The Deconstruction of a Dragon Text: Ezekiel 32:1-16
Introduction: The Pride of Leviathan
We come now to a passage that is a funeral dirge, a lamentation. But it is a funeral dirge sung in advance, a prophecy of a death that is certain to come. The subject of this grim song is none other than Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. In the ancient world, Egypt was a superpower, a titan, a civilization that measured its history in millennia. And Pharaoh was the pinnacle of that power, a man who was considered a god, the incarnation of Horus, the son of Ra. When he spoke, a nation moved. When he frowned, the world trembled. He was, in his own mind and in the mind of his people, the center of the world.
But the God of Israel, Yahweh, the God of a ragtag bunch of exiles sitting by the canals of Babylon, has a very different view. God sees the self-important strutting of men and nations, and He is not impressed. The theme of this chapter, and indeed much of Ezekiel's prophecies against the nations, is the absolute sovereignty of God over the ludicrous pretensions of men. Man, especially political man, has a recurring tendency to deify himself. He builds his towers, his armies, his economies, and he looks at what he has made and says, "My river is my own; I have made it for myself" (Ezekiel 29:3). This is the essential sin of pride, the sin of Nebuchadnezzar strutting on his palace roof, the sin of Caesar demanding worship, the sin of every state that sets itself up as the ultimate authority, the final arbiter of right and wrong.
And God's response to this kind of arrogance is threefold. First, He mocks it. He deflates the ego of the proud with divine satire. Second, He destroys it. He brings the whole edifice of human pride crashing down into the dust. And third, He does this for a very specific purpose: "Then they shall know that I am Yahweh" (v. 15). God dismantles the little gods of this world so that all the world might know that He alone is God. This is not just ancient history. The spirit of Pharaoh is alive and well. It lives in every government that claims ultimate jurisdiction over the family, the church, and the conscience. It thrives in every ideology that promises a man-made utopia. And so, this lament for a long-dead king is a timeless warning for us. We must learn to see the world as God sees it, to recognize the beasts and monsters of our own day, and to trust in the God who holds the net and wields the sword.
The Text
And it happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, ‘You liken yourself to a young lion of the nations, Yet you are like the monster in the seas; And you burst forth in your rivers And muddied the waters with your feet And fouled their rivers.’ ” Thus says Lord Yahweh, “So I will spread My net over you With an assembly of many peoples, And they shall bring you up in My net. I will abandon you on the land; I will hurl you on the open field. And I will cause all the birds of the sky to dwell on you, And I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you. I will put your flesh on the mountains And fill the valleys with your refuse. I will also make the land drink the discharge of your blood As far as the mountains, And the ravines will be full of you. And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, And the moon will not give its light. All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you And will give darkness on your land,” Declares Lord Yahweh. “I will also vex the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction among the nations, into lands which you have not known. I will make many peoples appalled at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they will tremble every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your downfall.” For thus says Lord Yahweh, “The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you. By the swords of the mighty ones I will cause your multitude to fall; all of them are ruthless ones of the nations, And they will devastate the lofty pride of Egypt, And all its multitude will be destroyed. I will also make all its cattle perish from beside many waters; And the foot of man will not muddy them anymore, And the hoofs of beasts will not muddy them. Then I will make their waters settle And will cause their rivers to run like oil,” Declares Lord Yahweh. “When I make the land of Egypt a desolation, And the land is desolate of its its fullness, When I strike all those who inhabit it, Then they shall know that I am Yahweh. This is a lamentation, and they shall lament over it. The daughters of the nations shall lament over it. Over Egypt and over all her multitude they shall lament over it,” declares Lord Yahweh.
(Ezekiel 32:1-16 LSB)
The Divine Takedown (vv. 1-2)
The prophecy begins with a specific date and a command to Ezekiel.
"And it happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 'Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him...'" (Ezekiel 32:1-2a)
God is the Lord of history. The events He decrees are tied to our calendar. This isn't a vague, "once upon a time" myth. This is dated, historical, and verifiable. Ezekiel is commanded to sing a funeral song for a man who is still very much alive and powerful. This is the supreme confidence of God. He speaks of the future as though it has already happened, because in His decree, it has.
And now comes the divine mockery, the takedown. God addresses Pharaoh's public relations campaign directly.
"‘You liken yourself to a young lion of the nations, Yet you are like the monster in the seas; And you burst forth in your rivers And muddied the waters with your feet And fouled their rivers.’" (Ezekiel 32:2b)
Pharaoh saw himself as a lion, the king of the beasts. This was standard royal imagery in the ancient Near East. It projects strength, majesty, and ferocity. "I am a lion, noble and powerful." But God says, "No, that's not what you are at all. You think you are a lion, but you are actually a tannin, a great sea monster." This is likely a reference to the crocodile, the apex predator of the Nile. But it's more than that. The sea and its monsters in Scripture often represent the forces of chaos and rebellion against God. So God is saying, "You see yourself as a noble king, but I see you as a chaotic, thrashing beast, a crocodile wallowing in the mud."
And what does this monster do? He muddies the water with his feet. This is a brilliant image. Instead of bringing order and clarity, which is the proper task of a ruler, Pharaoh brings chaos and confusion. His political machinations, his alliances, his foreign policy, they don't create stability. They just stir up the mud. He fouls his own rivers. His pride and ambition are self-polluting and self-destructive. He is a source of contamination, not blessing. This is God's assessment of every proud, unbelieving political power. It thinks it is a lion, but it is really a dragon, making a mess of everything it touches.
The Great Hunt (vv. 3-6)
Because Pharaoh is a monster, God will treat him like one. He will hunt him down.
"Thus says Lord Yahweh, 'So I will spread My net over you With an assembly of many peoples, And they shall bring you up in My net. I will abandon you on the land; I will hurl you on the open field.'" (Ezekiel 32:3-4a)
The imagery is of a great hunt for a crocodile or hippopotamus. God is the master hunter. The "assembly of many peoples" refers to the armies of Babylon, but notice who is in charge. It is God's net. Nebuchadnezzar is simply the tool God uses to haul this beast out of its native environment. The monster is powerful in the water, in the Nile, in his own kingdom. But God will drag him out onto dry land, onto the open field, where he is helpless and exposed. This is what God does to the proud. He removes them from their power base, from the environment where they feel secure, and exposes them for what they are.
And the humiliation is total and grotesque.
"And I will cause all the birds of the sky to dwell on you, And I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you. I will put your flesh on the mountains And fill the valleys with your refuse. I will also make the land drink the discharge of your blood As far as the mountains, And the ravines will be full of you." (Ezekiel 32:4b-6)
This is the language of utter de-creation. The body of this god-king will not be carefully mummified and placed in a grand pyramid. It will be a public feast for scavengers. His carcass will be flung across the landscape, his blood soaking the ground. This is a picture of complete and shameful defeat. The one who thought he was the source of life for Egypt will become a source of death and pollution. His body will fill the ravines. This is a reversal of his ambition. He wanted to fill the world with his glory; God will fill it with his rotting corpse. This is a stark reminder that the wages of sin, and particularly the sin of pride, is a very ugly death.
Cosmic Deconstruction (vv. 7-10)
The fall of Pharaoh is not just a political event. It is a cosmic one. His demise is accompanied by the dismantling of the created order.
"And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, And the moon will not give its light. All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you And will give darkness on your land," Declares Lord Yahweh." (Ezekiel 32:7-8)
In the ancient world, the king was seen as the guarantor of cosmic order. His health and success were tied to the health and success of the cosmos. Egypt, in particular, was obsessed with the sun god Ra. Pharaoh was his son. The sun's rising and setting was the foundation of their stability. God says, "When I snuff you out, I will snuff out your whole universe." The extinguishing of Pharaoh is the extinguishing of the lights. This is Day One of creation in reverse. God said, "Let there be light." Now, in judgment, He says, "Let there be darkness."
This is a polemic against the pagan worldview. You think your king holds the world together? You think your gods control the sun and stars? I will show you who is in charge. I will turn off the lights on your whole civilization. This is apocalyptic language, and it is used throughout Scripture to describe great acts of judgment in history (Isaiah 13:10; Joel 2:31). The fall of a great, godless nation is a world-ending event for that nation. And the news of this judgment will send shockwaves through the world.
"I will also vex the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction among the nations... I will make many peoples appalled at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they will tremble every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your downfall." (Ezekiel 32:9-10)
The fall of Egypt is a lesson for everyone else. When a superpower collapses, it makes all the other rulers nervous. They see God's sword flashing, and they realize it could be their turn next. God's judgments are public object lessons. He is teaching the world about His power, His justice, and the utter folly of defying Him.
The Instrument and the Result (vv. 11-16)
God now names His chosen instrument of this judgment.
"For thus says Lord Yahweh, 'The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you. By the swords of the mighty ones I will cause your multitude to fall; all of them are ruthless ones of the nations, And they will devastate the lofty pride of Egypt, And all its multitude will be destroyed.'" (Ezekiel 32:11-12)
God is sovereign over the nations. He raises up one to put down another. Babylon is not acting autonomously. Their sword is God's sword. They are described as "ruthless," and God uses their ruthlessness to accomplish His righteous purpose, which is to "devastate the lofty pride of Egypt." God is not squeamish. He will use hard men to do hard things in His service, whether they know they are serving Him or not.
And the result of this devastation will be a strange kind of peace. A deathly quiet.
"I will also make all its cattle perish from beside many waters; And the foot of man will not muddy them anymore, And the hoofs of beasts will not muddy them. Then I will make their waters settle And will cause their rivers to run like oil,' Declares Lord Yahweh." (Ezekiel 32:13-14)
Remember how Pharaoh, the thrashing monster, muddied the waters? Now, with him and his people gone, the waters will finally run clear. The land will be depopulated. The frantic, muddying activity of man will cease. The rivers will run slow and dark like oil. This is a picture of desolation. It is the peace of the grave. The chaos of man's pride has been replaced by the quiet of God's judgment.
And all of this leads to the ultimate conclusion, the great purpose statement that echoes throughout the book of Ezekiel.
"When I make the land of Egypt a desolation... When I strike all those who inhabit it, Then they shall know that I am Yahweh." (Ezekiel 32:15)
This is the goal. God is not arbitrary. His judgments are revelatory. He deconstructs the false gods and the proud nations so that there is nothing left to trust in, nothing left to look at, except Him. He brings men to the end of themselves so that they might finally be forced to reckon with who He is. Some will learn this lesson in repentance and faith. Others, like Pharaoh, will learn it in judgment and destruction. But one way or another, everyone will learn that He is Yahweh, the sovereign Lord of all.
The chapter concludes by reaffirming that this is a lament. It is a song to be sung by the nations, a memorial to the fall of a great beast. It is a lesson set to music, so that no one will forget what happens when a man or a nation exalts itself against God.
Conclusion: Knowing Yahweh
It is easy for us to read this and think of it as a harsh story about a distant tyrant. But the principle is perennial. The central contest in all of human history is the contest for the throne. Who is God? Who is Lord? Every man, every institution, every nation must answer that question.
The spirit of Pharaoh is the spirit of autonomous man. It is the spirit of our age. It is the temptation to believe that we are lions, that we are the masters of our fate, that our technology, our politics, our philosophies can save us. We think we are building a new world order, but we are just a monster thrashing in the river, muddying the waters, fouling everything we touch.
God's response is the same today as it was then. He will catch the proud in His net. He will expose them. He will bring their arrogant projects to ruin. He will do this in history, through the rise and fall of nations. And He will do it definitively at the end of history, when the Lord Jesus returns with a sword brandished before all the kings of the earth.
The good news is that we do not have to learn this lesson the hard way. The purpose of this text, and all of God's warnings, is to drive us to repentance. It is to make us see the futility of our own pride and to turn to the one true King, Jesus Christ. He is the one who truly conquered the great dragon, the serpent of old, Satan himself. He did it not by acting like a lion, but by becoming a lamb, slain for the sin of the world.
The choice before us is simple. We can identify with Pharaoh, the proud beast who is caught, slain, and disgraced. Or we can identify with Christ, the humble Lamb who was slain but is now risen and enthroned. One path ends with the darkness of judgment, the other with the light of eternal life. One path ends with the terrified trembling of the kings of the earth, the other with the joyful song of the redeemed. Therefore, let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt us. Let us learn the lesson of Pharaoh's lament, so that we might join in the song of the Lamb. For He alone is Yahweh, and besides Him there is no other.