Through the Bible (Ezekiel 28:20-32:32)

ezekiel chapter 28 we looked at on sunday the first 19 verses as we were reading about you know the destruction of tire and it's been a long kind of dirge about this destruction and what have you but um we saw the king of tyre and the prince of tyre mentioned and we saw on sunday how that really um sort of uh pointed us to a picture of what really happened with lucifer and you know ezekiel's gaze goes past the man of tyre and shows us a whole another part of who the devil is and we looked at that on sunday so if you missed that if you're wondering it's part of the through the bible thing that you get when you go verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book um now one of the cities i haven't really spent any time mentioning in this particular part of our passage is sort of a sister city of tyre and that is the tyre zidane um and uh the city of of uh sidon i should say um it's a it's a city not too far from uh beirut in fact if you go to beirut uh there in lebanon today you know tyre and zidane are about the same distance from beirut and zaiden as it is today it's the third largest city in all of lebanon but this the last part of chapter 28 is the curse upon uh zidane so far by the way if you recall um we've been reading the various curses the lord is gonna you know pass out to all the nations that are surrounding we saw the ammonites in in um 25 and um the moabites and the edoms the uh there and um and then chapters 26 through 28 has all been tired um and uh it just seems like the lord uh really spent some time uh dealing with the issue of tire we're also gonna see that the lord is gonna spend a lot of time telling us about the destruction of egypt uh and uh this will be kind of interesting or maybe maybe not depends on your perspective uh some people say that the next few chapters that we have are maybe some of the more tedious chapters you know uh it's just kind of this dirge about the destruction of egypt but you have to ask lord why are these scriptures here and why is this part of the bible you know written for all of uh history to read and that's what we have to kind of ask the lord you know not just reading what a boring section but to say lord what does this mean to you and me now i got to say we got to get to chapter at least 33 tonight we have our work cut out for us and i'll tell you why because this is this is brutal i'll just say it uh death and destruction where you're like okay lord i got it everybody's going gonna die blood everywhere okay got it um and and you're kind of like man this is just kind of getting brutal but there's a reason for all that but chapter 33 is where things start to pick up because we have some amazing prophecies and kind of the rest of ezekiel gets really kind of exciting in that sense so we gotta kind of do some plowing tonight and get through some of that work um the end of chapter 28 verse 20 is where we are 28 20 and it's the destruction of sidon tyre and zidane you'll you'll see them mentioned you know together often when you hear about them in history um you know uh tire and zion go hand in hand the question you might want to ask is why do the zydonians get a lesser punishment than the men of tyre and the king of tyre let's read and see what their punishment is then maybe we can make a guess as to why god doesn't quite do as brutal destruction or judgment on the men of zidane it says here in verse 20. again the word of the lord came unto me saying son of man set thy face against zidane and prophesy against it and say thus saith the lord god behold i am against thee ozidon and i will be glorified in the midst of thee and they shall know that i am the lord when i shall have executed judgments in her and shall be sanctified in her for i will send into her pestilence and blood into her streets and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side and they shall know that i am the lord and there shall be no more a pricking briar unto the house of israel nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them that despise them and they shall know that i am the lord god thus saith the lord god when i shall have gathered all the house of israel from the people among whom they are scattered and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen then shall they dwell in their land that i have given to my servant jacob and they shall dwell safely therein and shall build houses and plant vineyard jay they shall dwell with confidence when i have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them and they shall know that i am the lord their god so really what was the zydonian city guilty of well it tells us in verse there shall be no more a pricking briar unto the house of israel or a grieving thorn to all them that are round about them do you remember what the men of tyre did to get in such hot water with god where god said man i'm going to scrape you flat where you're no longer going to be a big civilization in a big city zidane is a big city now uh you know if you go there today tire is just a little fishing village along the shores of the mediterranean today it's not a big new york city like it once was um but the zydonians they they were judged by the lord but he kind of let them sort of come back and there's still a a thriving city today by the way there's a pipeline that goes uh through zaiden today to the port there on the mediterranean sea and oil is shipped from that area of the middle east out to the other places around the world through the mediterranean sea so zidane is somewhat of a thriving seaport even to this day but what the difference was is the attitude toward the jews it seems like these were just sort of a pricking nuisance like a have you ever had a sliver when you're at work and you're just working and all day you can't really see it but you've got the sliver in your and you feel it in your hand it's just kind of irritant it's not like you're going to have a heart attack or die or anything but just an annoyance uh well that's what that's what the men of sidon were for the jews an annoyance that's the language here of the pricking uh thorns and uh you'll no longer be that to the men of israel the the men of tyre were rejoicing at the destruction uh of jerusalem and that's why god says when you are rejoicing about my children's demise then you've got a problem one of the things you have to remember when we talk about these nations is how do you feel mom and dad when people treat your kids badly um man if you want to see you know mama bears come up just treat her children with disdain and disgust or let another kid sort of pick on your on her kid that doesn't usually work out so well it's just in our nature to be very protective of our children even if our children are little rascals oh i know they're you know misbehaving and little sinners but you better not mention that about my kid uh because you know that it's like there's a thing there's a thing there that's kind of real well as it turns out you know we're created in god's image and as it turns out god has that same defensive heart for his people the jews and so when the men of tyre were rejoicing at the destruction of jerusalem god says your toast now the zydonians they weren't rejoicing as much as they were just a thorn in their side just a little bit of an irritant and so god says you're gonna get you're gonna get thumped too but not completely wiped out for all time like it was spoken of there but um he ends this chapter with kind of this amazing again we've heard this before but this beautiful promise of israel once again being brought back to life after being scattered all over the world the diaspora it's the same thing here it's a prophecy about god regathering his people and he says he's going to make them you know plant vineyards and they're going to be dwelling with confidence you know it's an interesting thing because even this week we're seeing more confidence in the jews even though the world is kind of holding their breath because benjamin netanyahu he's the prime minister of the last 12 years he's out and there's a new administration a new mossad leader it's it's a little bit of a questionable time for israel but at the same time israel's still doing stuff um did you see even uh you know today's news and stuff there's a there was an attack in iran iran like a cyber attack against these nuclear plants and it had to do with a drone uh this drone that probably was had a star of david on it i don't know um we don't know for sure but uh but it's it's wreaking havoc in iran and all this nuclear stuff that's going on and and even in uh iran there's a lot of things stirring up in the middle east right now but israel is dwelling so safely right now that even some of her former enemies uh are sort of aligning with israel uh making you know the abraham accords and deals with israel because israel's the only squared away nation around in the middle east so the saudis are talking about peace deals you know with with israel um and uh you know we we've seen several nations sign peace treaties in the last you know couple of years and there's more on the horizon probably it's because israel's so dialed in right now and they're they're really dwelling quite safely they're the safest place to be in the middle east when i take our groups to the middle east and travel and i've brought groups uh to israel jordan egypt you know in that whole region of the world it's always amazing how uh our group feels like man when you're in israel it's just like being in america maybe you feel safer you definitely feel safer than being in portland uh your odds of getting shot in portland are much higher than if you go to jerusalem but um but you know chicago uh what was it eight people killed again last weekend uh 50 something injured by gunshots in chicago um you know chicago it makes i mean jerusalem is a peaceful city compared to some of our cities in america um and that's really an amazing thing because a lot of people in the world they think well if you go you're crazy have you ever those of you that went to israel with me some of your friends and family jews are nuts going to the middle east that's crazy but then when you're there you're kind of like uh no it's super safe um and it's it is different you see a kindergarten class on a field trip and the and there's the kindergarten teacher with an uzi and um and uh and and the mom that's there helping she's got a tavor you know uh and she's there ready to go like they're they're there because there have been terrorist attacks historically and they're ready to defend their nation but be because of that you kind of feel safe because there's there's all kinds of um you know weapons and stuff in israel but but this prophecy of them dwelling peacefully and safely that's that's what's happened now if if you if you understand the prophecies of ezekiel coming up in ezekiel 38 it's during that time where israel is dwelling peacefully and safely that the invasion of gog and magog is going to happen and that's one of the reasons why a lot of us believe that everything's set the stage is perfectly set for the ezekiel 38 invasion of israel which is going to be the trigger to to what i believe is going to be ultimately the rapture of the church and you know the tribulation period everything's lined up perfectly for that right now and that makes it exciting these are exciting times but this was a prophecy that was given you know thousands of years ago about the regathering of israel czech living peacefully in their houses check check and by the way it hasn't been until now really where you could say that israel has never been a safe place you know as far as you know a place to live for the jews until recent times that's a fulfillment of bible prophecy well so that's the deal zidane is also going to be judged by the lord now uh we have chapter 29 the next four chapters are judgment upon egypt um and if you recall just a quick relational thing the jews very pathetically went to egypt to try to get help from the babylonian invasion that was pending they thought we'll go to egypt they will save us remember what isaiah the prophet said in isaiah 30 he said whoa under the rebellious children of israel who go down to egypt without taking counsel of me and he said you align yourself with the egypt egyptians good luck with that for the the people that are chasing you their horses are going to be swifter than your horses and your men are going to be you know their arrows are going to be more accurate than your arrows like the lord says you're going down because you're aligning yourself with the egyptians now question in the bible typology what is egypt the type of a picture of the world it's all throughout the bible worldliness the people that don't believe in god but have resources have power but it's a power and a resource that never is good to tap into um it's interesting to me how the jews had a propensity to go to egypt for help even though they have quite a history there the history of course was you know slavery joseph was sold as a slave and taken down by the ishmaelites to egypt and sold to potiphar the egyptian but then joseph you know rise would rise up out of the prison to become the second most powerful man in egypt by the grace of god and that was nice for joseph and for his brothers and his father but shortly thereafter the pharaohs of egypt said these jews man they're getting more powerful than we are so they chose to turn them into slaves the jews in egypt and for more than 400 years the jews were under the whips of the task masters there in egypt and that's really what the world does worldliness and godlessness leads to bondage and slavery um sin leads to slavery and sorrow but the jews somehow they kind of forgot all the bad stuff one of the one of the things that's human nature is to remember the good old days when we were in the world some of you might have good old i remember the parties back in college it was awesome the funnels upside down alcohol uh it was awesome we had wonderful you forget you know uh waking up the next morning barfing in the toilet wondering if you had an std uh like all those things that you forgot about that were miserable and not so good um that that that's the problem we sort of have fond memories of the glory days being in the world in worldliness but we we forget well the jews would do that remember they went out of the wilderness said oh we remember how we did eat freely onions leeks and melons in egypt they were not free they were slaves but that's the human memory we have selective memory but all that to say the jews finally make it to israel and then there was a propensity for the jews to go down to egypt you know abraham went down to egypt isaac went down to egypt and that was always a total disaster when they did that but in this time you know with jeremiah and isaiah the prophet and now ezekiel all the prophets said do not align yourself with egypt but over and over they did now the egyptians never would pan out for the jews to be a good alliance the egyptians never helped the jews if anything they hurt the jews and then when they were supposed to help they didn't so the egyptians were always promising big but delivering little and that's what the world does by the way promise is big but delivers little i hope you understand that mom and dad that's something you need to teach your kids i'm afraid that our kids don't understand that the world makes big promises but it delivers very very little if anything and we need to be wisening up our kids to know and just see sinful stuff for what it is and don't just tell them what not to do tell them why it's not something we want to do there's a why to everything and a lot of parents they forget the why part and they just give the what what not to do but this is what the children of israel they'd go down to egypt and now god's saying egypt your toast and we're going to spend the next four chapters talking about the demise of egypt it says in verse 1 of chapter 29 in the 10th year and the 10th month in the 12th day of the month that the word of the lord came unto me saying now pause for a second this is interesting because um incidentally i don't know if it's incidentally or not but um ezekiel's prophesying this two days after nebuchadnezzar invades jerusalem so this is coming later remember ezekiel was foretelling the invasion of jerusalem now two days after jerusalem's invaded he starts saying now thus says lord about egypt um only two days now by the way it took seven months for nebuchadnezzar to totally destroy uh jerusalem in 586 bc so this is five this is this is about 587 when this happens when this prophecy was given by ezekiel the prophet so it's during that time if you can kind of picture what's going on verse 2 the lord said unto him 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 the 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 now this is this is uh by the way if you're wondering which pharaoh this is historically it's it's pharaoh huffery uh during this time period in history he's the son if you recall of pharaoh neccos everybody remember pharaoh neko we've talked about him in previous uh studies but this son of pharaoh neko is this pharaoh hofra and as it turns out um he was a prideful guy who thought he was like a god um did you hear what he said he said something that you and i have a propensity as people to say he he says he says my river is mine own i have made it for myself question what river is he probably talking about there the nile the nile is the lifeblood of egypt without the nile there'd be no people there because it'd be a horrible unlivable desert but that fertile valley area where the nile river flows that's the lifeblood of egypt and it still is to this day by the way which is really interesting but there's some trouble that's coming we might even talk about that tonight but all that to say this this guy he he thinks he made the river i mean now you might say that's stupid what a stupid idiot you know he made himself he says i love this river that i have made you didn't make that river god made that river and and we kind of go that's just dumb but you know that's a that's a human nature thing um if you've said look at this career that i've built just as dumb for you to say look at this career that i've built or look at the family that i've raised or look at all these things that i have done if we have that attitude we forget that god gave you a brain god gave you a job god gave you a place to live you know i worry sometimes that we forget that you could have been born in burkina faso africa your soul could have been born as a person living in tenkutuku i've been there it's out in the middle of nowhere in the desert in africa and what's your opportunities for a career there well it's pretty much zip zilch you might be able to find a you know a mango tree you can get a stick and hit some fruit off of it uh but that's pretty much all there is to do other than just die of heat and and thirst like it's it's it's just that's why there's you know millions of people that live in this place in burkina faso and there's just no opportunity and and and it's interesting you know we all as americans we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps we're self-made people self-made man and the problem is we didn't make ourselves nor did we plant ourselves here in a place where we have prosperity and and possibility and future and things to do we should always always always give credit to the lord for any good thing and it's by his grace that we have any good thing at all that's the problem with some of these kings the lord says i'm going to judge you for that um can anybody think of another king that did this nebuchadnezzar remember nebby look at the hanging gardens here in babylon that i have built the funny thing is he didn't really do the hang it was his father who built the hanging gardens he was just walking around going look what i have built he said look at this beautiful city that i have made in babylon and daniel came and said nebby you gotta not think yourself so pridefully you know you gotta you gotta humble yourself and break off your sins and he said yeah whatever and he kept walking around going look at my wonderful city and the lord says okay and he made nebuchadnezzar into like a cow he started to grow like feathers on his arm and he had long fingernails and he was scratching like a cow or you know like a hoof on on the in the grass and he was out chewing the cud with cows for seven years can you imagine you're a babylonian and you're you know riding on your donkey and you see the king out there like he had to just watch this there's our king chewing his cut out there with the cows uh man he was he used to be an amazing king well his his senses came back to him after seven years and he and he made this statement those who walk in pride god is able to abase that's that's the last thing we hear nebuchadnezzar say in his life before he dies um those who walk in pride the lord jehovah god of israel is able to abase that's what this pharaoh's got to learn he thinks he made the nile river because he probably thought he was god like a lot of the pharaohs and it's that's the problem you and i think we've done stuff but man we've done nothing the lord is the one who gave you lungs and the you know the ability to breathe and without even thinking about it like it's the lord who gave you that it's the lord who gave you a mind and and feet and hands just don't forget that it's the lord who does all things and we need to give him credit for all things but he says look at this river i've made for myself now by the way um you know many of us have tried to search this and find the dragon did you see the word dragon in verse 3 are we talking about satan and it's easy to get excited about that oh maybe there's another picture of satan but as scholars have kind of worked on this nobody really sees it in the rest of the chapter and here's why the word dragon is probably best translated as crocodile that's that's the problem because we know the dragon is satan according to the book of revelation but um this is probably an unfortunate king james translation of of this word dragon um some newer translations say sea monster which if you say if you big enough crocodile uh you might call him a sea monster um but but that's probably what we're talking about the crocs of egypt they're near the nile river um and he's being sort of compared to a crocodile sort of like captain hook in peter pan or whatever uh just picture the clock and the the crocodile that that's sort of what's going on here the lord's saying you know he's going to compare this to this crocodile king or pharaoh uh pharaoh hofra so he says you're like the dragon that lies in the midst of the river the crocodile there verse 4 but i will put hooks in my jaws and i will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick into thy scales and i will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick to thy scales and i will leave the throne into the wilderness the word wilderness there's probably better translated in the middle of the desert the and all the fish above 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 beasts of the field and to the fowls of heaven and all the inhabitants of egypt shall know that i am the lord because they have been a staff or a reed to the house of israel so this is a strange king james way of saying and really it's hard it's hard to translate this um even your newer translations sort of struggle with this one but basically if you could picture the lord saying i'm going to put a hook in the crocodile's mouth and i'm going to pull him out of the river and the all the fish of the river are going to be sort of attached to the crocodile and i'm going to drag all the life of the river the fish of the crocodile and put them in the middle middle of the desert how'd a fish do lying in the middle of a desert um they become flesh for birds to pick off uh and eat uh you know and die there that's that's the imagery you're supposed to see a crocodile with no water with a bunch of fish laying around dying and stinking in the desert that's the imagery and he says you know that you'll know that i am the lord verse 6 says because they have been a staff or a reed to the house of israel now this reed is kind of an interesting sort of um reference because a reed is not a good staff a reed is you know the little reed that grows in the swamp do you want to use that as a walking stick no it's unstable and it's breakable it does it doesn't make for a good staff to lean upon and that's the imagery that the lord is conjuring up here is he wants us to see the jews seeing egypt and as sort of a reed and as they leaned on it went clink and it broke in fact there's even images in the bible where they leaned on the reed and it poked through their hand it wasn't a good thing to lean on that's that's egypt here um so this is the reed of egypt to the house of israel that that makes a weak staff um by the way when we lean on the world we when we put our trust in the in the world just keep that mental imagery this is the biblical mental imagery that when you're leaning on a reed and it breaks that's the world you put your trust in the world and there's so many things people put their trust in other than the lord now don't get me wrong the lord uses things in the world but but sometimes when we put our trust in the world and without the lord it becomes like a reed i think psychology is one of those things psychology has a certain strength but it's a read and i'm sorry if you're a psychology major or if you have a degree don't come and send me letters i've only got a thousand of them from people who've graduated with a psychology degree but truthfully psychology has some great stuff but it also has a lot of wacko stuff and what you have to do is sort of sort through psychology and say what's true in the bible and what's true in psychology and there's there are some things that match up and man those are useful i love our christian you know uh counselors and people that have have a biblical background because that's that's not just a read that someone's leaning on but if you're leaning on freudian psychology you're on a read and it breaks and that's why so many people end up coming to churches after they've spent all their insurance money on their psychologist or psychiatrist because uh there's a real weakness to that whole discipline and and i find that the church is is in modern times it's almost like they've replaced biblical truth with with psychology and people get into that stuff and and i think we have to be really careful that's just one example i can go into uh hundreds of other examples of things that the world throws out there and says we know more than what the bible knows or we know more than what god tells us uh is true in the scriptures and we should be careful about that um you know about how to raise kids we know that spanking your children is harmful to your children we know that that's abusive we know they know nothing um how's that worked out for us um you know of course spanking your children abusively is wrong every time um and that's the problem you know the world acts like it's all bad and says all of biblical spanking that the bible talks about but if you read your bible it's it's a very loving and caring thing that a parent does and the bible puts it this way if you spare the rod you actually hate your son that's what the bible says well brett that sounds really antiquated who cares uh this new stuff is not working so well is it this we think we know so much but we know nothing uh and the more we find out how much we don't know the more you should kind of go back and say wow it's amazing how much the lord got it right because he's 100 accurate but i could go on and on be careful don't lean on the world it's just the reed it's going to snap and you're going to lean on it like the jews did and it says it's a staff or a reed to the house of israel well verse 7 when they took hold of thee by the hand that is break and rend all their shoulder that's the breaking of the reed and rend all their shoulder and when they leaned upon thee thou breakest and made all their loins to be at a stand therefore thus saith 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 of waste and they shall know that i am the lord because he hath said the river is mine i have made it that's the reason the pharaoh said hey this river's mine i made this river so lord says all the fish are going to die in your river and i'm going to show that you have no control over your river let alone you didn't make it the lord lord's going to show that now he's going to destroy a man and beast um what's interesting about that the egyptians worshiped man and beast many of their gods and goddesses and what have you were all linked to the animal kingdom um do you remember the the plagues of egypt the funniest thing about that is if you actually study all those plagues the egyptians worshiped all those things frogs flies lice um they were all part of the um the worshiping uh system of egyptians and so the very things they worship god says oh you like frogs here i'll give you lots of frogs and the frogs were so piled up that they they'd squish between their toes as they were walking down the street and and it says it got there were so many piled up frogs that the whole land began to stink of dead frogs that's a they're kind of like man amazing that pharaoh finally brought moses in and said okay pray to your god and get rid of these frogs and moses when would you like me to pray tomorrow that amazes me if i refer i said tonight right now this very minute pray that they're gone but one more night with the frogs that's what pharaoh wanted that's that's human nature right there one more night with the stench one more night with the sin with that's not real repentance is it um but all that to say um the lord sort of hits egypt right where they worship both in the plagues of egypt but also here when he takes out man and beast and the river itself it's all part of the egyptian worship system verse 10 behold therefore i am against thee and against thy rivers i will make the land of egypt utterly waste and desolate from the tower of saeen even to the border of ethiopia now pause for a second like the prophecy of damascus is this one that is yet to happen some people might ask this right now brad i've never heard of egypt really being desolate where no man or beast ever lived again like this destruction is this something in the future well you might think that initially but wait just a second keep reading he says no foot verse 11 of man shall pass through this land 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 inner 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 i will gather the egyptians from the people whether they were scattered and i will bring again the captivity of egypt and will cause them to return into the land of the of pathros into the land of their inhabit their habitation and they shall be there a base kingdom and it shall be basest of all 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 that 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 this is fascinating i wish we had time to go over just some of the longer history about the egyptians and the israelis but as it turns out the lord did just this when did egypt become desolate when babylon finally came and knocked on the door of egypt when the babylonians came and thr thumped on egypt for 40 years it was really uninhabited it would be actually cyrus the medes and the persians would come later it would be during the reign of cyrus that cyrus would release some of the egyptians in very much a similar fashion as the he would release the jews to go back to jerusalem he cyrus would also release egyptians to go back to egypt and they'd become a nation but never the greatness that they once were uh in from that day forward and to this day egypt has never been something that israel leans on uh they've had to fight egyptians there's some major wars that have happened between israel and egypt but israel has never asked egypt to really be much of a help to them it's funny though because israel and egypt have had relative peace between each other even recently in recent decades which is kind of amazing but but israel doesn't trust egypt israel doesn't lean on egypt just like the bible says so there's some amazing prophecies that have been long term fulfilled even in these last verses that we just have looked at here so verse 16 is kind of get no more be the confidence of the house of israel israel putting their confidence in egypt like they once did so verse 17 it came to pass in the seventh and twentieth year in the first month of the first day of the month the word of the lord came to me saying son of man nebuchadnezzar king of babylon caused his army to serve a great service against tyrus every head was made bald every shoulder was peeled and had no wages for his army for tyrus the service that he had served against it therefore thus saith the lord god behold i will give the land of egypt to nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon and he shall take her multitude and take her spoil and take her prey and it shall be that the wages for his army i have given him the land of egypt for his labor wherewith he has served against it because they rot for me saith the lord god in that day i will cause the horn of the house of israel to bud forth and i will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them and they shall know that i am lord it's funny after the curses there's always a last verse in these chapters saying but i'm going to bless israel someday like did you see that verse verse 26 of chapter 28 they shall dwell safely in their houses and build the jews are coming back the lord was always saying i'm going to destroy you but don't forget i'm going to restore israel it's a promise that's over and over in the bible and he does that also in verse 21. what's this whole thing about nebuchadnezzar versus nebuchadnezzar i've mentioned it before but the truth is i'm saying it wrong to begin with you'd probably think i was weird if i tried to say it the way they they would say it back then but the nebuchad dresser is the chaldean way of saying it uh nebuchadnezzar would be sort of the hebrew way of saying it but or spelling it i should say but the way you would actually say it is sort of uh a whole another way you'd say naboo you guys ready did you hear that you got to get in there to get the i can't even really do it right nebuchadnezzar so if you want to say it right you can be really weird um the son of nebucha uh there you go okay so we'll say nebuchadnezzar just for ease but that's the don't be freaked out about the two spellings uh the conspiracy theories are are not worth any any work at all just the chaldean way of spelling it versus the hebrew way of saying it um now uh the next chapter verse 30 continues but this is about the destruction of egypt specifically um it says in verse 1 the word of the lord came again unto me saying son of man prophesy and say thus saith the lord god how will ye woe worth the day for the day is near even the day of the lord is near a cloudy day shall be the time of the heathen interesting language and whenever you see that word day of the lord it should raise your attention because the day of the lord is a very specific time and what we need to do is look for why is this phrase the day of the lord speaking about end times all throughout the bible it's linked to the end times isaiah 13 verses 6 and 9 sort of defines the day of the lord as the end times the last days joel chapter one through three talks about the day of the lord zephaniah 1 7 zechariah 14 1. all speak of the day of the lord as at the end of the time so it makes you wonder what's the what's the point of this day of the lord being mentioned here in the destruction of of egypt well let's kind of just keep our eyes open and see what happens here verse 4 it says on the sword shall come upon egypt and great pain shall be in ethiopia when the slain shall fall in egypt they shall take away her multitude and her foundations shall be broken down ethiopia and libya and lydia and all mingled people and chub the men of the land that is in league shall fall with them by the sword thus saith the lord they also that uphold egypt shall fall and the pride of her power shall come down mark that that's that's always a part of this uh destruction of these nations is the pride we talked about that a little bit on sunday but pride pride pride it's always the reason why these nations go down so the pride from her powers will come down from the tower of sien shall they fall in it by the sword saith the lord god and they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate and our cities shall be in the midst of cities that are wasted and they shall know that i am the lord when i have set a fire in egypt and when all her helpers shall be destroyed in that day shall messengers go forth from me into in ships to make the careless ethiopians afraid and great pain shall come upon them as in the day of egypt for lo it cometh thus saith the lord god i will also make the multitude of egypt to cease by the hand of nebuchadnezzar king of babylon and he and his people with them the terrible of the nations shall be brought to destroy the land and they shall draw their swords against egypt and fill the land with the slain and i will make the rivers dry and sell the land into the hand of the wicked and i will make the land waste and all that is therein by the hand of strangers i the lord have spoken it interesting here talking about the river of egypt being dry um until the oswan dam was built which was finished uh right around 1970 1971 the nile river was very unpredictable and it constantly was flooding and wiping out you know egypt and it was constantly going getting through times of drought and the oswan dam has sort of regulated uh the flow of that river and they've been able to store up a little more water so they haven't had the drying problem as much as they once did but there were times where the nile river uh historically not in modern times actually dried up and this is probably one of those times where babylon becomes babylon wipes out egypt and then the river dries up and then that just seals the deal nobody can live there because it's too much desert but that's all part of this curse upon egypt verse 13 thus saith the lord god i will also destroy the idols i will cause their images to cease out of naf and there shall be no more a prince of the land of egypt and i will put a fear in the land of egypt and i will make pathros which is in upper egypt i will make pathros desolate and i will set fire in zoan another name by the way for goshen remember where the jews were kept when they were enslaved and i will execute judgments in no um and i will pour my fury upon you know sin what are these things these are cities named sin and no there was a city named sin and no no yeah sin uh it's confusing but i will set 5 16 in egypt and and sin shall have great pain and no shall be rent asunder and not shall have distresses daily the young men of aven and of pesbitet shall fall by the sword and these these uh cities shall go into captivity at there will be a test after this for all these names um uh by the way te hofnies is the same place uh taphonies uh where the jews went uh when they dragged nehemiah i remember that whole story where they dragged nehemiah down to egypt at the end of the story not nehemiah jeremiah did i say nehemiah jeremiah yeah they dragged jeremiah down to tehaphani's same same place by the way just different spelling also verse 18 the day shall be darkened when i shall break there the yokes of egypt and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her uh of her strength and um and for her a cloud shall cover her and her daughters shall go into captivity thus will execute judgments in egypt and they shall know that i am the lord uh interesting imagery here of the days being darkened and stuff like that we don't really know what that really means we know that it was darkened during the plagues of egypt for for days um but do you ever wonder like um what did the ancient people think of like a total you know eclipse um remember the one we had a few years back uh that was pretty amazing to see you know uh just total darkness in the middle of a nice sunny day and i remember how the temperature dropped suddenly and dogs were barking and yeah it was just kind of amazing uh watching that well can you imagine if you didn't know your science or whatever and you're out there and you're already things are kind of bad and you're being attacked by the babylonians and all of a sudden the sun just goes away in the middle of the day and suddenly a little chill in the air and um you know that that could be what's being talked about here the day uh shall be darkened could have been just by the smoke of war though as well um you guys remember the smoke we had last summer the darkened uh you know the day could have just been that the destruction and the fires and all that we don't know for sure but the point is the lord says i will be known because egypt's going down verse 20 it came to pass in the 11th year in the first month of the seventh day of the month that the word of the lord came to me saying son of man i have broken the arm of pharaoh king of egypt and lo it shall not be bound up to be healed to put a roller to bind it to make it a strong make it strong to hold the sword therefore thus saith the lord god behold i am against pharaoh king of egypt and will break his arms the strong and that which was broken and i will cause the sword to fall out of his hand um this is all imagery the arm was a symbol of strength and power you know it talks about the arm of the lord or who will stay my arms some of the kings would say well pharaoh thought he was pretty strong but both arms would be broken never to be repaired that's what the lord's saying and his sword is going to fall out of his hand he won't have a a chance against the babylonians verse 23 i will scatter the egyptians among the nations i will disperse them through the countries and i will strengthen the arms of the king of babylon and put my sword in his hand but i will break pharaoh's arms he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man but i will strengthen the arms of the king of babylon the arms of pharaoh shall fall down and they shall know that i am the lord when i shall put my sword into the hand of the king of babylon and he shall stretch it out upon the land of egypt and i will scatter the egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries and they shall know that i am the lord this phrase at the end have you noticed we've been saying that a lot tonight 54 times in the book of ezekiel he says and they shall know that i am the lord or jehovah one of the reasons all this wrath judgment and destruction is coming is that the lord says they're going to know that i am the lord that i am the true and living god and you say well brett i don't care about all this old bloodshed from the old testament and who cares about egypt and zidane and the ammonites and the moabites and the parasites and the flashlights i don't care about any of them you might say whatever but the truth is the world is going to know like this should be a reminder to you and to me that and they shall know that i am jehovah they meaning fill in the blank kate brown she shall know nancy pelosi she shall know donald trump he will know me pastor brett i will know uh like there's gonna come a day where all the world every knee will bow and tongue confess that jesus christ is lord and everybody's gonna end up saying whether they want to or not they're gonna have to admit righteous and true are his judgments and that's the point we see this is god's just going to do his perfect will upon these rebellious nations and that's what we're seeing that they shall know that i am jehovah the true and living god well now chapter 31 speaks you know specifically of pharaoh's downfall it says in verse one it came to pass in the eleventh year in the third month in the first day of the month that the word of lord came unto me saying son of man speak unto the pharaoh king of egypt and to his multitude whom art thou like in my greatness um well now he's gonna he's gonna tell us he's gonna compare pharaoh to this uh uh whether it's a mythical person or a real person but it's a ancient it's a person who's already long gone he's called the assyrian the lord is going to say you're like the assyrian now you've got to remember over a hundred years earlier the assyrians were the powerful army the babylonians were just kind of an up and coming power but the assyrians were the ones that were famous uh as the most powerful nation in the world at that time and they had beautiful glorious cities and their kings were impressive and they were maybe arguably some of the most intimidating people in the world's history the assyrians were the ones that were known for just killing people and stacking up skulls outside their cities just to make sure that if you came to like nineveh you'd see this huge mountain of skulls and you realize oh those are the enemies of assyrians they the syrians would torture people their enemies they'd they'd take captives home just to torture them brutally they would skin people alive as long as they could keep people alive they would they would do that and then they would use the people's skins to cover their furniture in their city that's true story oh that my alarm of things i'm not supposed to say about the skinning of people alive um yeah that happened um they literally made lampshade type things like like uh these covers over their lamps their their little lamps out of human skins out of their enemies like horrible horrible things the assyrians did but they also had a massive the city of nineveh remember jonah was spoken of he it took him three days to go from one side of the city of nineveh to the other like in bible times cities were tiny usually we think of these giant cities they were tiny most of them nineveh assyria was a giant wealthy powerful city and so it's almost like uh you know the the egyptians had become sort of the replacement of the glorious assyrian you know and so um it's almost like the lord is going to say you think you're big stuff pharaoh well you're like the assyrian who was glorious in his day and the egyptians would have known uh the glory that's being referred to it's almost like this will be sort of an idiom or comparison the assyrian and pharaoh that's what the lord's gonna do so whom art thou like and thy greatness verse two verse three behold the assyrian was a cedar in lebanon with fair branches and with a shadowing shroud and of a high stature his top was among the thick boughs 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 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 all the fowls of heaven made their nest on his bows and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young and under his shadow dwelt all the great nations now you bible people that have studied your bible this imagery is not unusual in the bible great stature and power often is compared to tree a tree or cedar of lebanon kind of thing do you guys remember nebuchadnezzar also had a dream about a tree that he was a great tree we're just like this like verse six the fowls of heaven came and landed on his branches and the beasts came and stood under the shade of this giant tree that was nebuchadnezzar do you guys remember this what happened to that tree anybody organ loggers came and cut it down seriously it was cut down into a stump and that was the point you're you think you're a great mighty tree and nebby was it was toast this assyrian is being compared to that same kind of imagery greatness of a mighty cedar a tree where the nations of the world benefited from the egyptian which is being compared to the assyrian verse 7 thus was he fair in his greatness in the length of his branches for his root was by great waters the cedar 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 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 therefore thus saith the lord god because thou hast lifted up thyself in height and hath shot up his top among the thick boughs and his heart is lifted up in his light uh-oh remember what that phrase means what does it mean when your heart is lifted up anybody pride verse 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 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 his bows are broken by the 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 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 and 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 are down go down to the pit what's the nether part of the earth and down to the pit anybody you might just say hell um remember we did we did a teaching on hell uh a year or so ago and we talked about the various locations people call hell but really aren't help there's hades and sheol there's the gehenna lake of fire there's the abuso we talked about last sunday people get them all confused but this is probably uh more of that sheol hades kind of place that we're talking about that they're going to end up in what we would call hell in the abraham's bosom the bad part you guys remember that whole study we did well that's that's where these guys are all gonna go these kings to basically to hell down to the pit first 15 thus the lord god in the day when he went down to the grave i caused a mourning i covered the 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 the best of lebanon all that drink water shall be comforted in other parts of the earth when they all went down to the hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword and they all were in his arm that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen to whom art to whom art thou thus like you're like the assyrian who's going to hell and the glory and in the greatness among the trees of eden yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of eden to the nether parts of the earth thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that is slain by the sword this is pharaoh and all his multitude saith the lord god wow so we learned about an assyrian that doesn't exist and he's basically going to hell so is pharaoh is that what we're supposed to get for this chapter pretty much there is perhaps something that i do want to give you an attention a little a little attention to and that is the assyrian is an interesting thing to bring up because did you know one of the more remote names of the coming antichrist is the assyrian um so some you know scholars look at this and think maybe this is sort of a description of uh you know it's like ezekiel's saying you know pharaoh you're a bad dude but you're you're like a picture of the assyrian who's glorious powerful all the nations will follow but eventually they're all going to hell um and really this description does in fact fit what's going to happen to this coming world leader called antichrist son of perdition he's a man of sin there's a bunch of titles for the antichrist that's coming but one of those titles in the bible is the assyrian so some see the parallel here of what's going to happen and if you look at this what happens to this great tree the assyrian and now he's cut down and thrown to death that's what's going to happen we read about that last sunday didn't we that the the dragon which is satan the beast which is the antichrist and the false prophet will all end up in gehenna at the end of the story which is the lake of fire which we call hell it's the eternal place called help so you can read into that a little bit and some would suggest that this is sort of giving us a heads up maybe a little bit of a dual fulfillment of prophecy from ezekiel talking about pharaoh's destruction but also tying in the destruction of the antichrist ultimately the lord jesus himself will come and wipe out that coming world leader at the end of the tribulation period so some see the correlation there in chapter 31. but chapter 32 let's let's uh let's finish up i know this one is a little longer but uh we got to get to at least chapter 33 we'll try to finish there so we set ourselves up uh unless you want more blood and guts next week uh let's get all the blood and gets done tonight uh ripping the bandage off right now um so this is uh pharaoh's dirge sort of the funeral procession it says and it came to pass in the uh 12th year in the 12th month in the first day of the month that the word of the lord came to me saying son of man take up a lamentation of for pharaoh king of egypt and say unto him thou art like a young lion of the nations and thou art as a whale in the seas and thou art upon me and thou camest forth with thy rivers and troublest the waters with thy feet and foust their rivers thus saith the lord god i will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people and they shall bring thee up in my net then will i leave thee upon the land i will cast thee forth upon the open field and i will cause all the fowls of heaven to remain upon thee and i will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee um by the way do you remember we covered this in chapter 29 the crocodile being left out in the desert same same thing kind of a repeat of that verse five and i will lay thy flesh upon the mountains and fill thy valleys with thy height i will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest even to the mountains and the rivers shall be full of thee and when i shall put thee out i will cover the heaven and make the stars thereof dark i will cover the sun with a cloud and the moon shall not give her light all the bright lights of heaven will i make dark over thee and set darkness upon thy land saith the lord god i will also vex the hearts of many people when i shall bring thy destruction among the nations into the countries which thou hast not known yea i will make many people amazed at thee and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee when i shall brandish my sword before them and they shall tremble at every moment every man for his own life in the day of thy fall for thus saith the lord the lord god jehovah the sword of the king of babylon shall come upon thee by the swords of the mighty will i cause thy multitude to fall the terrible of thy nations all of them and they shall spoil the pomp of egypt and all the multitudes thereof shall be destroyed i will destroy also all the beasts thereof from the beside of the great waters neither shall the foot of man trouble them anymore nor the hooves of beasts trouble them trouble the waters why because the water's going to dry up we talked about that in a previous section there then verse 14 will i make their waters deep and cause their rivers to run like oil saith the lord god when i shall make the land of egypt desolate and the country shall be destitute of what of that whereof it was full when i shall smite all them that dwell therein then shall they know that i am the lord this is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her the daughters of the nation shall lament her they shall lament for her even for egypt for all her multitudes saith the lord god it came to pass in the 12th year in the 15th day of the month that the word of the lord came to me saying son of man wail for the multitude of egypt and cast them down even her and the daughters of the famous nations unto the nether parts of the earth with them that go down to the pit now pause just for a second here isn't it interesting that the lord says i'm going to put a chapter in the bible of lamentation for the destruction of egypt and the thing that we kind of want to sort of grab from this is realize that the lord's saying whale for her lament over her the implication is do you think the lord delights in destroying the wicked when i read the bible i get a sense that the lord he's the one who laments and he's telling everyone else lament this is a lamentation that egypt that was so glorious and so beautiful had everything going for her was so godless and so worldly that it's ended up in total destruction and this really goes throughout the bible god never seems to relish or love destroying the evil but it seems to break his heart you know you hear the lord in the book of deuteronomy oh that there would be a heart in them to keep my commandments and my statutes and my judgments and you can just hear him hurting as the jews were rebelling against the lord and then even in the new testament the lord says oh i would that none should perish but that everyone would come to repentance you get a sense of this lamentation here in this chapter chapter 31 or 32 pardon me you see him saying lament over her and then he's telling everybody to wail uh you know and um because these people are going to hell that's the idea the nether parts of the earth verse 18. but he goes on in verse 19 whom dost thou pass in beauty go down and be thou laid with the uncircumcised they shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword she is delivered to the sword draw her and all her multitudes the strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him they are gone down they lie uncircumcised slain by the sword asher which is another way of saying assyria is there in all of her company who else is in hell the assyrians his graves are um about him all of them slain fallen by the sword whose graves are set in the sides of the pit and her company is round about to her grave all of them slain fallen by the sword which caused terror in the land of the living there is elim and all her multitude round about her grave all of them so the elamites were in hell we're learning who's in hell right now um all of them round about her grave all them slain fallen by this lord the sword which are gone down uncircumcised in the nether parts of the earth which caused their terror in the land of the living yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit they have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude her graves round about him all of them uncircumcised slain by the sword though their terror was caused in the land of the living yet they have borne their shame with them that go down to the pit he is put in the midst of them that be slain there is meshech and tubal and her multitude and her graves round about him all them uncircumcised slain by the sword though they had caused their terror in the land of living now there's either the bad nations we're going to learn more about meshach and tubal coming up in ezekiel 38 because they're going to be a major player in some future prophecies verse 27 they shall not lie with the mighty that are falling in the uncircumcised which are gone down to hell their weapon with their weapons of war they have laid their swords under their heads but their iniquities shall be upon their bones though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living yea thou shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised and shall lie with them that are slain with the sword verse 29 there is edom her kings all our princes with their might are laid by them which were flamed by the sword they shall lie with them the uncircumcised uh with them that go down to the pit implication by the way who are who are the uncircumcised well the answers anyone who's not a jew uh pretty much that's who we're calling the uncircumcised circumcision is of the jews and so it's interesting that the jews are not numbered of those who would be going down to the pit and um and it has to do with the fact that they're god's chosen people um and that's kind of important to know this so these are the uncircumcised gentile nations being referred to here um verse 30 these be the princes of the north all of them that are the zidonians which are gone down with the slain with their terror they are ashamed of their might and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword that bear their shame with them that go down to the pit pharaoh shall see them and shall be comforted over all his multitude even pharaoh and his army slain by the sword of the lord their god um i guess i'm i'm done that's our that's our cue uh well there it is um did i did i finish all that 31 i skipped a verse 32 that alarm threw me off for i have caused my terror in the land of the living and he shall be laid in the midst of then circumcised with them that are slain with a sword even pharaoh and all his multitudes saith the lord god there we go chapter 33 next week now this is a you might say brett this is a heavy section of doom and gloom um but if you have any further insights that you might want to share uh you can you that you can email me that uh i'd be interested uh i was the other day i was listening i thought man these are kind of dry passages i thought i wonder what old chuck smith said about chapters 30 31 32 so i went and listened to his teaching and he got on the on the he said i was preparing for this sermon in chapter 30 31 and 32 of ezekiel he says i have nothing to say about this and then he said i was on my way to a pastor's conference where uh gail irwin was with him and a couple other pastors and he said he told chuck said um uh can you guys read chapter 31 32 of ezekiel and let me know if there's anything that like stands out that you know and they the the two pastors read and they said no we don't have anything for you so he just chuck said so that's 31-32 let's go to chapter 33. that's kind of the way he handled it so uh it is it is funny how there's certain passages you kind of go man what's the point but i think maybe when part of the point is to wear us out purposefully um because you know it's hard to put yourself in the sandals of these people who were fighting against the lord and ended up going to hell but you might say brett it's it's like you know it's like painful just reading this stuff and it's kind of this dirge of depression but we we must remember that's where prideful nations go that's where the prideful end up like th this is here for a reason that should remind us we don't want to be like these nations we want to humble ourselves the whole prideful thing is such a theme here and we have to really be careful humble yourself in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up but those who walk in pride he's able to abase and you know over and over again the lord is talking about those people who want to get credit for themselves you know there's whole stories of the bible where you know the lord wanted to make sure men did remember the story of gideon where he had the huge armies show up and then they drank water and you know just a small remnant of those guys end up show and even the guys that were lapping up like a dog not the guys that were skilled taking water in there and just this tiny group of guys the lord says i want to show that i can save by many or by few the whole story of gideon after gideon won that battle with just a you know just a tiny little group of guys against a massive midianite army um do you remember what they wanted to do with gideon they wanted to make him you're going to be our king you're amazing look at this bat and that was the whole point god says i don't want to make people think that man has all that power but they even missed it with gideon like it's an amazing story and all throughout the bible this whole thing of men taking the credit for great things i made this river i made the city i made my career i'm a self-made i'm a prideful american we have to be careful not to have that sort of national attitude that these people had or personal attitudes of pride and we need to be humble and understand that men i'm a wretched miserable sinner who's god god's been gracious to he's been kind and has given me so much and it really is the lord i see this temptation in people personally nations nationally churches corporately pastors about their ministry and being prideful about you know how many listeners and all that stuff like you know it's a pitfall to start you know being you know look at me look at no we have to understand any good thing that's happening at the creek for sure is the lord saying i can use a weak and foolish guy to be a mouth and say a few things but man i i love that the lord uses weak and foolish thing it's the the pitfall is when we any of us start taking credit for anything big goof i see that in ministries and you know what's really sad is when i see that in ministries it seems like it's not long thereafter the ministry folds or the pastor fails or something else happens it happens all the time god forbid that we be walking in pride these dirges of chapters should be reminders don't don't be like these people may the lord give us ears to hear what the spirit would say in jesus name let's pray lord we thank you so much for your word and uh we do thank even these chapters of the destruction of egypt and the pharaohs and and all this lord we we see it as just a good reminder um to be humble before you to know that you are god lord i pray that we would know it's you who gives us any good thing to enjoy all good things come from the father of lights lord we're thankful that you give us every good and perfect gift lord we know we don't deserve any good thing but you've been so gracious to give us all things that we need lord and you keep us alive you keep us healthy and strong lord we don't deserve any of that we shouldn't be surprised even like peter talked about we shouldn't think it's strange when fiery trials come our way because that's just the normal way things go so we're just thankful when any good thing happens lord we we just give you glory you deserve all the honor give us the right mentality in this stuff lord as we continue studying ezekiel give us understanding and application lord we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

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Length: 73min 16sec (4396 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 23 2021