Ezekiel 31
November 4
Reading: Ezekiel 31
1 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:
Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
with beautiful branches and forest shade,
and of towering height,
its top among the clouds.
4 The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall,
making its rivers flow around the place of its planting,
sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field.
5 So it towered high above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large and its branches long
from abundant water in its shoots.
6 All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young,
and under its shadow lived all great nations.
7 It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down to abundant waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
neither were the plane trees like its branches;
no tree in the garden of God was its equal in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches,
and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.
10 "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11 I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. 12 Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. 13 On its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field. 14 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit.
15 "Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below. 17 They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations.
18 "Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. "This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 31 continues the Lord’s oracle against Egypt, this time with an extended simile. Verses 1-9 present Pharaoh and Egypt as a great, majestic, beautiful tree. In Daniel 4 the Lord depicts the King of Babylon as a great tree as well. What is it about great nations that is tree-like? A great tree is impressive. It becomes a home for many other creatures, plants, and fungi. But a tree is not independent. It is part of an ecosystem. The roots go down into soil, the branches up to the sun. A tree needs water and nutrients. And it has a life span. It sprouts. It grows. It dies.
The praise of this tree, that is Pharaoh’s Egypt, is effusive. How could a tree built by man surpass “all the trees of Eden?” We can recognize that cities, nations, and societies built by man can be impressive, amazing, and beautiful. We can improve and surpass what God has created and, in our ingenuity, build wonders. In some ways this is the story of human civilization.
But we do not build these things on our own. We use what the Lord has made. We use resources He has provided. We use the intelligence, ideas, and creativity He has given to us. We are not really surprising Him or surpassing Him, but rather we are fulfilling His design in us and His world. This becomes a problem when we do not acknowledge that all we do is because God has given it to us.
This was the problem in Pharaoh’s Egypt. (vs. 10)
So, the Lord will chop down the great tree. For all their greatness, trees and nations are easily felled, then gone, then forgotten. The greater the tree, the greater its fall. This was true for Egypt. It would be true for Babylon as well. It will be true for America.
Don’t put your hope in the tree, but rather in the Lord who sustains it.