Ezekiel 29:4

The next series is four chapters against Egypt, just as the last three were against Tyre with its prince and king. The evil condemned is no longer commercial pride, but confident nature, and this shows above all in political wisdom. We shall see how God brings to nothing a power that carries this mark and sets itself up in haughty independence of Him.

Pharaoh is compared here to the crocodile of his rivers. He is the "long stretched" one, which is what the word "monster" means here. You might think the creature took its shape from his river, as the king of Egypt does. He is an unclean creature at best. And he is clumsy, however huge he may be, and however much the scales that shut him in may defend him against anything hostile. He lies there in no really high position, as is plain, and he can see little beyond the banks that enclose him on either side.

Gog acts in his own will. Yet God is still drawing him to the place of slaughter, just as hooks in the jaws lead an animal to slaughter.

This is how God would deal with the self-confidence of Egypt. Its king is compared to the sea monster that crouches in the middle of the Nile's branches. When its hour came, humbling destruction would fall not on it only, but on all the fish that clung to it for protection. The blow was to be fatal, and birds and beasts of prey would feast on it.

He was a god to himself, and he was a god to his people too, as is well known. Their fate is pictured as one with their king's, as the fish of the rivers stick to his scales.

Egypt has been a breaking staff to Israel. It was a staff of reed. It offered much, but it never kept its promises, and it brought only ruin to all who trusted it. Going down to Egypt for help was the constant snare of the people of God. God had delivered them from that land, and in their own rescue they had seen His judgment on it. Yet they could turn back to it again and again. Sadly, it is an inconsistency that not one of us who knows himself can be a stranger to! … The lesson is as plain as it is basic. It is the lesson, "Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?"

Why is the dragon used as a symbol of Satan? Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was cruel to God's people and stood in proud and haughty independence of God, and he is called "the great dragon" (Ezek. 29:3-4). Scripture speaks of Nebuchadnezzar in a similar way, for his violence and cruelty (Jer. 51:34). The Book of Psalms and the first three of the greater prophets refer many times to the crocodile, the sovereign of the seas, who is identified with the dragon. Gather up those references, and insatiable cruelty seems the main feature.