The One Who Sins

Ezekiel 17:1-18:32
 

Welcome! Today we continue in our study of Ezekiel, looking at Chapters 17 and 18. As we have been studying Ezekiel, I have seen many things I never noticed from past readings. One thing I have noticed is parallels between Ezekiel and the gospels. Just like the gospels, Ezekiel has sections that focus on parables. We are currently finishing up one such section. This section began in Chapter 15, which we looked at two weeks ago, in which the Lord gave Ezekiel a parable about the uselessness of the wood of a vine in comparison to the wood of a tree. Vines are not strong enough to make good furniture out of. Even more useless is vine wood after it has been through a fire. God compares such a burnt vine to the people of Jerusalem after they experience God’s judgment for their unfaithfulness. And last week, in Chapter 16, we saw an extended parable or allegory of an unfaithful woman. It describes how a cast out woman is rescued, her wounds treated, and then she is given fine clothing and jewelry and is transformed into someone like a queen. She is married, and she achieves fame as a result of who she is married to and how she now appears. But she chooses to live a life of unfaithfulness and wickedness turning all the good things she has been given into instruments for evil. Again this is an illustration meant to describe the unfaithful people of Israel who have also left their God for idolatry and wickedness. The parable concludes with God pronouncing judgment. This brings us to a third parable, starting at Ezekiel 17:1.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell it to the Israelites as a parable. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: A great eagle with powerful wings, long feathers and full plumage of varied colors came to Lebanon. Taking hold of the top of a cedar, he broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away to a land of merchants, where he planted it in a city of traders. – Ezekiel 17:1-4
 
This, in my opinion, is some of the most vivid, descriptive writing in all of Scripture. Notice the great contrast between the great eagle and the tiny shoot. The shoot is nothing in comparison to the eagle. With what we have already read in Ezekiel, you may think this parable is yet another illustration of the relationship between the people of Jerusalem and God, that the shoot is the people of Jerusalem, and the eagle is God. More specifically, you may think this refers to God’s long history with the Israelites, going all the way back to God’s promise to Abraham to give him a fertile land and almost unlimited descendants, a promise reconfirmed multiple times later in Scripture, and seemingly fulfilled after the 40 years in the desert when Joshua and the new generation of those who had been born in the desert, whose parents were brought out of Egypt, at last are given the land of Israel. But this is not what this parable is about.
 
So what is going on? The parable says specifically that the eagle only took the topmost shoot, leaving the rest behind. It also says that they were taken to a land of merchants. This seems like a strange way to describe the Promised Land. Indeed, it instead sounds like how some of the top people (such as the prophet Daniel) were taken away to Babylonia, or even more specifically, Babylon. Recall that the people taken away to exile were young nobles, people of influence. The Babylonians did this to get them to be models for the rest of the people they conquered. They would get them to abandon their old cultural practices and adopt the practices of the Babylonians. This tended to get the other people to also accept their new situation and blend in with the cultures around them – most importantly, to not resist or fight against them. This was essential in a rapidly expanding empire in which military forces were, in reality, quite limited when compared with the size of the empire.
 
Note also that the shoot is a shoot from a cedar, one of the great “cedars of Lebanon,” which were highly prized and mentioned repeatedly in Scripture in glowing terms. They were used in great building projects including, according to Scripture, the Temple in Jerusalem. To this day they appear centrally on the flag of Lebanon. The symbolism of the shoot from a cedar of Lebanon is again, that of taking some of the very best people of Jerusalem.
 
But we may be getting ahead of ourselves. Let us continue reading the passage:
 
“‘He took one of the seedlings of the land and put it in fertile soil. He planted it like a willow by abundant water, and it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out leafy boughs. – Ezekiel 17:5-6
 
Willow trees are found in most parts of the world, and they indeed do best when they are near abundant sources of water such as rivers and ponds. Willow tree roots absorb all the water they can find. They can even transform a swampy area into a more usable area.
 
In this parable, the eagle takes a seedling – this is not the same as the shoot described in the first part of the parable – and puts it in good soil, soil that has plenty of nutrients a plant needs to grow. It is placed by a good water source. The conditions for growth are perfect. The seedling indeed grows, and it grows as a vine, low to the ground. Symbolically, vines are “humble” plants in contrast to great trees. We even saw this specific contrast in the first parable back in chapter 15.
 
“‘But there was another great eagle with powerful wings and full plumage. The vine now sent out its roots toward him from the plot where it was planted and stretched out its branches to him for water. It had been planted in good soil by abundant water so that it would produce branches, bear fruit and become a splendid vine.’ – Ezekiel 17:7-8
 
Now we see another eagle, also powerful. The contrast is intentional – both of the eagles are powerful, but the lowly vine is not. What is this vine doing? Why is it choosing to try to leave one eagle for another, especially when the first location, the one chosen by the first eagle, seems to have been well chosen so as to enable the vine to thrive? The parable invites the listener to say, “Wow. That does not seem like a good idea. That does not seem wise.”
 
“Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it withers? All its new growth will wither. It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by the roots. It has been planted, but will it thrive? Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it—wither away in the plot where it grew?’” – Ezekiel 17:9-10
 
I have seen plants that, in their search for more sun, have grown in one direction so much that their future survival is quite uncertain. It will not take much for them to fall over. I have seen some plants do this to such an extent that even their roots start to grow out of the soil. Plants are not thinking creatures, so nobody can fault a real-life plant, as it is just responding to stimuli in the way that God has designed them to do so, a way that, in most cases, maximizes the chances that the plant will live long and reproduce.
 
In our parable, in contrast, we seem to have a thinking plant, one that has free will. It unwisely chooses to risk all to follow another eagle. Its decision does not seem to make sense, as the plant had clear evidence that the first eagle cared for it, and indeed, had given it everything it needed to thrive. Why would the plant do such a risky, even foolish thing? Getting the listeners to ask this question is the sign of an outstanding parable. I am reminded of the parable given to David of the rich man who takes the sheep away from the poor man. This parable was given as an illustration of the evil David had done in taking Bathsheba and arranging to have her husband perish. Recall that David, in response, demands that something be done against this evil rich man, not realizing that the parable was actually about him!
 
Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Say to this rebellious people, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Say to them: ‘The king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and carried off her king and her nobles, bringing them back with him to Babylon. Then he took a member of the royal family and made a treaty with him, putting him under oath. He also carried away the leading men of the land, so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to rise again, surviving only by keeping his treaty. But the king rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the treaty and yet escape? – Ezekiel 17:11-15
 
We now have the explanation of the parable. The first eagle is the king of Babylon. The second is the Pharaoh of Egypt. The foolish vine is the king of Judah at this time, whom we know from other passages is Zedekiah. We have talked in past weeks about how this is exactly what happened – this is explained in 2 Kings 24 and 25 as well as in Ezekiel. It is also prophesied about in Jeremiah 34.
 
“‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, he shall die in Babylon, in the land of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose treaty he broke. Pharaoh with his mighty army and great horde will be of no help to him in war, when ramps are built and siege works erected to destroy many lives. He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Because he had given his hand in pledge and yet did all these things, he shall not escape. – Ezekiel 17:16-18
 
Again, this is exactly what happened. Egypt was ultimately overwhelmed by Babylonia. Zedekiah was indeed a puppet leader, installed by Babylonia, and so his actions to seek the help of Pharaoh was seen as the highest form of treason and rebellion, and Babylonia chose to act forcefully against him, to make an example out of him, so that other conquered lands would look at what happened to Zedekiah and choose to remain faithful to Babylonia.
 
“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will repay him for despising my oath and breaking my covenant.  I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment on him there because he was unfaithful to me. All his choice troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken. – Ezekiel 17:19-21
 
Now this passage leads to questions. Was the act of Zedekiah simply a political miscalculation, or was it something more, a rebellion against God as well? These verses clearly imply it was the latter. How so? I believe it is because he was warned by God’s prophets not to do this very thing. From earlier passages in Ezekiel, we see he and those under him have a very cavalier attitude about their precarious situation. Rather than turning to God, pleading with Him to protect them, they are quick to serve other gods, false gods, and they are also quick to unjustly kill their own people. They are utterly corrupt, and don’t really appear to care whether their kingdom survives or not, as long as they personally make out all right. I believe the arrangements they were making with Egypt were along these lines – to help them personally. They didn’t care about the people they were supposed to serve, and neither did they care about God who had, indeed, brought the descendants of Abraham to this land to begin with. They were violating what Jesus called the greatest commandments, to love God as Lord, and to love people as you love yourself. They were doing the opposite of both of these things.
 
Let me mention one more thing: Zedekiah broke his oath to the leader of Babylon when he sought out the help of Egypt. All oaths were made before the gods that the people believed in, so the leader of Babylon would have insisted that Zedekiah swear by the God of Israel when he agreed to serve as king of Judah as a kind of puppet leader for Babylon. In breaking that oath, therefore, Zedekiah not only sinned against Babylon, but against the true God. And as for seeking the help of Egypt, this was specifically forbidden in the Law:
 
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” – Deuteronomy 17:16
 
But Zedekiah and the other leaders of Jerusalem were so far from God I doubt they even considered this passage. For the king, ignorance of the law was no excuse. Just a few verses later, the kings are instructed to personally write out for himself his own copy of the law so that he can study it all the days of his service as king. Try writing out for yourself even one chapter, and you will see that this was no small undertaking!
 
And now we come to my favorite part of this chapter of Ezekiel:
 
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. “‘I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’” – Ezekiel 17:22-24
 
What a beautiful promise! What a contrast with the earlier part of the parable! The leader of Babylon only produces a vine. As for the shoot that he takes, he plants it in Babylonia. But God plants his back in Israel! And it will be an amazing tree, not only fruitful but also a home to birds “of every kind.”
 
This is a promise of the gospel, a promise of Jesus, a promise of the church universal, the people of God, Christians, people who have made Jesus the Lord of their lives. God calls these people the ekklesia, the called-out ones. We are a part of that promise. According to this parable, we are like the birds that nest in the tree; according to Jesus’ parables which are similar but different in the details, we are like grafts, grafted into the tree so that we too are fed by its roots, which is Christ. His death on the cross for our sin is what enables us, sinners though we were, to be counted holy, forgiven, and part of the eternal family of God. When we put our faith in Him, we become grafts, or to use the parable in this Ezekiel passage, birds that benefit from the shelter and shade of this amazing tree.
 
We now move into a new topic. Due to limits on our time, I will not go into as much detail in this passage. But it is fortunately reasonably self-explanatory.
 
The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die. – Ezekiel 18:1-4
 
The reason for this belief may have been based on a misunderstanding of verses that talk about how sins of parents are visited on the third and fourth generations. The people took this to mean that even good children of bad parents would be punished by God for their parents’ sins. I will address this question, but let us first continue with the passage and see God’s response.
 
“Suppose there is a righteous man   who does what is just and right. He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife […]. He does not oppress anyone, but returns what he took in pledge for a loan. He does not commit robbery but gives his food to the hungry and provides clothing for the naked. He does not lend to them at interest or take a profit from them. He withholds his hand from doing wrong and judges fairly between two parties. He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord. – Ezekiel 18:5-9
 
Very quickly let me address the question about interest. In Leviticus 25:37, Exodus 22:25, and Deuteronomy 23:20, it was forbidden to charge interest to fellow Israelites. These were not loans for investment, but emergency loans for the poor – this is explicit in the Exodus passage. Best was to supply the poor what they needed outright with no expectation of repayment. But where this would cause undue hardship on the giver, a loan – without interest – was acceptable. Note that charging interest to foreigners was permitted. I believe we have latitude in how we apply this verse today, as the economic system in the Mosaic law had many features that are not possible to follow today. But the principles of not taking advantage of the poor or desperate and of giving generously, certainly do apply and are reinforced in the New Testament.  
 
“Suppose he has a violent son, who sheds blood or does any of these other things (though the father has done none of them): He eats at the mountain shrines. He defiles his neighbor’s wife. He oppresses the poor and needy. He commits robbery. He does not return what he took in pledge. He looks to the idols. He does detestable things. He lends at interest and takes a profit. Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he is to be put to death; his blood will be on his own head. – Ezekiel 18:10-13
 
“But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things: He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife. He does not oppress anyone or require a pledge for a loan. He does not commit robbery but gives his food to the hungry and provides clothing for the naked. He withholds his hand from mistreating the poor and takes no interest or profit from them. He keeps my laws and follows my decrees. He will not die for his father’s sin; he will surely live. But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people. – Ezekiel 18:14-18
 
Note how the interest issue is directly tied to the poor here, further supporting the idea that this is what is actually meant in the Mosaic Law.
 
“Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them. – Ezekiel 18:19-20
 
“But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? – Ezekiel 18:21-23
 
“But if a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked person does, will they live? None of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness they are guilty of and because of the sins they have committed, they will die. – Ezekiel 18:24
 
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear, you Israelites: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and commits sin, they will die for it; because of the sin they have committed they will die. But if a wicked person turns away from the wickedness they have committed and does what is just and right, they will save their life. Because they consider all the offenses they have committed and turn away from them, that person will surely live; they will not die. Yet the Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are my ways unjust, people of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust? – Ezekiel 18:25-29
 
Let me here address this question about sins being visited to the third and fourth generations. Exodus 20:5 explicitly says the sins are visited to third and fourth generations of those who hate the Lord. This is an important detail. What this means is that the sins of parents often have tragic consequences on younger generations. We know this is true, as we can see it in the world all around us. Abuse, for example, impacts succeeding generations in many ways. But the “of those who hate the Lord” phrase means that this cycle can be broken and is broken through faith in the Lord. The sins of the parents do not mean that the younger generations have to suffer the consequences, and even if there remain some consequences, they may be much reduced. It is important to remember that we live in a broken world, and the actions of others constantly affect us. But as this passage states, the Lord is always pleased when people repent and turn from their sin. Although the sins of others around us can have consequences in our lives, these consequences are limited through faith in the Lord. Even in the worst case, where the actions of others lead to our death, for believers we know that to die is gain, as we are promised a glorious eternity with Christ, without pain, an eternity that we do not deserve.
 
And this leads to another point I want to make. Ezekiel is a pre-gospel book of the Bible. As a result, even though the gospel is repeatedly hinted at and prophesied as a future event, its detailed working was still veiled at the time of Ezekiel. If you ignore this fact, and look at this chapter in isolation, you might conclude that our future for eternity is determined by some sort of count of our sins versus our good works. This is sadly what most people in America believe, even many who consider themselves Christians, even many who regularly attend church. But as you all hopefully know, this is not the case, because our God is perfectly holy, and we, even on our best days, continue to sin. If you are new to Christianity, read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and this will become clear. If people had to depend on their own righteousness to gain admission to heaven, no one would enter. Christians, however, do not depend on their own righteousness. The heart of the gospel message is that by turning in faith to Christ, by making Him Lord of our lives, we are not judged by our actions, but instead on Christ’s, who, being without sin, was able to die for our sin, so that God sees not our corrupted actions, but instead the perfect life of Christ.  And the following verses of this Ezekiel passage do hint at this:  
 
“Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! – Ezekiel 18:30-32
 
A new heart and a new spirit had to be quite mysterious to the people in Ezekiel’s time, but we know that this is exactly what is available through faith in Christ. When we repent and give our lives to Christ, we do in fact get a new heart, and we are also filled with the Holy Spirit. We are what Jesus calls “born again.” And being born again is available to anyone, irrespective of how sinful they, their parents, their grandparents, or even their great grandparents were.
 
I want to close with two passages from Isaiah that expound upon the shoot promised us in the end of chapter 17.
 
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. –  Isaiah 11:1-3a
 
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. – Is. 53:2-3
 
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:4-6
 
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people, he was punished. – Isaiah 53:7-8
 
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. – Isaiah 53:9-10

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. – Isaiah 53:11-12
 
Jesus is quite literally the shoot promised us in Ezekiel, the shoot that grows into a great tree that birds of every kind use to nest in its branches. If you have put your faith in Christ, you are blessed, blessed with an eternal home in Him. And this blessing is available to all, regardless of your past sins or the sins of your family line. Praise God!