Ezekiel 29:20

Jehovah counted that wages were due to Nebuchadnezzar for his service in destroying Tyre. That wealthy trading city gave its captors little plunder, because Tyrian ships had already carried much of its treasure west. Egypt's wealth included the silver and gold that Necho had carried there from Jerusalem. All of it was Jehovah's repayment to the instrument of His righteous judgements.

This prophecy naturally follows the one against Tyre, because it shows Jehovah balancing two things. On one side is the vast cost Nebuchadnezzar poured into that hard-won city, whose wealth mostly escaped his grasp. On the other is the conquest of Egypt — a rich prize for the conqueror and for his greedy army, disappointed until now.

Egypt as a nation was proud of its governmental power. She had said, "The Nile is mine, and I made it" (Ezek. 29:9). God would not allow this claim, nor let her keep what He had given to Nebuchadnezzar for His own purposes. Every nation had to bow to him. It was God's arrangement, for he was "the mighty one of the nations." Tyre gave him no wages, so Egypt would be his repayment, and her judgment would lead on to Israel's blessing.

Zedekiah should have sought help from God; instead he turned treacherously to Egypt. Egypt pictures the world, which God has delivered His people out of by His grace. To seek its help in anything is a grievous offence in His sight. Judgement fell first on Judah, and a few years later on Egypt too.

Egypt was to be the spoil given him in place of the wages he failed to get for his service against Tyre. He had been doing God's work, whether he saw it that way or not. Yet after thirteen years of siege, in which "every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare," he found nothing left in the end but a ruin — which was no surprise.

God punishes a nation He has used as His instrument when that nation grows proud, as we have seen with Assyria. But He also pays wages to a nation that has served His purpose without knowing it… How little we know of God's ways in the conflicts of the world. Behind the scenes God works His sovereign will to carry out His purposes.

We must not confuse grace with government. When we look at God in government, we see Him showing His power in the way of righteousness. He punishes evildoers and pours out vengeance on His enemies. He overthrows empires, upturns thrones and destroys cities. He sweeps away nations, tribes and peoples.

As soon as the people had gone into captivity, God handed the "sword" of government to the Gentile king, and the "times of the Gentiles" began. Israel had been God's servant up to this point, though faithless in that position. See Isaiah 43:10 — "You are my… servant whom I have chosen." The Gentile king now takes the place of the Lord's servant, though in another sense.

Tyre had just fallen, and this fully proved the prophecy Ezekiel had made about it long before. God showed Himself to be the One whose judgment it was, and therefore the One in whose hand the conqueror himself stood… Nebuchadnezzar was head of the new Gentile power that God had raised up. As king of kings he owed everything to the Hand that raised him, and God would have him learn the lesson of it.