Ezekiel is a highly symbolic book. It has to interpreted on its own terms, not (perhaps) on the terms which your questioner seeks to impose on it. As an aside, part of the difficulty Reformed people have with talking to non-Christians about the content of the Bible, which we take so seriously, is that they assume we adopt the dispensational "literalistic" approach to the Bible. We certainly do take Bible history literally. But prophecy is not history. Sometimes the word is as clear as an historic account. Many times the prophecy is "clear" only in retrospect. And most of the time, there are elements of symbolism and expression that demand a thorough acquaintance with the literature as a whole to even begin understanding it. The prophet puts into words (as guided by theSpirit) the incredible visions he has seen when taken into the very presence of God. He is seeing things as God sees them, and tries to put them into language for the rest of us.

Egypt suffered a major defeat at the hands of Babylon. Never again did Egypt rise to prominence. Even her minor "resurgence" prior to Roman hegemony was the product of foreign rulers (Ptolemies). The "40 year" waste that Ezekiel speaks of is temporally symbological (see Keil & Delitzsch commentary) to speak of the whole period of her humiliation. Egypt's power was very high for centuries, even rising from the devastation of the 10 plagues to rival the Mesopotamian powers for a time. Thus it is in keeping with Ezekiel's style to describe her ruin in terms of absolute destruction, of apocaplyptic catastrophe. Even so, she experiences a continued, humbled existence, sort-of her own "regathering" from exile (language that would have meaning not to the Egyptians--the prophecy wasn't for them anyway--but for the Israelites).

This is the best I can do on short notice. It probably won't do you much good for talking to your skeptic friend, unless he's prepared to accept that Christians don't simply resort to symbolism to escape "tough" passages, but follow genre interpretation.

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


When posting friends, kindly bear those words of earthly wisdom in mind:
Oh, that God the gift would give us
To see ourselves as others see us.
--Robert Burns, 1786 (modernized) ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions? --