October 30, 2020: Day 69 – Ezekiel 17

Ezekiel is given an image that he is to share with the people.  God calls it a “riddle” and then again calls it an “allegory”.  He portrays an eagle that comes and plucks off the top of a cedar that is called Lebanon.  We know that back in that day the great trees of Lebanon were well known.  Have you ever considered why we have a city called Lebanon near us and from where did it get its name?  Lebanon, the Google tells us, means white mountain.

But this eagle, Ezekiel tells us, plants that branch of a cedar tree in another region and it begins to grow and prosper.  We have to think that the eagle is Babylon who takes up the branch called the Israelites and plants them down away from where they were plucked up and from there they begin to grow.  This is why Jeremiah tells them to grow and prosper wherever they find themselves.  

But there was a king who was chosen by God who was supposed to hang out in Jerusalem and not make any allegiances and just wait there under Babylonian rule.  But that didn’t happen.  The king tried to make allies and as a result was crushed and would not then fulfill the plans that God had for him, which was to prosper once the Babylonian conquest was over.  

Just a reminder that we are to heed God’s commands even if at the time they just might seem oppressive.  That is a hard pill to swallow.