The Broken Arms of Pharoah
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
says...
One of my teachers would make us write each of our spelling words 25 times.
At least one one occasion, I tried to shortcut the process by writing each letter, one at a time, down the page. Then I would come back with the next letter in the word and write it down the page. So if the word was “repeat,” I would write the “r” 25 times and then do the “e” 25 times, then the “p,” etc.
The problem with that approach was that it was “d - u - m”!
My teacher explained to me that writing the letters 25 times individually didn’t teach me to spell the whole word correctly.
In his commentary of the book of Ezekiel, Daniel Block has written, “Repetition is often the key to effective communication.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Block, D. I. (1997–). The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48 (p. 174). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
The people of Judah had something better than advice. They had words from God sent through his prophets - prophets like Jeremiah in Jerusalem and Ezekiel in Babylon.
At the time the word of the Lord that we will look at tonight came to Ezekiel, Jerusalem had not yet fallen to Babylon, but it wouldn’t be long.
King Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege to the city, but Judah had received false hope in the form of Egyptian assistance. Jeremiah warned Judah’s King Zedekiah that Babylon’s apparent retreat would be brief. The Babylonian army would quickly return to conquer Jerusalem.
says...
Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray for us to the Lord our God.” Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: “Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, ‘Behold, Pharaoh’s army that came to help you is about to return to Egypt, to its own land. And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. They shall capture it and burn it with fire. Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. For even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’ ”
The message from God through his prophet couldn’t have been more clear. Jerusalem was going to fall to Babylon and Egypt was just false hope.
But King Zedekiah and the other leaders in Judah were fools. Because they were wise in their own eyes, they trusted in Egypt and rejected the divine words of Jeremiah.
News of Egyptian help would have also given false hope to the exiles in Babylon with Ezekiel - exiles who were, so to speak, watching these events unfold from hundreds of miles away.
They no doubt hoped that Egypt would defeat Babylon and they would be able to return to their homeland. But like Jeremiah in Jerusalem, Ezekiel told the exiles in Babylon that hope in Egypt was false hope.
Let’s read ...
and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols. Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the Lord.
In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up, to heal it by binding it with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and 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 the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him like a man mortally wounded. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
It’s not easy to watch people we love learn a lesson the hard way, but sometimes the hard way makes people learn the lesson.
God had tried to teach his people that their only hope was him, but they refused to learn that lesson the easy way. The easy way would have been just to trust God and obey him.
Instead they kept foolishly believing that their was a “better hope"out there. Sometimes they thought the “better hope” was a king or a false god or a country like Egypt. But every time that “better hope” proved to be a false hope.
If they will receive it, God is driving this lesson into the hearts and minds of his people with these words in concerning Egypt.
[CIT] In clear terms, God told his people that he was their only certain hope; and not soon-to-be broken, powerless, and scattered Egypt.
[Prop] If we are wise, we will listen to the prophets. We will learn that all other hopes outside of God are false hopes. He is the only sure hope we have.
[Inter] How does God drive this point into hearts and minds with this passage?
[TS] He does it by repeating four THEMES throughout these verses...
MAJOR IDEAS
MAJOR IDEAS
Theme #1: The Arms of Pharoah Broken (vv. 21-22)
Theme #1: The Arms of Pharoah Broken (vv. 21-22)
“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up, to heal it by binding it with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand.
ezekiel 3
[Exp] There is an Egyptian drawing of one of Egypt’s Pharaohs, Aminhotep II, which is not the one referred to here in . But the drawing shows one of his arms extended, grasping the hair on the heads of his enemies, his other arm flexed with weapon drawn, ready to strike.
[Exp] There is an Egyptian drawing of one of their Pharaoh’s, Aminhotep II,
In Egypt and throughout the OT, the “arm” was that part of the body through which strength was displayed.
Not just Aminhotep II, but many of the Pharaohs were depicted in Egyptian art with their arms flexed displaying their power.
No wonder then that God chose the picture of Pharaoh’s arms being broken to communicate to his people what he would do to their false hope.
Egypt would come and momentarily make the Babylonians step back from Jerusalem, but then the Egyptian army would be broken by the Babylonians and return to Egypt.
They would not return to Egypt to heal up and regroup so as to mount another attack. No, as God said, that arm would not be bound up to heal and be made strong so that it could bear the sword again.
Furthermore, not only would the Babylonians send the Egyptians back to Egypt, the Babylonians would come to Egypt and take that land for themselves as well.
Thus, in a manner of speaking, both of Egypt’s arms would be broken and the sword would drop for his hand.
[Illus] When I was a boy I loved to watch the World Wrestling Federation and of course, as a child of the 1980s, my favorite wrestler was Hulk Hogan.
He was patriotic! He encouraged me to take my vitamins! He told me to say my prayers! He was no doubt on steroids!
He would pat and flex his biceps and brag about his 24-inch pythons, but they didn’t seem that big or strong when compared to Andre the Giant.
[App] Because God loves us and has chosen us as his people, he will make sure that we understand that our idols - our false hopes - are useless. They are powerless before him.
I watch one night as Andre tossed Hulk Hogan around and then pinned him.
Hulk Hogan’s arms looked strong but they were no match for Andre the Giant.
Pharaoh’s arms were no match for King Nebuchadnezzar’s because God strengthened Nebuchadnezzar’s arms.
Like Hulk Hogan’s show muscle versus Andre the Giant’s natural strength, Pharaoh Hophra would be exposed for the fraud he really was. And God’s people in Jerusalem and in Judah would see it.
loves us and has chosen us as his people, he will make sure that we understand that our idols - our false hopes - are useless. They are powerless before him.
[App] God loves us and has chosen us as his people, he will make sure that we understand that our idols - our false hopes - are useless. They are powerless before him. They have no strength in their arms.
God will teach us that our only true hope; the only real power is in him.
We need the frailty of our idols exposed so that we will no longer admire them and look to them for help and hope.
Because we belong to God through faith in Christ, he graciously does that for us… but will we learn? Or will we, like the people of Judah keep returning to those false hopes?
[TS] That’s the first theme...
Theme #2: The Egyptians Scattered and Dispersed (vv. 23, 26)
Theme #2: The Egyptians Scattered and Dispersed (vv. 23, 26)
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries.
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
[Exp] Why is being scattered and dispersed such a big deal? Why is this mentioned as a punishment? Why would it be feared? Why did God tell his people who had been scattered and dispersed to Babylon about the Egyptians being scattered and dispersed to other countries?
The language of scattering and dispersing was familiar to God’s people. In the covenant, they had been warned that a punishment for rebelling against God would be being scattered and dispersed from the Promised Land.
For example, says...
And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
says...
And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.
And also , which says...
“And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
It’ll help us, however, to look at the first occurence of this sort of language in the Bible. We find it in , a story we know as The Tower of Babel.
It’ll help us, however, to look at the first occurence of this sort of language in the Bible. We find it in , a story we know as The Tower of Babel.
The reason given by the inhabitants of Babel for building their tower was that they feared being scattered. They said in ...
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
… field notes
When they said “let us make a name for ourselves” they were referring to a prideful, vain-glory.
This can go by different names today. Prideful, vain-glory is what some people mean when they refer to their identity or culture.
It’s sometimes what people mean when they say, “This is who I am...” or “This is who we are…” or “This is what we’re known for!”
culture,
In the ancient world, this prideful, vain-glory or identity was sometimes wrapped up in the land.
Thus to be removed from the land was a way of taking away a people’s identity and security.
Essentially it would make Egyptians no longer Egyptian, and those
As Babylon came to invade Egypt,
The people of Judah who heard Ezekiel’s prophecy had been scattered and dispersed themselves.
To some degree or another, they had lost their identity and security. But they lost those things because their identity and security was wrapped up in the wrong thing.
[Illus] You probably remember Linus from the Peanuts comic strip. He’s the one who goes everywhere with his security blanket.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
lUKE
[Exp] Why is being scattered and dispersed such a big deal?
Linus was a favorite character of the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, Charles M. Shultz. He said, “"Linus, my serious side, is the house intellectual, bright, well-informed which, I suppose may contribute to his feelings of insecurity."
[Illus]
Linus was also a favorite character of Lee Mendelson who did most of the Peanuts movies that were made for TV. He said, “He made sucking your thumb and holding a security blanket OK.”
As great as Linus may be, at some point, however, we have to grow up and realize that their really isn’t much security in a thumb or blanket. Nor is there much security in a piece of land.
[App] As great as Linus may be, at some point, however, we have to grow up and realize that their really isn’t much security in a thumb or blanket. Nor is there much security in a piece of land or anything else for that matter not named God.
In the NT we are called aliens and strangers in this world, exiles living apart from our true homeland. We are citizens of Heaven but we aren’t Heaven. Until we are, we need to be continually learning the same lesson that God taught Judah in exile - our identity is in God alone; therefore, our devotion must be to him alone.
In the NT we are called aliens and strangers in this world, exiles living apart from our true homeland. We are citizens of Heaven but we aren’t in Heaven.
Until we are, we need to be continually learning the same lesson that God was teaching Judah in exile - our identity and security is in God alone.
Everything else can be lost, but our relationship with God is eternal.
If our identity and security is in him, our identity and security can’t be lost.
[TS] That’s the second theme...
Theme #3: The Sword of the LORD in Nebuchadnezzar’s hands (vv. 24, 25a, 25d)
Theme #3: The Sword of the LORD in Nebuchadnezzar’s hands (vv. 24, 25a, 25d)
Ezekiel
And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him like a man mortally wounded. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt.
[Exp] We always seem to think of ourselves as the hero rather than the villain. We tend to think of ourselves as being on the right side of an issue even if we haven’t seriously examined the other side. We call ourselves “the good guys” rather than “the bad guys.” In terms of old western moves, we wear the white hats while those that oppose us wear the black hats.
[Exp] We always seem to think of ourselves as the hero rather than the villain. We tend to think of ourselves as being on the right side of an issue even if we haven’t seriously examined the other side. We call ourselves “the good guys” rather than “the bad guys.” In terms of old western moves, we wear the white hats while those that oppose us wear the black hats.
When it comes to our rebellion against God, however, we are all villains. We are all on the wrong side of the issue. We are the bad guys. We wear the black hats and the black hats pay the price at the end of those old westerns.
The people of Judah - especially those in Jerusalem or those from Jerusalem - thought of themselves as the good guys.
They were God’s people with God’s law in or from God’s city worshipping at God’s temple.
How could they not be the good guys? How could they not be the heroic underdogs when compared to the villainous Babylonians? Surely they were on the right side of this conflict with Babylon!
But they weren’t. King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army worked for God and God strengthened the arms of Nebuchadnezzar. God put his sword into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand. And God had Nebuchadnezzar stretch out the sword against Judah’s false hope, Egypt.
Sometimes we only realize we’re in the wrong when the so-called “bad guys” turn out to be the “good guys.”
This should have happened for Judah as they realized that God was backing the Babylonians while Judah was backing the Egyptians. Judah found itself on the opposite side of the issue from God.
[Illus] I’ve told many of you the story about being at a conference with a friend of mine who’s watch was beeping incessantly.
We were sitting on the front row when the beeping started. This was back before everyone had a cellphone in their pocket so we knew it was someone’s watch just beeping away.
We figured that someone would realize in just a second and silence it but it just keep going.
We knew it was right around us so we began to exchange looks, asking, “Where is that coming from?”
My friend was sitting a few people down from me and I leaned up to look at him. I had heard his watch beep like that before and I was almost certain it was his.
I looked at him and mouthed, “Where’s that coming from?” He mouthed back, “I don’t know.”
I pointed at him and said, “I think its your watch.”
With embarrassment, he quickly looked down, silenced his watch, and sat back shaking his head.
[App] It’s no fun realizing that we’re in the wrong; that we’ve been investing in things that promise hope and security but deliver nothing. But unless we realize it, we can’t repent.
If Judah would’ve truly believed that Babylon was God’s instrument of discipline upon them, there was opportunity for repentance.
They could have turned away from trusting in Egypt and turned back to trusting in God alone.
However, because they refused to believe that they had been rebellious, Babylon wouldn’t just be an instrument of discipline. Babylon would be God’s instrument of wrath on Judah.
[Illus]
He intentionally raised the hope of people so he could show that their hope in Egypt was bankrupt.
Just as quickly as it left, the Babylonian army returned regrouped and refocused. It was stronger and then had its sights set not only on Jerusalem but Jerusalem’s ally, Egypt.
to regroup (i.e., get stronger) and refocus (i.e., set its sights once again on Jerusalem and also Egypt).
God would show his people that they were in the wrong; that they would repent or perish; that they had no hope other than him.
[Illus]
The same is true for us.
[App]
Unless we realize that we have rebelled against God and repent of that rebellion by trusting in his Son, Jesus, God will pour our his wrath on us.
[TS] That’s the third theme...
Theme #4: The Knowledge that the LORD is the LORD (vv. 25c, 26b)
Theme #4: The Knowledge that the LORD is the LORD (vv. 25c, 26b)
I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt.
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
[Exp] This is God’s desire; to be known by his people as he is -as most powerful, most trustworthy, and most glorious.
[Exp]
He is most powerful, most trustworthy, and most glorious.
He is perfectly everything righteous and perfectly nothing sinful.
He wants his people to know that he alone is worthy of their affection and devotion and that everyone and everything else that they are tempted to trust in will ultimately let them down.
God will accomplish this among the Egyptians by defeating their idols and humbling their Pharaoh.
God will accomplish this among his people by defeating the Egyptians.
As God’s word was fulfilled, just as he said it would be through his prophet, God’s people should have recognize that only YHWH is Lord - only he is God in truest sense of the term.
[Illus]
[App]
[TS] {see below}
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
He is the only hope we have.
Babylon was God’s judgment on his rebellious people. Their only hope was to repent and trust the Lord.
Likewise, as we are faced with God’s judgment, our only hope is to repent and trust the Lord.
The Bible says that it is appointed for man to die once and then face judgment (). It says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ().
Our only hope is to repent of our sinful unbelief and trust Jesus as our Savior and give our lives to him as our Lord.
Anything other than Jesus is a false hope. He is the only way to the Father. He is the only way of salvation.
If we are wise, we will trust him and follow him - our only sure hope.
Notes
Notes
Repeated themes:
The arms of Pharoah fallen
Egyptians scattered and dispersed
The sword in Babylon’s hands
Yahweh known
They will see Pharoah broken
They will see Pharoah mortal
They will know the Lord.