By: Dr. Dale Weckbacher
Text: Ezekiel
19:1-14
Ezekiel
19:13-14
And
now she is planted in the wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land.
14 Fire has come out from a rod of her branches
And devoured her fruit,
So that she has no strong branch—a scepter for ruling.
(NKJV)
The nation of Israel in
the Bible symbolizes an individual and a nation’s relationship with God. It is
God’s intention for all individuals and nations to live in obedience to the
Lord and His Word but like Israel individuals and nations fall into
disobedience and suffer the consequences. Ezekiel
19:1-14 uses the symbolism of a lion and a vine to illustrate the fall of Israel’s
leadership and nation from obedience to God, leading to the consequence of exile.
The modern Church must learn from Israel’s examples or suffer the consequence
of going into the exile of insignificance.
This passage begins with
the Lord telling Ezekiel to take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel (Ezekiel
19:1). The lamentation begins with the mother of Israel symbolized as a
lioness, lying down with the lions and nourishing her cubs among the young
lions (Ezekiel
19:2). One of her cubs became a young lion that learned to hunt prey and
devour men but when the nations heard of him, they trapped him in their pit,
bringing him with chains to Egypt (Ezekiel
19:3-4).
When the lioness heard of
this, she lost hope and took another one of her cubs and made him a young lion
who roved among the lions and learned to hunt prey and devour men (Ezekiel
19:5-6). This young lion knew the desolate places of the enemy and laid
waste their cities with the land desolated by the noise of his roaring (Ezekiel
19:7). In response to this, the nations came against him from every side,
spreading their nets over him, trapping him in their pit (Ezekiel
19:8). The young lion was put in a cage and brought to the king of Babylon so
that his voice was no longer heard on the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel
19:9).
The symbolism now switches
from the mother of Israel as a lioness to a vine in Israel’s bloodline that was
fruitful and full of branches because it was planted by many waters (Ezekiel
19:10). The vine became strong with strong branches for scepters of rulers,
towering above the dense foliage (Ezekiel
19:11). However this strong vine was plucked up in fury, cast to the
ground, with the east wind drying her fruit. Her once strong branches were
broken and withered with fire consuming them (Ezekiel
19:12). Instead of her planting among many waters, she is planted in the
wilderness of a dry and thirsty land (Ezekiel
19:13). Fire has come out from a rod of her branches, devouring her fruit,
and leaving her with no strong branch or scepter for ruling (Ezekiel
19:14).
Once again, the Lord
gives Ezekiel a word for the people that uses imagery to illustrate the extent
of Israel’s fall from a great and powerful people of the Lord to a nation going
into exile as a consequence of their sin (Deuteronomy
28:15-68). Not only did the Lord through Moses warn Israel of the
consequences of disobedience before entering the promised land, but God sent
prophets to warn them and remind them of these consequences.
- Micha
warned Israel of exile to Babylon with the promise of their return (Micha
4:10).
- Jeremiah
gave numerous warnings about exile (Jeremiah
25:8-14, 29:10-14, 52:28-30).
- Isaiah
warned King Hezekiah that all he so proudly displayed to the Babylonians
would be taken away along with his fellow countrymen (Isaiah
39:5-8).
This imagery from Ezekiel
illustrates the downward spiral of Israel due to their continued disobedience
with God showing mercy with his many warnings. Unfortunately, the warnings fell
on deaf ears and the nation suffered 70 years of exile.
The lukewarm,
compromising, and consumerist Church of today must repent or suffer the
consequences of the exile of insignificance. Today’s Church is,
- Lukewarm
(Revelation
3:14-22) – Similar to the Laodicean Church, Many Churches today are
prideful, finding comfort in their riches and wealth and believe they need
nothing (Revelation
3:17). What this Church lacks is the power of God through worship in
the power of the Holy Spirit and the uncompromising truth of the Word of
God (John
4:24). The early Church turned its world upside down, or right side up
depending on your perspective, with the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s
Word, and not their riches, power, and wealth (Acts
17:6).
- Compromising
(Romans
12:1-2) – Romans
12:1-2 occurs after Paul explains what it is to live for Christ in the
first eleven chapters of Romans. His words are clear instructing God’s
people not to conform to the world but to experience transformation
through the renewing of their minds. Paul is not speaking of a woke mental
transformation compromising on foundational biblical truths regarding
gender, marriage, and the sanctity of life (Genesis
2:24, 5:2,9:6), but a transformation through the study of the Word of
God, bringing liberty (John
8:32; Proverbs 4:5).
- Consumerist
Church (2
Timothy 4:3-4) – Similar to how one measures business growth, the
world measures Church growth by numbers. A Church is successful if it has
large numbers of members, fills large arena-sized auditoriums, and amasses
great wealth through contributions. There is no mention of numbers in the
great commission of the Church but a call to spread the Gospel, make
disciples, and be witnesses for Christ (Acts
1:8; Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). I wonder how many true disciples
of Christ are in the congregation of the mega-churches of today and even
if there is a true disciple of Christ in the pulpit.
This is a call to the
Church of today to repent of its lukewarmness, compromising, and consumeristic
ideas of growth and return to the lifting up of Christ in spirit and truth (John
12:32). If you are reading this and have drifted from a relationship with
Christ or never prayed for forgiveness from sin and to make Jesus the Lord of
your life, I invite you to do so now by praying with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23)
and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my sin and cleanse
me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe
you died, spent three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now
declare you Lord of my life.
May God challenge,
convict, and bless everyone reading this post.
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