So, as I’ve said before, I’m studying Ezekiel for the remainder of this year. It’s both a personal study for my own private good, as well as fuel for various sermons and classes to come in the months (and years) ahead. I just finished going through chapter seventeen which, if you haven’t studied it in a while, is devoted to a riddle posed by God. Of course, God is not someone who prefers keeping people guessing, so the riddle itself is only the first half of the chapter. The second half is devoted to explaining the mystery and making the application. I’d encourage you to read through it today, as it’s only twenty-four verses long and shouldn’t take you more than a couple minutes.

Here’s a summary:

There are, essentially, three elements to the story at the heart of the riddle. First, there’s a great eagle with multi-colored feathers, which snaps off a cedar branch and plants it as a sapling in a new and thriving environment. Second, there is a different seedling planted in a fertile place which, despite its environment, never grows to its potential; it becomes only a low-hanging vine. Third (last), there is a different eagle that the vine yearns to be fed by, despite how abundant its environment already was. Instead of stretching its roots east toward an abundant body of water, it stretches westward, hoping to be hand-fed by the monochromatic eagle.

Granted, it’s not exactly the riddle that Gollum posed to Bilbo, but as ancient-eastern puzzles go, it works. It’s more of a parable with a question at the end than a riddle like we think of it, but that’s okay.

The middle of the chapter explains the riddle: The multi-colored bird is the Empire of Babylon, which broke the cedar tree of the Kingdom of Judah and planted the people of the first exile into the Chaldean lands of their conquerors. After that, a new seedling of Judah was planted in place of the old: King Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Judah’s King Jehoiachin and replaced him with Jehoiachin’s nephew, Zedekiah, making him the puppet ruler of a vassal state to the Empire. However, Babylon purposefully held back their new subjects in Judah, not allowing them to grow and prosper to their potential. Zedekiah, despite swearing fealty to Nebuchadnezzar, secretly coveted a relationship with their southwestern neighbors in Egypt (the monochromatic eagle of the story). Despite having an abundance of resources available through Babylon, Judah’s puppet King stretched out westward, hoping the Pharaoh would send them horses and riders to aid in overthrowing their conquerors.

That’s the story and the riddle is the same: Does a Kingdom like that—treacherous and weak—deserve to live or should it be uprooted and destroyed?

Without the explanation of the riddle, the people of Judah would be quick to say the seedling should be destroyed, but once they learn they are the seedling, it’s likely their tune would change and they would want to live. Unfortunately, God has already made a decision: Zedekiah will die, the rest of Judah will fall, another exile will occur for the people of Jerusalem, and the city will burn.

That’s a pretty grim and bleak picture, and Ezekiel’s book is full of such images. The prophet, however, does not like to leave the reader in the gloom of the dark; he often counter-balances the despair with glimmers of hope. Here, that hope is found in the last few verses of the chapter…

 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: 

(Ezekiel 17:22)

Just as, in the riddle, the King of Babylon took from the top of a cedar, God too will take from the highest branch of a high cedar. He too will plant a sapling on a high and eminent mountain. This will come after the punishment against Judah has ended. What will be left of the people that are carried away into Babylonian exile? They will be a humbled bunch, more reliant on God, rejecting of idols, and, most importantly, ready to receive the Messiah.

Thus, God will bring to them a sprout from a “tender” treetop. It’s not exact, but the prophesy here shares elements with the words spoken by Isaiah regarding the long-expected Christ (Isaiah 53:2). Ezekiel is predicting the coming of the Messiah, and specifically the coming of the Messiah’s Kingdom.

After all, what has this chapter been about, really? It’s been about Babylon trying to establish an extension of their own Kingdom in Judah, using the puppet King Zedekiah to facilitate it. Zedekiah betrayed Nebuchadnezzar, however, resulting in Judah being obliterated. From its ashes God Himself will do what Nebuchadnezzar tried and failed to do: He will create a Kingdom in Judah that is an extension of His own Kingdom of Heaven.

And unlike the failure of Babylon to make Judah into a vassal state…

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. 

(Ezekiel 17:22)

…God’s planted-Kingdom will succeed and prosper. The Messiah’s Kingdom, sprouting forth from the mountain in the heights of Israel (Isaiah 2), will bring forth boughs (branches) full of fruit to enjoy. It will not be low-growing vine, as was Zedekiah’s Kingdom, but instead will be a mighty and tall cedar, in the shadow of which will rest birds of all sorts.

There’s a subtle bit of metaphorical prophesying going on here, and its yet another example of God, in the Old Testament, predicting something that His people might not be ready to hear or accept at this point in time. Specifically, God is talking about how the Messiah’s Kingdom will be home to people of all nations, Jew and Gentile.

How is that truth presented here? Through the metaphor of birds “of every wing” living in the shadow of the Messiah’s grand cedar tree. Literally the phrase just means “birds of every kind” but already in this chapter we’ve been told that birds are used to represent nations. One eagle was Babylon, another was Egypt. So here, when we get a look at the Messiah’s Kingdom, it’s interesting to note that the prophet says it will be home to birds (nations) of every sort. It will sprout and grow from Judah, but its citizens will be people from every land (Galatians 3).

Ezekiel 17 is a marvelous chapter, one of many great texts often overlooked in a study of God’s word.

~ Matthew