soul and life of it, and certainly in its destiny!

 

 What we need—and it must come from God—is a compassionate heart that includes the vast multitudes of the city: the thousands of families, the children, the youth, the life.

 

I was reading this last week T.  Dewitt  Talmadge, a preacher without peer in the generations past, pastor in Brooklyn, New York; the only preacher that ever lived, when he delivered his sermon on Sunday, on Monday, it was printed in the newspapers of America from New York to Los Angeles—T.  Dewitt Talmadge, a marvelous minister of Christ.  Anyway, reading Dewitt Talmadge, I read this in one of his sermons.  He doesn’t say, but I had the feeling as I read it, that it concerned him; that he is the preacher in it.

 

In New York was a woman, condemned and convicted for crime and incarcerated in a cell in a jail in New York.  Her mother from the street—homeless, helpless—came to see her daughter in the cell.  And in one of those providences of life, while the mother was there visiting her incarcerated child, she died; she suddenly died.  Having no home, having no people, and her daughter in the jail, they had the memorial service for the mother in the cell.  They put the coffin in the cell where the daughter was incarcerated, and they called for a minister to conduct the memorial service.  And the minister came—and because he described it so minutely and compassionately, I just suppose it must have been he, T.  Dewitt Talmadge—he came and conducted that service in that cell in a jail in New York City.

 

 And the minister did this: after the words of memory, he asked the daughter if she would put her hand on the brow of her mother, and asked her to raise her other hand toward heaven, and say to God in heaven, “I ask You to come into my heart.  I ask You to help me, and to bless me, and to save me,” and she did it.  Then, when she had, with her hand on the brow of her mother and the other hand toward God in heaven, given her life to the Savior, the minister then said, “May the Lord bless you, and keep you, and give you every precious gift that only heaven could afford to bestow.  And may your life be filled with joy and gladness.  Bless you, my sweet daughter.  Bless you.”

 

 In the years that passed, she was giving a testimony in church, and she said, “When that minister blessed me and spoke to me so tenderly and preciously and compassionately, it was the first time in my life I had ever heard such words, the first time I had ever been blessed, and the first time I had ever been encouraged to give my heart and life to the Lord.”

 

 When I read it, I thought, “Dear Lord in heaven, are there uncounted multitudes here in our city who have never heard the compassionate appeal and invitation of our Lord Jesus. “The Lord bless you, and keep you: the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you: the Lord save you and keep you” [Numbers 6:24-26].

 

 O God, that there might be in us that compassionate disposition, and interest, and loving, and prayerful care that includes the great masses of our city, and where I am and where you are, in our daily walk and talk, to speak a good word for Jesus; to invite, to pray for, to remember, to bless.  And maybe in our intercessions, the judgment of God that fell so severely on those cities of the past will be abated and interdicted, and instead of judgment and fiery flaming destruction, shall come the loving presence and the rewarding gifts of our wonderful Savior.   O Lord, grant it that it may be!  Do it, Lord, for us!

 

 

 

GOD
SPEAKS TO AMERICA

Dr. W.
A. Criswell

Ezekiel
25-32

4-28-85

I.          God through His prophets addresses all
nations

A.  Divine judgment fell
first upon chosen people

B.  Judgment is
universal

II.         The reason for the judgment

A.  Prince of Tyre

B.  Pharaoh of Egypt

III.        The prophecies came true

A.  Complete destruction
of Tyre

B.  Egypt not destroyed,
but diminished

      1.  The cities and
monuments of Egypt

C.  Great cities of
antiquity

D.  As the cities of the
world go, so goes the destiny of the peoples of the land

IV.       A call to intercession