Jeremiah 43:12. "[Nebuchadrezzar] shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them and carry them away captive; and he shall clean the land of Egypt, as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin; and he shall go away from there in peace."

Nebuchadrezzar (also spelled Nebuchadnezzar), the king of Babylon, was not a great guy by any means, but God used him as His instrument to accomplish many things, including the scouring of Egypt as described here. (Nebuchadrezzar also eventually did acknowledge God as the most High, and may have converted, which just goes to show that God is a much better judge of character than we are!)

Egypt was one of the superpowers of the region for most of the Old Testament. Often the Israelites, especially when they turned from God, would look to Egypt for protection or as an ally. When Jerusalem was about to fall, God told His people not to take refuge in Egypt, but many did not listen. Now that Jerusalem has been destroyed, God is sending Nebuchadrezzar to Egypt, because His people are falling into idolatry there - worshiping the Egyptian gods instead of Him. "Why do you provoke me to anger ... burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to live"? (Jeremiah 44:8).

This is a reminder of two things: 1. God often uses the most unlikely people as His instruments, and 2. God will not tolerate His people's idolatry - He is a jealous God. Nebuchadrezzar would have been a bad guy in anyone's book, he was the king of Babylon, the nation whose name is synonymous with evil throughout the Bible. But God chose him and is working through him. "Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant", God calls him. (Jeremiah 43:10) We must trust that God is always in charge, even when we see the most unlikely of people getting ahead. God sees the true bad guys and the true good guys, and He uses all of our actions, whether good or evil, for His purposes.

One of those purposes includes saving His people from idolatry. Nebuchadrezzar was apparently just the man for this job, not because Nebuchadrezzar was trying to save God's people, but because he didn't think anything of the Egyptian gods - they were no more than vermin infesting his cloak. Surprising as it seems, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar became God's instrument as he burned the false gods of Egypt and unwittingly saved the Israelites from them. He was God's servant, just as we all are.