When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.
God tells Ezekiel to sing a funeral song over Pharaoh. At its climax He says the sky itself will go black when He puts this king out. That picture raises two questions. Why is Egypt's fall told in the language of a collapsing sky? And does the darkness mean the real sky, or something else?
Why Egypt Falls
Four chapters here deal with one nation and one sin. God had given the place of rule to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Egypt wanted it for itself.
J. N. DarbyEzekiel 29–32 contain the judgment of Egypt. Egypt sought, in the self-will of man, to take the place which God had in fact given to Nebuchadnezzar. All must submit. The mighty empire of Assyria had already fallen. Pharaoh, whatever his claims and his ambition, was no better... What marked Egypt was the pride of human nature, which would follow its own will and owned no God.
Putting Out A Light
The verse opens with God putting Pharaoh out, and the sky goes dark with him. One writer reads the blackened sky as the regular picture for the fall of a government God set up.
F. W. GrantAll the bright lights of heaven would go black over him, and darkness would cover the land as sun and moon went dark. This is the standing picture for the pulling down of the powers God has appointed to keep order on the earth. A darkness in which people could hardly find their way pictured the chaos that followed. Everyone who saw it would be shaken.
Sun, Moon And Stars
The three lights are not the same. Each stands for a different rank of authority, and Joseph's dream shows that pattern early.
T. B. BainesThe sun stands for supreme authority, the moon for authority received from another, and the stars for authority under both. So in Joseph's dream, "the sun, the moon, and eleven stars" stand for Jacob, the head of the family, his wife, and his eleven sons. The sons were heads of families themselves, but still under their father. (Gen. 37:9.)
The same symbol works both ways. Here the sun belongs to Pharaoh, not to Christ.
J. N. DarbyScripture uses the sun again and again as a symbol, and as a symbol it means supreme power. Scripture says, "the sun of righteousness shall rise," and so on. But the sun may not always stand for Christ. Sometimes it may stand for God's enemy, as in Ezekiel 32:7. It means no more than the ruler of a given system.
Darkness Over One Land
The gloom is not worldwide. It has a boundary, and that boundary sets this passage apart from a similar scene in Revelation.
William KellyThe darkening of the stars, the clouding of the sun, and the taking away of the moon's light picture the political destruction of Egypt. Revelation adds a further and distinct feature. It seems to mark that judgment as falling only in the west. The eastern empire was not caught up in it, but bore its own judgment later. Here the gloom has one sphere: the land of Egypt.
Figure Or Physical Sky?
Commentators differ here. Kelly, looking at the same signs in Revelation, refuses to read the lights as astronomy.
William KellySome take what John saw in the vision as so many physical realities, to be proved later in the literal sun, moon, stars, and heaven. That opinion, I think, has been adopted without enough thought. If the stars really fell to the earth, would anyone still need to beg the mountains and rocks to fall on them?
Another writer takes the words at face value and points to the darkness at the cross.
C. E. StuartIt was certainly supernatural. It was the time of full moon, so no eclipse of the sun can account for it... At the fall of the king of Egypt God declared that He would cover the heavens, darken the stars, cloud the sun, and hold back the moon's light. How much more might that happen literally when the Creator was dying on the cross — the One who upholds everything by the word of His power!
The Same Words Reused
This verse does not stand alone. One writer places it in a pattern that runs through many passages.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHere it is the announcement of the day as it is to come upon Egypt and the nations... The day of the Lord is announced in many passages. It always goes with great troubles on the earth, and with tribulation for His earthly people. It comes to a head in these startling physical signs.
Summary
- Cause. Egypt's pride, its self-will, and its refusal to bow to the rule God had handed to Babylon bring the sentence down.
- Snuffed out. God puts Pharaoh out, and the lights of heaven go black over him. A dark sky pictures a fallen government and the chaos that follows.
- Ranked lights. The sun is supreme power, the moon power received from another, the stars power under both. Every level goes dark at once.
- Bounded. The darkness covers the land of Egypt, not the whole earth. Similar scenes elsewhere have their own limits.
- Reused. Commentators differ on whether this is a picture or a real sky. Either way, these words became the set language for the day of the Lord on the nations.