The God Over all Nations

I had a good report from our primary care doctor yesterday. She was disappointed that she didn’t keep me out of the hospital, but  my hospitalization ended up being a good proactive response to some of my symptoms. Yesterday I drove myself to the doctor’s appointment. So that was a first! I am gradually becoming more independent and figuring out how to get myself around and still manage my energy level. While I am glad that I am able to drive, I am good for about one or two trips a day. That is probably because of the effort it takes to walk with the walker or get the wheelchair out of the trunk.

So I am definitely in a new phase of my recovery and that is exciting and challenging all at the same time.

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY….”Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the Lord…this is what the Sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they were scattered. I will bring them back from captivity and return them to Upper Egypt, the land of their ancestry. There they will be a lowly kingdom. It will be the lowliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the other nations.”  Ezekiel 29:9,13-15

I recall the tour Debbie and I had the opportunity to take in 2000 to Egypt and Israel. It was a fascinating first time experience for both of us. Visiting Egypt and looking at the pyramids and reflecting on the power and influence of ancient Egypt was an insightful experience. We see Egypt in the Bible as a world power. It was the place that God’s people lived and multiplied in numbers for 400 years until the exodus. When God’s people were in the promised land Egypt was the place where individuals ran for refuge. Solomon took a wife from Egypt, which was a recognition of the nation’s power and the traditional way to keep a more powerful nation from attacking you. Hundreds of years later when Jerusalem was falling to the Babylonians there was a group that was intent on escaping God’s judgment through going to Egypt.

The question that came to my mind was, “what happened to Egypt?” “What did its political and social and cultural prominence come to an end?”

I found it interesting when I read the prophecies in Ezekiel concerning Egypt. God’s judgment was not only on the nation of Israel but on Egypt and other nations at that time. God is making it clear that He is the God who governs over all nations and all people. In Biblical times and some times today people can look at God as being only concerned about a nation or a few nations, somewhat of a “regional” God.

However, it is God’s desire for all nations to know that “He is the Lord.” Four times in Ezekiel 29 you will find the expression, “then they will know the I am the Lord.” God pronounced a captivity and a restoration for  Egypt, just as he did Judah. When the exodus took place  the Lord God showed Himself greater than all the gods of Egypt and now through the prophecy of Ezekiel He is once again showing His sovereign rule.

So what? The take away is to understand that God is still sovereign over all His creation. Just as He was at work in the past He is still at work in the world today. What we as Geo-political changes and upheavals may be God orchestrating His divine plane. For example, back in the 1980’s I read  something about end time events in the Bible. My thought was, “for that to happen the Soviet Union as we know it today will have to come to an end.” And then, when what I thought would never happen, happened, it got my attention!

The other reoccurring theme is, “then they will know that I am the Lord.God’s desire to to be known by all people as the “Lord.” The one who is awesome in power, yet our savior and provider and the one who continually manifests His loving kindness to all those who call on His name.