Ezekiel 29:18-20 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it. (19) Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army. (20) I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they worked for Me,' says the Lord God.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is very illustrative for us regarding the concept of how God uses the various heads of state to fulfil His purposes in the earth. The context of this passage is that God had prophesied to the city of Tyre that He would begin to judge them for their pride and arrogance, by bringing King Nebuchadnezzar and his army against the city to destroy it (Ezekiel 26:1-11). A few years later in the year 585 BC that event occurred when Nebuchadnezzar’s army conquered the surrounding villages of Tyre and the old city of Tyre on the mainland, however they were unable to take the newer island city of Tyre where most of its wealth was stored. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the island city for thirteen years but was unable to take it, and so the spoil taken from that campaign was not really worth the effort. Clearly Tyre had not yet reached the fullness of their transgressions; otherwise God would have also given the island city of Tyre into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar for its destruction. In the above quoted passage God is very explicit about the fact that in destroying the city state of Tyre, that Nebuchadnezzar and his army were in fact working for Him. We also see from this passage that when God employs a nation to do His bidding that He actually pays them, for God’s comment to Ezekiel was that they received no payment from the plundering of Tyre. And so God gave Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar and his army as payment. Obviously God had judged Egypt as well and used Babylon’s army as His instrument of judgment on that nation. Just as obvious is the fact that the wealth plundered from Egypt was ample payment for both military campaigns against Tyre and Egypt. And so we see very clearly from this passage that through His influencing of heads of state, that God uses them to make war on nations that He has judged. With regards to Tyre, Ezekiel prophesied that God would eventually destroy the entire city. And so the time finally came when Tyre reached the fullness of their transgressions, and God brought Alexander the Great against the city in the year 332 BC and he destroyed the island city and its inhabitants (Ezekiel 28:1-10). There are many more examples given in scripture of God using heads of state in this manner, but it is not necessary for us to look at them all however, for the ones discussed thus far clearly explain this principle. So how does God influence heads of state in these instances, seeing that most (if not all) do not even recognize Him as God? He does this by placing thoughts into their minds and reinforcing those thoughts with the advice given by their close advisors, thus finally persuading them to take the course of action that God has purposed for them to take.
Michael E.B. Maher
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