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This paper is examined from Ezekiel chapters 29-32. It is an important general framework for God's dealings with Egypt; the return of Messiah; the wars of the end; and the end of the times of the Gentiles. As the paper deals with the historical and biblical aspects in detail, and also the prophetic duality of the chapters, this summary will cover an overview of the paper.

The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of a pivotal prophecy in world history, and Egypt is used as the key nation, because it was firstly one of the most ancient of kingdoms. It also represented the conflict of the world systems typified by Daniel as "The King of the North and the King of the South".

Immediately following the chapters dealing with Egypt (Ezek. 29-32), chapter 33 is the warning of the watchman to Israel, linking the fall of Egypt to Israel in the last days.

Preceding chapter 29, in Ezekiel chapter 28, is the record of the fall of the Anointed Covering Cherub, who is readily identified as Satan, now spiritual ruler of the world's systems, and is inter-related to Isaiah 14.

Ezekiel 29:18,19 deals with the siege of Tyre for 13 years by Nebuchnezzar. His reward from God for his efforts was to be given Egypt. The year of the defeat of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish was 605 BCE. It becomes the pivotal date for the prophecies contained in Ezekiel’s vision, although he did not go into Egypt then.

Ezekiel 30:3 leaps to the period of the day of the Lord. So the prophecy is over a long period, up to the wars of the last days and the return of Messiah (verses 4-9).

Verses 10-12 reverts to the invasion by the Babylonians in 605 BCE and onwards.

Verse 12 - the Nile was not dried up then, and has yet to happen.

Verses 13-22: Egypt will be destroyed and will go into captivity leading up to the Messianic advent. The key verses are verses 21 and 22. The two arms of Egypt are broken; each arm having a 40-year duration.

Egypt was an ancient kingdom from c.1600-1500 BCE, after Ahmose expelled the Hyksos and formed the so-called 18th dynasty. Over the turbulent centuries and coming to the 12th century BCE, Rameses III rebuffed an invasion by the Pereset or Peoples of the Sea from the north, who settled in Gaza and became known as the Philistines by the Israelites. Israel acknowledged their supremacy, which seems to be due to their use of iron weapons.

In the 7th century BCE, taking into account the emergence, defeat and restructuring of the nations of the Levant, the stage is set for the emergence of the empires of Daniel 2 - the 4 great beasts of Daniel 7 and 8.

The intervening history can be easily referenced in Colin McEvedy World History Fact Finder.

Daniel's sequence of kingdoms is set by the detailing of the Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. This kingdom was to be bound as a stump and left until 7 times had passed over it (verse 25). This prophecy was first kept as 7 years of the king's affliction, but also refers to the period of 7 times 360 days (a prophetic year) or 2520 years, and is very important to the end time sequence.

In 605 BCE Necho of Egypt was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at the battle of Carchemish, outside of Egypt. In 567 BCE, some 38 years later, Nebuchadnezzar again defeated Egypt, and the first 40-year period of the broken arms was completed. In 598 BCE Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and deported the Jews to Babylon and again in 587 BCE when he destroyed the temple. This period of 11 years equated with the same time frame from 1933-1944 over the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and the intense persecution of the Jewish population of Europe.

God raised up Cyrus for the purpose of destroying the Babylonians, restoring Israel, and establishing the basis for the reconstruction of the Temple. See the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 13).

In 525 BCE Cyrus' son Cambyses, conquered Egypt, and this was the second phase or the other arm of the conquest. Thus the second arm of the first prophecy was fulfilled.

This activity involving Cyrus was also pivotal in the understanding of the last days. For, from this restoration and reconstruction, the period of the ministry of Messiah has to be determined and interlinked to the Sign of Jonah, and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

Daniel's prophecy of 70 weeks of years (Dan. 9:25) was completed with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. See the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 13) for a full explanation of this misunderstood prophecy.

Ezekiel 30:23-26: Thus the power of Egypt was to be broken, commencing 605 BCE, so that they might know that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men (Dan. 4:26).

Ezekiel 32:1-8: Verses 7 and 8 equate to Christ's words in Matthew 24:29-31. Thus Ezekiel's prophecy is ongoing up to the return of Messiah. See Luke 21:24-27; Revelation 6:12,13: Isaiah 13:10, Joel 2:10, Zephaniah 1:15. Daniel 7:13,14 reflects Luke 21:27.

Ezekiel 32:9-16 continues concerning Egypt. Verse 10 - the fall is catastrophic, the nations around tremble, each man fearful for his own life. This is the end time Day of the Lord.

Verses 17-23: God delivers the second judgment, which details the nations involved in the destruction.

Verses 26-28 involve nations not in the first grouping, so we are dealing with a later aspect of the prophecy, and there is a distinction between the types of warfare involved.

Verse 29: Edom is there etc. Edom's only involvement could have been through the Ottoman Turks, taking us far into the time frame of the last days.

In identifying the time frame for Ezekiel's prophecy, the answer lies in the pivotal year of Egypt's defeat at Carchemish in 605 BCE, and the prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom being bound as a stump for a period of 7 times - 2520 years. Thus we are looking at the calendar year 1916 - a pivotal year of modern human history. WWI began in 1914 but the major holocaust was to occur from 1916.

In that year, commencing the great wars of the last days, Egypt was occupied by British Commonwealth Armies under Allenby. WWI developed the concepts and methods of modern war, with trench warfare on the Western front, and in 1916 brought the first use of tanks, with more than a million casualties.

1917 - the British capture Baghdad from Turkey, and by December 1917 Jerusalem was again in Israelite hands after 1847 years and a Jewish state was guaranteed by the Balfour Declaration.

A summation of the history 1914-20 involved nations mentioned in Ezekiel's prophecy and initiated the wars of the end, culminating in the return of Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

The preliminary wars of Europe commence the breaking of the whore of Revelation and the formation of the beast. This is the concept of democratic government, movements of political powers, demise of Kingdoms, general rulership by consensus, control of peoples and all outside of the religions system.

1789 - French revolution - the beast forms.

1792 France becomes a republic.

From thereon there is a re-organisation and concentration of powers all over the world, enabling Ephraim to gain control of her birthright as promised to Abraham.

By 1798-1801 England gains control of-Egypt-from Napoleon and the French army surrenders to Britain. India comes under the British influence. The Empire is growing because of re-distribution.

1806 - the Louisiana Land Purchase by USA from France strengthens Manasseh, who had been feeding off Ephraim for 150 years. After WWII Manasseh impoverished Ephraim, as Isaiah 9:21 indicates.

Napoleon disbanded the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, but it was reconstituted in 1815.

The overview of the various organisations and re-structuring of nations over the 19th century is too extensive to include in this summary. However, the monarchies of Europe were under the authority of the Catholic Church, the republics were emerging worldwide, the beast power was coalescing, and Ephraim and Manasseh (British Commonwealth and USA) were consolidating their grip on the birthright promises.

In 1845 the manufacture of breech-loading artillery with rifled barrels was commenced in Piedmont. Modern weapons warfare was being made possible. So from 1914 (70 years later) poison gas, submarines, tanks, trench warfare, and all the horrors of WWI were unleashed.

The scenes were thus set for the modernisation of the world systems into a giant open arena, which will develop ultimately into one giant system under the control of the beast power of Revelation, by force of arms.

1901 - the Boers in South Africa commence guerrilla warfare.

1902 - end of the Boer War and the Cape was consolidated to Britain, and the USA gained control of the Panama Canal, which finally opened in 1914.

1906 - the first turbine driven battleship is launched.

1916 sees the nexus between the defeat of Egypt in 605 BCE and the entry into Egypt by the British Commonwealth Armies - 2520 years.

Egypt plays a major role in the control of world trade through the Suez Canal, and was the gateway to the establishment of the state of Israel from 1945 onwards.

Egypt also developed according to the prophecy of the arms. In 1953 (approaching 40 years after 1914) independence was gained under Gamel Abdul Nasser. In 1956, 40 years from the start date of 1916, the Suez Crisis erupted and Egypt asserted its independence. The next 40 years saw continual attempts to destroy the state of Israel.

Egypt is now under Islamic Fundamentalist influence. The nations in control of Egypt become in prophecy the Kings of the South, and the wars of the Kings of the North and the Kings of the South are developing (Daniel Chapter 11).

The Ezekiel prophecy stretches right up to the wars of the last days from 605 BCE to the return of Messiah.

1996-7 signified the commencement of the last phase of the wars of the Kings of the North and the Kings of the South.