Ezekiel 17
Jehoiachin 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 the 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, and that God takes up the lowly and puts down the haughty and mighty. This is His constant, 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, just as before it lay outside the camp. They must accept the punishment of their sin and go there.
So it is with us individually. We are in the way, or place, of blessing when convicted and must be broken in order to be blest. The Lord Himself took this same place, not by being broken in conscience as we are to be, but He was broken in circumstances. He was spotless and without either corruption within or blemish without. 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. Ezekiel here speaks of it as "a tender twig." a "low tree," and a "dry tree," but planted in the last days, in millennial days "upon a high mountain and eminent" becoming a goodly cedar tinder which shall dwell ''all fowl of every wing." This is millennial Jesus, who once had been the Nazarene Jesus. 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," and 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, arid 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. Benet