Ezekiel 19:1-14
1 "Moreover take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:
'What is your mother? A lioness:
She lay down among the lions;
Among the young lions she nourished her cubs.
3 She brought up one of her cubs,
And he became a young lion;
He learned to catch prey,
And he devoured men.
4 The nations also heard of him;
He was trapped in their pit,
And they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt.
5 'When she saw that she waited, that her hope was lost,
She took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.
6 He roved among the lions,
And became a young lion;
He learned to catch prey;
He devoured men.
7 He knew their desolate places,
And laid waste their cities;
The land with its fullness was desolated
By the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him from the provinces on every side,
And spread their net over him;
He was trapped in their pit.
9 They put him in a cage with chains,
And brought him to the king of Babylon;
They brought him in nets,
That his voice should no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel.
10 'Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline,
Planted by the waters,
Fruitful and full of branches
Because of many waters.
11 She had strong branches for scepters of rulers.
She towered in stature above the thick branches,
And was seen in her height amid the dense foliage.
12 But she was plucked up in fury,
She was cast down to the ground,
And the east wind dried her fruit.
Her strong branches were broken and withered;
The fire consumed them.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness,
In a dry and thirsty land.
14 Fire has come out from a rod of her branches
And devoured her fruit,
So that she has no strong branch—a scepter for ruling.'"
This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.
This is a lament for the called and fallen people of God. Judah had been born as a lion tribe in Israel from which also the Messiah who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah would come. Israel had grew her offspring strong and they conquered nations around her until cast into a pit and delivered Eliakim to Egypt (2 Kings 23:33-34), reminiscent of when Jacob was put in a pit (Genesis 37:28) and sold into Egypt only to bring his family and people there to grow even when enslaved in bondage (Acts 7:9, 17, 36) until delivered. Likewise, God’s people were taken from the pit of their sin and judgment in Jerusalem into captivity to the foreign land of Babylon for bondage of their sin until later delivered by the LORD when the remnant was humbled and disciplined. Gods used the nations which Israel had ruled over to help capture God’s people and deliver them into that captivity. God’s wrath had picked them up and consumed them with a fiery judgment and planted them in a wilderness where they would thirst once more for Him (Psalm 63:1). Her rule over others was put on hold because of her pride and sins of idolatry and immortality. This was truly a great lamentation, a song of mourning, for the state of God’s people, but yet there remained hope for a remnant of them yet to be delivered from bondage as they had been from Egypt long before (Acts 7:7). For we who read of the glory of God’s people lamented here, it reminds us of the lament of all under sin who are only rescued by Him in the work of Jesus Christ who delivers His remnant out of spiritual bondage to sin and death with its eternal punishment after being humbled to confession of and repentance from sin through faith in Him. There is a certain hope for those bound in iniquity (Acts 8:23, Romans 6:22-23) who find peace with God in Christ (Isaiah 53:5, Acts 10:36, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:17) as a delivered remnant of all under judgment which we all deserve. This is the grace and peace of the gospel which turns mourning into rejoicing (Psalm 30:11) after enduring necessary suffering and discipline!
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