“I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of the Pharaoh will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he brandishes it against Egypt.”
– Ezekiel 30:25
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you glad that you have another year behind you? Are you glad that another new year has begun? Is there one year that you have lived that you will never forget? 1960 is a year that your grandpaa will never forget as it is the year that your grandpaa graduated from the public high school that is in Volga, South Dakota and it is the year that your grandpaa began undergraduate studies at Dordt College – a junior college that is in Sioux Center, Iowa. 1964 is another year that you grandpaa will never forget as it is the year that a beautiful young gal – who is your grandmaa, married your grandpaa. Your grandpaa will never forget 1976 as this is the year that your grandmaa and grandpaa joined 27 college age guys and gals to go for eight weeks on a South America Mission summer team to Colombia, South America. While in Colombia and while your grandmaa was walking in a Barranquilla open air market, your grandmaa had a thief unsnap the clasp of a gold chain that she was wearing – stealing the chain right off from being around her neck along with a Black Hills gold leaf pendant that your grandmaa was wearing on the chain. The gold chain and the Black Hills gold leaf pendant that a Colombian bad guy was able to steal from around your grandmaa’s neck was one of the very first gifts that your grandpaa ever gave to your grandmaa. Your grandpaa learned and experienced a lot over the weeks that he was in Colombia.
Your grandpaa could easily fill pages of living a lifetime of very memorable years. 1972-1974 are the most life changing years for your grandmaa and grandpaa. Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa spent just two years in Aberdeen, South Dakota, it was during the less than two years that your grandmaa and grandpaa were members of the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church that is in Aberdeen that led your grandmaa and grandpaa to become missionaries. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have a lot of very special memories from the different places where they have lived – from living in Agawam, Massachusetts from 1970-1972 while your grandpaa was the manager of the Springfield, Massachusetts Liberty Loan office to living in a funeral home in Chicago from 1974-1977 while your grandpaa was a Moody Bible Institute student to living from August of 1977 to May of 1978 in a cement block apartment on the Rio Grande Bible Institute campus in Edinburg, Texas while your grandmaa and grandpaa tried to learn to understand and to speak Spanish to living in . . . and the list goes on and on – with every place where your grandmaa and grandpaa lived leaving very special memories for your grandmaa and grandpaa. As your grandpaa has been reflecting over the past few days on the over 66 years (over 82 years at the date of this editing of this missive) that your grandpaa has lived on planet Earth, your grandpaa cannot remember bad years. For several years after your grandmaa and grandpaa were married, your grandmaa and grandpaa were stressed at times with how your grandpaa communicated, with how often your grandpaa was looking for another job, with not always having enough money to pay the bills, with having your dad arrive less than fifteen months after your grandmaa and grandpaa were married, with your grandmaa always having to work, with always needing to find a place for your dad to stay while your grandmaa and grandpaa were working, with . . . your grandpaa now remembers the first number of years that your grandmaa and grandpaa were married as being good years as your grandpaa learned a lot about how committed your grandmaa was being your grandpaa’s helpmate and companion.
While Ezekiel was exiled to the country of Babylonia, Ezekiel – as a spokesman for God – as God the Father, scribed seven oracles or predictions about the pending demise of the country of Egypt that God would make happen using Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. Ezekiel 30 has recorded in it two of the visions or prophesies that Ezekiel had in 587 B.C. – which are the third and fourth visions or prophesies that God – as God the Father, gave directly to Ezekiel which He expected Ezekiel to somehow pass on to the land of Egypt to forewarn them of their imminent calamity. God had a reason for why He would have Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army kill guys and gals who were Egyptians who lived in the countries of Cush, Put, Lydia and Libya – causing agonizing anguish and disastrous ruin from Migdol to Aswan, bringing horrific torment and awful distress from Pelusium to Thebes to Memphis and drying up streams of the Nile and laying waste the region of Upper Egypt. Verse 25 states, “I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of the Pharaoh will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he brandishes it against Egypt.” No one knows exactly when the country of Egypt was ravaged by the Babylonian army; history though does affirm that the once enormously powerful Egypt became somewhere around 587 B.C. a ‘run of the mill’ country. Pulling an Egypt is to denigrate God’s role as the Creator and Controller of all things. Beginning a year in a God-centered way and keeping your lives God-centered throughout the year will ensure you of having a year filled with good memories. If the new year is giving you difficult experiences, God is giving you memories. How has 2009 A.D. begun for you?
Ezekiel 30 (966)