On January 7, during the tenth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, turn and face Egypt and prophesy against Pharaoh the king and all the people of Egypt. [Ezekiel 29.1-2]
There is more to not trusting in idols than just not trusting in idols! While God's people do well to simply obey God to avoid idolatry, Egypt's downfall provides sufficient reason why.
Every idol, Egypt included (because of their role regarding Israel and Judah), will fail.
We must remind ourselves here that the Bible is not just a history book! The Bible is God's Word to His people today! It was written such that its relevance would be eternal - because Jesus is eternal, and He is the Living Word.
While "Egypt" was the name of an idol that Israel and Judah turned to in Ezekiel's time, idols today have many other contemporary names. Therefore, for God's people to understand the timeless accurate relevance of the Bible's ancient writings today, they must consider the idol, not the name. To do so, we must consider the role of every named thing, irrespective of its name, to determine if its role is that of an idol. Once God's people identify an idol by its role, only then does its name serve as its historical place marker, like the name "Egypt."
Every idol is identified by one major qualifier: people trust it instead of, or in addition to, God.
Israel trusted that an idol named "Egypt" would protect them from other attacking nations. Egypt did not reject its idol status given by Israel, but proudly accepted it. Ezekiel 29 gives us God's response:
“I am your enemy, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt— [Ezekiel 29.3]
This is, in fact, God's response to every idol for all time as we know it regardless the name of the idol.
In our day, God might just as easily and generically say, "I am your enemy, O industry of finance—" God might also say, "I am your enemy, O industry of insurance—" In the same way, God might say, "I am your enemy, O industry of medicine—" or, "I am your enemy, O industry of technology—" God would have quite a list today if He specified the name of every idol because the names of finance, insurance, medicine, and technology industries are many!
But again, the names of these industries do not matter - but their role as idols does. The fact that the plethora of these names make up entire industries is a sad testament to the extent of idolatry in our day.
As with ancient Egypt, and this is where God's people need to pay particularly close attention, modern idols' have a shelf-life because they are enemies of God and their destruction is just a decision of God away. Man's idol industries today brag of their success and strength ...just like Pharoah of Egypt did! But, their advertisements are merely the baseless claims of idols destined for destruction by God Almighty. And, here is where the name becomes important... "Egypt" today is NOT a world leader like other nations. Why? Because God took their power away as easily as taking candy from a baby. They were once powerful proudly enjoying their idol status and then God knocked them down.
It will be the lowliest of all the nations, never again great enough to rise above its neighbors. [Ezekiel 29.15]
And, this is the destiny of every idol today. The names will change, but their fate will not. For this reason, it is pure foolishness to trust in them instead of, or in addition to, God.
Father, Egypt's fate only supports Your commandments regarding idolatry. Egypt's fate only supports Jesus' demand that we give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Him. So be it.
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