Ezekiel 17:16-24: a reflection

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.’”

This passage begins with judgment on a king who broke his covenant, but it ends with a promise full of hope. God himself will take a tender young twig from the top of the cedar and plant it on a high mountain; it will grow into a noble tree, bearing fruit, and birds of every kind will find shelter in its branches. And God seals it with a declaration of who he is: I bring low the high tree and make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.

Notice the pattern God claims as his own. He brings down what is high and lifts up what is low; he withers the flourishing and makes the withered bloom. Out of a story of judgment and cutting down, God plants a tender shoot that becomes a great tree of shelter, a promise that Christians have long seen fulfilled in Christ, the shoot from David's line who became shelter for all peoples. God's way is reversal: the mighty humbled, the lowly raised, life brought out of what seemed finished.

There is hope in that pattern for the low and the cut-down. If God's way is to bring low the high tree and exalt the low, to make the dry tree flourish, then no situation is too withered for him to bring life from it, and no one is too low for him to raise. He specializes in planting tender shoots where trees have been cut down. When your own life feels cut down, dry, brought low, remember the God who plants a tender twig and grows it into shelter, who makes the dry tree flourish. He brings low the high and lifts the low; trust him to bring life out of what seems finished.

Lord, out of a story of cutting down you plant a tender shoot and grow it into a tree of shelter, for you bring low the high tree and lift the low, and make the dry tree flourish. When my life feels cut down, dry, brought low, remind me that no situation is too withered for you to bring life from it. Plant something new where things have been cut down, and grow it into shelter.