8th January 2025

8th January 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ezekiel 17 focus v11-21)


Message (Alan Burke)


If you’re coming to this after reading Monday’s devotion then you know what is going on and what the Lord meant when he told the riddle and parable of the eagles and the vine in v1-10. In the riddle and parable that the Lord had given there was no explanation, what we are meant to see is the foolishness of what the vine has done, how the fine has gone after another. What we are supposed to see is the ingratitude of vine, the rejection of the one who had done so much for it. Again we are told how the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and to the rebellious house strikingly the Lord asks through Ezekiel ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’. The Lord now explains what the fables meant so they know exactly what the Lord is saying to them. 


The king of Babylon is the great eagle Nebuchadnezzar, he brought back the king of Isreal Jehoiachin, he was carried off to Babylon the 'city of traders’ (v4), Babylon was the commercial centre of the known world. Initially he and those who were brought with him to Babylon were well looked after, provided with all they needed. Later we know that Jehoiachin fell out of favour with his hosts but before his death after 30 years in exile he was once more restored to a place of honour but died childless and was the last king of Judah. But in the present when this prophecy was given Jehoiachin was being well looked after. 


Nebuchadnezzar installed another king in his place, one who would act in accordance with the interests of Babylon. This king was one of David’s dynasty, Mattaniah who was Jehoiachin’s uncle, his name was changed to Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar. We are told what Nebuchadnezzar did to secure Judah, he made a treaty with the new king putting him under oath. Now the NIV uses the word treaty but it is the word covenant. A covenant at is most basic level is an agreement between two parties, where there are promises, conditions and a penalty if it is not kept. The covenant was made and Nebuchadnezzar took the leading men away so the country would be brought low, in effect they would be on their knees, they would need Babylon to survive.  


The long and short of what happened was that the king rebelled against Babylon, he sought the aid of Egypt, seeking his horses and large army (v15). The purposes was to try and free themselves from the yoke of the Babylonians. The second eagle is therefore Egypt, and so what is being made clear in the midst of this riddle, this parable as the Lord explains it to the people that Zedekiah’s desire to be out from under the foot of the Babylonians is actually foolish, it will bring their destruction, they cannot seek help from another lesser superpower and expect that the superpower that they are under the foot will ignore it. The Lord’s response to what has been done is to make an oath, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord. Making it clear that disaster that will come on Zedekiah (v16). 


What we may miss in all of this is that while this is about Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah and Judah, this is also a picture of what God’s people had done. For they had been planted in the promised land, they had been cared for by God but rather than looking to the Lord who had done so much for them, rather than keeping his covenant, rather than being faithful the Lord just like Zedekiah had saw another eagle and turned their attention to it. They had turned to the false gods of the nations as well as the nations themselves, they were an idolatrous people and rather than serving the Lord their God they went after idols, they went after the nations looking for their security in other places. God’s judgement would come and did come upon Zedekiah and Judah. The people in exile who heard it would've been unable to do anything 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. The day is coming when the Lord God will bring his judgement upon all the living and the dead, Jesus is the one whom he has appointed as judge. Like those Ezekiel day we are unable to do anything to prevent it but for all who look to what the Lord God has done, the shoot brought forth (v22), his only begotten son the Lord Jesus Christ they will escape the judgement that they deserve, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21). 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
A. No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed.
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