Ezekiel 17:1-10 - Will it thrive?

17:1-10

What we have in this chapter is an allegory of the relationship between Zedekiah and Babylon. It was Zedekiah’s duplicitousness that ultimately led to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. God tells Ezekiel “set forth an allegory” to the people of Israel. So we first of all have the story told in picture form (17:1-10), this is followed by an explanation (17:11-21) and finally an amazing promise of blessing (17:22-24).

So why does God start with an allegory, or a parable? Maybe it is to get the people’s attention. It can sound more interesting than a straightforward giving of a message, and it can cause people to think.

The story begins with a great eagle coming to Lebanon. The great eagle represents Babylon, and an eagle was often used to signify military power. Cedar trees were highly thought of, see mentions of “cedars of Lebanon” in the Bible. The eagle takes off the top of the cedar tree and takes it away to a land of merchants. This is the taking into exile of the nobility of Judah.

A seedling is then planted by the eagle, and this grows into a fruitful spreading vine, and one that is well watered. This is Zedekiah being installed as a vassal king by Babylon. There are two key features. He is “well watered”, i.e. he is supplied with all he needs, and he is under the thumb of Babylon. Under these conditions he was doing quite well. 

Then another great eagle came.  This too was powerful and represents Egypt, the other great power of the time. Even though the vine was well provided for, it sent out roots to Egypt. Judah sent envoys to Egypt. God then says that the result of this will be that the vine is uprooted and it will be easy prey after this. It had been planted in good soil, even though the Babylonian conquest was God’s judgement upon Judah, when she was a vassal state she was still looked after and was in a relatively favourable position, but Judah rebelled against even this. And so the consequences became even worse.