Let's open our Bibles to Ezekiel
chapter 17. Ezekiel chapter 17. Now the title of this message
is Jesus Christ the highest branch. Jesus Christ the highest branch. And we're going to be talking
about oaths and covenants As we look at this chapter, this
chapter is a parable. Starts off in verse one, the
word of the Lord came unto me saying, this is God's word through
Ezekiel to the people in captivity in Babylon. And he says, son
of man, put forth a riddle. Now this riddle is not like riddles
that we think of when, when we talk to each other and say, here's
a riddle, you figure it out. But a riddle here. is something
simply that needs explanation. It's something that the explanation
has to be a revelation from God. It's similar to the New Testament
word, mystery. A mystery. You know, we think
of a mystery as something that we've got to find certain clues
and figure it out. Well, a mystery in the New Testament
is something that has to be revealed to us by God. We can't figure
that one out. Same thing with a riddle here.
And then he says parables. Speak a parable under the house
of Israel. A parable, as you know, is a
story or an episode retelling of an episode that uses physical
things, physical elements to teach a spiritual truth. The
actual word parable means to stand alongside of. That's what
it means. So this stands alongside of spiritual
truth and it illustrates it for us. But no one can figure it
out unless God reveals it to them. It's like the gospel message
itself. You're not going to know it savingly
and believe it and understand it savingly unless the Holy Spirit
reveals it to you. This whole book of Christ is
a book of revelation. And that's how it comes to sinners
who by nature have eyes but don't see and have ears but don't hear.
But thank God that He does grant hearing ears and seeing eyes
to His people. so that we see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. And so now he begins to tell
the parable, the riddle, verse three. Now what this is, it's
a parable of a broken covenant, a broken oath, a broken promise,
broken promises. And he says in verse three, and
say, here it is, he says, thus saith the Lord God, a great eagle
with great wings, long-winged, it's a long wingspan, full of
feathers which had diverse or various colors. Your concordance
may say embroidering, but the issue is there is the colorfulness
of the feathers. He came unto Lebanon and took
the highest branch of the cedar. Verse four, he cropped off the
top of his young twigs, carried it into the land of traffic.
And that's exactly what it means, a land where there's a lot of
people coming and going. That's what that means. He said
it in a city of merchants, a land where people are coming and going
because they're buying and selling. This is a rich land. Now, of
course, what he's talking about there is Babylon. We'll see that
in just a moment. He took also the seed of the
land. That's the children. That's the
people. And he planted it in a fruitful
field. He placed it in great waters
and set it as a willow tree. Now you compare the cedar to
the willow tree there. The cedar's a tall, majestic-looking
tree. The willow is a bowed-down, humble-looking
tree. And that's the idea here. This tall cedar has been reduced
to a humble willow. We call them weeping willows,
don't we? Because that's the way it looks. That's the way
we describe it. Well he says, verse six, it grew
and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned
toward him and the roots thereof were under him. So it became
a vine and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs. Now this
is all under this eagle. This willow tree began to sprout
branches. Verse seven, now here comes another
great eagle. He says, this other great eagle
with great wings and many feathers, and behold, the vine did bend
her roots toward him, this other eagle, shot forth her branches
toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. So the willow turned toward the
other eagle for sustenance, for water. Verse eight, it was planted
in a good, this willow was planted in a good soil by great waters
that it might bring forth branches, that it might bear fruit, that
it might be a goodly vine. Verse nine, say thou thus saith
the Lord God, shall it prosper? In other words, it's turning
to a place where it wasn't planted. So shall it prosper? Shall he
not pull up the roots thereof? and cut off the fruit thereof
that it wither, that's this great eagle. It shall wither in all
the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people
to pluck it off up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted,
shall it prosper? No, the answer is, shall it not
utterly wither when the east wind toucheth it? And you know
the east wind is either, the east is symbolic of the coming
judgment of God or the coming redemption of God. And here it's
judgment. And he says, he says, it shall wither. So when the
east wind toucheth it, it shall wither in the furrows where it
grew. That's the parable. That's the
riddle. Well, beginning in verse 11, he begins to give the meaning
of the parable. So let's read the meaning of
the parable. That's the way it is with the
Lord in His parables. He always gave the interpretation. He didn't leave it up to us to
interpret it. And the same here. So here's what He says. Moreover,
verse 11, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Say now
to the rebellious house. Now who's that? That's Israel.
That's Judah and their rebellion. Know ye not what these things
mean? Tell them. Behold the king of
Babylon. Now there's the first great eagle.
That was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. This great eagle. This great eagle with great wings
that speaks of his earthly power. And you understand now that when
he describes Nebuchadnezzar and all this power and all this,
you understand that these are things that Almighty God granted
him. This heathen, idolatrous, unbeliever. God gave him these things for
a purpose. So this is Nebuchadnezzar. He
had a long wingspan. In other words, his empire was
probably, up into that point of time in history, the largest
empire. Diverse colors, that's many cultures,
many different people. And he came onto Lebanon. Now
Jerusalem here is being spoken of. the rebellious people. But
why does he say Lebanon? Well, Lebanon was on the northern
border of Judea. And that's where Nebuchadnezzar
came to out of the north to the northern border to Lebanon. And
from there, he launched his attacks out upon Judea and on Jerusalem. But there may be an even another
analogy to that. And that is, you know, Lebanon
was always famous for its tall cedars and the wood thereof,
the cedar wood. And much of that wood from Lebanon
was used in the temple, the building of the temple. So that may be
an analogy too, but here's King Nebuchadnezzar, he came to Jerusalem,
king of Babylon. And it says in verse 12, he had
taken the king thereof and the princes thereof and led them
with him to Babylon. Now, you remember over here,
he said in verse three, he said he took the highest branch of
the cedar, Well, that was the king of Judea, the king of Judah. And you remember the kings of
Judah were in the messianic line. And it wasn't necessary that
this king, his name was Jeconiah at this time, that was the king.
You remember we studied about that in Jeremiah. It wasn't necessarily
that this king was such a noble, good, or great guy, when he talks
about the highest branch of the cedar. But he's speaking of this
king as he represents the kingly tribe of Judah in the Messianic
line. They are the highest branch of
the cedar. Okay? This tall, majestic cedar. And so this is what happened.
He destroyed the kingdom and he took the king, and what he
did is he left in Jeconiah's place a man named Zedekiah. Now
he was the last king of Judah, Zedekiah was, and he wasn't such
a high seeder. He was lowered down. He was under the king of Babylon.
He's like the humble willow. That's what he's saying. Read
it here. Look at verse 12 again. He said, behold, Jerusalem and
had taken the king thereof and the princes thereof and led them.
That's the seed. You see the princes, the nobles
led them with him. Verse 13 had taken of the king's
seed, the nobles, the princes, and made a covenant with him.
You see, Nebuchadnezzar made a covenant with Zedekiah that
he would allow him to reign as long as he obeyed the king's
law. And it says he made a covenant
with him and hath taken an oath of him. See there in verse 13,
Zedekiah swore an oath to Nebuchadnezzar that he would do the king's bidding
and he would rule in Judah the way Nebuchadnezzar wanted him
to. So here these kings of Judah, they would not be a mighty cedar
now, they would be a willow tree, a lowly, humble willow tree,
vassals of a heathen king. And it was punishment for their
sins. And for a little while, Judah
prospered under Babylonian rule. They did. But then something
else happened. Now look at verse 14. He says
that the kingdom might be based, that it might not lift itself
up, but by keeping of his covenant, it might stand. Now you remember
back in the book of Jeremiah, if you recall, you remember how
Jeremiah told the king and the people that the only way the
kingdom would survive is if they would submit to God's sovereign
will in their judgment through the king of Babylon. Remember,
Jeremiah said, submit. Now to most, to a lot of them,
that sounds like, well, become a traitor. But it's not. You see, Judah deserved the punishment
she was getting. This is God's judgment. And Jeremiah
preached to him. He said, submit to it. That's
the only way you're going to live. If you resist it, if you
resist Babylon, you're going to be destroyed. And so Zedekiah,
he swore an oath that he would submit. to Babylon. Now you know
what we have there is a spiritual illustration of repentance. When
God brings us to repentance, what do we do? We submit to God's
Word. We take sides with God against
ourselves. We say, Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? In other words,
if God's judgment is what I deserve, that's what you deserve. Submit
to God. And what do you do when you submit
to God? You become like that publican who cried out, beating
his breast, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I'm at your
mercy. Please, I beg you, don't give
me what I deserve. Give me your grace. Give me Christ.
That's an illustration of that there. So God promised them preservation
in Babylon, conditioned on their submission. Zedekiah swore an
oath, made a covenant. What happened? Well, look down
here, verse 15. He says, but he rebelled against
him in sending ambassadors into Egypt. Now there's the second
eagle. That's mentioned over in verse seven. There was another
great eagle. Egypt was a powerful kingdom at that time, but they
were nothing compared to Babylon. And Egypt was the last hope of
anybody in the minds of men to break Babylon. And Egypt came
against him and Egypt failed. But what happened is Zedekiah
rebelled against God. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. He broke the covenant. He broke
his promise. He broke the oath. And he turned
toward Egypt for help. And he says that they might give
him horses and much people. Remember the Proverbs say don't
trust in horses and chariots. Trust in the Lord. And then God
asked this question through the prophet He says, shall he prosper? Are you gonna prosper under a
broken covenant? Shall he escape that doeth such
things? Or shall he break the covenant
and be delivered? And listen to what God says in
verse 16 here. As I live. Now what's happening
there when God says as I live, you know what he's doing? He's
swearing an oath himself. And he's swearing an oath by
himself. It's what you read. God can swear
by nothing greater than himself because there is nothing greater
than God. So he swears by himself, and
when he says, as I live, the life of God is behind this oath
that he's about to swear. And listen to what he says. As
I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth
that made him king, whose oath he despised, And whose covenant
he break even with him in the midst of Babylon, he shall die.
Zedekiah is gonna die in Babylon. And you know what happened. Zedekiah
was taken to Nebuchadnezzar, defeated Egypt. He came down
into Jerusalem. He took Zedekiah and took him
to Babylon. You remember what happened? He
blinded him. And Zedekiah lived out the rest of his days in Babylon.
He broke the covenant. He says in verse 17, neither
shall Pharaoh, that's Egypt, with his mighty army and great
company make for him in the war by casting up mounts and building
forts to cut off many persons. Doesn't matter what Egypt does
with their powerful army, they're not gonna win. That's what he's
saying. Verse 18, seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant
when lo, he had given his hand and had done all these things,
he shall not escape. And therefore thus saith the
Lord God as I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised. See
the oath that Zedekiah promised to Nebuchadnezzar, God says it's
his oath, it's God's oath. Now what does that tell you?
It tells you this is all the work of God. This is all the
sovereign hand of God who doeth as he will among the armies of
heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay his
hand or say unto him, this is God working. This is not chaos. This is not accident. This is
not plan B from outer space. This is God working. This is
the perfect plan of God. He says, my covenant that he
hath broken even will I recompense upon his own head and I will
spread my net upon him and he shall be taken in my snare and
I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for
his trespass that he hath trespassed against me. What that means is
when God says I'll plead with him, what he means is he's gonna
bring the charges. He's on trial here and the charges
are gonna be pled against him. And so he says in verse 21, and
all his fugitives, everyone that went with him, and his bands,
his armies, that's what it is, a band of armies, band of men,
shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered
toward all the winds, and you shall know that I, the Lord,
have spoken. You know who God is, and you know He means what
He says. Now, the point being, now, think about it this way,
how does that apply to us? Well, is there any hope for any
of us for salvation? forgiveness, prosperity, blessings,
eternal life, and glory, based upon broken promises and broken
covenants. And there's none. There's no
hope for any of us. And by nature, that's what we're
under. In our minds, by wicked works alienated from God, having
been ruined by the fall, and doomed according to the covenant
of works, which is a broken covenant filled with all kinds of broken
promises, You remember back a few years ago, they had a movement
called the Promise Keepers. And I'll tell you what it ends
up being in every case, promise breakers. And that's not because
those men who made those promises did not intend to make them,
and they may have kept some temporal promises. But when it comes to
a relationship with God Almighty based upon the promises of men,
It's broken promise as you know it so. The only promise God will
accept is the promise of righteousness and holiness without any contamination
of sin. Sin itself is a broken promise. Goes all the way back to the
fall of man in the garden. God swore an oath to Adam. And he said it this way, he said,
Here's that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can eat
of every tree of this garden except that one. And in the day
that you eat there, here's God's oath to Adam. Here's God's promise
to Adam. In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. And don't you believe, don't
you think that God engaged himself behind that? Don't you know that
God's glory was the issue there? God's sovereignty? God's right,
God's rule as the creator of this universe. As not only the
giver of right and wrong, but the standard of right and wrong
within himself. And you know what happened? Adam
broke the law. He broke his promise. He broke
the covenant and we fell in Adam. And that was God's oath. That
was God's covenant. Adam promised. Adam, and see
man's history is a history of broken promises and broken covenants. Adam was placed in a good soil
by great waters. You see that when he talked about
they were placed in a good soil by great waters, that's Babylon.
He's not talking about Babylon's morality or religion there. He's just simply talking about
that it was well within the confines of God's sovereign purpose that
they be there. And if anywhere you are at which
is well within the confines of God's sovereign purpose for his
glory and the good of his people, that's a good place to be. You
may be a king on a throne. Well, if God put you there and
you live there for his glory and the good of his people, that's
a good place to be. You may be a slave working in
a mine somewhere. Well, if God put you there for
his glory and the good of his people, that's a good place to
be. And that's what he means. Israel was placed in a good soil
by great waters, just like Adam was placed in a good soil, the
Garden of Eden, by great waters. You see what he's telling us
there, when you look back at the fall, is this. Man's environment
is not the source of his problem. Adam was in the best environment
that has ever been on this earth since the fall. And it still,
it still didn't preserve him. Man's environment's not the cure
for the problem. No. Any conditional covenant
placed upon the best man that ever lived, Adam, before the
fall, Broken, broken promises. Consider why Judah was in this
position. Remember back over in chapter
16, look at the last verse, or not the last verse, but verse
59. Why was Judah even in this position? Look at it in verse
59 of chapter 16. It says, for thus saith the Lord
God, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast
despised the oath in breaking the covenant. There I believe
he's talking about the old covenant. Jeremiah spoke of that in Jeremiah
31, which my covenant they break. Broken promises, broken covenants.
All right. Well, what is the point to all
of this? Well, look back at Ezekiel 17. Look at verse 22. Now, here is a promise of an
oath and a covenant that cannot and will not be broken. Here's
the hope of salvation for sinners, right here in these last few
verses. Here's the promise of salvation conditioned not on
a better class of people who will be born in the future, but
upon one who is greater than all, who is God himself, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to how he puts it.
He says in verse 22, thus saith the Lord God, I will also take
of the highest branch of the high cedar." That's a reference
to Messiah. How many times in the Bible is
Christ called Messiah the branch? We could go to all kinds of scriptures,
couldn't we? I think about the scriptures
that speak of Him as the Lord our righteousness in Jeremiah
23 and Jeremiah 33. He's called the branch. And that
branch speaks of his humanity, God in human flesh. And he's
the highest branch of the high cedar. He's the fulfillment,
it speaks of him, you can think of it this way, of Christ coming
out of Judah. You see, he is born of the seed
of David, according to the flesh. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. And He's the highest branch of
the high cedar. He's God in human flesh, you
see. And look on, He said, God said,
I will set it. I will plant it. He's the planting
of the Lord. God prepared for Him a human
body, which was created in the womb of the virgin by the Holy
Spirit, born not of the aid of man, but by the planting of God. This was a holy conception. It was a holy incarnation. That's what that means. The word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And then he says, I will
crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one and
will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent. Now the tender one.
The tender one speaks of his substitutionary work. Over in
the book of Isaiah, chapter 53, we read about his tenderness
in his humanity, where it says, where it speaks of him as a tender
plant. Verse 2 of Isaiah 53, he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry
ground, cropped off from his father in that sense, as God-man. And he hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised, rejected of men,
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We hid as it were
our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Why did all that take place?
Verse 4, Surely he that borne our griefs carried our sorrows. That is his substitutionary work,
that tender plant. Back over here in verse 22 it
says, He planted it upon a high mountain and eminent. That high
mountain and eminent, it means for everyone to see. Now who's
going to see? Well, what's the high mountain?
Well, that's Zion. That's His church. Who's going
to see His glory? Who's going to see His highness?
The highest branch of the high cedar. Who's going to see the
majesty of this tender plant whom all men by nature despise
and reject? Only those whom God gives eyes
to see. You see, here's the riddle of
the ages. Here's the parable. Here's the mystery of the ages.
Who is Jesus Christ? And what did He accomplish on
Calvary? The righteousness that He set
forth in His obedience unto death. Who's going to see that? Who's
going to submit to that? All God's children will. All
of them. Look at verse 23. He says, In
the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it, and it
shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar,
And under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing, and in the
shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." Think about
that. Unlike Zedekiah, Christ didn't turn away from God. Christ
didn't break the oath. All the promises of God in him
are yea and in him amen. Christ is the surety of the covenant.
He didn't break the covenant. He kept the covenant. That covenant
that was made between the Father and the Son and the Spirit before
the foundation of the world. All the conditions of the salvation
of the ones whom the Lord gave Him conditioned on Him. He fulfilled
its conditions. He's the propitiation for our
sins. That means He satisfied every
claim that that covenant brought forth in the justice of God.
He took our sins and established righteousness. As the surety
of the covenant, it was so sure that Paul wrote to Timothy by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit and made this statement that
it was a salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. Now think about that. He brought forth boughs and bare
fruit. That's his people. That's his
seed, you see. That's his generation. That's the fruit of his labor. It's the fruit of His death and
the fruit of His life. He shall see His seed, Isaiah
53 says. He shall prosper. The travail
of His soul and He'll be satisfied. Every sinner for whom He kept
that oath and fulfilled that covenant by His obedience unto
death shall be saved. That's the fruit. There will
not be anyone in damnation eternally for whom Christ died. No, sir. No, sir. He'll bring forth a
multitude of people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And he said it himself. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. In him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And think about this. Look at
verse 24. It says in all the trees of the field. And one other
thing here, when he says that he'll bring it under and he shall
dwell all fowl of every wing, that's God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. All kinds of birds, all kinds
of sheep. Remember he said, I've got some
sheep in Israel, but I've got other sheep which are not of
this fold, them I must bring also. But look at verse 24. And all the trees of the field
shall 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 to flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken. I,
the Lord, have done it. What's he talking about? Well,
you know, all the self-proclaimed high seeders of this world, which
is all of us by nature, We're gonna know something, we're gonna
be humble. We're gonna be brought low like the weeping willows.
We're gonna be convicted of our sin, we know that. The people
of God are called trees of righteousness, which are the planting of the
Lord, Isaiah 61. And we flourish, not because
we're so good or so great, or Sanoble, but because of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, the grace of God. But what this really
describes is the substitutionary work of Christ. Christ is the
high tree brought down. Well, when was he brought down?
Well, read it in Philippians chapter two. Here's the high
tree brought down. And it says in verse five of
Philippians two, It says, let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even to the death of the
cross. There's the high tree brought
down to the lowly willow. He wept. He struggled in the
infirmities of the flesh without sin. But what happened to him? Well, it says here, the high
tree, the Lord brought down the high tree, but he exalted the
low tree. He was exalted. He was risen
from the dead and he ascended unto the Father because he established
the righteousness required of the justice of God for his people. And then he says, and dried up
the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish. That
speaks of his death. Think of him hanging on that
cross. He said, I thirst. That's the green tree dried up.
He suffered. He bled. He died, having our
sins charged to him. But what came out of the death
of that green tree? Well, it says, I've made the
dry tree to flourish. Out of him came life. Out of
him came salvation. Out of him came forgiveness. Out of him comes righteousness
and glory. And he flourishes in all of that. And he says, I, the Lord, have
spoken it. I've done it. Over in Hebrews
chapter 6, where brother Aaron read, that same promise and oath
is spoken of here. God made a promise to Abraham.
Now there are a lot of promises made to Abraham, but the one
the writer of Hebrews is talking about is the promise of Jesus
Christ and the salvation that God provides for His people by
His grace. And he said in verse 17, wherein
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, His word, His wisdom, His purpose,
cannot change. And he confirmed it by an oath.
What oath did he swear? Well, that by two immutable things,
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us. Now, what are the two immutable
things? Tell you what they are. God's promise and God's oath
cannot change. The promise cannot change Because
behind that promise is an oath that cannot change. And the reason
the oath cannot change is because God swore by himself, as I live. He put himself behind the fulfillment
of that promise. And God cannot change. Remember
he said it. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sinners, you sons
of Jacob are not consigned. All right.