Ezekiel 29:1-7 – Learn to rightly appraise ourselves

Of the messages of judgment that Ezekiel had for all the foreign nations that had oppressed Israel, the one to Egypt and the Pharaoh was the longest. It begins in Ezekiel chapter 29 all the way to chapter 32. There are seven segments to the message. The message started by exposing the sin and the call for judgment in Ezekiel 29:1-16. Verses 1-6, paint the Pharoah of Egypt as a monster, and verses 7-16, declare the judgment Egypt would have to face.

Verse 1 said that the message came to Ezekiel “in the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month.”  This would be approximately seven months before the fall of Jerusalem. The Pharoah is referred to here as a monster of the Nile. The monster would be the legendary crocodile. And Nile of course is Egypt. Those fishes that were caught in the scales of the crocodiles are her citizens.  

The way hunters would catch a crocodile was by using hooks and hooking the jaws to render it helpless. Like a crocodile being caught by a hunter’s hook, God caught Pharaoh and the citizens of Egypt and left them helpless in the desert without burial. They would be left in the open field as food for scavengers.

Why did God judge Pharoah and Egypt? In verse 2, Pharoah is said to be boastfully claiming to himself that Egypt is his and that it is he who had made it. But he was clueless of the power that was not his. Verse 7 said that he was only a staff made of reed. Pharaoh and Egypt were not as strong as they thought they were.  Verse 7 shows their unreliability. For his foolish self-exaltation, Pharoah and Egypt would be judged and made to realize who is God overall.   

It is needful for us to have a proper estimate of ourselves. Think of what Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” We must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought.  When we think more highly than we are, we run the risk of becoming self-centred. So according to the grace granted us, let us have a proper and right evaluation of ourselves.