Today, when a hero is dubbed “the G.O.A.T” it means he or she is the “greatest of all time,” the greatest the world as ever known.  Whatever the achievement, if you are proclaimed the GOAT, you have done extremely well.  You are at the top of your game.

Pharoah is proclaimed the goat in God’s word for learning today and it makes me smile because it is God calling him out as a goat!  God has called him a “pompous old goat” to be exact with a message of doom and destruction for his country of Egypt and for the surrounding nations, including Israel, who have depended greatly on the “goat.”  This goat is in trouble.  He is full of pride, evil in character, and causes more trouble than help.  God will take care of the “GOAT”.

The Big Tree.  In Scripture, a tree is sometimes used as the image of a nation or an empire. The argument the prophet presented was simple. Egypt boasted in its greatness, yet Egypt wasn’t as great as Assyria, and Assyria was conquered by Babylon. Conclusion: If Babylon can conquer Assyria, Babylon can conquer Egypt.

God will not allow evil to consume His people.  God will step in and bring down those who arrogantly think they are the G.O.A.T.

Ezekiel 31, The Message

The Funeral of the Big Tree

31 ^1-9 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, that pompous old goat:

“‘Who do you, astride the world,
    think you really are?
Look! Assyria was a Big Tree, huge as a Lebanon cedar,
    beautiful limbs offering cool shade,

Skyscraper high,
    piercing the clouds.
The waters gave it drink,
    the primordial deep lifted it high,
Gushing out rivers around
    the place where it was planted,
And then branching out in streams
    to all the trees in the forest.
It was immense,
    dwarfing all the trees in the forest—
Thick boughs, long limbs,
    roots delving deep into earth’s waters.
All the birds of the air
    nested in its boughs.
All the wild animals
    gave birth under its branches.
All the mighty nations
    lived in its shade.
It was stunning in its majesty—
    the reach of its branches!
    the depth of its water-seeking roots!
Not a cedar in God’s garden came close to it.
    No pine tree was anything like it.
Mighty oaks looked like bushes
    growing alongside it.
Not a tree in God’s garden
    was in the same class of beauty.
I made it beautiful,
    a work of art in limbs and leaves,
The envy of every tree in Eden,
    every last tree in God’s garden.’”

^10-13 Therefore, God, the Master, says, “‘Because it skyscrapered upward, piercing the clouds, swaggering and proud of its stature, I turned it over to a world-famous leader to call its evil to account. I’d had enough. Outsiders, unbelievably brutal, felled it across the mountain ranges. Its branches were strewn through all the valleys, its leafy boughs clogging all the streams and rivers. Because its shade was gone, everybody walked off. No longer a tree—just a log. On that dead log birds perch. Wild animals burrow under it.

¹⁴ “‘That marks the end of the “big tree” nations. No more trees nourished from the great deep, no more cloud-piercing trees, no more earthborn trees taking over. They’re all slated for death—back to earth, right along with men and women, for whom it’s “dust to dust.”

^15-17 “‘The Message of God, the Master: On the day of the funeral of the Big Tree, I threw the great deep into mourning. I stopped the flow of its rivers, held back great seas, and wrapped the Lebanon mountains in black. All the trees of the forest fainted and fell. I made the whole world quake when it crashed, and threw it into the underworld to take its place with all else that gets buried. All the trees of Eden and the finest and best trees of Lebanon, well-watered, were relieved—they had descended to the underworld with it—along with everyone who had lived in its shade and all who had been killed.

¹⁸ “‘Which of the trees of Eden came anywhere close to you in splendor and size? But you’re slated to be cut down to take your place in the underworld with the trees of Eden, to be a dead log stacked with all the other dead logs, among the other uncircumcised who are dead and buried.

“‘This means Pharaoh, the pompous old goat.

“‘Decree of God, the Master.’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Who is the GOAT for you?  Who do you look to first for help in trouble?   

Learn from Israel about what NOT to do. They turned from God who truly is the greatest of all time because He created all and is in all to Egypt for help when the enemy came knocking.  They ran to the Pharoah, a pompous, arrogant goat of his own making for help.  God teaches them that HE is the one and only to turn to for real help, powerful protection, relentless love, abounding mercy, and constant provision.  Great is His faithfulness!  Forever!

God is jealous of anything we worship that is not Him.  However, God’s jealousy comes a love that is unlike any human’s capacity to love.  God’s deep love wants the best for us—not our worst from our puny efforts.  God wants us to simply love Him back.  He wants to show us His glory at work in and through us and around us for our good because only God is good.  God’s blessings are unleashed when we realize the depth of His love for us!

From a position of great strength, the Egypt’s kingdom would fall into utter weakness, and from sustaining the lives of others to experiencing death and decay.  The GOAT has fallen.

Run to Jesus. Repent to the One and Only Son of God sent to save us from our own sins.  Believe and be saved for all time and eternity beginning the nanosecond you say yes to Him—who is truly the greatest love for now and all eternity. 

Jesus is the name that billions of people in this world turn to when they face all sorts of challenges. Christians going through wars such as the war in the Middle East turn to this name for safety. Where else would they go when going through such crises that they have no control over but to Master, Savior, Jesus.  When people are on their deathbeds they turn to this name. Jesus is the Savior and Lord to them as they face their end. Even those that have few problems can turn to him to praise Him for all the blessings that they are experiencing. There is indeed something about that name.

Join with me in worship…

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; there’s just something about that name.
Master, Savior, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain;
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all Heaven and earth proclaim
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away,
But there’s something about that name.
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away,
But there’s something about that name.

(Written by Bill and Gloria Gaither)

Lord,

You are always up to something new for us so that we may know you more, lean on you with confidence as we love you back with all that is in us.  I believe.  All my hope and trust in sin You, dear Jesus.  Continue to cleanse my heart, renew my spirit, refresh my soul as you daily restore the joy of your salvation at work in me.

In Jesus Name, Amen