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839. Bible Study: Ezekiel 17 (2 Eagles and a Vine) · Faith by annm2705

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  Ezekiel chapter 17 Dear Lord, please let us see what you would
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  like us to see as we read through this chapter today.
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  We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. 2 eagles and of mine the word of
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  the Lord came to me. Son of Man set forth an
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  allegory. Tell it to the Israelites as a
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  parable. Say to them, this is what the
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  Sovereign Lord says. A great eagle with powerful
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  wings, long feathers and full plumage of varied colours came
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  to Lebanon. Taking hold of the top cedar, he
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  broke off its top MO chute and carried it away to a land of
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  merchants, where he planted it in a city of traders.
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  He took one of the seedlings of the land and put it in fertile
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  soil. He planted it like a Willow by
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  abundant water, and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine.
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  Its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it.
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  So it became a vine and produced branches and put out leafy bows.
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  But there was another eagle with powerful wings and full plumage.
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  The vine now sent out its roots toward him from the plot where
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  it was planted, and stretched out its branches to him for
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  water. It had been planted in good soil
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  by abundant water, so it would produce branches, bear fruit,
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  and become a splendid vine. Say to them, this is what the
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  Sovereign Lord says. Will it thrive?
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  Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it
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  Withers All its new growth will wither?
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  It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by the
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  roots it has been planted, but will it thrive?
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  Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it
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  wither away in the plot where it grew?
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  Then the word of the Lord came to me, Say to this rebellious
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  people, Do you not know what these things mean?
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  Say to them The king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and carried
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  off her king and her nobles, bringing them back with him to
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  Babylon. Then he took a member of the
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  royal family and made a treaty with him, putting him underoath.
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  He also carried away the leading men of the land so the Kingdom
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  would be brought low, unable to rise again, surviving only by
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  keeping his treaty. But the king rebelled against
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  him by sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large
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  army. Will he succeed?
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  Will he who does such things escape?
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  Will he break the treaty and yet escape as surely as I live,
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  declares the sovereign Lord. He shall die in Babylon, in the
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  land of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he
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  despised, and whose treaty he broke.
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  Pharaoh with his mighty army and great horde will be of no help
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  to him in war when ramps are built and siege works erect to
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  destroy many lives. He despised the oath by breaking
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  the covenant, because he he had given his hand in pledge and yet
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  did all these things. He shall not escape.
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  Therefore this is what the sovereign, Sovereign Lord says.
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  As surely as I live, I will repay him for despising my oath
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  and breaking my covenant. I will spread my net for him,
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  and he will be caught in my snare.
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  I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment on him there
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  because because he was unfaithful to me, all his choice
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  troops will fall by the sword, and their survivors will be
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  scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I, the
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  Lord, have spoken. This is what the Sovereign Lord
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  says. I myself will take a shoot from
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  the very top of a cedar and plant it.
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  I will break off a tender spring from its topmost shoots and
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  plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
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  On the mountain heights of Israel.
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  I will plant it. It will produce branches and
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  bear fruit and become a splendid cedar.
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  Birds of every kind will nest in it.
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  They will find shelter in the shade of its branches.
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  All the trees of the forest will know that I, the Lord, bring
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  down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall.
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  I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.
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  I, the Lord have spoken and I will do it.
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  So that was Ezekiel 17. I will read the questions and
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  answers and then probably read Exploring Ezekiel a little
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  section that Amir Sarfati wrote in his book because he has some
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  good insight there. So why did God tell Ezekiel to
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  speak through allegory and parable?
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  By speaking in riddles, allegories, or parables, Ezekiel
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  invited the hearer into the word of the story.
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  When pure invectives are spoken, they can harden the will of the
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  hearer. When a story is told, the hearer
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  is not as cautious. Before the hearer knows it, he
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  or she is in the midst of the story as a main character and
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  quite possibly under indictment. Recall Nathan's story to David
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  after David had slept with Bathsheba.
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  That's found in Second Samuel chapter 12.
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  Before David knew it, he had indicted himself.
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  What do eagles? What do the eagles represent?
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  The Lord explains this parable in verses 11 through 15.
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  The first eagle stands for the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar,
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  who deported Judas Jehoiachin, the top of the cedar in 597 BC.
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  The seedlings and the vine represent the remnant left by
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  Nebuchadnezzar in the land under the authority of King Zedekiah.
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  This vine sent out roots toward a second eagle, which represents
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  Egypt, to whom Zedekiah looked for help in his effort to free
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  Judah from the Babylonian rule. So if you look at scripture and
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  you search eagle, you will see that the eagle is not usually it
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  it Sometimes there are comparisons to the quickness on
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  the, the swiftness, I guess of the flight of an eagle.
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  And a lot of the traits of an eagle are used as you know, a
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  description of how something will happen.
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  But originally in Leviticus 11/13 and Deuteronomy 1412, it
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  really describes an eagle as something unclean.
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  So in Leviticus 11/13 it says, and these you shall regard as an
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  abomination among the among the birds.
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  They shall not be eaten. They are an abomination, the
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  eagle, the Vulture, the Buzzard, and the same, you know, I think
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  Deuteronomy 1412 is repeating this.
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  But these you shall not eat the eagle, the Vulture, the Buzzard.
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  So these are the, you know, that's really not like the
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  eagle's not a good thing. And it's kind of interesting
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  because he uses those birds to describe Babylon and also Egypt.
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  So OK, going back to the questions answered carried off
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  her king. The account of this Babylonian
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  victory over Judah and the captivity of Judas king can be
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  found in Second Kings 24 verses 10 through 16 and Second
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  Chronicles 36 verses 9 through 10.
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  These events took place in 597 BC.
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  Is it wrong to rebel against evil rulers?
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  There are times when God calls on His people to rebel against
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  wicked rulers. For example, the Israelites
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  released from Pharaoh in Exodus chapter 12 through 14.
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  Rising up against the king of Babylon would have been
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  fruitless, however, because he was God's agent to execute just
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  punishment. And God had told them, you know,
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  through prophecies, through Jeremiah, that those who would
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  go into exile, they should, you know, basically just start
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  living there and having children and doing all the normal things.
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  And he didn't say anything about rebelling.
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  But people didn't really believe Jeremiah, so God warned them in
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  advance. And he said anybody who stayed
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  in Jerusalem at that time would end up dying by the sword.
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  But people did stay behind and they, you know, they didn't
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  listen to any of these prophecies.
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  So what are ramps and siege works?
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  During siege warfare, attackers sometimes erected earthen mounds
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  and ramps against the city walls.
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  Siege engines were wheeled up on these ramps.
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  From inside the engines, Archers fired arrows at the city's
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  defenders, while others smashed the walls with battering Rams.
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  Such implements of war are useless in fighting God's
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  judgement. So what new shoot would the Lord
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  plant? The new shoot from the cedar,
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  which symbolizes Judah's king, stands for a future king through
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  whom the Lord would restore the glory of David's dynasty and the
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  nation. Jesus the Messiah fulfilled this
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  prophecy and that's the end of chapter 17.
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  Like I said, I'm going to read a little bit from Exploring
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  Ezekiel, which is a new book by Amir Sarfati.
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  You can get it on Amazon or probably at his website,
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  beholdisrael.org. So this is regarding the same
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  chapter that we're reading. So in that short, he's talking
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  about the the kings, and he said in that this is Amir's book.
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  In that short explanation we find 4 kings, one covenant and
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  one rebellion. The first king is easy to
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  recognize, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
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  In 597 BC, this first eagle made his second trip to Jerusalem, at
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  which time he deposed the second king, the cedar branch, Israel's
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  king Draconia, in his seed, the Babylonian, and placed the ex
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  King's uncle Zedekiah, the third king, who is also the vine, on
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  the throne. Zedekiah promised to be a good
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  little vassal, swearing an oath and making a covenant with
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  Nebuchadnezzar. When the invading army returned
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  to Babylon, they took with them the ex king Jeconiah and a bunch
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  of other exiles including Ezekiel.
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  All went well for a while, but vassal ship didn't wear well on
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  Zedekiah. Earlier Judah had driven away
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  Assyria, why couldn't it do the same with Babylon?
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  To up their rebellion odds, Zedekiah sent ambassadors S to
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  Egypt, a nation that was also getting tired of Babylon's
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  bullying. There they met with Pharaoh
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  Hafra, the 4th king and the second eagle, who promised help.
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  That didn't go well with God, as Joshua and the Israelites
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  learned when they made a treaty with the lion Gibeonites as they
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  were conquering the Promised Land.
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  A covenant is a covenant no matter who it's with.
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  Read Joshua Chapter 9. If you break it, you will pay
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  the price. In fact, David was forced to
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  deal with the consequences of his predecessor, King Saul,
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  breaking that very same treaty Joshua had made with the
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  Gibbonites so many years before. I've got no great love for the
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  Gibbonites, but I'm encouraged by the depth of God's commitment
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  to keeping one's word. That is what gives me hope for
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  the future for my people Israel, as well As for myself as a
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  believing member of the church. Because of King Zedekiah
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  treachery in breaking his covenant, God pronounced
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  judgment. Thus says the Lord God, as as I
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  live surely my oath which he despised, and my covenant which
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  he broke, I will recompense on his head.
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  I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my
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  snare. I will bring him to Babylon and
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  try him there for the treason which he committed against me.
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  All his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword,
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  and those who remain shall be scattered to every wind, and you
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  shall know that I, the Lord have spoken.
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  Ezekiel 17, verses 19 through 21.
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  As we've already seen, Zedekiah was blinded after seeing his
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  sons killed in front of him in Babylon.
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  He was tried and in Babylon he was imprisoned until death.
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  The story doesn't end there, however.
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  Remember, when there is bad news from God, you need only to read
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  a little further to discover some hope.
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  The Lord told Ezekiel that He himself will plant a branch on
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  the mountain height of Israel. The branch will take root, grow,
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  and spread his branches wide enough for birds from all over
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  to come dwell within them. He concluded by saying, All the
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  trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought
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  down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green
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  tree, and made the dry tree flourish.
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  I, the Lord have spoken and have done it.
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  Verse 24. God will make the dry tree
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  flourish. That did not happen immediately
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  following the exile. Israel got its legs under itself
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  again, but the people were always under the rule of one
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  foreign king or another. It's only now with modern post
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  Holocaust Israel that we are seeing the flourishing of the
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  dry tree and it will be only after the Tribulation, when the
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  Millennium has begun and Christ is ruling from His throne in
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  Jerusalem, that quote, all the trees of the field shall know
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  that I the Lord have done it. And that's the end of the
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  explanation for chapter 17. So if you are not subscribed,
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  please subscribe and come back for the next chapter for the
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  next recording. Share this with someone if you
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  found it beneficial. Thank you.