God Speaks To America

Ezekiel

God Speaks To America

April 28th, 1985 @ 8:15 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.
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GOD SPEAKS TO AMERICA

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Ezekiel 25-32

4-28-85    8:15 a.m.

 

We are grateful for the multitudes of you who share this hour over radio.  This is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas bringing the message entitled God Speaks to America.

It is an exposition of the twenty-fifth through thirty-second chapters of the Book of Ezekiel.  Beginning at chapter 25 and continuing through chapter 32 [Ezekiel 25:1-32:32], Ezekiel addresses in a prophetic way, under the hand and Spirit of God, the nations surrounding Israel.  We have the impression that the prophets directed their message just to Israel, which is in no wise true.  The prophets addressed the nations of the whole world.

The reason that their message emphasized God’s revelation and address to Israel can be found in Amos 3:1-2.  The prophet Amos 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.”   Because Israel was the special, chosen people of God, they were first in the judgments of the Almighty.  But the address of God was to all the nations of the world.

For example, in Isaiah, chapter 10 addresses the nation of Assyria [Isaiah 10:1-34]; chapter 13, the nation of Babylonia [Isaiah 13:1-14:27]; chapter 14, the nation of Philistia [Isaiah 14:28-32]; chapter 15, the nation of Moab [Isaiah 15:1-16:14];  chapter 17, the nation of Syria [Isaiah 17:1-14]; chapter 18, the nation of Ethiopia;  chapter 19, the nation of Egypt [Isaiah 19:1-20:6]; chapter 21, the nations of Edom and Arabia [Isaiah 18:1-7];  and chapter 23, the address is to Tyre [Isaiah 23:1-18].

When you look at the prophet Jeremiah, 46 is addressed to Egypt [Jeremiah 46:1-28], 47 to Philistia [Jeremiah 47:1-7], 48 to Moab [Jeremiah 48:1-47] and 49 to Ammon, Damascus, Arabia, and Elam [Jeremiah 49:1-39].  When we look at the remainder of the prophets, Daniel addresses the whole course of human history to the consummation of the age [Daniel 1:1-12:13].  Joel addresses the “Day of the Lord” and the consummation of all history [Joel 1:1-3:21].  Obadiah is addressed to Edom alone [Obadiah 1-21].  Jonah, as you know, concerns God’s message to the heathen nations of the world, and especially to the capital of Assyria, Nineveh.  Nahum has to do with Nineveh alone [Nahum 1:1-3:19].  Habakkuk speaks of Babylon and her invasion [Habakkuk 1:1-3:19].  Zephaniah speaks of Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia and Assyria [Zephaniah 2:1-15].  And as I begin, Ezekiel, in chapters 25-32 addresses Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philstia, Tyre, Zidon and Egypt [Ezekiel 25:1-32:32].

Just a reminder to us, that the address of the Lord God is to Israel first because they came unto the judgment of the Almighty, being His chosen people [Amos 3:1-2].  But God’s prophetic message and revelation is to all the nations of the world.

Now they came under judgment, these nations to whom Ezekiel addresses the message of God, because they usurped the place of Almighty God.  Most of the address of Ezekiel is to Tyre and to Egypt; listen to what the ruler of Tyre says, who represents the people.  “You say, I am God; but thou art a man and no god.  And the hand of Him that slayeth thee is in this immediate future” [Ezekiel 28:2-10].  We look at that in astonishment, but we’re the same way.  We usurp the place of Almighty God.

All right, look at Egypt in 29:9; “The land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; because Pharaoh saith, The Nile River is mine, and I have made it” [Ezekiel 29:9].  We look at these things in astonishment!  “How could nations so usurp the place of Almighty God?”  Well, how do we do it?  I would think that the nations of the world read God out!  And if they mention Him at all, they do it in a condescension and gracious manner, as a sop.  But as for God being looked upon as the Ruler and the majestic Power that guides the life of the people, it’s folly wide the mark, and that’s why the judgment of Almighty God.

So we begin here with Tyre, the judgment of God upon Tyre [Ezekiel 26:1-28:26].  Tyre was the marvelous, marine-merchandising city of the ancient world.  It was located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.  And with one hand they commanded all of the trade of that vast inland; and with the other hand, they beckoned the trade of the maritime fleets of the world.  All of it centered there in Tyre.  It was a city built upon the mainland and a city built upon an island, just beyond the mainland.  It was glorious, rich, pompous, powerful, none like it in that ancient world.

Now in this twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel and continuing through the twenty-eighth chapter is the prophecy of God concerning Tyre [Ezekiel 26:1-28:26].  I wish I had time to read it, but I just can point it out.  He says first, that in judgment upon the city, Nebuchadnezzar is coming, and he with his mighty men and his chariots will overwhelm the great metropolis.  Well, it took many, many, many years for that to come to pass.  Nebuchadnezzar came with his Babylonian army, and he besieged the mainland part of Tyre for thirteen years.  And at the end of thirteen years, he destroyed completely the mainland city of Tyre [Ezekiel 26:1-11].

But what of the rest of this prophecy?  In verses 12 and 13:

They shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and 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 heard no more.

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.

[Ezekiel 26:12-14]

Well what of that? Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city of Tyre, but the island city was unapproachable by him.  He had no great fleet to go out there and to encompass the Tyrian city on the island.  But Ezekiel said, “They shall throw the stones and the timbers of the city in the water; and the whole thing will be like a barren rock on which these fisherman dry their nets” [Ezekiel 26:12-14].  God’s word never falls to the ground [Isaiah 40:8].  Remember that forever.

Two hundred forty years later, two hundred forty years later, after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the mainland city [Ezekiel 26:1-11], and Ezekiel says, “They are going to throw the rocks and the timbers and the place is going to be a rock on which fisherman dry their nets” [Ezekiel 26:12-14], two hundred forty years later Alexander the Great came, and he took the rocks and the building stones and the great timbers of that ancient, destroyed city on the mainland, and he built with that debris a mighty moat, a causeway out to the island city.  And Alexander the Great destroyed every segment of the Tyrian island city.   No longer gleaming towers, no longer roaring chariots through the streets, no longer the great mighty mass of the fleet; sic transit gloria mundi; thus passeth the glory of the world.  And Ezekiel says, “It will never be rebuilt” [Ezekiel 26:14].  They can’t even actually locate it, the mainland city of Tyre, to this day.  And the island city is a vast rock upon which fishermen dry and mend their nets; just as the Lord God said [Ezekiel 26:14].

Egypt; there’s a long section concerning Egypt, [chapters] 29, 30, 31 and 32, Egypt [Ezekiel 29-32].  I wish we had time really to go into these great prophecies.  It is, to me, unimaginable that these men of God can prophesy the life of a great nation to the end of time, through the consummation of the age, but they do it.

First prophecy about Egypt in chapter 29, verses 14 and 15:

There shall be a low nation; Egypt shall be.

It shall be the lowest 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.

[Ezekiel 29:14-15]

What do you think about that?  Would you say, if you listed the great nations of the world, that Egypt is up there, the greatest kingdom of all the nations of the world, would you?  It would be unthinkable.  When Ezekiel wrote that prophecy, Egypt was there as one of the great nations of the world.  But God said, “Because of your sin and iniquity, you are going to be among the lowest nations of this earth” [Ezekiel 29:15].

And Isaiah said something that I can’t believe.  “The land of Judah,” in Isaiah 19:17, “The land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt.”  How could in the day when Egypt was one of the great kingdoms of the world, how could little, tiny Judah be a “terror unto Egypt”?  [Isaiah 19:17].

Were you alive in 1967?  Were you?  How many of you were alive in 1967? Hold up your hand.   Well, that’s most of us, all except you children back here.    Do you remember in 1967 when the armies of Judah tore apart the armies, and the tanks, and the guns, and the marching legions of Egypt?  Do you remember that?  And they came to the Suez Canal and stopped of their own accord.  They could have easily swept into the whole land of Egypt.  Can you believe that?  A little tiny people called Judah here, by Israel, a “terror to Egypt.”  It’s almost unthinkable what the prophets say.

Not only that but the last, the thirty-second chapter of Ezekiel, from 17 to the end of the chapter, and I wish we had time to speak of that.  That is a funeral dirge and one of the most unusual you could ever read in the Bible.  Down there, he depicts the open world of the netherland, the open world of Hades, and the Egyptians are being welcomed.  And Pharaoh is being welcomed into hell by all other nations that are already fallen, and are down there! [Ezekiel 32:17-32]  What an amazing, what an amazing prophecy!

Now I’m going to take the rest of the time to do one other thing.  Egypt was a tremendous nation of vast and pompous and mighty cities, great cities.  And the thirtieth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel is addressed in judgment upon those mighty cities [Ezekiel 30].   Now we’re going to name some of them.  We’re going to speak of them.  “Thus saith the Lord God”—in verse 13 of chapter 30—“I will destroy thy idols.  I will cause their images to cease out of Noph” [Ezekiel 30:13].  Noph is the word for “Memphis.”  Memphis is the name of the first capital of Egypt, a great a mighty city.  Now if you’ve ever been to Cairo, I imagine you’d be just as I was.  I said, “I want to go to Memphis.  I want to look at it.”  Man, there’s not anything to look at!  Not anything to look at.  No need to go out there where Memphis was, there’s nothing to look at, Memphis.  Memphis was the first capital of the great nation of Egypt, gone!  Then he says, “And I will make Pathros desolate” [Ezekiel 30:14], don’t even know where that is.  “And set fire to Zoan” [Ezekiel 30:14], that was up there on the Mediterranean and another of the ancient capitals of Egypt.  “And will set judgment upon No” [Ezekiel 30:14];  No is the name for Thebes, Thebes, one of the ancient capitals of Egypt, Thebes, where those great ruins of Luxor and Karnak are to be seen, vast temples of ruin.  And he says, “The young men of Aven” [Ezekiel 30:17], that’s Greek Hierapolis, the “City of the Sun,” which is also up there in near Cairo and Pibeseth” [Ezekiel 30:17] one of the cities in the Delta.  “And Tehaphnehes” [Ezekiel 30:18], which Herodotus describes.  And this is what Ezekiel says of these mighty cities:

  • Her foundation shall be broken [Ezekiel 30:4].
  • The pride of her power shall come down [Ezekiel 30:6].
  • The pomp of her strength shall cease [Ezekiel 30:18].
  • And I have broken the arm of the king; and it shall not be bound up or healed [Ezekiel 30:21].

That’s what God said about those great cities of Egypt [Ezekiel 30:13-18].

Now listen to one the famous sonnets of literature.  Shelley names it “Ozymandias.”  Listen to it:

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 Ozymandis, king of kings:

Look on my mighty works and despair!”

Nothing else remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretched far away.

[from “Ozymandias,” Percy Bysse Shelley]

These great cities of the ancient world, where are they?  Babylon, a heap in the desert; Nineveh, the army of Alexander the Great marched over Nineveh and did not know that a great city lay beneath their feet.  Where are those great cities of antiquity?   Memphis, Thebes, Tehaphnehes, Ephesus, the Greek cities of Asia Minor, imperial Rome.

I was walking through Rome such as you would downtown Dallas, and they were making an excavation for some kind of a subway or a building or whatever.  Not being able to speak Italian, I couldn’t find out.  I was just walking along and there was an enormous excavation.  And down there on the bottom of that excavation, it seemed to me a hundred feet deep, I looked at great, beautiful arches buried in that city a hundred feet beneath the street.  Where are those great cities of the past?

Now I have to conclude.  Can you think that maybe, through the Lord God, they speak to us today, these ancient cities whose glory and pomp one time rose up to God in heaven?  Do they speak to us today?  Isn’t it true that the great cities hold the scepters of the world?

  • Samaria was the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
  • Jerusalem was the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
  • Nineveh was the great, mighty empire of Assyria.
  • Babylon was Chaldea.
  • Athens was Hellas.
  • Carthage was North Africa.
  • Rome was the Empire.

I think Mexico City is Mexico.  I think Tokyo is Japan.  I think London is England.  I think Paris is France.  I think New York and Los Angeles are America.  And I think Houston and Dallas and San Antonio are Texas.  These great cities hold the nation in the palm of their hands.  And as these great cities go, so go the destiny of the nation.

And that’s why, maybe it’s because I’m here, but that’s why—God help us and look upon us—that’s why I feel the burden and the assignment and the prophetic call to bring before God our great, mighty city of Dallas.

Where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet

My window-sill is level with the faces on the street

Drifting past, drifting past,

To the beat of weary feet,

While I sorrow for the owners of those faces on 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! You at ease in Zion, your hearts in terror shall beat

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.

 [from “Faces In The Street,” Henry Lawson 1867-1922]

Great God, is there a lighthouse that can burn for Thee in this place and in this church?  And do we not have a great prophetic call from God to reach these masses on the street, the great, vast, growing metropolis of the city of Dallas?  They need us, whether they would say so or admit it or come before us and confess it, or not.  Dallas needs Christ!  And the Lord died for the masses of the city of Dallas.  That there might be in us, the compassion of heart that would reach out to seek every soul and every heart and home and life in this great, thriving, throbbing metroplex, where this last week the paper and the radio said five thousand new people come to Dallas every week; five thousand a week.

Let me close with the compassionate heart.  I was reading, this last week, T. Dewitt Talmage.  T. Dewitt Talmage, a pastor in Brooklyn, New York, is the only preacher in America whose sermons appeared the following day, from one side of this continent to the other; from New York to Los Angeles.  When he delivered his sermon on Sunday, on Monday his sermon appeared in all the newspapers of America.

He had a vast and compelling ministry.  Well, just reading T. Dewitt Talmage, I came across this story that he told.  And he told it so intimately that I could not help but think it must have concerned him, though he didn’t say so.  Anyway, what he describes is a cell, a prison cell in New York, in which is confined a woman, in sentence there for some crime.  Her mother, from the street, who was homeless, came to see her.  And in one of those providences, inexplicable, while the mother was there in that cell visiting her incarcerated daughter, the mother died; just suddenly died.

The mother, homeless, and the daughter in the cell; the city of New York put that woman, that mother, in a coffin, and they had the service in the cell, in the jail, in the cell.  And they asked a minister to come and conduct the memorial rites.  Here’s where I think, though he didn’t say it, I think it was Talmage himself.  The minister came and conducted the memorial service for that homeless, helpless, poor mother in that prison cell.

And at the end of the service, he said to that daughter, who was incarcerated, he said, “Would you put your hand on the brow of your mother?”

She did.

And he said, “Would you raise your other hand toward heaven?   And will you tell our living Lord that you will give your heart and the rest of your life to Him.  And you will trust Him and believe in Him?  Will you do that?”

She said, “I will.”  And with her hand on the brow of her mother and the other hand raised toward Jesus, she gave Him her heart and her life.

And the minister said, “Dear daughter, in the name of God and of our Savior and of your mother, God bless you and keep you and take care of you.”

And in a testimony in a Christian church, that sweet girl said, “That was the first time in my life that anybody ever spoke words of sweetness and kindness and blessing to me,” her whole life lived outside of the pale, and the influence, and the touch, and the love, and the compassion of our Lord and of God’s people.

Oh dear!  As I read it, I thought of the multitudes that pass by.  Does anyone speak to them?  Does anyone have any word for them?  Does anyone really care?  This is our calling, our assignment.  This is our prophetic ministry in this great city in which God hath cast our life and our lot.

O Master, in wisdom and in blessing, work with us.  Help us to know how to do it, how to reach these families, how to gather up these children, in love and compassion, to teach them the mercy and grace of our living Lord.  Do it, precious Savior; do it.

In this moment that we stand and sing our appeal, to give your heart to Jesus, a family of you, coming to put your life with us, serving Jesus, answering God’s call in your heart to be God’s messenger from Jesus, as the Spirit shall press the appeal, answer with your life, do it now.  If you’re in the balcony, there’s time and to spare.  In this lower floor, down one of these aisles, “Pastor, this is God’s day for me and I’m coming” [Romans 10:9-10].  Make it now; do it now.  Welcome now.  In our Savior’s dear name, come, while we stand and while we sing.