Ezekiel 30:22

The earlier message deals with the land and people and cities of Egypt. The message that follows deals with the king… Had Pharaoh-Necho pushed forward the successes and conquests of Egypt? Then the defeats that would break Egypt's power from then on were all the more humiliating. They hoped for healing and recovery in vain: Jehovah had put Pharaoh down beyond remedy.

This is another short, separate prophecy about how incurable the break is that God has already made on Egypt. That break clearly came at their defeat in the battle of Carchemish — a blow they never recovered from. The prophecy forbids any new hope built on the activity and energy Egypt was showing again for the moment… God announces that no one would bandage the broken arm to make it strong enough to hold the sword again. On the contrary, He would break that arm and the other arm too, and cause the sword to fall out of Pharaoh's hand.

There are, mainly, two [causes of the judgment]. First, the pride and self-sufficiency already spoken of. Second, Egypt has been a breaking staff to Israel. It was a staff of reed, which offered much but 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, even though God had delivered them from that land… So for Israel's sake God must break this staff Himself, the one they leaned on.

The Lord sets up this Chaldean, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and commits the sword to him. God puts power in the earth into his hand — power to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do well. God placed it there formally, now that the glory of God has left the earth, and the Lord for the present refuses to take His place as King of Israel.

Egypt sought, in the self-will of man, to take the place which God had in fact given to Nebuchadnezzar. All must submit… What marked Egypt was the pride of nature, which would follow its own will and owned no God.

One point in this series of prophecies is important to note. The series begins with the judgment of Jerusalem, the centre of the former system of nations. God carries these judgments out to make all the nations know Jehovah… So these prophecies show us Jehovah's power in general. They make Him known to all by the judgments He executed. The conquests of Nebuchadnezzar realised this in part; it will be fully accomplished later on in favour of Israel.

There may be the silver and the gold, and the "tapestry, and carved work, and fine linen of Egypt" — but it is Egypt still! There may be its wisdom, its policy and power, its horses and chariots. But the word of the Lord still stands in all its force: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong… The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit."