Scripture Daily

Context No. 360 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 17:16-24: in context

16“‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the middle of Babylon he will die. 17Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company won’t help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts to cut off many persons. 18For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things. He won’t escape. 19“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘As I live, I will surely bring on his own head my oath that he has despised and my covenant that he has broken. 20I will spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me. 21All his fugitives in all his bands will fall by the sword, and those who remain will be scattered toward every wind. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it.’ 22“The Lord GOD says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23I will plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel; and it will produce boughs, and bear fruit, and be a good cedar. Birds of every kind will dwell in the shade of its branches. 24All the trees of the field will know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish. “‘I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it.’”

Ezekiel has told a riddle about two great eagles and a vine, and this passage is God's blunt interpretation of it. The vine is King Zedekiah, whom Babylon had installed on Judah's throne. To seal the arrangement, Zedekiah had sworn an oath of loyalty to the Babylonian king, and then, when Egypt looked like a stronger ally, he broke it and rebelled. That political calculation is what God addresses here, and the striking thing is how personally he takes it.

Notice whose oath God says was broken. He calls it my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. This was a treaty between Zedekiah and a pagan foreign king, and yet because the oath had been sworn in the name of the LORD, God treats its violation as a betrayal of himself. Zedekiah despised the oath, God says, he gave his hand on it and then did all these things anyway, and he will not escape; Egypt with all its army will not save him. A given word, God insists, is sacred even when it was given to an enemy, even when keeping it becomes costly and a better option appears. Breaking it is a matter between the oath-breaker and God. And yet the passage does not end in judgment. God says he himself will take a tender sprig from the top of the cedar and plant it on the mountain of Israel, where it will grow into a noble tree with birds nesting in its branches, and all will know that he brings down the high tree and lifts up the low. Even after the faithlessness, God plants a future.

The convicting part is how God regards a broken word. Where have I given my word, a promise, a commitment, a vow, and then rationalized breaking it because circumstances changed or a more advantageous option came along, telling myself it was only between me and the other party, when God counts my given word as given to him?

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