Amen. Amen. Let us turn now to the word of god. Ezekiel chapter seventeen and uh we are jumping ahead uh a couple of chapters. I I think we'll speak more about this at some point, but we're not going through every single chapter of Ezekiel. Many times when we're jumping over chapters, we're just jumping over more chapters of judgment. God is making it very clear what he is going to do. And now chapter 17. which we're coming to, this is a chapter which puts everything together in one place. It puts everything together in short order, in an orderly fashion. You have parable, you have explanation of parable, you have theological interpretation, you have Christ-looking prophecy at the end. It's all together in one place. If there was one chapter that in some ways would summarize the whole message of the book of Ezekiel, it would probably be Ezekiel 17. And so we're moving past Ezekiel 15 and the lengthy chapter of Ezekiel 16. and we're coming to this chapter which is kind of everything together in a nutshell. And then I think we'll be moving consecutively at least through chapter 18. But for tonight, we are at Ezekiel 17. We'll be reading and considering all of this chapter. It's page 892 in some of the blue ESV Bibles. Let us hear now the holy word of God. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, propound a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel, saying, Thus says the Lord God, a great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors, came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar. He broke off the topmost of its young twigs, and carried it to a land of trade, and set it in a city of merchants. Then he took off the seed of the land, and planted it in fertile soil, and placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig, and it sprouted and became a low-spreading vine, and its branches turned toward him, and its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine, and produced branches, and put out bulbs. And there was another great eagle, with great wings and much plumage. And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed where it was planted, that he might water it. It had been planted on good soil. Buy it when it waters, that it might produce branches and bear fruit and become a noble vine. Say, thus says the Lord God, will it thrive? Will thee not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit so that it withers, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots. Behold, it is plenty. Will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when an east wind strikes it? Wither away on the bed where it sprouted. Then the word of the Lord came to me, Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes, and brought them to him, to Babylon. And he took one of the royal offspring, and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath, the chief men of the land he had taken away, that the kingdom might be humble, and not lift itself up, and keep his covenant that it might stand, that he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army? Will he cry, Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape? As I live, declares the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwells, who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant with whom he broke, in Babylon he shall die. Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war when even when mounds are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives. He despised the hope in breaking the covenant, and behold, he gave his hand and did all these things. He shall not escape. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, as I live, surely it is my hope that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head. I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon, and enter into judgment with him there, for the treachery he has committed against me. and all the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered to every wind, and you shall know that I am the LORD, I have spoken." Thus says the Lord God, I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I Myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches, and produce fruit, and become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every kind of bird. In the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest, all the trees in the field shall know that I am the LORD. I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the LORD, I have spoken, and I will do it. So far the reading, the grass weathers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord, Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, history, whether it is history of God's covenant people and the history of the mighty rulers of the world at that time, or whether it is your history, the events in your life, whatever it is, History is not just a meaningless series of events. History is a series of events predetermined by God, known by God at every step. History belongs to God. There is this wonderful wordplay available to us in the English language. History is His story. It is God's story, it is God's work, it is God's plan, it is all being worked out and done by God, and all for His good purposes. In this individualistic age, we need to be reminded of this, we need to be reminded of God's authority, and there is much about authority in not just the authority of God, but also the authority of the rulers of the age, the authority of even a brutal king like Babylon, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. His authority also should be honored in its own way. And so, together, our theme tonight is this. Respect God's earthly rulers and worship God himself. respect God's earthly rulers, worship God himself, understanding his control over all of history, including all of your history, all of your life story. Well, first brothers and sisters, we're going to look at the parable. And it's easiest just to take it all together at once. So our first point is verses 1 to 18. Our first point will be a little bit longer. And then after we work through the parable and its meaning, then we'll come to the theological meaning of the parable. Our second point, true allegiance. That'll be verses 19 to 21. And then in our third point, we'll return to a few verses we looked at already a couple months ago, and we'll look at some different things in verses 22 to 24. And our third point will be true worship on one mountain. Well, first, this parable. And the parable itself, is given in verses three to ten. The first two verses are the introduction. You know, learning how to read the words coming from the Lord. What is the word? It's a parable. And then that parable is given in verses three to ten. And the parable is explained in verses eleven to eighteen. And we're gonna divide this parable up into things that have already happened in the past. things that are happening now, things that are happening in the political world, that are happening around, right around this time, that is yield writing. And then, we're gonna look at the part of the parable which is prophecy of the future, what will happen soon. So first, what has already happened? What has already happened? And this is in verses three and four, with the explanation being in verses 11 and 12. If you're taking notes, you can just write down these pairs. Each verse of the parable has its corresponding explanation starting in verse 11. So verses 3 and 4 of the parable are explained in verses 11 and 12. So I'm just going to take them together. First we have this great eagle. It's described with all kinds of splendor in verse 3. And in verse eleven, we're told these things should be plain. Do you not know what these things mean? Verse twelve, you know, who is this? Well, this great eagle is Babylon. It's like if you read a political cartoon today, many people can immediately recognize, you know, the donkey stands for the Democratic Party, the elephant stands for the Republican Party. After we get through the parable, God says in verse twelve that this should be very plain to those who are living in this political context. I don't think it's as immediately plain to us two and a half thousand years later. But to those immediately living in it, that this great evil would be Babylon, it's quite plain. Another thing which is plain is that Lebanon of verse four is Jerusalem. Why is Jerusalem called Lebanon? Well, a couple of reasons. First of all, because that takes you to the image of the cedar tree. The image of the cedar tree is carried throughout this chapter, and that's a picture of a royal house, a royal family tree. But then we still say, look, okay, Lebanon's there from the center, but why, why just call Lebanon in verse four what is Jerusalem in verse 12? I think the easiest way to explain this is not only the connection between Lebanon and those great cedars, which are so magnificent and so much taller than all of the other trees of Israel, but also the fact that It brings us, it's bringing us to the royal house in more ways than one. One of the palaces of Solomon in 1st Canaan is called the house of the force of Lebanon. And that name appears a few times in the book of Canaan. So anybody who lived in Jerusalem would have known. There's the house of the force of Lebanon. It's one of the names of the palace complex. So by using the word Lebanon, The parable is making us not just think about Jerusalem, but more specifically to make us think about the royal family and the royal palaces and that whole house of David which has been living in and around the house of course of Lebanon for 400 years. And what happens in this royal family? Well, Babylon comes in and they take off one of the twigs, twig at the top, twig that has the crown, King Joab, and Babylon drags him off to captivity. This is something that has already happened. This happened about 7 years before Ezekiel gave this parable. So verses 3 and 4 together with verses of the explanation 11 and 12 describe what has already happened. Babylon has come in and taken the king away again and dragged him off to captivity. But what is happening now? What is happening now? is that there was a seed of the land which was allowed to remain. It's the language of verse five and then the following verses are describing what happened to this seed of the land. The seed of land, it was taken by him who was him. It's the eagle, it's Babylon. The seed of land was taken by the eagle and planted in fertile soil. He placed it beside abundant waters. Okay, what's going on here? We have, what is the current political context in the day that this parable was given? Zedekiah is part of the royal seed. He's described in the explanation in verse 13 as being one of the royal offspring verses thirteen to fifteen. And Zedekiah is he's allowed to flourish. He's allowed to have his place but he's completely under the ownership of the king of Babylon of that mighty eagle of Babylon. In fact, he was he was renamed. His name used to be He was devoid of kinship, but he's just been renamed, which is not something that you can normally just do to a person, okay? I cannot just walk up to one of you later this week and say, I declare your name to now be this. I certainly can't do that to, well, I can't do it to anybody, so, but I can't do it to any presidents either, right? I can't just walk up to a president or a ruler of some nation and say, your name is now this. Why did Nebuchadnezzar do that? He's doing it to say, I have complete control over you. I am renaming your name is now that's the that's the current political situation. But again, the language versus five and six and seven is that even though he's a vassal king, even though he doesn't really have his own authority, he's planted by abundant waters. He is allowed to flourish. That's what the Babylonians did. They would take you over. They'd take out many of the mighty princes of the land, but then they'd leave a few people behind. And they'd say, as long as you serve us, we're not going to wipe you out. And faithful prophets like Jeremiah told Zedekiah, be content in your situation. Be content to be a vassal king. And God will not destroy you. Be content in your situation. But Zechariah is not content with his situation. How does the parable continue? There was another great evil, verse 7. And who is that great evil? Looking at verses 13, 14, 15. We see the name of that second great eagle in verse fifteen. It's Egypt. That's Egypt. And then the language of the parable is, he bent his branches toward the second eagle. See that in verse seven? So Zedekiah's saying, alright, I'm not content with my situation. I'm gonna bend my branches down to Egypt. I'm going to see if Egypt can help me get what I want, which is political autonomy, the right to rule myself without being this vassal against them. I'm going to bend my branches to Egypt. Verse 15 plainly says it this way. He sent his ambassadors to Egypt. He sent his ambassadors to Egypt. He said, You know, Babylon's a long ways away. You don't really want them ruling over us. And you don't like Babylon either. No, no. What if you help us get out from under their thumb? But there's a problem. Some guy had made a treaty with Babylon. He's in a place of safety, even though it's not what he wants. should have listened to the faithful prophets like Jeremiah, who told him to be content in the situation of his political treaty, who told him to be content in his treaty as a vassal servant of Nebuchadnezzar. And he was not content, and it will not go well with him. And so that's verses 8-10. The explanation being found in verses 16 to 18. And this is now a prophecy of what will happen in the future. Because verses 8 to 10 and verses 16 to 18 have not happened yet. And Ezekiel says, it's not going to go well for him. He's going to die in Babylon. Look at that at the end of verse 16. Surely in the place where the king dwells, who made him king, whose oath he despised, surely in the place where the king of Babylon dwells, who made him Zedekiah, a vassal king under him, whose oath Zedekiah despised, and whose covenant treaty Zedekiah broke, in Babylon he shall die. This is a prophecy about what will happen to the king who is currently in Jerusalem. And at this point, All of Ezekiel's hearers who are tracking with them, even though they've really been told this already, really this has been prophesied already by the other prophets. But at this point, all of the people who are tracking with them say, hold on, wait a minute, what? Zedekiah, Zedekiah, he's our man. He's still our King David in Jerusalem. What do you mean he's gonna go to Babylon too and he's gonna die? But this isn't prophecy, it is a specific prophecy. And it will be carried out. There will be no escape. It's the language. Can he get escape? That's the question at the end of verse 15 leading up to this explanation, verses 16 and 18. No, he despised the old. He will not escape. So then we see that language again at the end of verse 18. He shall not escape. And then as we read the narrative of what would happen a few years after this parable, we see that that's a very specific prophecy. Zedekiah tried to escape. He left the besieged Jerusalem with his sons. He made it to the plains of Jericho, but no further. He was tracked down. He and his sons were dragged back to the Babylonian generals. His sons were killed in front of his eyes. Then his eyes were taken out. Then he was dragged in chains to Babylon. And in Babylon, he himself died. Now, the first point is longer. You wanna read the short version of the historical narrative, you can read it in Jeremiah 52, but now let's come to our second point. Because all of this leads to therefore, in verse 19. Therefore, and verses 19 to 21 have been called the theological interpretation. Okay, so now we've had the full parable, we've had all the details of what the parable means, including the future prophecy of what's going to happen soon. We've had everything laid out before us, and now God knows and He says, this is what it means. And the outline of our sermon is not usually an application. But tonight, the outline itself is an application. Brothers and sisters, God not only knows what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen, God also knows why things happen. There are not many periods in history where it's all laid out for us all in one chapter all together, including the parallel form to get it all rolling. But this is always true. It is true for every part of history. It's not only true for the rulers. It's not only true for Pharaoh Hophra and for King Nebuchadnezzar and for King Zedekiah. It's not only true that God controls the most powerful men in the world and knows exactly what's happening and what will happen and knows exactly why it's happening. It's true in the life of every single It's truly like every single person who has ever lived. God knows what has happened in your life. God knows what is happening in your life. God knows what will happen in your life. And it is not just some collection of events. It is all things for which God has a purpose. And God knows why. So again, our outline is not normally our application of others and sisters. I want us to think about the outline of Ezekiel chapter 17, which kind of puts it all together in one place. And I want us to see that it speaks to a truth of God's knowledge of all things and that things happen for a reason and that God knows exactly why and what. And so what is the theological interpretation? Well, the meaning of this is not just that Zedekiah is going to be judged because he's forsaking earthly rulers, but ultimately because he's forsaking God. That's the theological interpretation. As I live, surely it is my oath he has despised. Now, it is true that when the Babylonian kings had someone make an oath, they swore that they made their vassal kings under them to swear in the name of their own God. So, in other words, when Zedekiah made that treaty with Nebuchadnezzar, Yahweh's name was included in the treaty. And we don't just have to say that because we've found some of the old treaties of Babylon. Chronicles gives us that detail in 2 Chronicles 36 verse 13. He, that is Zedekiah, also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. So God's name was literally included in the treaty. But we can also just speak of it as being a treaty between the earthly king, Nebuchadnezzar, and Zedekiah. So again, that's part of our theme. We need to respect earthly rulers. Zedekiah is being judged because he broke a treaty that he made that he should not have broken. But when it comes back to the theological interpretation, when it comes back to what's ultimately going on, is whenever we rebel against authority, ultimately we're rebelling against God. Whenever we would rebel against authority, rightly exercised, and for all of their evils, Uh the Babylonians protected Zedekiah. He should have stayed like Jeremiah told him but he did not and ultimately by rebelling against that authority, he was really rebelling against god. So, verse nineteen, verse twenty, verse twenty-one, he is rebelling against me. He's trusting in Egypt. He's reaching out to Egypt. He wants to break free and be his own man. It will not go well for him. Because ultimately, he has rebelled against me. Now, once again, we step back. We say, God does not usually bring immediate judgment in this way. But finally, finally, all rebellion is rebellion against god himself. Any sin is finally a sin against god himself. And finally, god will judge all unrepentant sinners. Theological interpretation of all the events of our life. We now bring this to home. We now bring this to our own life in the events of our own life. Theological interpretation And the important theological truth is this, you must repent. You must see all that has happened in your life. And you must repent of all of the ways that you failed to submit to God. Otherwise, there will be judgment, even if it does not come as immediately and as dramatically as it came, which is at a covenant breaker. Ultimately, everyone who goes after own lewdness of their own sins that they love is a covenant breaker. And that's the language of chapter 16 verse 59. After describing the sins of the people and going after false God and describing that as spiritual adultery and chasing after, pouring after their own idols instead of loving God as they ought to do. Uh it's kind of brought all together in chapter sixteen verse fifty-nine where we read for thus says the lord god, I will deal with you as you have done you who have despised anyone who rebels against god as a covenant breaker. These are very serious sin which carry serious consequences. ashamed of sin. That's the language of chapter sixteen verse sixty-one. Let us all be ashamed of sin and submit ourselves to the one true god. Well, now, we come to our third point and uh as I said in the introduction, Ezekiel seventeen is this one chapter that kind of brings it all together into one place because we not only have, you know, the description of history including a prophecy of what's going to happen in the future. Uh we also have uh you know, the interpretation of what it all ultimately means. It's a rebellion against god and we also have the promise that looks to Jesus Christ. Uh we we already looked at these verses We were at the end of chapter 7. For those who were here, we looked at the end of chapter 7 and the end of chapter 17. We focused then on the image of the branch. That the tender young twig, the new tender young twig will be able to plant a noble seeder that gives peace to many that can only be Jesus Christ. This is the Old Testament way of, in a short order, you know, laying out God's control over all things. and the absolute need that we have to submit to god but then uh but then directness to Jesus Christ, directness to the Messiah, directness to the one who can save us from our sins and our rebellion. Jesus is the branch. Surely, uh chapter seventeen verses twenty-two to twenty-four. It is one of the places uh that anticipates Jesus saying in the New Testament, I Let's focus on the image of where this noble sinner is planted. We focused on the branch some weeks ago. Now let's just spend a little bit of time focusing on the mountain. Look at the end of verse 22 and the beginning of verse 23. I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it. No, this is, we can either think of this as a second parable, or because the language is related to the images from before, we can think of it as a kind of an end part to the first parable. Whatever it is, we're back in parable language. And so, things aren't all going to be literally making sense. Cedar trees don't really bear fruit, and a single mountain doesn't really have room for all of the birds of every kind to find rest under one huge tree planted on that one mountain. Okay, so this is all symbolic. It is all a symbol of the peace we have in Jesus Christ. He is the branch. He is the one by whom that noble spirit of peace comes. And it is all on this one mountain. And what do you do on the mountains? And so, Uh there's something implied here in the fact that we'll all have rests here. We'll dwell there uh but it's not stated explicitly until we get to chapter twenty. So, now, please turn forward with me to chapter twenty verse forty. Chapter twenty verse forty. Now, what is what is the special is the significance of worship. 20 For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the LORD GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choices of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. As a pleasing aroma, I will accept you. Why? Because we are worthy? No, because we are brought there by the perfect branch, the one who plants the noble cedar by his own work. There, as a pleasing aroma, I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the LORD." Brothers and sisters, the mountain image is an image of worshiping God. This is the purpose that God wants to lead us to. Remember I said your life is not a meaningless series of events. It has a purpose. Well, if you do not obey God, if you do not submit to him, if you do not repent, then your purpose will finally be judgment as Zedekiah experienced judgment. But what God desires is to drive us to Jesus Christ. and to drive us to his mountain and to drive us to worship him. Oh, brothers and sisters, our worship is not what it should be. The church on earth is not perfect. We don't enjoy worshiping as we should because we don't worship as we should. The sermon is not perfect because we're still here on earth. But what is it that we do when we gather together? We are anticipating. the very purpose that God wants to drive us to. We're anticipating the very purpose that we are saving Jesus Christ for. Jesus brings us to the mount to worship Him. And because of what He has done, because it's His nobles either on that one great mount, our worship is even as imperfect as it is. God already receives our imperfect worship as a pleasing of God. It is the purpose of our life that God desires that we would worship Him. It is that which pleases God. Most certainly, this language is also I told the elders before the service started, this is a Jerusalem Sunday. God's providence that that was how our texts combined today. Certainly, this is also going, you know, beyond the earth that we live on now. Certainly, this is language that is anticipating the mountain of the new Jerusalem and so Revelation twenty-one includes language of a great and high mountain. The Holy City of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God is already in the here and now. God wants the events of our life to drive us to worship Him. God wants to lead us to see healing in Christ. and the worthiness of God deserving all of our worship and praise. That is where God wants to drive us, to His mountain, to His church, to worship Him, to worship Him together, even as we are called to worship Him, to give Him praise each and every day. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, may we be comforted by the truth of your sovereign power over all things. And may we be directed by you to the mountain of worship. May you lead us to yourself.