Ezekiel 29:1-6 - Homiletics

The doom of Egypt.

I. AN INSPIRED PREACHER PROPHESIES CONCERNING A GREAT FOREIGN NATION . The Hebrew prophet did not confine his attention to the little strip of territory on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, which we call the Holy Land. He was God's messenger to the world.

1. The heathen are concerned with God ' s messages . God notices them and has intentions concerning them. Therefore:

2. It is the duty of the Church to make God ' s truth known to the heathen . Ezekiel was not a Jonah; he was not called upon to visit the heathen as a prophet of Jehovah. But his written words might be read by some of the more inquiring Egyptians. It is well to take large views of God's thoughts, our duties, and the world's needs.

II. GOD CALLS A MIGHTY EMPIRE TO JUDGMENT . Tyro was greater and more famous than the little Ammonite and Moabite countries; but even Type was small compared with Egypt—one of the great world-empires.

1. No people can be above the rule of God . The biggest earthly kingdom is beneath the King of kings. Egypt is compared to one of its monster crocodiles (Verse 3). But it is not the less to be called to account by God.

2. No people can be too strong to be overthrown . Even great Egypt is to fall. The strongest have their weak places. Mighty citadels may be shaken by earthquakes. All man's grandest works and most imposing institutions are frail, and may be broken up by the rod of the Unseen.

III. THE GREATNESS OF ANTIQUITY IS NO SAFEGUARD AGAINST THE DANGERS OF FUTURITY . After China, Egypt seems to be about the most ancient empire in the world. In the region of its influence and among its neighbors Egypt was venerable with age before any of its rivals had made an appearance on the world's stage. Its known history goes back to four thousand years before Christ. For tens of centuries this hoary old empire of the Pharaohs held on its course amidst the rising and falling of many ambitious but short-lived neighbors. Yet Egypt was not immortal. Dynasty succeeded dynasty, and Egypt long stood the shock of war and change. But at last her hour of reckoning drew near. Then her long past afforded her no shelter. England cannot live in the future on her past history. The Church of the coming age cannot stand strong and safe on no better foundation than the glory of saints and martyrs in earlier ages.

IV. INTELLECT IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD CONSCIENCE . Egypt was famous for her learning and her science. Long before the Babylonian and Persian astronomical science arose by the Euphrates, there were schools of literature, philosophy, and physical science on the banks of the Nile. It was a help in the training of Israel's great deliverer that he was educated in the greatest center of light of his age ( Acts 7:22 ). Yet the great intelligence of ancient Egypt did not preserve its sons from gross moral corruption, and no worldly wisdom was able to provide against the descending arm of judgment. Culture will not dispense with the need of conscience. University honors are not passports to heaven. Knowledge and thought will not shield the sinful against the wrath of future judgment.