Ezekiel 19:1–2: “Moreover take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, and say: / ‘What is your mother? A lioness: / She lay down among the lions; / Among the young lions she nourished her cubs.'”

September 12th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

God gave Ezekiel 2 parables to deliver to the people concerning the difficulties Israel as a nation had been going through. Once upon a time a lioness had cubs and raised them among other young lions. This lioness nurtured the young lion cubs, but the first cub grew to be a bad, ferocious young lion. He went on a killing rampage until the neighboring people captured him and took him in chains to Egypt. When the lioness saw that he would not return, she took another of her cubs and made him the alpha male. But he also became a violent and destructive cub, devastating the land. Finally the neighboring people trapped this young lion and took him captive to Babylon in a cage. The parable then changes pictures and the lioness becomes a grapevine that flourishes and has strong branches. But suddenly the vine is transplanted into the wilderness and the strong branches are broken off and destroyed. The lioness that produced and nurtured the young lion cubs and the grapevine represented the capital city of Jerusalem. The cubs and the branches were the great grandsons of King David who became the various kings in Jerusalem.

The captives who heard this parable were stuck in Babylon but were hoping their leaders were going to lead them back into prosperity. They had placed their faith in human government; but human leadership, without God, will always fail. This is a crystal-clear picture for any and every nation on the planet that is trying to prosper without God. There may be temporary prosperity and growth, but ultimately God will not allow that nation or those people to flourish without Him, because He is always focused on eternity and gathering as many people into Paradise with Him as possible. Aren’t you glad?!

“LORD, please give us Your Spirit’s power to influence others toward You this day.”