Bible Lessons: Ezekiel 15 and 16

From: Messages of God's Love: 1935

THE short 15th chapter treats Israel under the well-known figure of the vine—God’s vine, responsible to bring forth fruit. (Psalm 80:8-11⁸Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. ⁹Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. ¹⁰The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. ¹¹She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. (Psalm 80:8‑11): Jeremiah 2:21²¹Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? (Jeremiah 2:21); Hosea 10:1¹Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. (Hosea 10:1), and many other passages refer to Israel as the vine, or the vineyard, which God had planted and cared for). The vine had failed to yield fruit to God, its husbandman, and now His word to Ezekiel is, “What is the vine (or, the wood of the vine) more than any wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?”

It is not useful as the wood of other trees, and even as fuel its value is low. Israel had already experienced the fire of God’s indignation in the captivity of both “ends” of the nation—the ten tribes and the two, and only the small part was left in possession of the land; these were more wicked than their fellows who had gone into captivity.

God was therefore about to give to the fire the inhabitants of Jerusalem who are viewed as representative of the people left in the land of their forefathers. He would set His face against them, and when they would seek to escape front one fire, another would devour them. This, we may gather, referred to the effort to escape from the besieged city, which ended in the capture of those who fled. (Jeremiah 39:4-9⁴And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain. ⁵But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. ⁶Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. ⁷Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon. ⁸And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained. (Jeremiah 39:4‑9)).

Chapter 16 takes up Jerusalem in another way, under the symbol of an unfaithful wife. The city’s beginning was Canaanitish, and there was evidently nothing in its early history of which to be proud. Its first name was Jebus, which is said to mean “Trodden down”, Captured after the death of Joshua (Judges 1:8⁸Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. (Judges 1:8)) it was only fully taken possession of by David when he made it the capital city (2 Samuel 5:6-9⁶And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. ⁷Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. ⁸And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. ⁹So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. (2 Samuel 5:6‑9)), It was then that God bestowed His favor on the place, and after David’s death, when Solomon built the magnificent temple and beautified Jerusalem, it became a city of extra-regal splendor, But the pinnacle of glory thus attained was quickly followed by fearful departure from God, even in Solomon’s day (1 Kings 1:1-8¹Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat. ²Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. ³So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. ⁴And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not. ⁵Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ⁶And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare him after Absalom. ⁷And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him. ⁸But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. (1 Kings 1:1‑8)). The course of Israel thereafter was an evil one for the most part, as is shown by 1 Kings 14:22-24²²And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. ²³For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. ²⁴And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. (1 Kings 14:22‑24); 2 Kings 17:7-23⁷For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, ⁸And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. ⁹And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. ¹⁰And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: ¹¹And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: ¹²For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. ¹³Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. ¹⁴Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. ¹⁶And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. ¹⁷And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. ¹⁸Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. ¹⁹Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. ²⁰And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. ²¹For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. ²²For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; ²³Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. (2 Kings 17:7‑23); 2 Chronicles 36:12-16¹²And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. ¹³And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁴Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. ¹⁵And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: ¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:12‑16), and many other passages.

Idolatry was the great snare of the children of Israel in all their history until they were carried as captives into the land of idols,—Babylon. Since then they have left idols alone. With the spread of idolatry there was abandonment of the place of separation from the Gentile world, and seeking alliance in turn with Egypt and with Assyria; God, as Israel’s Husband and Protector, was given up. So acting, it was impossible but that immorality and violence abounded, for one wrong step leads to another.

Judgment is pronounced upon Jerusalem because of all this (verse 35 and following). More corrupt than Samaria and Sodom was the city once marked out as God’s choice; indeed Samaria (the capital of the ten tribe kingdom of Israel) had not sinned according to half of Jerusalem’s sins.

Nevertheless, Jehovah will remember His covenant with His earthly people, and will establish an everlasting covenant (see Jeremiah 31: 31-341). For this, Israel must be redeemed—brought back from among the dead (Romans 11:15¹⁵For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Romans 11:15)).

ML-09/22/1935

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