Jehoiachim went to Babylon, thus yielding to the judgment of God, and in the end he was exalted. 2 Kings 24;25
Zedekiah remained at home; and instead of accepting the punishment of his sin, by submission to the king of Babylon—the Lord’s rod—he rebelled against him, and at last perished.
This is the two baskets of figs, good and bad, of Jer. 24.
The parable of the Two Eagles and the Vine, in Ezek. 17, is to be read in connection with Zedekiah’s history.
But the close of that chapter is very fine: it tells us that another witness shall deliver his testimony in Millennial days. That God takes up the lowly, and puts down the haughty and mighty. His constant, yea, necessary action in this fallen world.
Israel’s real blessing began in the lowly place—when they stripped off their ornaments, and sought the Lord outside the camp. Ex. 33.
So, Israel’s blessing must end in the lowly place. After they had failed in the wilderness, their blessing lay in Babylon, as before it lay outside the camp. They must accept the punishment of their sin, and go there.
And it is thus with us individually. We are in the way or place of blessing, when convicted. We must be broken, in order to be blest.
Now, the Lord Himself took this same place-not by beino. broken in conscience, as we are to be, for He was spotless, without either corruption within or blemish without. But He was broken in circumstances. The heir of the throne was a carpenter—the Lord of the fullness of the earth had not where to lay His head. He was a root out of a dry ground—or, as Ezekiel here speaks, “a tender twig,” a “low tree,” a “dry tree,” but planted in the last days, in Millennial days, “upon a high mountain and eminent,” becoming “a goodly cedar, under which” shall dwell “all fowl of every wing.”
This is Millennial Jesus, who once had been the Nazarene Jesus.
But this was not Nebuchadnezzar’s history. His branch spread in its day, as the branch of this Millennial Jesus will do. (see Dan. 4) But Nebuchadnezzar had never been a “tender twig,” a “low tree,” a “dry tree.” Accordingly, this great tree of Babylon, which had never been a “tender twig” in early days, in the last days exalts itself, and meets the judgment of the Lord. Its leaves are shaken off, its fruit is gathered, its branches are cut down. It is preserved, but preserved as “a stump in the earth,” that thus being humbled and broken, God may bless and exalt it, in His own way, at the end. —J. G. B.