The humiliation of Egypt's pride.
It certainly gives a reader a somewhat dark and gloomy view of the state of the world in the time of Ezekiel, to read, as we have to do in his prophecies, one almost uninterrupted series of reproaches and condemnations. The prophet spares no man and no nation; and his writings are a monument to human iniquity, and especially to the faults and errors of the nations that flourished and fell in pre-Christian antiquity. In this passage he foretells the approaching humiliation of Egypt.
I. THE GROUNDS OF THIS HUMILIATION. It is a law of eternal justice that they who exalt themselves shall be made low and brought to the ground. The faults with which Egypt, as a state, are particularly charged are the faults of self-confidence, pride, and boasting—sins peculiarly offensive to the Most High, who will be acknowledged as God alone, and who will not give his honor to another.
II. THE POWER AND CAUSE OF THIS HUMILIATION. We are taught by the prophet—and the lesson is in harmony with the teaching of Scripture generally—to attribute this to the Eternal King and Judge, who is supreme over all nations. His sway is sometimes questioned and disputed, and is too often forgotten and practically repudiated. But behind and above all human powers there is a Power supreme and universal, not cognizable by sense, but discerned by the reason and the conscience. To this the working of moral law in the affairs of individual men and of nations is to be referred; to leave this out of sight is to leave much that we meet with in history and experience obscure and perplexing.
III. THE INSTRUMENT OF THIS HUMILIATION. The sword that was to cut off man and beast out of the land of Egypt, that was to lay waste and desolate the cities, was the sword of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, himself a heathen, doubtless stained with the errors and crimes of heathenism, yet employed as a suitable agent in the chastisement of many rebellious peoples. It is remarkable that the same power should be employed to chasten Israel, Israel's allies, and Israel's foes!
IV. THE CHARACTER OF THIS HUMILIATION. The armies of Egypt were defeated; the land was laid waste; the cities were dismantled; and the Egyptians themselves were scattered and dispersed among the nations. Scarcely an element of disgrace was omitted; the chastisement was complete.
V. THE EXTENT AND DURATION OF THIS HUMILIATION. It was to affect the whole land, from the mouth of the Nile to the southernmost boundary. And it was to last for the space of forty years—a limit of time which is not, perhaps, to be taken literally, but, as is usual in Hebrew writings, as representing a long period.
VI. THE LESSONS OF THIS HUMILIATION.
1. It was a rebuke to haughty self-confidence.
2. It was a summons to penitence and contrition on account of sin.
3. It was an inducement to submission.
4. It was a clear voice from heaven, calling the nations to put their trust, not in an arm of flesh, but in the living God. "Some put their trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the Name of the Lord, our God"—T.