7th April 2025

7th April 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ezekiel 30:20-26)


Message (Alan Burke) 


As I write this the financial markets are in turmoil to say the least. Trump announced Tariffs, China has hit back and I was reading the Farming Life (I don’t normally read it but was in someones house while they took a call) and it was saying how that NI is in a great place because we aren’t in Europe so we don’t face the 20% tariffs but because of the Windsor Framework we have an opportunity both in Europe and with the United Sates. How things are going to play out, how your pension pot is going to survive or your investments, mortgage rates and all of that I have no idea but I know that the Lord is sovereign over it all. In today’s passage where the Lord’s word comes to Ezekiel and gives a prophetic word against Egypt which is given a year after the siege of Jerusalem the Lord shows his sovereignty once more over the nations. Again just like throughout Ezekiel the Lord gives this prophecy in parabolic language. 


The imagery of this prophecy that comes against pharaoh is that the Lord has broken the arm of Pharaoh. In scripture the arm is a symbol of strength. It was by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm that the Lord brought his people out of Egypt (Deut 4;34). For the Lord to break the arm of Pharaoh was as if to say I have taken Pharaoh’s strength from him (also see Ps 10:15, Job 22:5). Not only would the Lord break one arm, he would break both the arms of Pharaoh. Pharaoh would not only have his strength taken from him he would be left mortally wounded, unable to defend himself, the sword would fall from his hand and he would be unable to do anything for himself. 


In contrast the Lord would strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon. What was being portrayed to the people of God who were in exile, who had faced the judgement of God is that even Pharaoh with all his might and strength would be helpless, he would be unable to attack being a threat to the nations around or even defend himself against invading armies and to the Babylonians he would give strength and power to come against the Egyptians. The Lord by his mighty hand and outstretched arm had bought his people out of Egypt many years before and now although it is not said as such the Lord by his mighty hand and outstretched arm is acting against Egypt once more. The Lord was putting his sword in the hands of the Babylonians and they would brandish it against Egypt. While Egypt would come to the aid of Jerusalem (Jer 37:5), while the inhabitants would face some respite (Jer 39:1) they would fall after the Lord brought his judgement against Egypt. 


The reason why is that the Lord had put his sword in the hand of the king of Babylon, they were acting as his divine prosecutor. Anyone who was against Babylon was against the Lord God himself. He was brining his just judgment upon his people because of their sin and even Pharaoh the divine king of Egypt could not thwart his purposes. Looking around in this world we do not have a cosmic perspective of all that is being played out but the Lord does, he is at work in it all. The Lord is sovereign, that he reigns over all, he was and is providentially in control. As the commentator Daniel Block puts it, “His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven”. I don’t know what tomorrow will look like never mind how the world will look in a year's time but the Lord does and he’s at work and what we need to do is to look to him and what he has done for us in Jesus Christ for our help is in him not the stock market, share prices, tariffs or anything else, the only thing we can have a confident hope in is in the salvation that comes in Jesus Christ. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q51 What is forbidden in the second commandment?
A.The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his Word.
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