Scripture Daily

Context No. 4054 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 17:1-6: in context

1The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, tell a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel; 3and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers which had various colors, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar. 4He cropped off the topmost of its young twigs, and carried it to a land of traffic. He planted it in a city of merchants. 5“‘“He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fruitful soil. He placed it beside many waters. He set it as a willow tree. 6It grew and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him. So it became a vine, produced branches, and shot out sprigs.

God tells Ezekiel to speak a riddle and a parable to Israel, a story of a great eagle that takes the top of a cedar and plants a vine that grows low, bending its branches toward the eagle. It was a coded picture of Judah's political situation, and its meaning was meant to be sought out and understood.

There is something worth noticing in God's choice to speak this way. He does not always deliver his message in the plainest possible terms; sometimes he speaks in parables and images that invite, even require, the hearer to think, to ponder, to seek the meaning. Jesus, too, taught in parables, in part so that those with willing hearts would search out the truth while the careless passed it by. This tells us something about how to receive God's word. It is not always meant to be grasped at a glance; often it rewards the one who lingers over it, turning it over, seeking its meaning, asking God to open it. God's word invites our engagement, our pondering, our active seeking; the truths that reward us are often those we have to search out rather than those handed to us without effort.

Do I engage God's word actively, pondering it and seeking its meaning, rather than expecting every truth to be grasped at a glance, and do I ask God to open to me what rewards the one who searches it out?

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