Gold for the heart - Ezekiel 28-31

Ezekiel 28

1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, The Lord God says this; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are a man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God: 3 Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from you: 4 With your wisdom and with your understanding you have gotten riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures: 5 By your great wisdom and by your commerce you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches: 6 Therefore the Lord God says this; Because you have set your heart as the heart of God; 7 Behold, therefore I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of the nations: and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will defile your brightness. 8 They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die the deaths of those that are killed in the midst of the seas.

The prince of Tyre became proud though he did not create the universe or make himself. He was made by the Almighty God.

1Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you received it, why do you boast, as if you had not received it?

Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.

9 Will you still say before him that kills you, I am God? But you will be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that kills you. 10 You will die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners: for I have spoken it, says the Lord God.

Death in verse 10 is plural.
In Eden, man chose to follow the lie of evil rather than the truth God had told them.
God told Adam if he ate from the tree of evil ‘dying, you will die.’ That is two deaths—physical and spiritual.
You are not God if you can be killed.
To think you are God when you are not is the highest deception and pride.
Circumcision is the sign of the covenant with God of righteousness that comes by believing what God said (faith)—Genesis 17.
The king of Tyre would die the deaths of the uncircumcised.

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation on the king of Tyre, and say to him, The Lord God says this; You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius/ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day you were created. 14 You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so: you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

‘Covers’ is the Hebrew word ‘leads.’
This second lamentation or song of grief speaks of more than just the earthly king of Tyre.
Wings of the Cherubim cover the heavenly throne of God.
This was a cherub anointed or appointed by God to lead.
The Mount of God is the place of supreme authority.
All scholars consider this to be Satan.
He was beautiful. The images of Satan today are false.
Satan presents himself and his plan as all that is beautiful and good but He leaves out God.
He has varying religious systems to appeal to most persons on earth.
All the false religious of earth come from Him.
He makes them attractive while fulfilling the pride of our hearts and the lusts of our eyes, mind, flesh.
Stones of fire is explained by 1 Peter 2:5, God’s dwelling, our hearts.

1Peter 2:5 You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

God is going to cast out His anointed cherub

15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you. 16 By the multitude of your trade they have filled your midst with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Greed caused him to be filled with violence.
Our world system today also revolves around money and has much violence, from the common thief who kills to steal from someone to leaders and lawmakers who legislate the taking of unfair amounts of money and property from citizens.

Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And did not prevail; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may see you. 18 You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your commerce; therefore I will bring a fire from the midst of you, it will devour you, and I will bring you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those that look to you. 19 All those that know you among the people will be astonished at you: you will be a terror, and you will exist no more/cease to be, forever.

Luke 9:25 For what advantage is it to a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

20 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 21 Son of man, set your face against Zidon, and prophesy against it, 22 And say, The Lord God says this; Behold, I am against you O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you: and they will know that I am the LORD, when I have executed judgments in her, and will be sanctified in her. 23 For I will send pestilence to her and blood into her streets; and the wounded will be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they will know that I am the LORD. 24 And there no longer be a pricking brier unto the house of Israel or any grieving thorn of all that are round about them that despised them; and they will know that I am the Lord GOD.

Thorns were a curse that began in Genesis 3 when God needed to put some difficulties in life so that man might keep on the path back to God.

Revelation 22:3 And there will be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it; and his servants will serve him.

25 The Lord God says this; When I have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and will be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then they will dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. 26 And they will dwell safely in it, and will build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments on all those that despise them round about them; and they will know that I am the LORD their God.

2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.

Ezekiel 29

1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: 3 Speak, and say, The Lord God says this; Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers that has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.

God calls Pharoah the great dragon.
He is not a good shepherd of his people like he should be, like the Lord will be in Ezekiel 34.
Pharoah was motivated by evil and devoured his people.
Evil is the same today. All the false systems in the world use people and toss them aside as though they were nothing but the Lord died to save us.
The river is not Pharoah’s but the Lord’s.

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness of it; the world, and those that dwell in it.

4 But I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales, and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, and all the fish of your rivers will stick to your scales. 5 And I will leave you thrown into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers: you will fall on the open fields; you will not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given you for food to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. 6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 7 When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke and tore all their shoulder: and when they leaned on you, you broke, and made all their loins quake.

Everyone needs to lean on the LORD.
When others come to us for help, we need to help them lean on the LORD as well as helping with the immediate need.

James 2:16 And one of you say to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled; notwithstanding you do not give them those things that are needed by the body; what does it profit?

8 Therefore the Lord God says this; Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and cut off man and animal out of you. 9 And the land of Egypt will be desolate and waste; and they will know that I am the LORD: because he has said, The river is mine, and I have made it. 10 Behold, therefore I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. 11 No foot of man will pass through it, nor foot of animal will pass through it, neither will it be inhabited forty years. 12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste will be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

God blesses nations that seek Him and follow Him (Psalm 1).

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and do not lean unto your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

Psalm 108:12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

The Lord promises restoration after judgment

13 Yet the Lord God says this; At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the people where they were scattered: 14 And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they will be a lowly kingdom there. 15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms; it will not exalt itself above the nations any more: for I will diminish them, that they will no more rule over the nations. 16 And it will no longer be the confidence of the house of Israel, which brings their iniquity to remembrance, when they will look after them: but they will know that I am the Lord GOD.

Much of what God does is to show mankind that He alone is God, He controls all the universe, not the false things they believe in and trust.

John 10:7 Then said Jesus to them again, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 10 The thief comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

17 And it came to pass in the 27^thyear, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet he had no wages, nor his army, for Tyre, for the service that he had served against it: 19 Therefore the Lord God says this; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he will take her multitude, and take her plunder, and take her prey; and it will be the wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor which he did because they acted for me, says the Lord GOD. 21 In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give you the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they will know that I am the LORD.

The horn is the power.
God will give Israel power over the nations in the near future.
Nebuchadnezzar and his army did work for God.
They judged Tyre, the super mall of the nations.
They also were used by God to judge Israel.
Israel was supposed to be God’s light to lead the world back to Him.
God made Nebuchadnezzar His light for a time.

Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

Ezekiel 30

The day of the Lord is near

1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy and say, The Lord God says this; Howl, sad the day. 3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it will be the time of the nations. 4 And the sword will come upon Egypt, and great pain will be in Ethiopia, when those killed will fall in Egypt, and they will take away her multitude, and her foundations will be broken down. 5 Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, all the mingled people, Chub, and the men of the land allied with them, will fall together by the sword.

These men were going to be destroyed in battle.
The next verse reveals the source of this destruction was their pride.
The final day of the Lord is nearer for us than it ever has been. It gets closer each day.

6 The Lord says this; Also those that uphold Egypt will fall and the pride of her power will come down: from the tower of Syene they will fall in it by the sword, says the Lord GOD. 7 They will be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities will be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. 8 And they will know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers are broken. 9 In that day messengers will go out from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid. Great pain will come upon them as in the day of Egypt: behold, it comes.

In a world of imposters, the true God shows Himself by foretelling and then doing, so that the nations know for sure who is in charge of life and who is not.
Their eternal future depends on it.
Judgments pronounced from the Maker and Sustainer of the universe should cause fear, humbling, and change.

10 The Lord God says this; I will make the hordes of Egypt to stop by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the terrifying ones of the nations will be brought to destroy the land: they will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: I will make the land waste, and all that is in it, by the hand of foreigners: I, the LORD have spoken it.

God destroys false gods

13 The Lord God says this; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there will no longer be a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. 15 I will pour my fury upon Sin/Pelusium, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. 16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin will have great pain, No will be torn apart, and Noph will have distresses daily. 17 The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth will fall by the sword: and these cities will go into captivity. 18 At Tehaphnehes also the day will be darkened, when I break the yokes of Egypt: the arrogance of her strength will stop in her: as for her, a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity. 19 Thus I will execute judgments in Egypt: and they will know that I am the LORD.

Nations that worship false gods are leading their people to eternal death. That is unacceptable when the true God laid down His life for us that we might live with Him forever.

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to abide his indignation.

20 And in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; behold, it will not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. 22 Therefore the Lord God says this; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

God strengthens who He wants to and breaks who He wants to.
His wisdom and works are always impeccably right.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Psalm 68:28 Your God has commanded your strength: strengthen, O God, what you have worked for us.

He has the power to make or break

24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he will groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man. 25 But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall down; and they will know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretch it out on the land of Egypt. 26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they will know that I am the LORD.

God’s purpose is that we might know Him.

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

Ezekiel 31

1 It happened in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Who is you like in your greatness? 3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, with a shadowing shroud, high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. 4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running about his plants, and sent out her little rivers to all the trees of the field. 5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the many waters, when he shot forth. 6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches all the beasts of the field birthed their young, and all great nations dwelt under his shadow. 7 So he was beautiful in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like him in beauty.

God made him beautiful

9 I made him beautiful by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him. 10 Therefore the Lord God says this; Because you were exalted in height, and he has shot up his top among the clouds, and his heart is haughty in loftiness; 11 I have delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he will surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 And foreigners, the most ruthless/violent of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: his branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth have gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 13 All the fowls of the heaven will remain on his ruin, and all the beasts of the field will be upon his branches: 14 So that all of the trees by the waters not exalt themselves for their height, nor shoot their top up among the clouds, nor their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the lowest parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

Exalting self has terrible consequences.
Doesn’t it all come down to who we hold in highest regard? Ourselves or the One who made us. Who do we give the credit?

1Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you to differ from another? And what have you that you did not receive? Now if you received it, why do you boast, as if you had not received it?

Isaiah 45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not return, That unto me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear.

He caused mourning

15 The Lord God says this; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its floods, and the great waters were stopped: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 16 I made the nations shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, will be cheered in the lowest parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that are killed with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. 18 To whom are you like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lowest parts of the earth: you will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD.

God warned Pharaoh that he was going to die and go to hell like the king of Assyria if he didn’t humble himself before his Maker.

Isaiah 45:9 Woe to him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What are you making? … That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the LORD, do all these things.

Isaiah 51:12 I, even I, am he that comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass; 13 And forget the LORD your maker, that has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth…?

Luke 14:11 For whoever exalts himself will be abased; and he that humbles himself will be exalted.

**************************************

SUMMARY: Ezekiel 28-31

God is going to cast out His anointed cherub
The Lord promises restoration after judgment
The day of the Lord is near
God destroys false gods
He has the power to make or break
God made him beautiful
He caused mourning