This evening, if you have your Bibles, we’re going through the book of Ezekiel. We’ll come to Ezekiel chapter 17 this evening. In Ezekiel 17, the Lord gives Ezekiel a parable to share with the Jewish people that are in Babylon.
Remember, Ezekiel had been taken captive on the second attack of Nebuchadnezzar on the city of Babylon. Daniel had been taken on the first attack, and Ezekiel was taken in the second. They are really contemporary in age, Ezekiel being a little bit younger than Daniel, but they lived at the same time.
And as the Lord comes to Ezekiel, you’ve got to remember the circumstances that the nation of Israel is in at this particular time. It’s in many ways not unlike the spiritual condition of much of the Jewish nation today. The Jewish nation then professed to have a trust in God.
They had the temple, they had the temple worship. And yet we’ve seen as we went through the study of the various kings of Judah that at this particular time, the last four kings that they had all led the people of Judah into apostasy instead of closer to the Lord. The last king they had that was a godly king was Josiah, who would have been the father and grandfather of the other three last kings.
The parable that Ezekiel is going to give deals with the times that are happening, but they haven’t happened yet in the city of Jerusalem and in the nation of Judah. There’s a parable that he gives of two eagles. Now, as we look at this, I’m going to read the parable first, then we’re going to look at the explanation of the parable.
But to help you understand the parable a little bit more, because it’s difficult as you read the parable to grasp what exactly the Lord is saying, and that’s why he gives the explanation. Jesus oftentimes would speak in parables to people, because only those that had a spiritual desire and a spiritual insight given to them by the Lord would often understand the parables. The average person who was in rebellion against God at the time that Jesus lived, would look at the parable and not grasp the meaning of it.
And that’s very similar to what is happening here, although the Lord does give the explanation of the parable in the last portion of this chapter. The two eagles that are spoken of here, one is a large eagle, and that is the eagle that is referring to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian kingdom. The second eagle is also a large eagle, but it’s not quite as large.
And that one is referring to the kingdom of Egypt. And these were two kingdoms that were really at this time, Egypt was on the downhill. Babylon was on the rise.
Babylon was a greater power, and yet they were still contending with one another. And the nation of Israel is caught in the middle. If you look at Israel, Egypt is to the south and west of Israel.
The Sinai desert is straight south of the kingdom of Israel. And that’s in the northeastern portion of Egypt. And then Egypt follows the Nile River and is along the Mediterranean Sea and then goes down into a little bit of Africa.
And so it’s south and west of the nation of Israel. Babylon, on the other hand, is north and east of Israel. Babylon would be where the nation of Iraq is today.
And then you have Persia, which is east of Babylon. Persia at this particular time really isn’t in the scene yet because Babylon is still the power. The Medes and the Persians are going to come to power a little bit later.
But at the time that Ezekiel and Daniel are in captivity at this particular time, they have not overtaken the Babylonian kingdom as of yet. With that background, let’s take a look at what’s going to happen in this parable. The nation of Israel has been walking in rebellion against God.
The people that are in Babylon with Ezekiel still have this belief. They’ve been listening to false teachers that keep telling them, you’re going to be delivered, you’re going to go back to Jerusalem. God’s not going to allow the temple to be destroyed.
And as long as the temple’s there, we know that we will not remain in Babylon. And that’s not what the case is going to be. They’re going to be in Babylon until they’ve been there for 70 years before the Lord allows them back into the land.
But let’s just take a look at what this parable says. Ezekiel chapter 17.
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.
7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
8 It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
9 Say thou, Thus saith the Lord God; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
12 Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;
13 And hath taken of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty of the land:
14 That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand.
15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
16 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:
18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.
21 And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it.
22 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:
23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.
Ezekiel 17:1-24
Let’s just bow in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word this evening. Lord, help us to understand that you are the God that’s in control. Lord, you lay out before us what you would have us do. And Father, when we say that we desire to follow you, but then go our own way, we must suffer consequences. Lord, help us to understand that this is true of the nation of Israel. And speak to us through your word, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The large eagle, the country of Babylon, came down upon Israel. And they came down during the time of Jehoiakim the king. And if you remember when we were studying the kings, Jehoiakim and Jehoiakin were father and son.
Jehoiakim was taken away, went initially into Egypt and never came back. Jehoiakim was taken away into captivity in the nation of Babylon and remained there. Both of them disregarded the desire of the Lord and the call to repentance that was brought to them by the prophet Jeremiah.
They totally ignored the words that Jeremiah said. They did the exact opposite of whatever he would say, they would do the opposite. And we also saw that they put their trust in men instead of their trust in God.
They believed and trusted in the gods of their own hands, the false gods and the demonic gods of the peoples around them. And they worshipped them and God judged them for it. Now, it’s interesting because he says that he has this eagle that represents Babylon that comes and it takes and plucks a branch of the highest cedar that’s in Lebanon.
What is he speaking of there? Why would he talk about the cedar of Lebanon? Well, the cedars of Lebanon were known as being extremely tall trees and they were also a symbol of really power and authority. And yet he shows that the power and authority was taken and plucked by the king of Babylon and then it was taken from where it should have been and placed in another place and seeded and planted and a vine grew up out of it. And this vine was there and its branches went towards this eagle that had come and plucked and planted this branch.
He’s speaking here of the first invasions of the king of Babylon on the country of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. The king took them into captivity and also the people were reliant upon the Babylonians and the first two invasions, if you remember when we went back and were studying them, the first two invasions that Nebuchadnezzar did, he did not destroy Jerusalem and he did not destroy the temple and he took only some of the people into captivity. Now, that tells us who he took.
He took a king into captivity and he took the princes that were those that were of the royalty with the king into captivity. This would have been Daniel and his friends that were taken into captivity with the first invasion and when the first king of Jerusalem, or Judah rather, was taken into captivity. We see then that there rises up another king and this king, they’re also at the same time, it refers to another eagle that comes and this eagle represents Egypt.
Now, this king that takes the place and this would be the one that would be the fourth king in line. He would be Jehoiakim. He would be the last king to rule in Jerusalem and Judah and there hasn’t been a king that has been from the line of David that ruled there since Jehoiakim.
Since, not Jehoiakim, Zedekiah. Zedekiah initially tries to show allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar and so he makes a covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. He says, yes, I’ll serve you and so Nebuchadnezzar is going to allow him to rule and the Lord has told the nation of Israel at this time, he says there is a certain amount of Jewish people he wants to remain in the land.
They are to remain in the land to be a testimony for him even though the Babylonians have conquered them. These people are to be a testimony to the power of the Lord to be able to preserve them in the face of the Babylonian invasion. Well, this king ends up, if you remember, double crossing Nebuchadnezzar and he looks to Egypt and he says, boy, the pharaoh of Egypt looks pretty strong and I think if I make an agreement with the pharaoh of Egypt and I go down there and I get horses and chariots and soldiers from him, I will be able to overthrow the power of Nebuchadnezzar and I’ll be able to gain my country and the city of Jerusalem back totally from under Nebuchadnezzar’s control.
And so he’s got this agreement or this covenant he’s made with Nebuchadnezzar and he’s told them, yes, I’m staying in Jerusalem and I’m giving my allegiance to you and while he’s doing that he’s really betraying him and going down and making an agreement with his enemy. And that’s what he does. And the Lord says, this other eagle appears to be able to do the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar did and promises them that he will do the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar did with those that he took into captivity.
Nebuchadnezzar took them into captivity. If you remember, the Jewish people remained in captivity, and many of them continued there all the way until the time when the Persians came and Cyrus allowed them to return. Even up until just recently, there were many Jewish people living in Iraq and Iran, which were once the kingdoms of Babylon and Persia. This was because many of the people did not return at the time of Cyrus. When Cyrus said to go back and rebuild the temple, and later in the time of Nehemiah when he was told to return and rebuild the city walls and the city itself, many people still chose to remain where they were.
Those who remained often had prosperous lives. They adjusted and built lives in Babylon. As it says here, they prospered; the vine grew and bore fruit in the land under this first large eagle, which was Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.
Under the second eagle, Egypt, it appeared they were being offered the same thing. Pharaoh seemed to promise them similar prosperity. If you remember during the time of Jeremiah, the people came to Jeremiah concerned because Nebuchadnezzar was coming and the city looked like it would be destroyed. They said to Jeremiah, “Tell us what we should do. Will the Lord deliver us, or should we go to Egypt?” They promised him, “Whatever the Lord tells us to do, that is what we will do.”
Jeremiah then went to the Lord, and the Lord told him, “Tell them to remain in the land. Tell them to remain in Judah, and they will be a testimony of My power in the midst of their enemy being in control. I will protect them and deliver them, but they must remain in the land. They are not to go to Egypt.”
The moment Jeremiah brought those words back to the people, remember what they did. They said, “Alright Jeremiah, get your bags packed. You’re coming with us—we’re going to Egypt.” They did the exact opposite of what God told Jeremiah to tell them and the exact opposite of what they had promised they would do.
They went down to Egypt because they thought they would receive the same opportunity that had been given to those taken to Babylon—where they would not be enslaved completely or lose everything, but instead would be able to flourish. It appeared that Pharaoh had promised them that opportunity.
However, as the Scriptures tell us, when they arrived, things did not unfold as they expected. The seeds were planted in furrows, so to speak—the Egyptians made promises to them—but those promises did not come to pass. Instead of bearing fruit, they withered and died.
We know exactly what happened. The people who went down into Egypt died there. God judged them because they did not trust Him. The vine appeared to grow, but then it withered and died—and that is exactly what happened.
Now the question is: why is this being told? Why does God give us this parable, and why is it recorded in Scripture? None of those Jewish people are here today, and none of us are directly under the Babylonians or the Egyptians. So why was this written?
First, it shows us where our trust lies.
Second, it teaches us something about covenant—when we make a covenant, it is meant to be taken seriously.
This is something Christians today must understand. In the book of Proverbs we are told that when we give our word, we are to keep it—even if it is to our detriment or loss. That is how seriously God views covenants.
In America today, many Christians no longer understand covenant. If you look at the church, you can see this clearly. One of the most powerful and earliest covenants given to mankind was the covenant of marriage—a man and a woman committing themselves to one another, and the two becoming one flesh.
Jesus makes this very clear in His discussion with the Pharisees about divorce. They asked Him about the significance of divorce and when it was permissible. Jesus reminded them that God said, “The two shall become one.” That is a covenant, and it was intended to be for life.
Yet today, divorce is just as common inside the church as it is in the world. Not only that, but many people openly live together within the church without entering into a covenant relationship at all. At the same time, they say they are following Christ and have entered into a covenant with Him.
Yet the Bible tells us—and the Apostle Paul reveals—that our relationship with Christ is illustrated through marriage. Marriage is meant to reflect our covenant relationship with Jesus. He is the bridegroom; we are the bride. It is a covenant that is not meant to be broken. Jesus is faithful to us, and we are to be committed to Him no matter what when we enter that covenant.
But people today do not understand covenant. This lesson teaches us that even the Jews themselves did not understand covenant, even though it surrounded them everywhere. They had been given the temple and the sacrificial system. All of it pointed to covenant relationship.
God made covenants with them. He made covenants with Abraham. Some covenants were conditional and some were unconditional. For example, the land was given to them unconditionally—it was never to be permanently taken away. However, their enjoyment of the land and its fruitfulness was conditional upon their obedience to Him.
If they walked in obedience, the land would be blessed and they would enjoy abundance. But the moment they walked in disobedience, they would be removed from the land. The land would still belong to them—it had been promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants—but it would become desolate, and they would become desolate, because they had broken the covenant and treated obedience as unimportant.
The sacrificial system itself was also covenantal. It pointed forward to the great covenant that you and I now experience—the New Covenant given through the blood of Christ. The old covenant was established through the blood of oxen and sheep. It was based upon man’s ability to obey. If man failed to obey, there was no permanent forgiveness of sins unless he looked forward in faith to the coming One—the Messiah—who would ultimately pay the price that all those sacrifices pointed toward.
Everything was based on covenant.
Then Jesus came and said, “I am the new covenant.” At the Last Supper, when He took the cup of redemption—part of the Passover meal—He said, “This is the new covenant in My blood.” That covenant was not based on our performance. It was based on what He accomplished. When we accept that covenant and enter into it, we become His, and we become new creatures in Christ.
So covenant is serious. God wanted the nation of Israel to understand just how serious it was.
One king had already been taken into captivity, and if you look back, he had not fully honored the covenant he made with Nebuchadnezzar either. Then you had Zedekiah, who did not honor the covenant at all. From a human perspective, he was even committing treason—forming an alliance with Pharaoh, the enemy of Nebuchadnezzar, while still pretending to be Nebuchadnezzar’s servant. God did not take that lightly.
As we come to the final portion of chapter 17—verses 22, 23, and 24—something interesting happens. God introduces another figure. He says:
“Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent.”
Suddenly there is another cedar introduced. Earlier we had the cedar representing the nation of Israel that was taken away by the eagle—Nebuchadnezzar. Then we had another branch associated with the eagle representing Pharaoh and Egypt. But now we see a third cedar.
What is this cedar?
This cedar is an eminent cedar. It is a high cedar. And it will not be planted under another king. It will not depend upon the power of earthly rulers to preserve it. Instead, it will be planted on the highest point. It will be prominent and significant.
God says, “In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it.” It will be planted in Israel—not in Babylon and not in Egypt.
Then He says:
“And it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.”
This cedar will grow into a great tree—a mighty cedar in the midst of Israel.
And there’s not going to be reliant on the power of any king on earth, and yet it’s going to have impact over the whole world. What is this cedar? What is this bough that’s been cropped? What is this one that’s been planted? He tells us in the last verse, And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord, have brought down the high tree, and have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish, I the Lord have spoken, and have done it. Now what did God do in the land of Israel, where He took the highest cedar that wasn’t under any king, planted it in the middle of the land of Israel, it grew, it touched all the countries of the world, and it was high, brought low, and raised up again.
Who is He speaking of? He’s speaking of Jesus. This is a reference to the Messiah. And that the nation of Israel, this is who they were to be looking to.
And looking to the fact that the Lord is God, not Pharaoh, not Nebuchadnezzar, not men. They are not His deliverer. But we need to look to the one who is the one that is planted in Israel, who grows and becomes the one that covers the whole earth, who can touch every man, no matter what tribe, tongue, or nation they are from, and can transform them by His power, who is high, brought low, and raised up again.
And who could do that but God? And God, this is speaking of the promised Messiah. And it’s to show the nation of Israel that they were not to trust in these other gods, but to trust in the true and the living God, the only one who can deliver them from their sin, the only one who can fulfill His promises, the only one who can give to them the true Messiah. And that is who they are to look for, not the nations of the world.
In the midst of all that’s going on in the world right now, one of the biggest things that the world needs is Jesus. It is what the world needs. If you look at, we were just listening, as I mentioned, to the gentleman who is the head of One for Israel, who is a strong Christian and brings the gospel message to the Jewish and Arab people in the land of Israel.
And as he’s interviewing this person, who is an Iranian pastor, and he’s talking about Christians in Iran, and he’s talking about the biggest thing that people are looking for is to be brought out from underneath Islam and be able to go back and worship freely the Messiah, the true and the living God, Jesus. And this man has also interviewed other people and says the biggest need of the nation of Israel is not peace, it’s not being brought out from underneath all their enemies, it’s that they would turn their hearts back to Jesus. And one of the things that he sees happening in Israel that’s amazing, he says you see all of this going on and there’s a stronger movement of people turning to Christ as our Lord and Savior than there’s ever been, probably since the time that the apostles were there and the whole early church was all Jewish.
And he’s saying that a lot of Jews and Arabs in the land of Israel are turning and coming to Christ. Why? Because they’re seeing something’s happening and you don’t have to have the New Testament to see the prophets and see what the Bible talks about is going to happen in the last days. And they can go to the book of Daniel, they can go to the book of Jeremiah, they can go to the book of Ezekiel and they can see what’s happening in the last days and it’s happening right before them but they can also see that their only hope is not ultimately to be delivered by the United States or any other earthly kingdom, but their hope is to turn back to God.
And that is what Ezekiel was presenting to the nation of Judah that was in captivity with him and what God recorded for us to see. And to show us covenant relationships, very important to God. He doesn’t break His covenants.
His word is true. And when He’s given us an unconditional covenant for salvation that’s found in His Son and His Son alone and it’s not based on anything we can do, the tremendous hope that we have as this one who is a cedar that’s taller than any other cedar planted in the midst of Israel is raised up so that you and I can be redeemed. And it’s done to show that He is God.
May we come to worship the true and the living God. Let’s just close in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just help us to understand this.
Lord, it’s not an easy chapter to grasp but yet, Lord, it was a message that you needed to bring to the nation of Israel, to Judah at this particular time. And it’s a message that people in the world need to hear today. That there’s not hope in kings and kingdoms.
That even though we may find a certain amount of peace and prosperity in the midst of a kingdom, we will never find deliverance in eternal life until we look to the Messiah. Lord, now I pray that you would just help us to understand these truths. Help us to apply these truths to our lives and help us to share this with others.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.