Security Is Resting on the Ultimate Source

I remember hiking the Grand Canyon for the first time. I was fifteen, and I had grown up loving the outdoors, hiking, riding horses and so on. This was perhaps the first longer hike I had taken. I hiked with my dad, and as we were hiking down the Devil’s Corkscrew in the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon, I remember seeing people ahead of us with long walking sticks in their hands. At that point in my life, I hadn’t seen trekking poles a lot. The ones these people had weren’t fancy, but were just long sticks they were leaning on to distribute the weight of their heavy packs. Later in life I myself came to buy a number of trekking poles. They give you some stability and take some of the weight off your shoulders.

All of us have crutches and sources upon which we lean. Some people talk about God being their crutch. Everyone has a crutch. The question is how valid is your crutch. If it is money, intellect, strength, or youth, those things will quickly be gone. That is God’s point in Ezekiel 29-30. God is pronouncing judgment upon Egypt. In this case Egypt was not an enemy of His people; she was a source of strength for His people. In other words, the Babylonians had not taken the place of God, they were against God and His people, but Egypt had become the source of strength to Israel and Judah instead of God. That was to be judged.

The ancient historian Herodotus said that the ancient Egyptians land was given them by the river. So, Israel trusted in Egypt, and if you trace things all the way back, Egypt trusted her armies, her armies trusted their weapons, their weapons were provided because of the money and the food they had, and that was provided by the river. Israel trusted Egypt and Egypt trusted the river. God said this walking stick upon which Israel leaned was like a reed by the river that flows through it. It is like a reed by the Nile River, not dependable or solid. God says about this in Ezekiel 29:7, “When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest.”

You can look to your money, talent, vigor, or whatever, but at some point, that thing upon which you lean is going to be like a river reed; it is going to bend and break. That source of strength for the Egyptians was the river. God says in Ezekiel 30 that He would cut off their strength and make their rivers dry. In other words, all these sources that Israel trusted in were dependent upon some other source. What you learn is that security is resting on the ultimate source. What are you trusting? If you are trusting money, that is dependent upon your ability. What is your ability dependent upon? Well, it depends on where you live and how much strength you have, and that depends on time and circumstance. So, security is not having a lot of money. That can change. Security is not having youth. That will change. Security is resting on the ultimate source. Trace your source of dependence back and see where that leads.

That is important for two reasons. First, every other source is likewise dependent upon some other source. Israel trusted Egypt. Egypt in turn trusted their river. That was short-lived at the best. There is still a river flowing there, but it was not enough. Ezekiel 30:6 says, “They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down.” Verse 8 says, “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.” Egypt was attempting to support Israel, but Egypt herself had supports and helps. Every other source upon which you will depend is likewise dependent upon another source. So, it is feeble at best. God on the other hand is the ultimate and primary source. He is the original source. Weather and time cannot get at God.

Another reason that security is resting on the ultimate source is because every other source is subject to change. In Ezekiel 29 God said He was going to make Egypt a base kingdom that would not “exalt itself any more.” Ezekiel 29:16 says, “And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel.” In other words, there was coming a time when things were going to change. The world powers were going to change from Egypt to Babylon, then to Greece, then to Rome, and so on. Ezekiel 30:22 and following says that God was going to break the arm of Egypt and give that sword to the king of Babylon and “they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Verse 26 says, “They shall know that I am the LORD.”

There is a fine line between prosperity and destruction. I think about the tragic fires in Los Angeles recently. What a fine line there is between the prosperity of Pacific Palisades and the destruction that came. That difference was simply water. I have observed that most of the major cities of the world tend to be self-dependent. The larger they are, the less they seem to regard God. Such cities also seem to be the oldest. Such cities also almost invariably seem to be by a river or large body of water. Think about Paris and London for starters. Israel depended on Egypt and Egypt depended on a river. That is a frail substitute for God.

Today, whatever the sources God may use to provide for you, never forget that God is the ultimate source. Security is resting not on a source that itself is dependent upon another source and not on a source that is subject to change, but on the ultimate source, God.