10th January 2025

10th January 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ezekiel 17 focus v22-24)


Message (Alan Burke)


A brief summary of what has happened so far is that the Lord through Ezekiel had given his people a riddle that was also a parable of the eagles and the vine (v1-10). The Lord then explained the riddle and the parable to his people and explains how it is a picture of what had actually happened and what was happening in their midst with Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian King, Zedekiah Judah’s King and Judah as a people. The riddle and parable of the eagles and the vine was a picture of what was unfolding but it was also a picture of what the people of God had done in their history. To what his people had done the Lord passes judgment, there was nothing that his people could do to prevent it, but that's not the end, the sovereign Lord speaks once more and this time it is with a wonderful hope of what he himself will do and that is where we pick up today. 


What we are told now takes us back to the first fable in v3-4 of the great eagle that came to Lebanon, taking hold the top of a cedar, breaking of its topmost shoot. Nothing more was said of the cedar, the imagery turned to a vine. We might have been left wondering what happened to that cedar. Now what comes makes it clear that there was a double meaning, the first meaning that the Lord had used speaking of the great eagle in verse 3 spoke of Babylon and their king, taking the king into exile in Babylon. But now the Lord uses the imagery and applies it to himself. For the Lord himself would take a shoot from the very top of a cedar he would plant it, a tender sprig from its top most shoots planting it on a high and lofty mountain, alluding to Mount Zion. 


The Lord is guaranteeing that the cedar would continue, that it would flourish, it will produce much fruit, it will see all kinds of birds live under it, it will grow providing shade with its branches and birds will nest there, God will cause the tress of the field to know that he is the Lord. Zedekiah was the king who was uprooted to wither in Babylon but the Lord would place another king in his place, someone who is in contrast to the failed kings of Isreal. The Lord would do this because he had not forgotten the covenant that had had made with David. In second Samuel we are told how David was settled as king in Jerusalem, Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies and he said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” The Lord made it clear that it was not David who would build a house but his son, and the Lord would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. The closing words of this chapter when the Lord says clearly, “ ‘I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’ ” it would come to pass, the Lord himself would act. 


God was promising his people though in exile that one day there would be one who would come, the true king unlike the kings that came before. It is the coming of the Lord Jesus that fulfils the hope that was given here at the end of this chapter. A new king, a future king, who would rule over the people of God. Well the Lord God has kept his word, he sent forth his son, A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. The genealogical records in Matthew (1:1-17) and Luke (3:23-38) make it clear that Jesus was descended from the line of Jesus and his son David. The Lord God keeps his word and while in v11-21 the people would know that the Lord is God, that the Lord would bring his judgement upon them, God’s judgment was coming and he would not relent, he would bring it, but through what the Lord has done we may escape the judgement that is coming to all. God even though his people have been a sinful unfaithful people throughout the ages has kept his promise, salvation has come. While we are sinful and unfaithful the Lord has shown that he will keep his word, he has shown to us his grace even though we are infinitely undeserving of it. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q84. What doth every sin deserve?
A. Every sin deserveth God’s wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.
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