Ezekiel 17:1

Ezekiel 17:1 says, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,  

Verse two adds, Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;  God’s word came to Ezekiel again, and this time he was told to speak to the people in a riddle and a parable. God had been dealing with the people of Judah and their treachery, but now He is dealing with the king of Judah, Zedekiah, as he dealt treacherously with the king of Egypt in an attempt to throw off the rule of Babylon over Judah.  The way that God provides for forgiveness of sin through the death, burial, and resurrection of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ will always seem like a riddle of God to lost people, and Jesus often taught people with parables. As followers of Christ, salvation should no longer be a riddle to us, and we should understand the parables that the Bible uses to teach us about God.  If we rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God to us from the scripture, we will always understand its meaning. Of course, this means that we should spend time studying the Bible. God’s holy word.   

Verse three continues, And say, Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:  Ezekiel was not to leave them speculating for long about the meaning of what God was saying to them, but he was soon to tell them the meaning.  God told Ezekiel that this riddle or parable would be about a great eagle who came to Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar.  So far, this could mean many things, so it would be a riddle or parable.  We may not always immediately understand what God is saying to us, but if we remain faithful to Him even if we don’t immediately know what He is saying, then I believe He will give us the answer.   

Verse four states, He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.  Ezekiel was to tell the people that this great eagle cropped off the young twigs and took them to a land of traffic and merchants.  This would be explained later in the chapter, since the people of Judah evidently didn’t understand it when Ezekiel told it to them.  If God speaks to us in parables today, He will not leave us without an understanding of what He means if we are willing to look to Him if we cannot understand what He is saying by our own ability.     

Verse five adds, He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.  This twig was planted in another land and became a fruitful field planted by a great water.  The twig had all it needed to grow and prosper.  We may be but a twig when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, but when we are planted in God's kingdom and allow Him to be the Lord of our life, we will have everything we need to grow spiritually and be fruitful.   

Verse six continues, And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.   Ezekiel was to continue by saying that the twig grew even more and became a vine that brought forth branches and sprigs.   Since we will have the meaning of this explained later, I will not give the explanation of it now.  Sometimes, we may not understand what God is saying to us, but if we are patient, He will help us to understand, even if we cannot reach an understanding of what He is saying by our own ability, which I have already stated.   

Ezekiel 16:60

Ezekiel 16:60 says, Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.  God said that He would remember His covenant with them made when they were first becoming a nation of God’s people, even if they had forgotten it.  When God gives His word, it will never fail to be true, even if people stop believing it. God then said He would establish an everlasting covenant with them, which He did when He sent Jesus Christ to die in their place so that anyone who put their faith in Him would be able to enter into this everlasting covenant.  This covenant would not be based on keeping God’s law, which people were unable to do, but on a personal relationship with God through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, which was always the only way to enter into this everlasting covenant.  Before Jesus Christ came, they had faith in His coming and after He came, they and we have faith in the fact that He came.   

Verse sixty-one adds, Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.  God said when He gave them this new covenant that they would remember their ways and be ashamed and repent and come to Him.  When we come to Jesus Christ by faith and accept Him as our Savior and Lord, we should remember what we were before and be ashamed of it.  God said when He did this, that He would accept them once more.  This was not based on the fact that they were born into the kingdom of Israel but on their putting their faith in His new covenant.  We cannot become a child of God by the fact of where we were born or by our own righteousness but can only come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.  Faith in Him as our Savior and Lord is the new covenant.   

Verse sixty-two continues, And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord:  God said that when He established this new covenant with them that they would know that He is God.  We cannot become a Christian and not know that God is the only God.   

Verse sixty-three concludes, That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.  God said that when they entered into this new covenant that they could no longer boast of their own goodness because they knew the shame that they brought to Him by doing this.  God then said that when they entered into this new covenant that He would be pacified toward them.  It is only through faith in Jesus Christ, the new covenant, that a person can be reconciled to God, and then we should feel shame for what we had been before, but I don’t believe that we should dwell on it. 

Ezekiel 16:51

Ezekiel 16:51 says, Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. God now begins to list the sins of the people of the people of Israel, which He said were twice as many as those of the people of Samaria.  These were the last of the people of Israel who had  remained faithful to God when the nation split, and now they were even more sinful than those who had turned away from Him earlier.  We can never be self-righteous instead of being made righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ and stand in judgment of other people that we feel morally superior to.   

Verse fifty-two adds, Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.  God said that the people of Israel had judged the people of Samaria to be more sinful than they were, which was an attempt to make themselves better in God’s eyes than other sinners. Righteousness will never be based on comparing ourselves to anyone else but Jesus Christ, and when we do, we will know that we are sinners who are no better than any other sinner.   

Verse fifty-three continues, When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:  God said that when He brought about the captivity of the people of Sodom and Samaria, He was also going to bring about the captivity  of the people of Israel.  We can never hold ourselves to be morally superior to the people of any other nation based strictly on where we were born.   

Verse fifty-four states, That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.  God said that the people of Israel would bear their own shame because they had become even worse than Sodom and Samaria.  This did not justify Sodom and Samaria because they were now less sinful than Jerusalem, or Israel, but it condemned them all.  Once more, we cannot be justified to God based on the fact that we are less sinful than someone else.   

Verse fifty-five adds, When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.  God said that when Israel was prosperous because of their faith in Him that they had thought nothing about Sodom and Samaria, other than to look down on them possibly.  We may be prospering materially as followers of Christ, but this certainly never gives the right to look down on others.  Now, He said they wouldn't be returned to their former estate until after Sodom and Samaria were.  Instead of looking down on others, we need to realize that the only way that anyone can be restored to a right relationship with God is by putting their faith in Jesus Christ, and some people that we view as being less worthy than us may be restored before we are.  Therefore, we need to be reaching out to them with compassion and sharing the word of God with them.   

Verse fifty-six continues, For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,  There was also the warning that Sodom should have taught them about God’s judgment of sin.  They had evidently stopped thinking about the reason for the destruction of Sodom.  If we are Christians, we need to be telling our children as well as other lost people about the result of unrepentant sinning.  God said that they all were going to be returned to their former guilty state.  If we claim to be a Christian nation but do not obey God’s law, then we will lose His protective hand on us.   

Verse fifty-seven says, Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.  God said the all the people around them, the Syrians and the Philistines, saw the wickedness of Israel.  It should shame us as a proclaimed Christian nation if other people see nothing righteous about us.   

Verse fifty-eight adds, Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the Lord.  God said that they had borne their lewdness and abominations before the Lord.  Anyone who will not accept God’s gift of salvation will bear the penalty of their sins themselves.  

Verse fifty-nine continues, For thus saith the Lord God; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.  God said He was going to deal with them as He would with anyone who had not put their faith in Him and had broken their covenant relationship with Him.  The people of Israel were not special because of where they were born but had been special because of their covenant relationship with God.  We, as individuals and as a nation, are not better than anyone else in the world except by the fact that we have entered into a covenant relationship with God by putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.