Dead Men Tell Tales

by Harry Rimmer

The strongest voice that was raised for God in this dark hour was that of Ezekiel. At this time, the prophet was in Babylon and from there he spoke the words that are found in the first sixteen verses of his twenty-ninth chapter. This is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive and remarkable prophecies concerning any nation that the student of this fascinating subject may deal with. For the sake of refreshing the mind of the reader, we publish here this prophecy in full:

“In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.

“But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

“And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beast of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.

“And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

“When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand. Therefore thus said the Lord God; Behold I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.

“And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the Lord: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.

“Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.

“No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

“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 shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

“Yet thus saith the Lord God; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered;

“And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.

“It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.

“And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord God.”

Analyzing this prophecy, we note the personal element that is introduced when God arrayed himself against Hophra and all of the land of Egypt. This people who, as we have seen, worshipped the Nile and counted it a deified object, had also acquiesced in the claims of Hophra who went so far as to state that he was the one who had made the river and caused it to continue to flow. Adopting this figure, the prophet speaking for God, says that Hophra shall be caught like the fish and cast into the fields by the side of the banks.

The sixth verse states that all the population of Egypt is to be taught a bitter lesson. They shall know forever that God is Lord, in the punishment they shall reap for their defections against Israel.

Verse eight contains the information that this punishment is to take the form of an invasion that shall leave the land desolate and waste. This punishment was to come upon the land and the people because of their idolatry and their sins against Israel.

From verses ten to twelve, a bleak picture is drawn of utter desolation which shall prevail in their land for forty years. The prophecy then turns upon the pivot of the thirteenth verse to a time of a partial restoration. This restoration, however, is limited in the Divine Word to the effect that Egypt shall be the basest of the kingdoms of the earth. It shall never be permitted to exalt itself again in the council of the nations. It is to be eternally diminished and debased.

The consequent history of Egypt has been a complete vindication and fulfillment of this prophecy. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and carried away the last remnant of that graceless people into captivity in Babylon. All those who had joined in the defection of Zedekiah, great and small, old and young, they slew with the sword. Then the angry Nebuchadnezzar swept on into Egypt and devastated that land, until, it is recorded, “not a living thing, man or beast,” was left in that once populous country.

For forty years it lay, wasted and idle. Then the counselors of Nebuchadnezzar advised that the land be colonized in order that it might produce revenue for the crown. The first attempt failed because of the climate and the unique conditions of agriculture in a country that required constant irrigation and whose crops depended upon the sole source of moisture the river Nile. Therefore, the counselors gathered together such remnant of the Egyptians as remained from the captivity and sent them back to repopulate the land.

Every student of history will recall that Egypt has been the basest of kingdoms from that hour to this. It has been dominated in turn by the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, the French, and the British.

One notable effort was made in historic time to raise Egypt to its former grandeur and power. The reader will recall the great campaign of Napoleon by which he thought to revive this Mistress of Antiquity and make Egypt an adjunct of his own imperial greatness. If Napoleon had read and believed the twenty-ninth chapter of Ezekiel, he could have spared himself this useless and expensive campaign. We all recall that when victory seemed to be in sight, Napoleon’s power and greatness shattered itself upon an immovable rock. This was composed of the small remnant of indomitable British who refused to recognize the fact of their defeat when it stared them in the face. And that courageous and noble refusal to give up, when they were quite evidently hopelessly overthrown, was again vindicated in the final result. The army of Napoleon was broken, discomfited, decimated, and defeated. Finally, it was deserted by its discouraged leader, who probably never knew why he had failed. He was not fighting against the allies only, nor was he defeated entirely by British valour. Napoleon was fighting against the Word of God and the will of Him whose hand is able to raise to power and to cast down again. From that hour to this, and even in our present moment of historic time, Egypt remains the basest of the kingdoms of the earth.