The Prophet Ezekiel: An Analytical Exposition

by Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Of interest are the words in the sixth verse: "All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs." The same statement is made in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, in which the King of Babylon had seen a great tree, "and the fowls of heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof" (Dan. iv:12). And our Lord spoke a parable of the mustard seed which became a tree "so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" (Matt. xiii:32). The fowls mean peoples who associated with Assyria, Egypt and the King of Babylon, while these powers became proud and lifted up. The mustard tree in the parable of our Lord represents the development of Gentile-Christendom as an earthly institution and organization, lifted up like a big tree, and the birds which find shelter there are the symbols of the unclean, the unsaved masses, nominally professing Christians. And God who dealt with the Assyrians, with the King of Egypt, God, who humbled Nebuchadnezzar, will yet deal in His coming great judgments with the Gentile nations of today for their pride and wickedness, as well as with Christendom.

II. The Fall and Desolation of the Tree.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit (verses 10-14).

Judgment came upon Assyria and was also soon to fall upon Egypt because they were lifted up and defied God. "Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height, I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness." Behind these nations of the past stood, as we saw in connection with the King of Tyrus (chap. xxviii), the dark shadow of the enemy of God. He is still the master over the nations which act at the close of the times of the Gentiles. Satan's crime is that he was and is lifted up with pride. He fell because he said, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God ... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isa. xiv:13-14). And this awful being, the prince of this world, the god of this age, who domineers still over the kingdoms of this world, till he is dethroned by the coming of the Lord, has led in the past and still leads nations into ruin and ripens them for divine judgment through pride and what goes with it, defiance of God. Today our boasting, proud, lifted up and God-defiant age, an age which rejects God's best, the Gospel of His Son, is rapidly approaching the threatened judgment, a judgment far more severe than those which overtook Assyria and Egypt.

The one mentioned as "the mighty one of the nations" is Nebuchadnezzar, whom God used to bring judgment upon Egypt, as we learned from the previous chapters. He was the golden head of the image which represents the times of the Gentiles, which may soon take on their final form, the ten kingdoms in the revived Roman Empire (Dan. ii). Nebuchadnezzar also became lifted up and God humbled him for seven years, as God will yet humble the nations of Christendom.[25] And the judgments of the past, upon Assyria and others is to be a warning to others "to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height" (verse 13). But who among the nations is wise and heeds the warnings of God's holy Word? See also Rom. xi:16-24, where Christendom is warned not to boast and not to be high minded.

III. The Overthrow and the Consternation among the Nations as the result of Egypt's fall.

Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: "thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God" (verses 15-18).

The word "hell," mentioned several times in this paragraph does not mean the lake of fire, the final and eternal abode of the wicked, but the word is "sheol," the abode of the dead, the unknown regions. It does not mean the grave, for which there is another word used in the Hebrew. The grave receives the bodies; but the immaterial part of man, that which has endless being, goes to Sheol, a word which expresses the unseen and unknown. To sheol the wicked and the nations who forget God have been turned (Psalm ix:17) to await their final doom as revealed in Rev. xx:11-15. The fate of Assyria as well as of Egypt inspired the surrounding nations with fear; these nations are mentioned under the figure of trees, "and all the trees of the field mourned for him." The nations shook with terror when the powerful world-power was stripped of all its greatness and passed away. And when Assyria came into sheol and also Egypt, they found other nations there. These are mentioned by the term "all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water." These terms are symbolical of human greatness, glory and prosperity. And these once powerful and prosperous nations were "comforted" to find that even Pharaoh would share their fate and the fate of Assyria. It shows that the disembodied state in sheol is not an unconscious state, but one of consciousness. The next chapter, the final one on Egypt's judgment and fate will show us more of this.

LAMENTATION OVER PHARAOH AND THE FUNERAL
DIRGE.
Chapter xxxii.

The final prophecy of this section was given almost two years after the message of the previous chapter and about eighteen months after the fall of Jerusalem. First Ezekiel is told to take up a lamentation for Pharaoh and announce for the last time the work of judgment by the sword of the King of Babylon. After that follows another wail, a solemn dirge, over the Egyptian multitudes which have passed into sheol. It is a vivid description of sheol and those who have descended there. This conclusive prophecy was uttered by the prophet a few days after the lamentation over Pharaoh.