Bible Study: September 11, 2024

So tonight we're going to be looking at chapter 17. Chapter 17 has a lot of elements to it, very detailed elements, as I've said, and for some of you, and including myself, as I progressed through this chapter and remembered what it was talking about, I thought, oh, there it is!

There's one of the kind of truths of the earth that explains a lot of things with God is working with his people and remember the prophecies for Israel in the last days, the nation of Joseph, that they would be a very blessed nation. Judah, there would be never a king that would depart from his line. And we see that in chapter 17 as God plays it out. And as we begin chapter 17, we have something here that Jesus Christ used in his ministry to explain things, a parable. And I don't know if it's the only parable in the Old Testament.

You remember with Ezekiel, God used very different means in order to get the truth across to people, the prophecies across to people. He, of course, used words. He used Ezekiel to go through some actions along the way. We're going to see one of those actions played out here, or the prophecy of it in this prophecy. But as he opens the book up, he talks about a riddle, a riddle here.

The word of the Lord, verse 1, came to be saying, Son of man, pose a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel. Of course, a parable is a way that you say it one way, and you remember the parables that Jesus Christ would talk about the parable of the sower, right? The sower and the and the sower. And he would explain this parable, and the disciples would pause and say, Well, what does that mean? And then he would explain to them what it means.

So we don't have to wonder what it means. God actually explains what it means. And that's the situation we have here in chapter 17. The first eight verses or so, 10 verses, are this riddle, this parable that he is speaking. And then the next verses 11 through 21 explain what that parable is. So we don't have to wonder what it is. God explains what it is. We do have to.

We do have to correlate some of the things that he talks about here to kings of the past, the Assyrian kings, Egyptian kings, kings of Judah, and relate back to that. So it can become very detailed. It can become very detailed, but it's a fascinating story that God is waving here for us in this prophecy in chapter 17.

Now, I will tell you that the UCG Bible commentary is really, really, really good. If you look into regular Bible commentaries—I use Barnes' commentary quite a bit, Adam Clark commentary, Jameson, Frosted Brown—they are silent for the most part on this chapter because they have no idea what it's talking about. Where some commentaries do try to interpret what is going on here, they make mistakes and they try to relate it to existing kings—not existing kings, but kings that actually lived in the past, and they miss the whole point of it.

Even some of the other Church of God commentaries they looked at are silent on this, but the UCG Bible commentary, I will say, is absolutely excellent. So as we're going through this tonight, keep that in mind. As we get into the last three verses, I'm going to actually use it to describe what's going on there. You will see—you can find that at UCG Bible commentary by going to bible.ucg.org.

Go to ucg.org, type in Bible commentary in the search bar, and it'll show up for you. Go to chapter 17, and you will see a very detailed explanation of this chapter. We're going to try to get through the entire chapter tonight, because it would not do it justice tonight. Finish it out. But you would want to take the time to go back and look at that. Look at that and go back into the Bible and see some of the corresponding verses in 2 Kings 24, for instance, 2 Chronicles 36, Jeremiah 52.

It ties all those prophecies together. Remember that Ezekiel is writing here as God is working with him. He does have those contemporary prophets, the Jeremiah's of the world, that are writing at the same time. Isaiah was before him, but some of this is in Isaiah, and certainly the Chronicles of the Kings were written around that time, too. So let's—I already started in verse 1, but let's go ahead and go through it a little bit.

I'm going to handle this chapter a little bit differently, so that we look at a verse and then look at the interpretation that is later on in the same chapter. The word of the Lord came to me saying, verse 1, Son of man, pose a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel, and say, verse 3, Thus says the Lord God, a great—whoops, let me admit some people in here—Thus says the Lord God, a great eagle with large wings and long pinions full of feathers of various colors came to Lebanon, and he took from the cedar at the highest branch.

Okay, so we've got this picture of an eagle. We all know what an eagle is—full of feathers, various colors. You know, if we go to verse 11, you know, we're going to see what the interpretation of that is, this bird and the various descriptions. Moreover, it says, And the word of the Lord came to me saying, Say now to the rebellious house, the rebellious house would be Israel, the house of Israel that had already been taken into captivity. So God is speaking this to Israel. Say now to the rebellious house, Don't you know what these things mean? Tell them, Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its kings and princes and led them with him to Babylon. So, given verse 12, we can go back to verse 3 again and see. The great eagle spreads its wing, covers a large territory, quick moving, strong. All seeing is indeed the king of Babylon. Okay, the king of Babylon—we're going to turn to 2 Chronicles 36 here in a minute as well—with large wings and long pinions full of feathers and various colors. Different peoples, different things. Babylon itself was over many peoples, conquered many peoples. It had a lot of activity in it. They came to Lebanon. Now, when you look at verse 12 there, it says, Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem. It's an interesting thing because Babylon there, or Jerusalem in verse 12, really does pertain to Lebanon in this verse here. It's one of those things that you have to look at other places in the Bible to see what is God talking about there. There it's called Lebanon. It means Jerusalem. Keep your finger there in Ezekiel 17. Let's go back to Joshua, the book of Joshua.

Joshua 1, and we'll be looking at verse 4. Joshua 1, and we'll be looking at verse 4. Moses has died. Joshua is the new leader of Israel. They're about to march into the promised land.

In verse 3 it says, God is talking to Joshua and says, Every place, every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses. So we know where the promised land is. We've talked about that before. Remember, even in chapter 16, it talked about you were a Hittite and an Amorite from your birth. We went back to where Jerusalem is, where the Jebusites are, and all those things. Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I've given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea, toward the going down to the sun, shall be your territory. So this area of Judah, this area that God is giving them, he refers to as Judah, the promised land. But he refers to it as Lebanon, and later there's some cedar trees that are mentioned in Ezekiel 17. And you remember the cedars of Lebanon. They were one of the best trees around. So when we read Lebanon, and there's other places too. There's a Bible to write down where it is in 1 Kings. There's another place or two that Jerusalem or Judah is referred to as Lebanon. So when we look, if we go back to Ezekiel 17, a great eagle, Babylon, with large wings, moves quickly, conquers things, full of activity. Various peoples in the empire that they have came to Judah or Jerusalem and took from the cedar. There's the cedar. Cedar is high stock. It's talking about the royalty. The royalty of Jerusalem and took from the cedar the highest branch. So we'll go back to verse 12. What did he take when he went to Jerusalem? He took its king and princes and led them with him to Babylon. So you've got Babylon coming in, coming into Jerusalem, and taking the king, the top branch, royal family, cedar, leaven and cedar, and taking them with him to Babylon. We go back to 2 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles 36. Chapter 36, verse 6. Here it's talking about the last days of Jerusalem, where it finally falls to Babylon. You'll remember from history that Israel fell to the Assyrians. They were captive until Babylon captured the Assyrians. Israel then was free to move out of that area. Judah fell to Babylon in 586 BC. So here we're in chapter 36 of 2 Chronicles. We're near the end of Judah as a standalone nation. Nebuchadnezzar is attacking them. He came in three waves, took exiles with him. Daniel was in the first exile. Ezekiel was in the second exile. And then finally finished off Jerusalem, if I can put it that way. But in verse 6, this is related directly to Ezekiel 17, verse 3. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him. The king, noted there in verse 5, Jehoiakim, a young king, came up against him and bound him in bronze meters to carry him off to Babylon. So direct relation to the actual history that is there, that God is giving Ezekiel here to say, he's going to be, he's going to head off, he's going to be taken away, or was taken away, to Babylon.

So keep your finger there in 2 Chronicles 36, because we're going to be back there in a second as we pick up the story here as we go through these first five and six verses here. So if we go back to Ezekiel 17, so we have one prophecy, or one thing that Babylon's going to come, carry off King Jehoiakim to Babylon, the fall of Judah is about to begin. Verse 4, he, this would be the king of Babylon, following the same precepts there that we looked at above, he cropped off its topmost young twig and carried it to a land of trade. He said it in a city of merchants. So now we have topmost, we have a king, he's the top rung, he's the highest branch, but now we have the topmost young twig. That would indicate a prince. So if we go back to chapter 36, it would be verse 9. Okay, so Jehoiakim is carried off to Babylon. Verse 9, Jehoiakim, his son, was eight years old when he became king. Very young king, Jehoiakim, was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days.

He did evil and decided the Lord. At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned him and took him to Babylon with the costly articles from the house of the Lord and made Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, king over Judah in Jerusalem. So every time Nebuchadnezzar comes, he takes the king, takes Jehoiakim, and he takes some articles from the temple, takes them back with them to Babylon. And then he comes back, and we've got this young king, Jehoiakim, a tender twig at the top of the branch. He takes him back to Babylon, takes more things back to Babylon with him from Babylon. In this second exile, this would have been when Ezekiel was taken back and taken captive and moved out of Jerusalem as well. So we have, as we build the story here, and as we didn't go back, let's go back to verse 4 in chapter 17. We read 2 Chronicles 36, but we see the interpretation of that verse 4 in verse 13 of Ezekiel 7. He took the king's offspring, the young king. He, king of Babylon, took the king's offspring, made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land. So again, God is interpreting what this parable, this riddle is, that he's given him in the early verses here of chapter 17.

Takes the king's offspring, made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. Now, this is significant because we're going to see put him under oath, and God talking about this oath many times throughout this chapter. God is making a point that we'll get to a little bit later of how important that oath was to God as this young king took an oath, and then Zedekiah, the following king, took an oath as well. When we take oaths, God expects us to adhere to them and keep them. Let me look at chapter 36 for a moment.

Okay, so that's verse 13. So let's go in Ezekiel 17. We're building the story here. Let's go back to verse 5 and continue the riddle. Then he, we're still talking about the king of Babylon, where the first riddle, the next riddle begins down to verse 7, then he took some of the seed of the land, right? This would be royalty, some of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fertile field.

And that would be like the promised land is what our commentary says. He placed it by abundant waters and set it like a willow tree. Let's go back to chapter 36 of 2 Chronicles.

Okay, chapter 36 verse 11. Is that a... you know, hold on just a minute.

That's what I was saying. This is, it's very detailed in here.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, verse 13 refers to Zedekiah. This is the king's offspring. As we build the story, we have Joiah come, then Joopoiah come, then we have Zedekiah, who is another offspring of the king. Zedekiah was 21 years old. I mean, chapter 36 of 2 Chronicles, verse 11.

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the eternalist God. He didn't tumble himself before Jeremiah, the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God. So here we have this oath that God is talking about in Ezekiel 17, that we are going to see repeated two or three more times in chapter... in Ezekiel. So rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God, but he, Zedekiah, stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. Moreover, it says, all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more according to all the abominations of the nations and defiled the house of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the Lord God, the Lord God of their fathers, sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. So, Zedekiah made an oath. Zedekiah made an oath by God. And those are significant two words there. An oath by God. He swore to Nebuchadnezzar to be loyal to him, to follow him, to adhere by the laws of the land, and to live there in Babylon. But he rebelled against him. He broke that oath.

And when God is going to be showing us in this chapter, when we break an oath, when we swear to something—I can use that term and make an oath by God—and we break it, he holds us highly accountable of that. In fact, later on in chapter 17 of Ezekiel, he's going to say, God even sees that as treason. He used my name, you made an oath to someone, and then you broke it. So here, as we see, you know, King Zedekiah broke the oath. He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar. All these leaders of the land of Judah who were there, they rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. And then verse 15 is very interesting because it says, I'm going to send warnings to them. Do they realize what they've done? They broke an oath that they made in my name. So it says, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. Okay, I'm going to send warnings to you. Turn back. Honor the oath you made. This is serious business. You may think you're captive, and you are captive and being conquered, but when you make an oath, you follow it. When you vow to God, you make sure that you follow through on that. And it's very notable that God says, I sent warnings. I sent messengers to him. Pay attention because he had compassion on him. Verse 16, but they mocked the mess... I'm in chapter 36 of Chronicles. But they mocked the messengers of God. They despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Wow! They just pushed it too far. Ignored the warnings for God. Wouldn't listen to his words. They pushed it too far, and God said, that's it. That's it.

Now they're going to suffer the punishment. I'm going to go ahead and finish while we're here in verse chapter 36. So we see the end of the story here. Then we'll go back to Ezekiel 17. Verse 17, Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion, a young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak. He gave them all into Nebuchadnezzar's hands, and all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord, of the Eternal, and the treasures of the king, and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all his palaces with fire, and destroyed all his precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword, he, Nebuchadnezzar, carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons, until the rule of the kingdom of Persia.

They lost it all. And so, you know, we see the destruction of the temple in Babylon. We see Babylon carrying away all the treasures of the temple. We see the wall broken down.

And then, you'll remember, a few months ago, we were briefly in the book of Ezra, and then the book of Nehemiah. We see God 70 years later, and at the time the king of Persia conquers Babylon, and the people go back, and they rebuild the temple, and they rebuild the wall.

So, we have the complete destruction of Judah in the third wave, as if we can call that, of Nebuchadnezzar. The city is completely destroyed. The people had completely disregarded God in another place. I think it's in 2 Kings 24, you know, in Jeremiah 52, I think. You know, when God took them—I'm not going to get to that in a minute, but I'll go ahead and complete my thought here—God told them, when you're in Babylon, stay there. Honor the king. It will be well with you. Live there. Live there, and be well. But Zedekiah wouldn't do that. He decided to rebel, contact the king of Egypt, and then, of course, lost it all. So, with that history of Jerusalem, let's go back. Let's go back to chapter 17 and complete the first riddle here.

Verse 5, he took some of the seed of the land, some of the royalty, and planted it in a fertile field. That would be Babylon, because he brought them, and he said, you live, you live. Well, I guess that is a Promised Land, because they were there in there. He just said, you be loyal to the king of Babylon. Work under him, and planted it in a fertile field. He placed it by abundant waters, symbolizing peace, safety, calm, and set it like a willow tree. He was still king. He had that title, but he was reliant on the king of Babylon, a very wealthy kingdom, and a very comfortable lifestyle. Still had the position of king of Judah, but relying on their wealth of Babylon at that point. So, verse 5 talks about that. We saw that in chapter 36. And it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature. That would be low stature. Zedekiah, low stature, not an honorable man, right? Not an honorable man, because he broke the oath. He broke the oath of God. It grew and became a spreading vine of low stature. Its branches turned toward him.

Its branches turned toward him, Babylon, but its roots were under it, so it became a vine, brought forth branches, and put forth shoots.

Okay, so let's go back later on in chapter 17 to where God interprets those verses for us.

Let me begin in 13 so that we are having the whole story here and the whole sentence. He took the king's offspring, that would be Zedekiah, made a covenant with them, and put him under oath.

He also took away the mighty of the land, that the kingdom might be brought low and not lift itself up. Humble them, but by keeping his covenant, it might stand. If he had kept the covenant, it would have been better for all of them. That's 2 Chronicles 36, 15. But he, Zedekiah, rebelled against him, Nebuchadnezzar, by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. And then God, again remembering the oath, asks the question, will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break it down? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still be delivered? And the answer is no. We saw that in 2 Chronicles 36, God making a statement there. Whether you're in captivity or whenever you make an oath by God, you keep it. A notable verse is Psalm 15, Psalm 15, Psalm 15, talks about the honorable man who will be in God's house. Psalm 15, Lord who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill. Drop down to verse 4. It says, In whose eyes? Well, let me just read through it. Not that long. He who may dwell in your holy hill. Verse 2, He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart.

Not just, notice how God uses his heart, speaks the truth not just from his mouth, but speaks the truth in his heart. He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. Verse 4, In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

So, he who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

Sometimes the statements we make, the agreements we enter into, God says abide by them. Even if it turns out very painful for you.

I remember hearing a minister talk about this verse years ago and talk about, you know, you may think that you overpaid for something.

And you might learn it's a fake when you thought it was a a the genuine something. If you agreed to do it, you pay it anyway.

If you make that oath, you follow through on it, even if it hurts you, because you made a covenant and agreement with God. And that's what he's saying about Zedekiah here. He made an agreement, you didn't do it, and he says, well, can this man prosper?

Can he escape? Can he break the covenant and still be delivered? I'm in verse 15 of Ezekiel 17.

Well, the answer is no. God answers it in verse 16. As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwells, who made him king, whose oath he despised, surely in the place where the king, that's the Judah king, dwells who made him king, whose oath where the king dwells, I will do devil lesser, who made him king, who allowed Zedekiah to continue in that role, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, with him in the midst of Babylon, he shall die.

And as you look at the story of Zedekiah, you probably remember it. Again, it's in 2 Kings 24, Jeremiah 52.

Zedekiah was carried off to Babylon. All of his sons were killed before his eyes. Babylon, the king, put out his eyes while Zedekiah was alive. He saw his sons die. He had his eyes put out. He eventually died there in Babylon as well. So it didn't go well for Zedekiah. He was an evil king, but he was the last.

He was the last one in that line of Judah that was in Jerusalem at that time.

So that completes this first riddle of the Ezekiel 17, talking of Babylon and those three kings.

So if we go back now to verse 7, there's another riddle that begins here.

There was another, verse 7 of Ezekiel 17, there was another great eagle, another major power, world ruling power, or a very regional power anyway, there was another great eagle with large wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine, this vine, this is speaking of Zedekiah.

And as he is bending toward Egypt, as we just read, there was another great eagle with large wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine bent its roots toward Egypt.

We're going to see that in a minute in verse 15 of this chapter. And it stretches branches toward him from the garden terrace where it had been planted that he might water it. So we have Zedekiah there, made this oath to Babylon.

But now he's bending his allegiance to Egypt in defiance of the agreement that he made with Nebuchadnezzar. So let's look at... well, we just read it. We don't have to read it again. Verse 15 talks about that interpretation of that verse 7. Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar by sending his ambassadors to Egypt. So God is telling the story here of what happened in a riddle.

Let's go back to verse 8.

It was planted in good soil by many waters to bring forth branches, bear fruit. God intended he meant for Zedekiah and the people to stay in Babylon, is what this is saying. It was planted in good soil by many waters to bring forth branches, bear fruit, and become a majestic vine.

God's intent was live and prosper in Babylon.

I can confuse you a little bit because then later on, when Jeremiah is leaving Jerusalem after the last siege, they go to Babylon. God says, stay there.

Now, you think that Judah would have learned the lesson from these guys, right? Stay here in Babylon. Prosper in Babylon. Make your home here. This is where you're going to be. They were going to be in a foreign country, but God said it will be well with you there if you just do it. They didn't either. They rejected Jeremiah and his words, and they went off to Egypt, and it was not well for them there either. So, Judah and God's people just will not listen sometimes. So, his intent was that, Akaya, the people stay there. Verse 9 says, Thus says the Lord, Will it thrive?

Will he not pull up its roots, cut off its fruit, and leave it to wither?

Will he do it? Will he do what I say? Will he thrive? Or is he going to make a decision to do something against me, eliminate the fruit and all the plants I had for that, and wash the tree wither? Will he do that, leave it to wither? All of its spring leaves will wither, and no great power or many people will be needed to pluck it up by its roots. Behold, it's planted.

I planted it there. Will it thrive?

Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it?

The east wind... You know, when you look at our commentary, it talks about Babylon, remember, is out east as you look at the picture of where the promised land is, Jerusalem, Babylon is out east. So when they come in, when they come in, because Nebuchadnezzar is angry, when this treaty is broken, will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it?

Yes, it was. As we read in 2 Chronicles 36, Jerusalem simply fell, completely demolished the temple, Babylon went off with all the riches of Judah. Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it?

It will wither in the garden terrace where it grew.

So our commentary says that verse 10 is a prophetic verse, that this was written.

I don't know how they do these things, but I'll take the... I'll take the words of ones who figure out and how know when these words were written. They say that these words in verse 10, or these in Ezekiel 7, was written in 591 or 592 BC.

The Zedekiah fall was from 588 to 586 BC, so it was four or five years into the future.

These were prophetic words that the people of that time would have seen happen. God was saying, they're not going to survive Babylon. They're not going to stay there. They will wither. They will be cut down, and Jerusalem will be completely demolished. So remember, Ezekiel was in the second exile.

The third wave of Nebuchadnezzar coming in is when Babylon fell. So verse 10 is prophetic, is what the commentaries and the people who do these things say.

So it happened later, five years later, four to five years later, a proof again of God's prophecy happens exactly as he said here.

So we've finished the riddle. We've come down through verse 16, and we have the King, King Zedekiah and his people, the mighty men of Jerusalem, defying Nebuchadnezzar. They die. They are carried off to Babylon. And we have royalty, then, out of Jerusalem, and Nebuchadnezzar has taken it.

So if we continue with verse 17 here, verse 16, going back to Zedekiah, says, with him in the midst of Babylon, Zedekiah will die. Remember that he dies. All his sons are killed. So all the heirs of Zedekiah, the natural continuation of the throne of Judah, the throne that David sat on, the throne that God said would last forever and ever and ever because of the loyalty and obedience of David. Now, the king is gone, his sons are gone. What happens to the throne? And the rest of these verses speak of that. So verse 17 says, Nor will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company do anything in the war when they heap up a siege mound and build a wall to cut off many persons.

Now, you will remember back in the early chapters of Ezekiel, chapter 4, I think it is, that God said, Ezekiel, make a clay tablet, build Jerusalem in it, and build a siege wall.

So here we have this siege that is being built up against, we have this wall that God prophesied back with Ezekiel. The siege would come against Jerusalem, right? Build a wall to cut off many persons. It's very detailed. You will even see when he builds the siege in chapter 4 in that clay model, he says, Ezekiel, build a wall, build a wall. And here we have the fulfillment of that prophecy that God had Ezekiel ask out, or act out. So verse verse 18, Sincee, here we come to this oath again, you can see how important this is to God that we keep our word to him. Since he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and in fact gave his hand and still did all these things, he shall not escape because he despised the oath that he gave.

They wouldn't listen to God. They turned against it. They broke the covenant that they made with him, the vow that they made to God to follow what he had to say. Verse 19, therefore says the Lord God, As I live surely, my oath, my oath which he despised, and my covenant which he broke, I will recompense on his own head. Again, when God comes back and says things two, three, four times, we need to pay attention to it. We need to pay attention to it because it's very important to him, and needs to be very important to us to follow through with the words that we commit to.

We, of course, make a commitment to God at baptism. We make a commitment to God before God when we marry someone to be with them and honor them for the rest of our lives. We make other commitments to God along the way. God says, if you make it, stick to it. Don't break the covenant. So, continuing to speak a little bit here about Zeddakai in verse 20, I will spread my net over him. God says he's not going to escape. I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and try him there for the treason. For the treason was she committed against me. Again, how can you get away from what God is saying here? It's a very important concept. Zeddakiah, who was an evil king anyway, it wasn't like he was obeying God in any other ways, but God continues to remind us, even calling it treason.

It might remind us of chapter 16 when God talked about the adulterous wife, like an adulterous wife who cheated on God, who could betray him. Here we have God using the same thing. You turned against me. You didn't pay attention. You made a covenant with me. You made an oath to me, and you didn't keep it. God in his anger and his frustration in his anger justly punishes people who do the king here as he does that. Verse 21. All his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered to every wind, and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken. Again, when we see this phrase, you will know that I the Lord has spoken. It means the people recognize we have sinned against God.

We have turned against him. It has struck home, and they are at the lowest of that they can be.

They should be very humbled, very repentant. Jeremiah talks about this very episode that we've been talking about, the fall of Jerusalem. Then you have the book of Jeremiah followed by the book of Lamentations. It isn't bad to read the book of Lamentations. It's only three chapters long. It just shows what the people are feeling. They know they turned against God. They willfully turned against him during those times. They ignored the messages of Jeremiah for 40 years. They ignored the messages that came. God said in this chapter 2, I sent those messages to have compassion on them. Turn back. Honor the oath you made. But they ignored him. They just went on with their lives. They lost everything. Then when you read through Lamentations, you see the agony and the sorrow that they felt because they realized, yes, we turned against God and we lost everything. How silly could we have been? It's exactly the same for people that are living in this time now when God calls us. We turn to him, and if we allow our zeal and our commitment to him and our loyal to him and our fervor and commitment to the truth that he calls us to to wane in any way, when that time comes, and if we find ourselves in the great tribulation, having to deal with all those things, and then Christ calls it the weeping and gnashing of teeth, that's the Lamentation. Why didn't we pay attention to God when we had the time? Why didn't we listen? Why didn't we heed? Why did we just take everything for granted and think, oh, things will go on as they always have. When we lose something, it's a very painful experience, but as you see in the great tribulation for the people who have their robes washed white in that tribulation, they know when they're there, now there is no choice. Whatever I have to go through, I will be loyal to God, and they are able to prove that strength that God gives them through his Spirit. They are able to survive or maybe even die in that tribulation, but also know that even if they die in that tribulation, the very next moment of their consciousness, God can resurrect them.

So here's what has happened to Judah. They've lost it all. Zadokai is dead. The king's sons are dead. They're in Babylon, and they are in despair as they are in captivity.

When God says, anytime we read that, you'll know that I the Lord have spoken.

There's an awakening and a realization and a wish, I guess, if we had just listened to God.

So verse 22, the last three verses here are very notable because these last three verses have had an effect on the whole world. It's one of those truths that is hidden here in the Bible, but undeniable what goes on here when you look at history. So I'm going to put up... Let me go ahead and share this screen because the Bible commentary, the UCG Bible commentary, handles this. All of this chapter, as I mentioned, all of this chapter, if you haven't been able to follow it, don't worry about it. Go back to the UCG Bible commentary, pull up Ezekiel 17, and step by step you will see that it takes you through all these verses that we've talked about, explaining all these things, giving you the chronological order of what happened and everything, and coming down to these last three verses of Ezekiel 17.

So let me read them, and then we'll come back to the commentary that I put on the screen for you. In Ezekiel 17 verse 22, it says, "...Thus says the Lord God, I will take also one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out." Well, we know when God says one of the highest branches, this is royalty. This is kingship, this is the kingly line. I will take one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out. Cedar, remember, the leaven and cedar, the very fine wood that was even in the temple, and set it out.

I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs of the offspring there, the young ones of that royal line, a tender one, a tender one, and will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. So a tender one would mean someone young. In most cases, it would mean someone who's tender. It would be a female. So looking at verse 22, let's look at what our commentary, because it does a very good job of explaining what that verse is talking about. He says there, "...continuing the imagery of the parable that we've been reading here earlier in the chapter, the last three verses in Ezekiel 17 relay a remarkable prophecy.

It begins with God stating, I..." Notice that he says that. I think I read right over, right? In the other places, it said, you know, something else, "...but I, not Babylon this time, but God himself, I will also take the highest branch of the high cedar. God is going to take this one. Babylon's not going to take him off to a foreign land, but God is going to choose this branch. The New King James version says one of the highest branches, but that's incorrect. God is taking of something from the highest branch.

The highest branch is, of course, the king. Now, what does God take that is of this king? A tender one from the topmost of its young twigs. The young twigs of the branch would be the king's children. A tender one would seem to signify a female, especially when we consider that Zedekiah's sons were all killed. If all his sons were killed, but there were surviving children of Zedekiah the king, it would be the tender one, a daughter.

This tender twig is then planted in a high and prominent mountain. A mountain often signifies a great nation in Bible prophecy, this one being apparently one of the foremost nations in the world, because he calls it a great mountain. God then specifies what he means. On the mountain height, the very top of the nation, the throne of Israel.

I am going to take this tender twig, or this tender one, and I'm going to place them on the highest mountain, that's the highest level, the throne, the kingship of Israel, not Judah, where the kingship has been, not of the line of Judah, where the kings have been in Jerusalem, but I'm going to transplant it and move it in Israel, of the house of Israel, not Judah, and I will plant it there. So, you know, just to verify, because you might be thinking, well how do we know it was daughters?

In Jeremiah 43, we have this account of Zedekiah's fall, and Jeremiah moving the people out of Babylon there. Verse 5 of Jeremiah 43, it says, But, Johanun, the son of Korea and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnants of Judah, this is the fall, the last, the third wave, where the temple is destroyed, and all the rest of the people are moved out of Judah, they took all the remnants of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah from all nations where they had been driven.

Men, women, children, the king's daughters, the king's daughters, and every person who nevazaridin, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah, who was the governor there, who told the people, stay in Babylon exactly the way God said, don't try to fight against them, just be here, plant your roots, have children, make a life for yourself here. But Judah didn't want to hear it, they killed Gedaliah and they tried to flee to Egypt. Anyway, so the key part of this verse here, the king's daughters, all the king's sons are killed, but there are king's daughters that are still alive. So in chapter 17 of Ezekiel, when we read about God, God taking this topmost branch, royalty, taking one of those tender ones, and he's going to put it on the top of a high mountain, a great mountain of Israel.

Of Israel, it says in verse 22, or verse 23, not of Judah. The kingship Judah and Jerusalem have fallen to Babylon. It's no longer there. But God had made the promise to David, your throne will exist forever. Your throne will exist forever. And so there's a king's daughter there that is going to be moved over to, if we're back in Ezekiel 17, let's look at verse 23.

On the mountain height, verse 23, the prominent mountain, the great mountain, verse 23 of Ezekiel 17, on the mountain height of Israel, on the mountain height of Israel, I will plant it.

Xavier, you probably have had your hands up for a while. I just happened to glance up in the mccorn. Do you want to make a comment here before we go further in this verse?

Okay. Yeah, I knew you wanted to try and get through it. So, but Shibi, in regards to verse 4 of chapter 17, it says the Hebrew here is tweaked, meaning it should be plural, like it is here in... what verse do we just read? Is it in 22 or 21?

Yeah, so it's plural also in verse 4. And in regards to covenants between nations, this is the same thing that Russia sadly had given the confidence in America in breaking a few of the treaties that they made with each other. Hence, they ended up taking America out of their country for looking at their war machine and their inspectors, that's what they were called.

They keep breaking, but we're doing everything you ask, but you keep doing something contrary to the contract, the agreement. So, hence, okay, they're not faithful. We just break it, period.

Yep. It's very important to keep those agreements. Absolutely. And yeah, good point.

No more hands. Okay, verse 23. On the mountain height of Israel, I will plant it, and it will bring forth boughs. It'll prosper there. It'll be a tree that grows, and it will bear fruit, and it will be a majestic cedar. There's the same analogy to this cedar tree, the Lebanon cedar, the royalty of Judah that we've been talking about. Under it will dwell herds of every sort.

And it's like, it's going to be a kingdom that covers many, many people, many different peoples.

Under it will dwell birds of every sort, and the shadow of its branches, they will dwell. So, it'll be a big kingdom, people of many different kinds, and they will dwell under the branches of this cedar, this royalty that God is going to plant in Israel. Not in Judah, but all the way over in Israel. Okay, so again, if we look at our Bible commentary here, hey bud, hey bud, before I get to that, yeah, you got a comment?

Great. Yeah, hello. Howdy. Mr. Shavey? Yes. It's Gloria. Oh, hi Gloria. Hi. Hey, I can remember the story of talking about the tender one, and the story of Tia Tipey, who Jeremiah took to England, and she became the relative of the royal family.

That's in their background. Yep.

The queen of England, you know, in her background is the daughter that was taken to England.

Yeah, it's a fascinating story. It's a fascinating story of what happened. You know, when we were over in England, someone gave us something that the British people used to believe, right? They had the chronology of King David, you know, down to King Charles III, and this is something they have recently put out, is they've traced that history, and many of them want to deny that that the king of England, or that lineage, is of David. But there are places in in Britain, you know, these societies, this is, yeah, that have traced that, and they believe it. And this is kind of what we're talking about here. So we read verse 23. Let's look at the middle paragraph there of what's on your screen. It says, so what does the prophecy mean? As explained, and here's something that, you know, you might want to look at, because it is a very well put together document that the church has, as explained in our online publication. It's not a book that you can order, but if you just type in the throne of Britain, its biblical origin and future, you can read of all of all these things and the history of the throne and how it got transplanted or moved from Jerusalem over to England. The throne of Britain is biblical origin and future. It concerns a transfer of the line of David in the days of Ezekiel and Jeremiah from Judah to Israel. The tender sprig of the highest branch taken by God and planted elsewhere represents one of the daughters of Zedekiah who was under the protection of Jeremiah. And we just read Jeremiah 43 verses 5 and 6. Jeremiah was God's instrument used for pulling down the throne and planting it elsewhere, for moving the Davidic lineage from Judah to the British Isles. So again, you go to Bible commentary, you can see this online publication, you can kind of click that and read more about it.

But if you're at all interested, I would encourage you to read the throne of Britain. We don't widely publish it. We don't have a specific booklet on it, but it is a very interesting thing, biblically-based and secularly-based too, as it traces what happened with Jeremiah, who migrated from Israel over into the British Isles. And they can track all that. He's there, as Gloria said. It's a fascinating read of what the king's daughters there, who they intermarried into, and the continuation of that throne. No longer in Judah, but now in Israel. And of course, we believe modern-day Israel is England. That's Ephraim. And in America, New Zealand, the English-speaking nations of the earth. What's very interesting about that is, you know, we've been doing some things on church history. And Mario Sigli, you know, was in Cincinnati back at the last council meeting, and we were talking about a few things with him. And when we were in Mexico, he gave a very interesting presentation on church history to show the progression of the truth from Jerusalem. The church that Jesus Christ started at 31 A.D. in Jerusalem through the years, through the persecutions, and how the church moved through these groups that we can document. And that secular history documents were Sabbath keepers, and were adhering to the truth that Jesus Christ taught. That's the same life that the apostles lived. And some of this is documented in Catholic history, because the Catholics, when they saw people living by the Bible, or Judaizing by keeping the Sabbath, they put them to death. And so you can track through history where these tribes moved, and where they moved was from Jerusalem and across the continent of Europe, and they ended up there in England. Same place that God took this throne and moved it from Jerusalem to the British Isles. And there in England, when the truth ended up there, that was when the Catholic Church, finally in the 1500s, released the prohibition against translating the Bible into other languages. And so from there, then, you had the English Bible, you had the Bible spread throughout the world, you had a freedom of sort of type of freedom of religion, a religion against the Catholic Church that began. And eventually, eventually that moved over into America, where the Church is pretty much headquartered today. So you can kind of see God doing the same thing with the throne, as He did with moving the Church and the truth out of Jerusalem into Israel. And so, very interesting that both of them were that way. And again, we can do that. We're even talking, we're probably going to do a documentary on that, that we can put out to show people the continuity of the Church that Jesus Christ started to where we are today, and that we preach the same thing that Jesus Christ did, and a continuation of that Church. So anyway, just an interesting aside there, that God moved them both out of Judah and over into Israel. So verse 24 then, verse 24, and all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree, Judah, right? Judah was the high tree, it was the Kingly line. Israel fell first, they were the rebellious nation, they fell to Assyria early on. Judah, God says you should have known better, but they didn't, they finally fell in 586. I have brought down the high tree, Judah, and I've exalted the low tree. That would be Israel, who sinned against God and had a history of sinning against God leading to their demise.

I have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, and I have dried up the green tree, the one that was living, Judah, and made the dry tree Israel, the lost tribes of Israel, flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, he says. So as we... yeah, Dave, well, I'm trying to scroll down. Go ahead. Oh no, I was just gonna say, if you'd like, when we upload the the audio for the Bible study, I can add the link to the throne of Britain to make it easier for people to download, if you like me to do that. Yeah, why don't you do that? I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. People can go right there and find it then, so okay? Okay. Very good. Okay, so let's finish with the Bible commentary says here that fills in the blanks on these verses that we just read. So last two paragraphs. All of the northern and west... all of northern and western Europe at this time, that these verses prophesy, all northern and western Europe at this time was dominated by the northern tribes of Israel, taken into captivity by the Assyrians years before, but now a large migratory nation long on the move after the collapse of the Assyrian Empire. So you remember from some of the presentations you've heard when Assyria fell, all the captives of Israel were free to go out. They migrated north into the Caucasus area in the Black Sea, and you can track them by the names of the cities they inhabited all across Europe into the northern and western areas of that continent that he's talking about here. And that's in our book, The United States of Britain and the Propyl of Bylaprofacy. There are other books written on that as well. If you don't want to read a church publication, of course, there's secular books that will talk about that history as well. Eventually, the leading tribe of Israel, Ephraim, would settle in the British Isles. They would come under the Davidic throne and expand to become the greatest empire in history. And we know that. The British Empire, they say, was the largest empire in history. The Bible says that eagle would spread its wings. Many people, many people, many birds would dwell under it. It was the largest, the largest empire in history, the most benevolent empire. Certainly had its problems, certainly as a human empire, made some mistakes along the road. But one thing that was different about them than was other empires of the land. The British Empire strove to leave a land when they left it better than what they found it. They tried to develop the people and they tried to enrich the people. They didn't just go in and try to just take the land, colonize it, rip it of all of its resources, and go. It's a mark of Israel, much like America. There hasn't been a nation like America that's so wealthy that we go in and when there's a war, we actually hand out money to nations to rebuild them and not just leave them destitute and miserable. There hasn't been a more generous nation. So when you can see the people of God, they are generous people. This is the physical people of Nod, not the church of God.

They had that element about them. Remember in Genesis 12, God said to Abraham, you will be a father of many nations and all of the earth will be blessed, and you all nations of the earth shall be blessed. It says in Genesis 12.4, that's a physical blessing as well as a spiritual blessing because through Abraham's line, of course, became Jesus Christ, who is the Savior. Okay. And there it says, you know, you can download this booklet and find this final paragraph there. And building on verse 24, Ezekiel 17, and God says, all the trees of the field, that's the other nations of the earth, shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the tri-tree flourish. I have spoken, God says, and I have done it. Judah was the high tree and Israel the low tree from the time the two kingdoms split to the days of Rehoboam due to David's throne ruling over Judah and not Israel. Judah had been a green tree, fruitful with Davidic royalty and Israel a dry tree throughout that period. God would reverse the positions resulting in a major mark on world history, a mark that's still there today when you recognize the throne that's in Britain. And many wonder why does that throne still exist? Why is it so well noted? Why has it been protected through all those years?

It's because of the promise that God made to David, your throne will exist through all generations.

And so we have a remarkable story in Ezekiel 17 that answers many questions of the world and again shows what God says is going to happen happens in a most unlikely way that can only happen with God coordinating it. So let's finish there and we will hit chapter 18. Another very interesting chapter. Every single chapter in Ezekiel is just kind of amazing when you get into the detail of it. So let's finish there and if you have any questions, comments, or anything else, you'd be more than happy to entertain any of those.