Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel,
God tells Ezekiel to wrap a message for his people in a puzzle — a riddle and a parable about a great eagle, a cedar, and a low-growing vine. Why put a warning in picture language? And what did this picture mean to a people already in exile?
God's name for the prophet fits the setting of the whole book. He calls Ezekiel a man among men, because He no longer speaks from the middle of His people:
The throne of the supreme and sovereign Lord God appears in Chaldea, among the Gentiles — in the place where the prophet then was. It no longer appears at Jerusalem in connection with the land... So the voice of God speaks to Ezekiel as to a "son of man." That title suited the testimony of a God who spoke from outside His people. He was no longer among them, but instead judging them from the throne of His sovereignty. It is Christ's own title, seen as rejected and outside of Israel, although He never stops thinking of the blessing of the people in grace.
The same Hebrew word behind "riddle" turns up across the Old Testament:
Notice, the riddle is sometimes introduced; as in Psalm 49:4, "my dark saying," and in Psalm 78:2, "dark sayings of old." The Hebrew word is rendered dark speeches in Numbers 12:8; riddle, in Judges 14:12-19; hard questions, 1 Kings 10:1; dark sentences, Daniel 8:23.
Those wordings come from an older English translation. Where it says "dark saying" or "dark sentences," the ESV says "riddle."
This riddle does not stay dark. The explanation comes with it, and that tells us something about why God teaches this way:
It is significant, as to the use of a parable, that it should be given with its interpretation right alongside it... It is clear that pictures like these strike the mind and fasten on the imagination in a special way. And God does not think it beneath Him to use these helps for men's attention... It needed no apology, then, that Ezekiel should be what they in fact accused him of being, "a speaker of parables."
Each figure in the riddle stands for someone real:
The great eagle is none other than the king of Babylon. God in sovereign wisdom made him head of the Gentile imperial system, after Israel's proved moral ruin and rebellion against Jehovah... But here the figure becomes a complete allegory. The cedar on Lebanon stands for royalty in Israel, vested in the house of David — a house now in servitude to the head of the Gentiles because of its sins.
The riddle's sting lands on one man's broken promise:
The riddle and the parable of the two great eagles of Ezekiel 17 find their explanation in Zedekiah's certain judgment. That judgment came for breaking his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. He had made that covenant, and sworn by God to keep it (see 2 Chronicles 36:13)... Zedekiah schemed with Pharaoh to escape Nebuchadnezzar's yoke. So he broke his covenant — and Jehovah's name had been attached to it. This filled up the cup of his wickedness, and led to his downfall.
The vine in the picture is small on purpose, and that smallness is mercy:
This cedar had brought on itself the discipline of the Lord, and the Lord used the king of Babylon, one of the eagles, as the rod in His hand, for correction. Under this rod, the house of David would be humbled, but preserved — for correction is for purifying, not for destruction. Discipline plants us in "a fruitful field," and by "great waters." But for the present we grow there only as "a willow tree," as "a low spreading vine," as this parable has it — "lowly," but kept and sheltered.
The picture does not end in ruin:
We have here another of our prophet's most graphic illustrations. It shows the actual position of things among the people of God. It shows the ruin hanging over them because of the impiety of the king — and this too in the oath of Jehovah with the Gentile chief. And it shows, at the last, the kingdom of the Messiah: lowest in its first presentation, yet God exalts it in due time over all the earth.
- Low to high — the riddle moves downward, then upward — a cut cedar, a low vine, and at last a kingdom over all the earth.
- Spoken low — God calls Ezekiel "son of man." He speaks from outside His people, yet still has their blessing in view.
- Taught low — a picture reaches the mind where plain words may not. God is glad to use that help, and He gives the meaning with it.
- Brought low — the eagle is Babylon's king. The cedar is David's royal house, now serving Babylon because of its sins.
- Kept low — the vine was small on purpose. Correction purifies; it does not destroy. Zedekiah broke an oath sworn in God's name, and that sealed his ruin.
and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah A great eagle with great wings, long-pinioned, full of feathers, which was of divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar.
God tells Ezekiel to put a riddle to His people: a huge eagle, bright with many colours, swoops on Lebanon and strips the crown from a cedar. Each image stands for a real person and a real event — so who is the eagle, what is the cedar, and why does God speak in pictures?
The riddle does not stay a riddle. Its meaning follows a few verses later, and one writer sees God's method in that:
The parable comes first, and its meaning follows afterwards. It says something about the use of a parable that it comes with its interpretation right beside it — which one might think is the whole point. Pictures like these clearly strike the mind and hold the imagination in a special way, and God is not above using such helps to catch people's attention… So Ezekiel needed no excuse for being what they accused him of being: "a speaker of parables."
Later in the chapter the prophecy names the bird: the king of Babylon. His place at the top was no accident:
The great eagle is none other than the king of Babylon. God in His sovereign wisdom made him head of the Gentile empires, after Israel had proved its moral ruin and its rebellion against Jehovah. Another prophet had already used a similar picture of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 48:40; Jer. 49:22). But here it is worked into a complete allegory: the cedar on Lebanon stands for the kingship in Israel, held by the house of David, which for its sins was now in servitude to the head of the Gentiles.
Each feature of the bird says something about the empire, and about how Babylon first treated Judah:
So the great eagle is Nebuchadnezzar. He is a royal bird, and his royalty comes from God Himself. Yet he is a bird of prey. His great wings show how far his rule reached, and perhaps how quickly he gained his power. The feathers of many colours are the mixed crowds of people who followed him. Yet he is clearly under God's control, and his first dealings with Israel are gentleness itself, as far as a king of Babylon could show it.
The word for the eagle's many colours is the same one used for coloured embroidery, as noted in Morrish Bible Dictionary.
The words are God's own, and the picture He chooses is a proud tree losing its top:
This parable, like every true parable, comes from God Himself… Here is clearly a story of humiliation, and yet of mercy mixed with the humiliation… The scene is not set in Egypt or in the wilderness. This is not the beginning of a nation. It is the Cedar of Lebanon, which Israel in fact was, with the sign of its former glory.
In Scripture the cedar is the emblem of height, power and prosperity. So when God judges the great of the earth, it is "the day of Jehovah upon the cedars of Lebanon" (The Bible Treasury).
Commentators differ over which king the broken top stands for: some name Jehoiakim, others Jehoiachin. They agree that the picture itself is exact, not vague:
The parable of the eagles is as definite as if the prediction had been made in plain words. Scripture itself explains the first great eagle as the king of Babylon, and the second as Pharaoh. Breaking off the top twig of the cedar of Lebanon and setting it in a city of trade meant the king of Babylon putting down Jehoiachin and carrying him captive to Babylon.
The eagle's raid is only the opening move. God's own sovereignty has the last word:
It left room for the sovereignty of God, who would bring down the high tree and lift up the low tree, who would dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. His grace would take the little forgotten branch of the house of David and raise it up in Israel on the mountain of His power. There He would make it a fine cedar, bearing fruit, and sheltering all who would seek the protection of its shadow.
- Riddle. God wraps His message in a picture, then gives the meaning Himself. Pictures hold the mind in a way bare statements do not.
- Eagle. The great eagle is Nebuchadnezzar — a bird of prey, yet a royal one. God set him at the head of the Gentile empires after Israel's ruin.
- Feathers. The great wings show the reach and speed of his conquest. The many colours show the mixed peoples who followed him.
- Cedar. Lebanon's cedar is Israel in its former glory. The cropped top is her king carried off to Babylon — humiliation, with mercy mixed in.
- Replanting. The same hand that let the eagle strip the cedar will raise the forgotten branch of David's house into a fine cedar. God brings the high tree down and lifts the low tree up.