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; 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. 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. 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 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 (verses 10-14).
Judgment came upon Assyria and was also soon to fall upon Egypt because
they were lifted up and defied 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, I have therefore delivered him into
the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with
him; I have driven him out for his wickedness." Behind these nations of
the past stood, as we saw in connection with the King of Tyrus (chap.
xxviii), the dark shadow of the enemy of God. He is still the master
over the nations which act at the close of the times of the Gentiles.
Satan's crime is that he was and is lifted up with pride. He fell
because he said, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God ... I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isa. xiv:13-14). And this awful
being, the prince of this world, the god of this age, who domineers
still over the kingdoms of this world, till he is dethroned by the
coming of the Lord, has led in the past and still leads nations into
ruin and ripens them for divine judgment through pride and what goes
with it, defiance of God. Today our boasting, proud, lifted up and
God-defiant age, an age which rejects God's best, the Gospel of His Son,
is rapidly approaching the threatened judgment, a judgment far more
severe than those which overtook Assyria and Egypt.
The one mentioned as "the mighty one of the nations" is Nebuchadnezzar,
whom God used to bring judgment upon Egypt, as we learned from the
previous chapters. He was the golden head of the image which represents
the times of the Gentiles, which may soon take on their final form, the
ten kingdoms in the revived Roman Empire (Dan. ii). Nebuchadnezzar also
became lifted up and God humbled him for seven years, as God will yet
humble the nations of Christendom.[25] And the judgments of the past,
upon Assyria and others is to be a warning to others "to the end that
none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height"
(verse 13). But who among the nations is wise and heeds the warnings of
God's holy Word? See also Rom. xi:16-24, where Christendom is warned not
to boast and not to be high minded.
[25] See Exposition of Daniel, by A. C. G., on Dan. iii-vi.
III. The Overthrow and the Consternation among the Nations as the result
of Egypt's fall.
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. 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. 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. 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" (verses 15-18).
The word "hell," mentioned several times in this paragraph does not mean
the lake of fire, the final and eternal abode of the wicked, but the
word is "sheol," the abode of the dead, the unknown regions. It does not
mean the grave, for which there is another word used in the Hebrew. The
grave receives the bodies; but the immaterial part of man, that which
has endless being, goes to Sheol, a word which expresses the unseen and
unknown. To sheol the wicked and the nations who forget God have been
turned (Psalm ix:17) to await their final doom as revealed in Rev.
xx:11-15. The fate of Assyria as well as of Egypt inspired the
surrounding nations with fear; these nations are mentioned under the
figure of trees, "and all the trees of the field mourned for him." The
nations shook with terror when the powerful world-power was stripped of
all its greatness and passed away. And when Assyria came into sheol and
also Egypt, they found other nations there. These are mentioned by the
term "all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that
drink water." These terms are symbolical of human greatness, glory and
prosperity. And these once powerful and prosperous nations were
"comforted" to find that even Pharaoh would share their fate and the
fate of Assyria. It shows that the disembodied state in sheol is not an
unconscious state, but one of consciousness. The next chapter, the final
one on Egypt's judgment and fate will show us more of this.