May 7, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 1 Samuel 23:15-25:17; Luke 19:11-27

Weekly Memory Verse: Romans 10:9-10

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

Ezekiel 19 (NASB95)
¹ “As for you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel ² and say, ‘What was your mother? A lioness among lions! She lay down among young lions, She reared her cubs. ³ ‘When she brought up one of her cubs, He became a lion, And he learned to tear his prey; He devoured men. ⁴ ‘Then nations heard about him; He was captured in their pit, And they brought him with hooks To the land of Egypt. ⁵ ‘When she saw, as she waited, That her hope was lost, She took another of her cubs And made him a young lion. ⁶ ‘And he walked about among the lions; He became a young lion, He learned to tear his prey; He devoured men. ⁷ ‘He destroyed their fortified towers And laid waste their cities; And the land and its fullness were appalled Because of the sound of his roaring. ⁸ ‘Then nations set against him On every side from their provinces, And they spread their net over him; He was captured in their pit. ⁹ ‘They put him in a cage with hooks And brought him to the king of Babylon; They brought him in hunting nets So that his voice would be heard no more On the mountains of Israel. ¹⁰ ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, Planted by the waters; It was fruitful and full of branches Because of abundant waters. ¹¹ ‘And it had strong branches fit for scepters of rulers, And its height was raised above the clouds So that it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches. ¹² ‘But it was plucked up in fury; It was cast down to the ground; And the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branch was torn off So that it withered; The fire consumed it. ¹³ ‘And now it is planted in the wilderness, In a dry and thirsty land. ¹⁴ ‘And fire has gone out from its branch; It has consumed its shoots and fruit, So that there is not in it a strong branch, A scepter to rule.’ ” This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.^[1]

When I first read this I was a little confused, and tried to apply the two lion cubs to Israel, it didn't work.  I then went to the commentaries.  The mother lion was a may have been a real person, but more likely this was referring to Israel, her sons were kings of Israel.  The first lion may have been Jehoahaz, who was an evil king, his demise was that he was led to Egypt with hooks in his nose, indicating slavery, where he died.

2 Kings 23:31-34 (NASB95)
³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. ³³ Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, and he died there.

Jeremiah 22:11-12 (NASB95)
¹¹ For thus says the Lord in regard to Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place, “He will never return there; ¹² but in the place where they led him captive, there he will die and not see this land again.^[2]

The next cub that is addressed may have been Jehoiachin who was led away into captivity to Babylon.  It is thought that he had a neck yoke on when he was led captive; he was kept in prison for 37 years.  He died in captivity in Babylon and never returned to see the mountains of Israel.

2 Kings 24:8-17 (NASB95)
⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. ⁹ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done. ¹⁰ At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. ¹¹ And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it. ¹² Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his officials. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. ¹³ He carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, just as the Lord had said. ¹⁴ Then he led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵ So he led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; also the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his officials and the leading men of the land, he led away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ All the men of valor, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths, one thousand, all strong and fit for war, and these the king of Babylon brought into exile to Babylon. ¹⁷ Then the king of Babylon made his uncle Mattaniah king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

2 Kings 25:27-30 (NASB95)
²⁷ Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison; ²⁸ and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life; ³⁰ and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.

Jeremiah 52:31-34 (NASB95)
³¹ Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. ³² Then he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and had his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life. ³⁴ For his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a daily portion all the days of his life until the day of his death.^[3]

In essence this song that Ezekiel had written was a funeral dirge, written to speak of the funeral that was going to happen, and to describe the demise of the evil kings that rose to power.  Please note that there were other kings mixed in between the times that these men were deported, only the ones that were significant were prophesied about.  I wonder as I think on this why the evil kings were the ones who were in the spotlight.  Could it be that they were the ones who had enough anger in them to attempt to do something about their situation, even though it was wrong?

The final few verses of this chapter look at the history of Israel.  Consider that Israel had a great start, God planted them firmly by the rivers of water, and made them totally powerful over all of the nations around them.  Figuratively they were plucked up out of the soil by their own desires, allowing themselves to be uprooted and allowing the enemy to have his way with the vine.  In that way, God sent the Assyrians to defeat Israel, ordaining them to be a rod against Israel because of their wickedness. 

Isaiah 5:26-29 (NASB95)
²⁶ He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation, And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth; And behold, it will come with speed swiftly. ²⁷ No one in it is weary or stumbles, None slumbers or sleeps; Nor is the belt at its waist undone, Nor its sandal strap broken. ²⁸ Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent; The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind. ²⁹ Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions; It growls as it seizes the prey And carries it off with no one to deliver it.

Ezekiel 15:1-8 (NASB95)
¹ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which is among the trees of the forest? ³ “Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can men take a peg from it on which to hang any vessel? ⁴ “If it has been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything? ⁵ “Behold, while it is intact, it is not made into anything. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything! ⁶ “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; ⁷ and I set My face against them. Though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them. ⁸ ‘Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ ” declares the Lord God.^[4]

God designated a foreign nation to snatch Israel from power; this would not have been possible if God was not behind it.  It is also interesting that at the very first part of Isaiah 5, Isaiah speaks about Israel as being the vineyard that God had created and watered, which went bad.  The same illustration is used in this chapter, but it is shortened.  Consider also that the vine spoken of in verse 11 has unique qualities because it is made of strong enough wood to have it built into a scepter. 

One thing that we can carry home from this chapter is the knowledge that God knows what is going on in our lives.  He also knows what the future holds for each one of us.  God gave Ezekiel the prophecy concerning the bad kings, and a dirge to sing for the funeral of the great nation of Israel, all in advance.  We can put our trust in Him.

I am going to close here, all comments are welcomed.

Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes so that we can understand and apply it to our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.