This afternoon, if you have your Bibles, we want to continue our study through the book of Ezekiel. And this afternoon, we’re going to come to chapter 31, where the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria. So Ezekiel chapter 31 this afternoon.
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude;
Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches,
and with a shadowing shroud, and of an 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 round about his plants,
and sent out her little rivers unto 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 multitude of waters,
when he shot forth.
6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs,
and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young,
and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
7 Thus was he fair 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 chesnut trees were not like his branches;
nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches:
so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
10 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; 11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: 14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
15 Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 16 I made the nations to 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, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.
Ezekiel 31
Let’s just bow in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word. And Lord, help us to understand what God is trying to show us and reveal to us through this chapter.
And Lord, the things that you revealed to Ezekiel about what was going on and still going on in the world today. Lord, help us to see the great spiritual battle that is really raging on, but is one day coming to a climax. And Father, you will be victorious.
Lord, speak to us through your word, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen. At this time, Ezekiel is captive in Babylon, and he is with a number of other people that have been placed in a city a little outside of Babylon. And he has freedom to meet with the other Jewish captives and to teach and instruct them.
Ezekiel is of the priestly line. Daniel was of the royal line. And so we see that Ezekiel, God has called Ezekiel and revealed him various prophecies.
Now this prophecy today, as you read through it, you go, well, wait a second, it sounds like he’s talking about, first he’s talking about Assyria, then he’s talking about, it almost sounds like a personality that can’t be the king of Assyria. And then he concludes it by saying, and this is Pharaoh. So what’s the whole concept of this chapter, and what is God showing us through this? Well, the first thing I want you to understand is the spirit of wickedness and of Satan has been at work in nations throughout the history of the world.
And if you look at, when we were studying Daniel, Daniel was, it was revealed to Daniel, the four great nations. The first, there was the Babylonians, then the Medo-Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans, and then the Romans would rise again. And we saw that there were those four great nations, five with the resurrection of the Roman Empire, and that they all possessed the same spirit.
It was a spirit that was against God. It was a spirit that was motivated by Satan himself. Earlier, Ezekiel, when he was bringing his prophecies dealing with the nation of Tyre, talked about the king of Tyre.
And that king could not be who he was really talking about because it talked about the fact that he had been a cherub in the presence of God. It talked about the fact that he was there in the Garden of Eden. And so it was really describing, in that chapter, many of the characteristics and the personality and who Satan is, and that he was a fallen cherub.
This chapter, as well, as you look at it, many of the characteristics given to the king of Assyria and then transferred to speak of Pharaoh are the very characteristics of Satan himself. And at the center of it all is great pride and arrogance. Now, I want you to understand that Satan has always attempted to wage war against God, and he’s always brought he’s stirred in the hearts of men who are rebellious in nature and want to rise up against God.
And he’s brought up and raised up men to rule over them. I was just listening to a man earlier who has studied a lot of history. And one of the things that he was studying, he said that America is unique in all of history in the type of government we have.
He said every other government that’s been since the time of Saul, prior to Saul, the nation of Israel was different. But after Saul, Saul became the king. And the king had absolute power.
He was the authority over all the people. And the people were accountable and answered to him. Those who were his friends were close to him.
Those who were not his friends but obeyed him became more of us as servants. And those who tried to fight against him became his enemies. And this was the structure it was.
It was like a pyramid with at the top you had the leader. Well, that type of structure goes back to the Tower of Babel. It was the first time you really see it.
And it’s the first one world government that was initiated, and that was initiated by Nimrod. And Nimrod was inspired by Satan. And if you look at throughout history, that type of government has been the standard.
You have a small group or an individual who would be the authority over the many, and the many would not have freedoms unless that individual gave them to them. Our nation was totally different. Our founders looked at scripture, and they also went back to what was it like in Israel before they had King Saul? Now, why did they want a king? Because every other nation had a king.
Well, what was different about them? They had no king. They had God would raise up godly men or women to lead them. He called them judges, but they weren’t kings.
They didn’t have absolute authority. Every person, there was a degree of accountability to the Lord. They were responsible for going to temple.
They were responsible for bringing their sacrifices. They were responsible for worshiping the Lord. God didn’t force them to do anything like that.
But if they failed in worshiping and acknowledging him and worshiped other gods, then judgment would come because they were presented the truth as really no other nation had at that time. Our nation was based upon that in that we are a nation that has, from the bottom up, not the top down. Every individual person has freedoms and accountability and responsibility to walk in righteousness and holiness, and it’s not directed by the government, although the government keeps wanting to take that authority back and make our nation, much like the nation of Israel, wanted to have a king.
They wanted that authority like everybody else instead of looking to the Lord. If you have a nation that is not governed by a king but is rather following the will and the purposes of God, it is what God fully intended because he is the king. He is the one to be the final authority.
He’s the one to give us direction and purpose. Well, the nation of Israel, during the time of Ezekiel, kept wanting to look to powers to be their deliverer and not call on the name of the Lord. Remember during the time of Jeremiah, as we’ve talked about the last couple times we met, the nation of Israel was being attacked for the third time.
The people went to Jeremiah, and they said, should we go down to Egypt? Egypt was Pharaoh, and you’ve gotta look at the structure of the world at that time. Pharaoh and Egypt were a great power, but Babylon was the rising power and the power. It would be like what is going on in our world today.
The U.S. has, at the present time, much more power, which has been evidenced, what’s going on in the Middle East, things that they can do that Russia and China can’t do, but Russia and China still are powers, and there are people that look to them for help, just like there’s people that look to the U.S. for help. Well, it was no different during the time that Ezekiel lived, and the Jews wanted to look to Egypt to deliver them from the hand of the Babylonians. God said, no, look to me.
Trust in me. Believe in me. I’m telling the remnant of you that are left in the land after the first two invasions by Nebuchadnezzar, and he’s invading for the third time, stay in the land, and you will be my testimony of my power and authority in the land.
Well, they didn’t do it. They went to Egypt, and so Ezekiel is dealing with Egypt. The last two times, we looked, first of all, the fact that God’s judgment was coming on Egypt.
Last time, we looked at the judgment that came on Egypt, and tonight, we’re gonna be looking at the leader of Egypt, and what is God saying about those who trust in powers and authorities of men of this world to be their deliverers instead of the Lord? It’s interesting. He says, and it came to pass in the 11th year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, and the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to his multitude, whom art thou like in thy greatness. So he’s saying, who are you like in your greatness? Who do you think that you’re like? Well, evidently, Ezekiel’s going to compare him to the king of Assyria, and the king of Assyria had been a powerful, he was the most powerful king prior to Nebuchadnezzar, and also, Pharaoh would have to stand right there with him, but the Assyrian king was more powerful.
Where did Assyria come from? Where did that whole country come from? Well, when Nimrod established Babylon, he also established Assyria, and Assyria was established by Nimrod, and Nineveh in Assyria was one of the cities that Nimrod established. Whose beliefs would the king of Assyria have, having that as his foundation? It would be Nimrod’s beliefs. Whose beliefs did Nimrod have? Satan.
Satan had inspired Nimrod, and had presented to him the opportunity to be king of the world, and Nimrod took him up on it. And we see that this is the foundation that he laid for Assyria. That foundation has been alive ever since the Babylonian empire under Nimrod.
It went to Assyria, then it went to Babylon, then from Babylon, it went to the Medo-Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans. If you look at it, it was the same philosophies, it was the same pagan gods, they just gave them different names, and just worshiped them, but they worshiped them very similar, and they believed and trusted in them instead of the true and living God. So you see this flowing through history.
Today, we have the same things, and the false religions of the world, it’s amazing, you begin to examine the false religions. There are many people that don’t know the difference between, for example, Mormonism and Christianity, Jehovah Witnesses and Christianity. They think that they’re both Christian, they’re not Christian.
And if you look at, for example, Mormonism, and you compare Mormonism to Masonry, which both of them have the same foundation, and if you look at what they really believe, they believe Satan is the good guy, and God, or Adonai, is the bad guy. If you go and look at the other religions of the world, Islam, Islam says that God has no son. Well, what God are they worshiping? They’re worshiping, ultimately, Satan, and it’s a Satanic religion that’s been dressed up with certain terms that can be related to Christianity because Muhammad stole ideas from various religions to create a religion, but its real foundations are back at the Tower of Babel.
He wants world conquest, he wants absolute authority, and he wants to be a pinnacle ruler with his God as the underlying one who will rule. His God has no mercy. His God doesn’t show forgiveness.
Who does that sound like? Satan. And it’s the same religions that all of these other religions have. Well, as Pharaoh is saying, the Lord’s going, who am I gonna compare you against? Well, I’ll compare you against Assyria.
You think Assyria was such a wonderful place. Well, let’s look at Assyria. He says it was raised up, and they were like, he describes these nations by using trees, and part of it is if you went to Lebanon at this time in history and went to that portion of the world, trees were a big thing.
I mean, it talks about the cedars of Lebanon, and it talks about the other different trees in that world throughout Scripture, and it often compares the greatness to these various trees. Well, the king of Assyria, he was the best tree there was. He was the tallest tree.
He stood above the other trees, so much so that it says all the fowl of the air came to rest in him, and the fowl of the air would be every person and wicked and evil spirit would come and rest in the king of Assyria in his kingdom. Now, what did the king of Assyria also have? He had great control over the other nations. He had power, and all the other nations were underneath his control.
And so Ezekiel’s saying, Pharaoh, you wanna be like somebody, so you wanna be like the king of Assyria. You wanna be this great person who’s gonna have absolute power and authority. Everyone’s gonna have to answer to you.
You will have control and power over them all. But he says what? He was raised up in pride, but he was tore down by the Lord. He didn’t stand.
The king of Assyria could not stand. And I want you to just look at some of the things. Verse six, it says, all the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all the great nations.
This is the influence that he had. As you begin to look at this, you’ll also see some things that are going to be very evident that are characteristics of someone that we are seeing, his kingdom beginning to be established in the day in which we live, and he’s rising to power, and that is the Antichrist. All of these great leaders who were ungodly leaders were directed by Satan, and Satan didn’t know when Jesus was coming.
For sure, Satan doesn’t know when he’s coming back, for sure. So Satan’s always had his man. He’s always had his, if you would, Antichrist in the wings, ready to be there to take authority.
Well, this man, the king of Assyria, had control over all the nations. He, thus was he fair in his greatness in the length of his branches, for his roof was by great waters. In other words, he had coverings, and he dealt equitably with all the nations.
He gave them covering and power as long as they would answer to him and come under his covering. Now, 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 any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
Now, if you look at this, again, going back to earlier when he was comparing to the king of Tyre, it’s almost as if he’s not just speaking about the king of Assyria, he’s speaking about Satan himself. He stood in the garden, and there was no tree like him. The Bible tells us earlier in Ezekiel that Satan was created as a beautiful being, and he was created to lead the worship before the Lord himself.
And the beauty that is described earlier, you can’t even imagine it in your mind, because it says he was covered with all these jewels and gold, he was covered, and he was just beautiful to look on. And he also had a wonderful voice, because it says that as well. And the thing is, as he was being this one, no one in the garden of Eden, none of the other angels, none of the other created beings could compare to him.
Well, that’s the king of Assyria. Well, it’s somebody more than the king of Assyria. It’s Satan himself.
And he stood, and therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up on his height. I have, therefore, delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen. He shall surely deal with him.
I have delivered him out of his wickedness. That’s exactly what happened to Satan. He was lifted up by pride and arrogance.
That’s what happened to the king of Assyria. He thought, no one can conquer me, no one. I’m the greatest.
Remember Muhammad Ali, he always bragged, I’m the greatest, I’m the greatest, till one day he got beat. But the thing is, one can say whatever they want, but ultimately, God’s in control. And God said, there’s coming a day of reckoning for you.
You’ve exalted yourself above everything else, but I’m going to take you down. And I’m going to take you down by another king. What happened to the Assyrian kingdom? The Assyrian kingdom was taken over by the Babylonian kingdom.
Babylon conquered Assyria. And the one who thought he was unconquerable was conquered. And even the nations that he had conquered, many of them came into captivity in Babylon.
Some of them were sent back to their original countries. But the thing is, the Assyrian kingdom fell. And he was brought down, even as the Lord said he would be.
And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him upon the mountains. In all the valleys, his branches were fallen, his boughs were broken by all the rivers of the land, and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow and have left him. They looked to him and said, he is the greatest, but today he’s not so great.
And so they cast him aside as well. God is the only one that is worthy of eternal adoration and worship. Men raise themselves up and people think they’re great.
That’s one of the great dangers even we have in our nation today. People are looking for a man. They’re not looking to God.
And when you look for a man, the man can be raised up, but what happens? He’s tore down because he’s a man. And when he’s tore down, the very people that were there to exalt and lift him up and worship him are the first ones to trample him under. That’s what happened to the Assyrian king.
That’s what God said. And he said, this is going to happen to you, Pharaoh, because you have admired the king of Assyria. You want to be like him.
You want to worship the gods he worshiped. You want to have the power he had. Well, I want you to see where he ended up.
The very ones that sought him for direction and help are now the ones that are turning on him and have trampled him down. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches. To the end that none of all the trees of the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water, for they are all delivered unto death to the nether parts of the earth in the midst of the children of men and them that go down to the pit.
So if you trust and want to build upon what’s left of the remnants of the Assyrian Empire and what they believed, that’s going to be your destiny. You’re not going to be able to grow. You’re not going to be able to exalt yourself.
But instead, God will judge you, and ultimately that judgment’s going to be an eternal judgment, and you’ll go down to the very pits of hell. And the Bible tells us that in the book of John, in the book of Revelation, rather, where it talks about the great white throne judgment. Every man that has ever lived that his name’s not written in the book of life will have to stand before the Lord and give account of his life.
And when his name’s not written there, it says that he shall go into the lake of fire which was created for the devil and his angels, not for man, but he chose to build his life upon that type of belief system, and so he’ll suffer the same consequences. And then, so he’s telling this all to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Thus saith the Lord God, in the day when he went down to the grave, I caused a mourning.
I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed, and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. And I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall when I cast him down to hell with them that descended into the pit.